Workout Q&A: Is this workout schedule okay? How to quit the scale? + More questions answered!
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Are you struggling to balance your workout schedule? Is it difficult for you to find the motivation to exercise in the morning? Well, this episode is for you.
In this episode of the Embrace Your Real podcast, we'll explore practical solutions to common fitness challenges, drawing from real-life experiences and expert advice to support you on your journey. Whether you're a busy parent, a working professional, or simply seeking guidance on your fitness goals, this episode offers valuable insights to help you overcome obstacles and achieve success.
What I discuss:
My schedule only allows me to workout 3 days in a row. Is that okay because I end up taking 4 days off?
Is it okay to break a 1-hour workout into two 30-minute workouts or three 20-minute workouts throughout the day?
How does everyone cope with setbacks like this?
What are your other suggestions to help kickstart my morning?
If you loved this episode, be sure to tune in to…
Episode 256: 5 Ways To Monitor Your Progress Without The Scale
Episode 339: How to become a “morning person” with your workouts…
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 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 get you 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][21.0]
[00:00:21] Hello and welcome back to another workout Q&A. I love these specific episodes on the podcast, because I feel like I'm able to just directly answer real life questions for you to use when you're feeling, you know, struggles in life and you're building the body that you want and you're having setbacks, or you just have questions. And so I'm going to be diving into questions that touch on whether or not certain workout schedules will give you results. Is it okay to break up your workouts into mini workouts throughout the day? How to get away from stepping on the scale daily and allowing it to ruin your day? And then how the heck do you become consistent at working out in the morning? All these questions are always asked inside the moment. Would you like community? That's where I get a lot of these workout Q and A's, just because there's so much discussion in there on a weekly basis, and this is a private community group that you gain access to if you are an active subscriber in the apps, if you do want to gain access to this group, there's, you know, 4500 women in there. It is super, super active and there are thousands of women. I mean, there's over 11,000 women that do these workouts on a weekly basis. And so if you want to gain access to this Facebook group, I encourage you to become an active subscriber so that you can. [00:01:39][78.2]
[00:01:40] So many women have just told me that the community alone is worth the $20 a month, just because they feel like they gain so much inspiration, motivation and also just knowledge. Through Joshua and I are answering questions on a daily and weekly basis in there and then the community of women just in general. It is the most supportive group on the internet. I am very biased, I know that, but I've been in a lot of community groups over the years and I can tell you this one is just it's truly a special group of women, and it's one of the best things that I, I personally enjoy and just feel so grateful to be a part of on a weekly basis. Before we dive in though, I want to share this trivia comes from a Lizzo al YSL. I hope I pronounced that right. She gave a five star review and said, love listening. I've been searching for a podcast like this to help me build my confidence and knowledge while working out. I have finally found it and I love listening. I'm so grateful. I'm so thankful that this podcast is helping you. Thank you so much for tuning in and also just taking time out of your day. I know everybody's schedules are so busy to leave a rating and review. If you could scooch over to Apple Podcasts, type in Embracer real first. Make sure you subscribe so you never miss an episode. It's completely free. Episodes release on Monday and Thursdays, and then you can scroll down and leave rating and review. It really does help us out. All right, so let me dive into this Q&A. Question number one. My schedule only allows me to work out three days in a row. [00:03:01][81.4]
[00:03:01] Is that okay. Because I end up taking four days off. The short answer to this is yes, it can totally work. And here's why. It's really all about consistency, and I'd much rather you work out three days in a row consistently than try to spread out your workouts and fail to be consistent. Three days a week of working out is three days a week of working out. No matter how you look at it, at the end of the week, if you're consistently checking off those three days a week of workouts, that's genuinely all that matters. Because here's the thing our lives are messy, and trying to do things perfectly just isn't a realistic expectation that we should ever try to put on ourselves. We need to find what works for us and be realistic with the season of life that we're in and whatever that is, that's going to be the best plan for us because again, it's realistic. And when we we make a realistic plan, then we're actually able to stick with it. So consistency is key here. I don't want you to overthink it. Just get those three workouts in no matter what. If you do want to optimize your results, I will say that on the four days of not working out, I would recommend these two other things. So again, if you can only fit in three workouts a week, that's amazing. I definitely would encourage you to do that. Show up consistently if that's what's most realistic for you, do that. But if you really want to optimize your results with the three days a week workouts, I would, number one encourage you to at the very least, count your protein intake. If not, nourish your body through whole foods. [00:04:25][83.8]
[00:04:26] But I would always encourage you to at the very least, get your protein intake. If you can count your macros and learn how to properly fuel your body by utilizing the 12 macro. Counting protein, carbs, and fats, that's going to be huge because nutrition plays a huge role on your success when working towards building the body that you want. And so really hitting your nutrition, especially on those four days that you're not working out, that's going to help expedite your results. Because, you know, you always hear this, but you can't outrun a bad diet. And it's just true. Nutrition plays such a crucial role in your overall results that I want to make sure that you understand that. And number two, if you want to optimize your results with the three days a week strength training movement, actually workouts on the other four days a week that you are not doing your workouts. Try to honor your body with movement. This is not in a workout way. This is in just you being mindful of movement for 30 minutes. So on those days, you don't have time to do a workout. If you can move your body for 30 minutes, that's a. Amazing. It doesn't even have to be 30 minutes in a row, right? Just try to be on your feet doing something for at least 30 minutes. And this could be walking. This could be jogging. This could be, you know, walking your dog, parking further away at a store, cleaning your house, taking the stairs, walking around or grocery store or target or whatever it is just being intentional and aware of moving your body. That can be very beneficial and that can take you so far. When you do those two things in conjunction with your three days a week workouts, you're going to be amazed at the results that you see. [00:05:56][90.0]
[00:05:56] And again, if you don't know how to properly nourish your body through utilizing the 12 macro canning, I do have a nutrition program that's completely separate from the Julie app. It's called the Macro Cutting Meat Simple Online Academy. I will link that in the show notes below so that you can easily go check it out. But this is essentially we are going to be helping you figure out what your custom nutrition is based on your activity level. So we'll factor in those three days a week with your strength training and then what your goals are. And we will give you the tools that you need to succeed on your macro counting journey and just educating and empowering you around nutrition. Question number two I can't do 60 minute workouts all at once because my newborn is a poor napper. Is it okay to break up the workout into two 30 minute workouts or three 20 minute workouts throughout the day? This is a great question. This is something that gets asked all the time inside the community. And yes, again, if you if this is how you say consistent, go for it. Movement is movement and completing the workout is completing the workout. No matter how you break it up, right at the end of the day, it's done and dusted. There are actually studies done showing the benefits of doing kind of bouts of workouts throughout your day, versus doing it all at once. Now, with that being said, again, you don't like if you're like, oh, should I be doing multiple workouts a day? No. If you're if you're consistent with your, you know, 30 or 60 minute workout all at one time, stick with that. But if you're in a season of life like she's in a season of life where her newborn is a poor napper and she's has kind of sporadic time throughout the day, break it up. [00:07:18][82.0]
[00:07:18] There is actually a study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology that found that accumulating daily exercise in these short bouts, so three, three times of ten minutes versus kind of one time of 30 minutes lead to similar improvements in insulin sensitivity compared to one longer session. There was also research that was published in the Medicine and Science in Sports exercise that showed three 20 minute walking sessions throughout the day resulted in a greater reduction of this visceral fat, which is stored around organs compared to one 60 minute walking session. There is just so many studies that I have just found that have been just giving the favor in terms of doing, you know, these short bouts throughout the day. And so this is something that if this is what you need to do to stay consistent. Again, I'm not saying one is better than the other, I'm just saying that there is research that shows that it can be beneficial to break it up. And again, at the end of the day, consistency is what matters most. And so if that's how you're going to stay consistent, then go for it. One thing that I would encourage you to do is just if you are in the app and you are doing a workout, you can do whatever, you know, whatever workout you're doing. And then if you need to get up and you need to take a break and then like get to it later in the day, you can click cancel in the top left and it will ask if you want to save that workout. Click yes. And so that way when you go back into the app, it will prompt you to open that workout and you can start wherever you stopped at. [00:08:45][86.9]
[00:08:46] So that can be very beneficial for you. Again, if you're wanting to log that workout and you're doing the workout throughout the day versus just at one small time. Question number three I was feeling great today. I jumped on the scale. Big mistake. The 4 pounds that I initially lost, I gained back. I get the weight fluctuate, but man this is disappointing. I feel like my motivation is out the window for today, but I'm going to suck it up. How does everyone cope with setbacks like this? Number one, this is so important to remember. Don't step on the scale if it's a trigger for you. I know that it's tempting for you to want to step on the scale, because society has programed conditioned that the scale is the way to monitor progress, but it's just there are so many other ways which I'll mention in a little bit how to monitor your progress. But the scale shouldn't ruin your day. It should not ruin your confidence, your happiness dictate your worth. The scale should be tossed in the trash. If this is something that you're struggling with and you should adopt other ways of monitoring progress. And again, this is just kind of reconditioning our brains because for so long we've been conditioned to think that the scale is the way that we monitor our progress. I'm a huge proponent in tossing out the scale if it's triggering you and instead taking progress photos. And this is because the scale cannot track change in your body composition. It can only track one thing and that's your weight, right? But weight doesn't really tell you anything at all because it is constantly going to be fluctuating based on if you had higher sodium count yesterday or if you're lacking in water. [00:10:10][84.2]
[00:10:10] Or maybe you drink a lot of water right before you jumped on the scale, or you lacked in sleep, or you have higher cortisol levels because you're stressed, like there are so many factors when it comes to fluctuation in weight that have no dictation on if you're actually staying consistent in. Your workouts. And it's true that you can actually weigh more, but look thinner and lighter. And this is something that I have talked about a lot just previously on social is when I look back at my progress photos, it's crazy to see that I actually appear leaner in some photos, even though I'm 30 to 40 pounds heavier than I was in that photo. And it's because my body composition has changed. Progress photos are such a great way to kind of see the different progress, because we are seeing ourselves every single day in the mirror, right? And it's just one of those things that we don't notice the little changes that we're seeing on a day to day basis. But when we look back kind of at a bird's eye perspective, you're going to realize, oh my gosh, there's actually so much change that was happening that I didn't even realize because it was just something that I was looking at day to day. Right. And it's something that I got used to. And so one thing I encourage you to do is to for progress photos. And I know this sounds so daunting, especially if you're not at a place that you want to be at, right. It can feel like, no, I want to wait until I like lose X amount of weight or I get into this exercise before I start taking progress photos. I want to discourage you from that, and I want to encourage you just take the dang progress photo. [00:11:36][85.6]
[00:11:36] Even if you hide it in a hidden album on your phone that you don't even see. Do that because I trust me when I tell you I wish I would have taken progress photos in certain parts of my journey, but it was in the moment. I'm like, no, you know, I don't want to do it. I want to wait until X, Y, and Z, and there is so much slight change that you don't even recognize happens in the weeks or the months of you staying consistent. So just take the dang progress photo. But here's what I want to recommend around progress photos. So you want to do it first thing in the morning after you wake up, before you eat or drink anything after you go to the bathroom. So don't eat or drink anything, but make sure you go to the bathroom before you take your progress photo. Ideally, you want it to be the same time of day in the same place wearing the same outfit. So pick something that you will wear consistently. So for some people this is a bathing suit. For some people this is a sports bra and shorts. For some people it's boy shorts and a sports bra. Whatever you want to do, just make sure you stay consistent with that. And I say that because our body will look different in different clothes at different times of the day. And so if you can stay consistent and make it the least amount of variables, that's going to be the most beneficial for you when you look back at your progress photos. And this will also help you just see the slight changes that you do not and likely don't see on a day to day basis. When you're just wearing different clothes every day. [00:12:54][77.8]
[00:12:54] When you're seeing yourself in the mirror every single day. And the other thing that I want to encourage you to do is take body measurements. But before I talk about body measurements, the last thing I want to touch on with progress photos is that this is not something that you have to do every single day. I would encourage you to do it. If you want to do it every week, you can. If you want to do it every two weeks or once a month, I would encourage you to do biweekly. I think that that can be super helpful to have looking back on so bi weekly and again, same time of day after you wake up, before you eat or drink anything, after you go to the bathroom. All right. Now to body measurements. This is something that is so important. I'm not going to go into super detail here when it comes to body measurements on this episode, because I actually did another episode that talks about it in detail, but body measurements can be so beneficial as well, just because again, this is something that you might not even see in progress photos. You might not see the slight differences in your thigh change or your waist change or your hip change. But body measurements can be super beneficial. And again, kind of going through the same thing that I talked about with progress photos, you want to make sure you are doing it at the same time of day. For me personally, I just film taking body measurements, so that way I have it on film so that, you know, I'm not taking a measurement. And then I'm writing in my notes and taking a measurement and writing my notes. Instead, I just put my phone on. [00:14:09][74.5]
[00:14:09] I don't even have to film myself, but I put my phone on and that way I have. Or you can do an audio recording on your phone, and then you're able to just go through and say, okay, today's date is this. It's this time in the morning, I'm measuring my hips and measuring my waist. It's this. My hips are this my right thigh? Is this my left thigh? Is this right bicep left bicep. And that way you can go back and you can listen to that and you can make kind of a chart. If you are a visually active subscriber, you do have access to the measurements tab, which is just profile, which is in the top left, top right of your app. Click on that. You'll see measurements. You'll be able to type in your measurements and so that you can monitor that. So again this can be done on a biweekly a monthly could be done on a weekly if you want. I find that that can feel a little overwhelming for people. So bi weekly or monthly is what I suggest there. But I go into a lot more detail about body measurements on episode 256. So five ways to monitor your progress without the scale. I will link that in the show notes that you can easily go tune in into that. Question number four. My goal is to try to start working out in the mornings. I am going to start changing my phone with my alarm set across the room, and have everything set up the night before. Any other suggestions to help kick start my morning? Okay, I have a lot of tips. Here, but I'll start with this. The biggest mistake that I see when when women start to work out in the mornings is that they try to wake up earlier without going to bed earlier. [00:15:32][82.5]
[00:15:33] And here's the fact you can't be a morning person and a night person. You got to pick one. Especially if you're wanting to optimize your sleep, which sleep is so, so important in your journey. So don't underestimate that. But if you want to start working out in the mornings, you're going to have to make sure that you're getting enough sleep the night before. And another tip that I have is to never, ever try to force yourself to roll out of bed and hit your workout straight away. If this is something that you can, you're you see yourself not sticking to long term, right? And it can be really difficult to just roll out of bed and just start moving your body. If you're able to try to get some movement in before your actual movement, I think that you're going to feel a lot better in terms of more awake and more energized to kind of knock out a great workout. So this is multiple different things you can do. Try to get some sort of pre workout movement. And so if this is taking your dog for a walk or this is, you know, walking in place, or if you have a walking pad or you have a treadmill or you have something where you can just just get at least 5 to 10 minutes of movement. And this can also be like while you're making your coffee or while you're making your breakfast, you're just moving your body, right. You're just kind of getting into motion before you actually start your workout. That can feel very helpful, especially when you're first starting out, just to make sure that you're not just literally rolling out of bed and going straight into like, a killer leg day on a Monday morning, right? Your body needs some time to wake up and loosen up. [00:16:58][85.5]
[00:16:59] And even if that's just a few minutes, that's going to help so, so much. Another tip that I want to share with you is to not overcommit yourself. So if you're new to working out in the morning and it feels like a complete struggle for you, don't try to just go for that complete 60 minute workout right away, right? Especially on day one, day two, day three, or even week one, week two. Ease yourself into it. This is going to feel super daunting if you do. If you overcommit to something and you're likely going to just dread it all night long and you might, that might even be the reason why you don't get out of bed. Because you're just you're not setting a realistic or attainable goal, especially when you're first starting out. So if you're just starting out, try to do that. If you're doing a movement Julie workout, try to do the 30 minute workout. And this can help to remove that psychological barrier that can hinder you and your willingness to work out. And this also helps become more manageable and approachable when it comes to following through on your commitments, right? The shorter duration not only feels less daunting, but it also ensures that you can fit it into your busy schedule without feeling super overwhelmed. And the cool thing about this is that you can absolutely build a body that you want. With the 30 minute workouts, people ask that all the time. Am I able to see results just doing the 30 minute workouts? The answer is absolutely heck. And yes you can. And the reason is because these workouts are programed effectively in the sense that you can be rest assured, if you are doing a 30 minute workout, you are hitting all of the major muscle groups and you're doing so effectively but in a time efficient manner. [00:18:25][86.6]
[00:18:26] So if 30 minutes is all you got, where 30 minutes feels a lot less daunting, start with that. Start with your 30 minutes. Commit to that. You know, if you're doing three days a week or four days a week in the mornings for your workouts, try that for 2 to 3 weeks and stay consistent with that before you scooch up to the 60 minute. If that doesn't feel as daunting to you in the future, but at least you'll get the core habit of you working out in the morning with it not feeling as daunting down first. If you actually want more tips on how to work out in the morning and get yourself to become more of a morning person when it comes to your workouts. I did a whole episode on this, and I really kind of get nitty gritty and I give you some really good tips there. It's episode 339 How to Become a morning person with Your Workouts. I will link that in the show notes that you can easily go tune in there, but I think that you'll find that very beneficial. Question number five not a question, but Tuesday and Thursday I have to leave the gym by six to make it to clinicals. So I wake up at four, I cold plunge at 415, and then I get to the gym by 450 that I literally put my makeup on at the gym. They have showers too. It's not ideal. It takes discipline, but I'm getting used to it. Okay, I wanted to share this because I love this so much. I think that we oftentimes forget that reaching our goals isn't comfortable, right? Sometimes the hardest things that you're doing are the best things that you could ever do for yourself. [00:19:41][75.2]
[00:19:41] And so staying where you're at, that's hard. But getting yourself to where you're at might be even and where you want to be, that might be even harder. And either way, it's hard. So which hard do you want to pick? Right. It's hard that you're comfortable, but it's extremely hard to get uncomfortable. But you're going to feel great afterwards. And so just remember that when building the body that you want is it's not all about like physical discomfort, but it also requires this, this level of mental toughness which can feel like mental discomfort. And so if you feel like there's no time in your day or you don't have any energy, this is true. If you're staying within your comfort zone, right? If you're willing to get outside your comfort zone, the options on how to build the body that. You want to endless. And like this woman inside the movies. Really group. She wakes up at 4 a.m., she gets ready at the gym to go to work at 6 a.m.. Not to mention she's literally cold plunging. She's submerging herself into freezing cold water for, you know, two minutes, three minutes, four minutes, five minutes. At 415 in the morning. Like, do you think that she loves this? Heck no. But she feels better when she does it. Yes, absolutely. And yes, it's going to be hard at first. But when you embrace the hard, it gets easier. But you do have to stick with it to become easier, right? And that's one thing that I think we oftentimes miss because we, we get. So man, this is so hard. This is not how it should be. And I'm just reminding you that, oftentimes the the best things in life, the times that we achieve, the goals that we have that requires this level of mental toughness and embracing discomfort recognizes the growth that often occurs. [00:21:20][98.2]
[00:21:20] Right. And you're pushing your boundaries both physically and mentally. And when you do that, this means that you're able to push through the discomfort and you're showing yourself and you're proving to yourself day in and day out that you can push past that discomfort of fear, doubt, uncertainty, and you can stay committed towards moving forward. So that's just something that I wanted to kind of end this podcast on, just kind of that, that scootch, that encouragement, maybe that real talk that you needed to remind you like, heck yeah. When you're reaching your goals, it's going to feel hard. There's going to be days you're like, this frickin sucks. But just remember that you're building that mental toughness and that mental toughness will carry through. And I talk about this all the time. But the level of commitment that you have in your workouts and the work ethic that you have in your workouts, that carries through to the rest of your day. So whether that is in your relationships, whether that's in your career, whether that's in your day to day, the work ethic that you are building in staying committed to your physical goals and and really committing to that mental toughness that is going to carry through to so many other aspects of your life. So be encouraged by that. Again, all these questions that I talked about in today's episode were asked by the movement with Julie Community inside our private Facebook group. So if you already are an active subscriber in the app, you can just go to Facebook and type in movement with Julie and make sure it's in the groups. If you type in Julie, you'll likely find my page on there. And my page is a social media page that, you know, similar to my Instagram and my TikTok. [00:22:47][86.6]
[00:22:47] But there's also a group movement with Julie, and you'll need to request. And when you request, make sure that you add your name, your full name that you use for the app, and then the email that you use for the app. Again, this is only open to active subscribers, so if you're not an active subscriber, you will get declined to the group. But if you do want to join and you're not already in the group, you can go to Facebook and check that out. If you want to join the app so that you can gain access to this, you can head over to sail. That's Sally Dot with julie.com. I will link that in the show notes below. And then the episodes that I talked about in today's episode are episode two, five, six, five Ways to Monitor Your Progress Without the Scale, and episode 339 How to Become a morning person with Your Workouts. So I will link both of those in the show notes below, but I hope that you found this helpful. I would love to continue this series. I am loving it. And I you know, these are questions that again are answered on a daily and weekly basis inside the community group. But I also understand that not everybody has the time to kind of scroll through the Facebook group. And also not everybody is in the Facebook group. So hopefully, me doing kind of a series of just highlighting some questions that I'm answering are helpful for you. So if you do have questions, again, we are always happy to help answer questions in the Facebook group. If you are an active subscriber in the app, you can always message me in the app directly. That's, that's a great way to communicate with me as well. [00:24:04][77.0]
[00:24:05] And I love connecting with you guys there, but that is all that I have for today's episode. I love you so dang much. I mean it, and I'll talk to you in the next one. [00:24:18]
[00:24:18] 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're not already following me on the gram, be sure to do so. Julie A Ledbetter. Yes, it's with an “A” the name 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. [00:25:06]