4 Ways to “Fall” Into Better Habits
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Have you ever found yourself giving up on your goals as the year winds down?
As the year draws to a close, it's common to feel the urge to put things on hold until January 1st. But ask yourself, is that really what you want? Will it make you feel better about your body, your life, and your overall well-being? The answer is most likely not.
Welcome to another episode of the Embrace Your Real podcast, where we help you break through the temptation to "write off" the rest of the year and instead, guide you towards building better habits before the new year begins. In this episode, we're here to provide you with a lifeline to keep those goals and habits alive as we approach the year's end. Tune in for four simple strategies to help you "fall" into better habits!
What I discuss:
Adhere to the “Two-Day” Rule.
Follow the “Five-Minute” Rule.
Focus exclusively on consistency – not progress – with the The "X-Effect"
Have a plan.
If you want more from me, be sure to check out...
Instagram: @embraceyourreal | @movementwithjulie
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Transcript:
[00:00:00] Hey there, beautiful human. You're listening to Embrace Your Real with me, Julie Ledbetter. A podcast where I empower you to just be you. With each episode, I issue a dose of real talk and actionable advice for building your confidence, honoring your body, and unconditionally loving your authentic self. Stay tuned if you're ready to embrace your real. Let's get it, let's go. [00:00:21][21.1]
[00:00:28] Welcome back to another episode on the Embrace Your Real podcast. I cannot even believe these words are coming out of my mouth. We have a little over two months left in the year at this point in the year. I know it's simple to just throw in the towel and call things good until the New Year. It's enticing, like a lot of us, you know, we'd say, Oh, we're not going to do that. But then these little moments happen, especially after the daylight savings come, right? And it gets darker earlier. It is easy to be like, Oh, I'll just write it off. I'll start it the first of the year. [00:00:57][29.0]
[00:00:57] But is that what you really want? Is that really going to make you feel better about yourself and your body? Is it really going to make you feel better in your life? The answer to those questions is most likely not. So if you are falling into a slump this fall, this episode is going to be it for you. I'm going to be sharing four simple ways that I believe that you can fall into better habits. [00:01:17][19.9]
[00:01:18] Before I dive in, though, I wanted to share this review. It comes from Michaelak or Mikayla K 16. She gave a five-star review and said, I absolutely love this podcast. I struggled with my body image and weight for pretty much my whole adolescent and adult life. I found Julie on TikTok and I'm starting to do some of her workouts and eventually joined movement with Julie and started listening to her podcast. Julie is so uplifting, but it's also real and practical advice not just for health but life in general. Thank you for all that you do. [00:01:48][30.1]
[00:01:48] Well, Mikayla, I am so grateful that you were part of first the TikTok community and now you're inside the moment with Julie app that makes me so happy. And that is honestly, you know, there are so many negatives to social media, but one of the positives, genuinely one of the positives is that I get to connect with you guys every single day. And just fostering that community is unlike anything I could have ever imagined. And I'm just, I wake up every day so incredibly grateful for my podcast community, for my Julie community, for the opportunity to be able to hopefully, you know, make a difference with in people's lives, whether that's just simply giving them a workout idea or inspiring them to move their body or nurture their body or nurture their mindset, whatever it is like that is, I genuinely believe one of the reasons why God placed me on this earth and so, so grateful to connect with you. And thank you so much, Mikayla, for tuning in and also just taking time out of your day to leave a rating interview. That really does mean so, so much. [00:02:50][61.6]
[00:02:50] Okay, four ways to fall into Better habits. Let's get into it. [00:02:54][3.7]
[00:02:54] Number one, I need you to adhere to the two day rule. Okay? You're probably like, Are you talking about two days? I'm not talking about two days. Don't worry. I would not preach that. That is not sustainable. In my book. The two day rule is super simple, yet transformative, that I believe it's one of these principles that can have a huge impact on your habits in your journey. So the two day rule is this Never skip your workout or habit for two consecutive days. If you miss a day, ensure that you're back on track. The next and this, you know, doesn't always have to be a workout, but at least the habit part try to not skip the habits for two consecutive days because let's be real. We all are going to have those days where we miss a workout. [00:03:37][42.4]
[00:03:37] We stray from our usual habits. We're tired. We don't have, you know, the healthy foods available to us or whatever it is. We'd rather go out to eat with friends, which you can totally do and still reach your goals. But you guys know what I'm talking about. You know, you're caught up at work. Kids have so many things going on your spouse's, you know, party for work is this day. You've got a niece's birthday on this day, whatever it is, all the various roles and all the different responsibilities that we have in our day to day, week to week. And this is, you know, the list goes on as to why we skipped our workouts or we're skipping on properly nourishing our body. But the rule basically says this, okay, you miss one day, that's not a big deal. But try to not miss two, because once you miss two days, it becomes easy to miss three. And once you miss three days, it's easy to miss four and you're on your way towards creating a habit, a habit of not working out and a habit of not nourishing your body with what it needs. But the key lies in ensuring that these lapses don't snowball into this prolonged break, right? [00:04:37][60.0]
[00:04:37] By promising ourselves to not miss two consecutive days, we set a realistic boundary that acknowledges our imperfections while emphasizing consistency. I think the real beauty of this two day rule is in its practicality. It's simple to apply to our lives, right? Life is going to throw curveballs. There will always be times where we might need to pause. However, bouncing back quickly ensures that our motivation and our perseverance remains ignited and that we don't drift too far from our goals. One thing that I want to mention with this is sometimes I totally get that I like working out two consecutive days. It's not realistic. With that being said, that's why I always have the mindset of, okay, how can I honor my body with movement? Not a workout always, but movement? What movement will fit into my day today? Okay, so I have. I have to go grocery shopping. I have all of these, you know, errands, anything to run. Is there a way that I can park in the furthest parking spot in the area so that I can get more steps in, so that I can move my body, like intentionally doing these things so that you're able to move your body? [00:05:44][66.6]
[00:05:44] One thing that I saw for all of you mamas out there who are stuck in the carpool lane by my house, there is a school that literally I'm not joking when I tell you the carpool. These moms get there like 2 hours to two and a half hours just to get like a front row seat so that when the school gets out, they're able to get their kid in a timely fashion. And I was just thinking, well, my business mind immediately goes to, oh, my gosh, you could do so much business. You know, you do so many things in the car. But one thing that I saw this mom do the other day when I was driving by is she got out of her car like she parked her car and then she got out of her car. And then she did like a long walk. Like, I think that is so creative, right? Like you're getting there to make sure that you got a front row spot to your carpool line. But then you're also prioritizing your movement. You're like, If I'm going to be there, I might as well, like, make an effort to get out of the car and at least get a 15, 20 minute walk in. I mean, there's so many things that you can do just getting creative, like in those little slices of your day, in those little spaces of your day. That's where that's going to compound over time. And just getting in that mindset of like, you know, it's okay to miss one day I'm going to give myself grace, but how can I get what can I do tomorrow so that I can get back into the habit that I genuinely know is going to make me feel my best. [00:07:05][80.5]
[00:07:05] Number two. Follow the five minute rule. Let's be real with ourselves. Like it's so easy to put these things off when we have zero motivation, zero energy. It's so easy to say like, Nah, not today, not going to do it. Just do it tomorrow. And in these moments when it feels impossible to get ourselves to work our on our bodies with movement or journal or sit visualize in the morning, whatever it may be that we're trying to accomplish, we need to just stick with it for 5 minutes. Like the rule is so simple. Instead of committing to an entire workout or an entire full meal prep or extensive self-care routine, whatever it is, just promise yourself 5 minutes. Those initial 5 minutes serve as a bridge to kind of easing the transition from inaction to action. Let me repeat that again. Those initial 5 minutes serve as a bridge to easing the transition from inaction to action. So kind of think of it as warming up your commitment muscles. Like once you get started, more times than not, you'll likely find yourself almost ready to keep going. Or you'll realize, okay, it's not that bad. I can keep going. I can do this for another 5 minutes or another 10 minutes. And before you know it, that initial 5 minutes has gone completely above and beyond what you initially started doing. [00:08:19][74.1]
[00:08:20] The momentum built in those 5 minutes that can transform dread into accomplishment. And what truly resonates with me about this rule is the inherent message of self-compassion. Like it acknowledges that we all face resistance. We all have these moments of doubt. We all face, you know, the lack of motivation. But that's perfectly okay. We don't have to expect ourselves to be perfect every day. We just need to expect ourselves to do just 5 minutes. Whether you do 5 minutes or you do 55 minutes, you're still sticking to that habit. And most importantly, you are still strengthening that muscle for the habit. And that's what's most important. [00:08:58][38.2]
[00:08:59] Number three, focus exclusively on consistency, not progress, with what I like to call the X Effect. So with developing any habit, consistency is a crucial part. You literally cannot and will not create any habit without consistency. But something that often kind of discourages us from being consistent is because at the beginning of developing a new habit, we likely aren't seeing the immediate results, like results ignite momentum. But when we're not seeing results, that's when we fail to get that momentum. But like I said, oftentimes with new habits, visible results take time. But the thing with that is if you are consistent, there's absolutely no way that you won't achieve results that you want. And this is where kind of the X effect comes into play. [00:09:44][44.9]
[00:09:44] It's a mental trick that we can play to kind of trick ourselves into keeping us motivated so that we can stay consistent. So using a calendar mark and X on the day that you stick to each habit, the goal of this is to create a chain of X's and avoid breaking that chain so the visual representation of your commitment can be incredibly motivating. Like your brain will literally become obsessed with making that X each day so that you won't want to skip a day. Right. And again, being realistic with what you're acting on that day, for me, five workouts a week, that's realistic. So on my six and seven day, that's 30 minutes of movement. That's a walk with my dogs, that's a hike that's, you know, dancing or cleaning. The house, whatever it is, being consistent with that movement. But I want you to grab a calendar and I want you to stay on plan by marking it with an X And at the end of the month, if you do that and you show up consistently, you should at least see 80% of that calendar covered with access. And if you do that for three months, it is going to be inevitable that you are going to see progress in your body. [00:10:51][67.3]
[00:10:52] You have to like there has to be progress in your life, in your mind, in your body, if you are being that consistent. If you don't take a step on the scale or a single measurement, but you track how consistently you'd follow that plan and you hit a consistency rate of 80%, I promise you, there is no way for you to not see progress if you are that consistent with nourishing and moving your body and doing it effectively. So tracking your consistency, that might not be an exciting metric, but in my opinion it is the most effective. And honestly, the more consistent that you get, the more exciting that metric becomes. So using a calendar marking acts each day that you stick to that habit, whatever that habit might be. But I bet by using the X effect, you'll find that sticking to a habit can be a lot more exciting. [00:11:39][47.4]
[00:11:40] And last but not least, number four have a plan. I have probably talked about this over a thousand times in the podcast, but honestly, it's literally the most effective way to build any habit and stick to any habit. You have to have a plan. Every day we are bombarded with countless decisions to make from trivial life changing decisions to just the small ones, and each decision depletes our mental energy, leading to what is termed as decision fatigue. If you've never heard of that, essentially having a plan in place means fewer decisions to make regarding your habit. So when you know beforehand what needs to be done, you eliminate the barrier of deciding which makes it easier to just start. [00:12:25][45.3]
[00:12:26] So in the concept, in the context of working out, a workout plan provides a clear framework. Instead of approaching exercise like haphazardly, a plan is going to give you specific exercises, workout schedules. This structure will remove the guesswork from workouts and from your life and provides this sense of purpose Every time you step into the gym or you step into the space where you plan on working out a workout plan essentially just ensures that you're not just going to be exercising sporadically, but you're engaging in physical activity regularly that's effective and efficient. And this is also going to help with X effect that I just talked about, right? It's so much easier to be consistent when you know exactly what you need to do. And over time, this consistency and grains, the workout routine that will shape your daily life, Right. [00:13:15][49.4]
[00:13:16] So if you need a plan, you're wanting to be consistent. You want to develop a better habit of working out. I do have an app for this. I literally help you to remove that decision fatigue and I completely program every workout, whether it's three days a week. So you're doing lower body, upper body, full body, or it's five days a week where you're doing lower body, upper body cardio and core shoulders and glutes and full body. You can follow that plan however much or little, but having a plan is going to again remove the decision fatigue, remove you from doing all these sporadic workouts and removes this half hazardous to just showing up without a plan. If you have your workouts for the week, literally all you have to do every single Saturday at 12 p.m. Mountain Standard Time is you click on the workout, you do exactly what the app tells you. You finish your workout and you move on with your day. No decisions that you need to make for your workout portion of your day, and that's just going to help you again, stay consistent. So if you want to learn more about that, I also have a free e-book that I released this past month that is available as a resource to anybody inside the movement with Julie AppAs an active subscriber, it's a mini e-book and it's called Falling into Better Habits. And this the tips in here are just going to be actionable tips that are going to help you kind of move the needle, especially during these last couple of months so that you can go into 2020 for feeling your absolute best. So if you want to learn more, if you want to join the app, you can check out sale that's s-a-l-e d, which Slate.com. I'll be sure to link that in the show notes below. [00:14:51][95.2]
[00:14:51] But let me quickly recap what I talked about in terms of the four ways to fall into better habits. So number one, I talked about the adhere to two day rule, not the two a day, but the two day Rule number two, follow the five minute rule number three, focus exclusively on consistency, not progress and use that effect. So tracking your consistency on that calendar with an X. And then lastly, number four, having that plan so that you can really remove that guesswork when it comes to your workouts and following a plan is going. To ensure that you are making the most out of the time that you have, whether that's 20 minutes, 30 minutes, 50 minutes, whatever it is that you are carving out for your out. If you are following an effective plan, you are likely going to see results. [00:15:39][47.6]
[00:15:40] But I hope that this was helpful. I hope that this gave you some tangible and practical advice as we head into the last few months of 2023. I again just cannot believe that we are almost at the end of the year. But I want you to know that I'm rooting for you. I want you to know that I believe that you can make the last few months better than the first two months. Even the first two months. If you are crushing it the first months, I believe that you can finish out this year stronger than when you started it. And when you do that, you're going to set yourself up for so much success in 2024 and just feeling your absolute best and getting through the holiday season with all the energy and all the confidence that you desire. [00:16:18][38.0]
[00:16:18] All right. If you have a friend or a coworker or someone in your life that you feel like would benefit from this specific episode, I just ask that you share it out with them. You can copy the link, send it to them in a text message. You can also screenshot this and post it up on your Instagram story. I always love hearing your aha moments, but that is all that I have for today's episode. I love you so much. I mean it and I'll talk to you in the next one. [00:16:37][18.4]
[00:16:45] All right, sister. That's all I got for you today. But I have two things that I need you to do. First thing, if you are not already following me on the gram, be sure to do so. Julie a Ledbetter. Yes. It's with an A in the middle for that daily post workout real talk, healthy tips and tricks, and honest accountability to keep your mind and heart in check. The second thing. Be sure to subscribe to Apple Podcasts to never miss an episode. Thank you so much for joining me. It means the absolute world. And I'm going to leave you with one last thought. The most beautiful women that I have met in my life are the ones who are completely confident and secure in being authentically themselves. Remember that beauty goes so much deeper than the surface. So go out there and embrace your real because you're worth it. [00:16:45][0.0]
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