Overcoming The Need For Instant Gratification
Feel like your workout motivation fades as the days get shorter? You’re definitely not alone. When the colder months set in, the urge to cozy up instead of working out can be strong. But staying active through winter doesn't have to be a struggle—it can actually become an enjoyable part of the season. In this episode of Embrace Your Real, I dive into how you can create a winter fitness routine that works with your body’s natural rhythms, making your workout time something you look forward to.
One key strategy is adapting your routine to suit winter’s slower pace. Resistance training, for example, can be a grounding choice that supports your goals without overwhelming your energy levels. Embracing periodization—essentially, cycling through different workout intensities and focuses—allows you to stay consistent without burning out. Fitness isn’t about pushing forward relentlessly; it’s about tuning into the season's natural ebb and flow and working with it, not against it.
I also discuss:
(00:00) Balancing Motherhood and Self-Care
(06:36) Prioritizing Self-Care for New Moms
(14:50) Daily Movement for Postpartum Self-Care
(19:48) Embracing Authentic Beauty and Confidence
and more!
If you want more from me, be sure to check out...
Follow me on Instagram: @juliealedbetter | @embraceyourreal | @movementwithjulie
Movement With Julie | App: https://sale.movementwithjulie.com/
Macro Counting Made Simple Online Academy: https://www.macrocountingmadesimple.com/
Website: www.juliealedbetter.com
Get my eBook: FREE Macro Counting Ebook
Amazon Storefront: Julie Ledbetter's Amazon Page
Transcript:
[00:00:00] Hey, beautiful human. Can I steal five minutes of your time? I have something super important to share with you, but I promise I'll be really quick. You're listening to my weekly bonus episode of Embrace Your Real with Me. Do I better? I'm about to give you a quick tip for building your confidence, honoring your body and unconditionally loving your authentic self. Stay tuned. If you're ready to embrace a real. Let's get it. Let's go. [00:00:22]
[00:00:32] And welcome back to another bonus episode as we go into holiday season. I know many of us start to become more and more self-conscious of our bodies. You might want to look, you know, a certain way. By X day, it's easier to get into the mindset of needing this quick fix solution because everyone around us and society is promoting it, especially this new ozempic craze. I that's a whole nother podcast, but my goodness, it drives me crazy. But here on the Embrace Real podcast, we focus on real lasting results. We are here not just to get these quick results, quick spec solutions that only last temporarily. We are about creating lifelong habits that bring us lifelong results, but staying focused on long term goals when everything around us screams instant results, this can feel like we're swimming upstream. It's tempting to get sidetracked by these shiny quick fix promises. But here's the thing Lasting change is built on consistency, not shortcuts. Let me say that again. Lasting change is built on consistency, not shortcuts. So how do we stay on course when the world seems to be all about the now? And I'm just going to dive right into it to the five ways to stay motivated on long term results when society is trying to pressure you into quick fix solutions. Number one, remind yourself of what the quick fix solution are actually doing. So like I said at the start of this podcast, quick Fix solutions are not bringing you long term results. You might see people on Instagram or in real life that are bragging about how they lost a bunch of weight in a short period of time, and it can be super tempting to kind of hop on that same bandwagon. This is why we must remind ourselves why we don't want to do this quick fix results mean we are using unnatural means to achieve them and we are depriving ourselves and harming our body along the way. Quick fix solutions don't actually solve anything. We will still feel self-conscious in our body. We will still feel weak and have lack of energy will become more unhealthy in our body. We feel this unhealthy relationship with our body, food and fitness. We cannot stick to them long term because they're not realistic and thus we end up gaining more weight back once we go back to our normal habits. Don't we want a body that is healthy, that we feel confident in, that we feel strong in, that we feel energized in that we want to live our best life in and that we can maintain long term. Yes. Yes. In yes. But a quick fix solution is not going to give us any of that if we want to truly break free from the yo yo dieting and stop living in this constant weight loss mode and build a body where it's simple to maintain our results, then we need to take the long road. We can't opt for these quick fix solutions. So when you're tempted to hop on the quick fix, train it. Remind yourself of these things. Which kind of brings me to point number two. Focus on your why. Why are you building the body that you want? Is it really because you want to look good at a wedding or you want to impress your boyfriend or you want to fit in with the girls? All of these reasons are why people opt for these quick fix solutions. But the thing is, this is not there. Why? What most people are actually looking for isn't to fit into a certain pant size. It's actually to feel more confident in who they are as a person. It's not to weigh a certain amount, but to feel healthy and energized in the one body that they get. It's not to look skinny, but to feel strong and capable in all aspects of their life. For each superficial want, there's a deeper need. They think they want to be smaller, weigh less, or look skinnier. But these things aren't what they actually need or are striving for. Quick fix solutions chase the superficial wants, but long term habits help you get to where you're actually needing to go. So figure out what your deeper reason why is. I can promise you that it's not to fit into a certain dress from for someone's wedding. If you think that's the case, then you need to ask yourself why and then why. And then why again, continue to ask yourself why until you get to the root to really uncover those true needs. So once you know what those needs are, that is what becomes your why and continue to remind yourself of this, especially when the quick fix solutions are going to try to derail you or distract you from actually sticking to your why. I actually have a podcast on five steps to finding your Why. So I will go ahead and link that in the show notes that you can easily go check that out. But I think that that's going to be super beneficial, especially if you're struggling to figure out what your why is number three set more small goals that funnel into your big goal. The problem with long term goals is that they can feel well, rather very far away. Right? One of the best things that you can do for overcoming this instant gratification mindset with quick fix solutions is setting as many small, short term goals as possible. These big goals can feel overwhelming, especially when the payoff feels very far away. Right? It can. Feel and make you want to toss in the towel and just take the instant gratification route. And that's where breaking down your goals into smaller, achievable milestones come in each many win keeps you motivated and reminds you that progress is happening. The momentum that you build from stacking those micro wins is what will keep you on track when you're tempted to chase these quick fix results. It gives you that feeling of gratification in the short term without succumbing to these quick fix solutions. So instead of focusing solely on losing 30 pounds, celebrate each 5 pound loss or don't celebrate weight loss goals at all. Celebrate small wins like tracking your macros for two meals or an entire week, or getting 30 minutes of movement in or prioritizing your protein or getting your morning workouts in. You know, three times this week. There are so many small goals that you can set, chase and achieve. So find those small goals that really funnel into those larger goals. And when you do that, you'll get a constant sense of accomplishment by continuing to hit these small goals. Instead of using the quick fix solution, you are actually creating lasting results. Number four, compete against yourself only if you find yourself getting distracted by other people's highlight reels on social media. Start to direct and redirect your competitive energy inward. Social media is the biggest culprit for wanting to kind of hop on this quick fix solution train. You have everyone in there, mom posting about this miracle thing that they did to lose an absurd amount of weight, amount of weight in a small amount of time. On top of that, we just have people who are posting these highly edited photos that look like they are seeing amazing results, but really it's just Photoshopped. We need to tune it out. We need to stop comparing ourselves to social media. It isn't real. Instead of trying to compete with others and constantly comparing ourselves to others. We need to compete with ourselves. So how do we do this while we focus on beating our own personal bests? Whether that's increasing your weights, improving your form, being more consistent, or just hitting all of those micro goals, being your own competition keeps you laser focus on your progress rather than comparing yourselves to other people's timelines. If you compete with yourself, you will see way better results than just sitting around comparing yourselves to others and you'll feel so much more fulfilled as well. Last but not least, number five flip the script on impatience. So instead of seeing impatience as a weakness, use it as a tool. Yes, use it as a tool. Let me kind of explain that. So when you feel the urge for instant results, channel that energy into taking action. Any action, whether that's doing two extra reps, you know, each set of your workout or prepping your meals for the next day or counting your macros over the weekend when you normally don't, or getting four workouts in a week instead of three, using your impatience as a trigger to do something that aligns with your long term vision. Use it as fuel to remain more consistent with your long term plan. So let me repeat impatience. This can be used as a tool to keep you motivated with your long term habits. It doesn't have to be a trigger for you to start this quick fix diet. All right. There you have it. Those are my best tips for fighting the urge to opt for quick fix solutions over lasting results in a world that thrives on instant gratification. Let me quickly recap what I talked about. Number one, remind yourself of what quick fix solutions are actually doing. Number two, focus on your why. Number three, set more small goals that funnel into your big goal. Number four, compete against yourself only. And last but not least. Number five, flip the script on impatience. So how do you build the body that you want? The answer is simple, and I really outlined it in five steps to building the body that You want, which I will link that in the show notes so that you can easily go check that out. But spoiler alert, you don't over exercise and you don't under eat. You honor your body with movement. The resistance training 3 to 5 days per week. You nourish your body with what it needs, giving it the carbs, fats and protein that it needs to function optimally and effectively build muscle. If you want to stop with the quick fixes, I have two things for you. Number one, get access to movement, which really community. This makes dumbbell workouts at home super simple. They're carefully programed to be extremely effective for seeing the results that you want. And number two, get access to my macro accounting. Meet simple online academy. This academy makes it simple to enjoy all the foods that you want without deprivation, nourishing your body with actually what it needs so that you can fuel your workouts and see results. I will link both of those things. The sale elite app movement and julie.com to get the workouts and the macro accounting made simple which is just macro accounting made simple.com to kick start with your nutrition. And then I will also link the episodes that I talked about five Steps to finding your Why and five Steps to building the body that you want in this episode as well. So go ahead and check out the either those links or those episodes. They're all there at the end of this episode in the show notes for you. But I hope that you found this helpful. I hope that this encouraged. You to fight the urge to want to give in to that instant gratification. Because I'm telling you, you will feel so much better when you maintain long term results, when you learn how to maintain long term results. Be patient with yourself. Remember that this journey is day by day, month by month, year by year. It is not a quick fix. It's not going to happen overnight. But if you do it the right way, you'll be able to maintain it for a lifetime, which is ultimately what I want for you. All right. I love you so much. I mean it. And I'll take it in the next one. [00:10:55]
[00:11:04] 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 lot better. 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. [00:11:34][
[00:11:34] To leave you with one last thought. [00:11:35]
[00:11:36] 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 real because you're worth it. [00:11:36]