Embracing the process… enjoying the process! I want to talk about this because, in the last few weeks, I have been talking about diet culture. And diet culture has told us it has to be hard, it has to suck if it’s not hard we aren’t doing it right. If it feels easy… clearly, you’re doing it wrong! So many of us get caught up in it. So many of us get caught up in the daydream of the end results. “When I reach the end of the process, I will love what I see in the mirror. It is going to feel amazing and if I don’t walk through a minefield to get to it… is it worth it?” But I ask you if you have to crawl through glass and walk through a minefield, do you want to repeat this process? Will you be excited to repeat that? And the answer is probably going to be a NO! We need to enjoy the process because that process is what you are going to rinse and repeat over and over again.
Once you hit your 40s or once you have those 1 or 2 magical diet cycles, our body is like, “Yeah I know what you are trying to do, and I am not going to give it up so easily.”
This is where you have to look at your process. Instead of being so fixated on losing weight, what can you learn about yourself and GROW along the path? If you have a process, you like and enjoy, you are more likely to stick with it. Your performance will be rock solid, and you will have increased productivity because you like what you are doing.
Let’s break it down. What does your fitness journey look like and WHY do you want to enjoy the process of getting to your goal and ultimately keeping your goal?
Usually, this is what happens……
1. You start a new plan, and you are like, “Yup I got this, I’m gonna rock this!”
2. Then you get to a point where you are like, “Ok this is a little hard but still awesome!”
3. Then you are like, “Hang on… DO I NEED TO DO THIS SHIT??? Is there something else for me out there?” But you still keep going.
4. Then you say this shit straight up sucks! I’ve got nothing left in the tank, and this program sucks!
5. THENNN it shifts to I SUCK! It’s something about you, you don’t have the discipline, the motivation, and you can’t cut it.
6. So, you start asking yourself is there something else out there I can do?
And…. 9 times out of 10 it is never about the program… It’s all about us and choosing diets and nutrition protocols that are fucking hard or someone else got magic results so we should too..
If you only take one thing from this Fit Girl Magic podcast, let it be this…. If you don’t enjoy what you are doing, YOU WILL GIVE UP!
I can create this process for when I get busy. Because a process evolves with you. It should not be the same. It should evolve. You have to ask yourself, what does my process look like? Take a step back and do an assessment. So many people don’t want to do this part… they want to dive into the NEW. In order for you to create a plan you can do; you have to say to yourself:
● What am I doing?
● Am I working out?
● What am I able to be consistent with?
● What does my food look like?
● If I don’t know where I am, how do I know the direction I need to travel?
● How do I make myself a priority in the process?
Break down the expectations of how long you want it to take, instead say could I give myself 30-15 minutes for myself?
What are your non-negotiables when it comes to things in your life?
For me it’s coffee! My 2 cups a day is my bare minimum. What are you okay with keeping and what are you okay with giving up? Why are you doing this….? This WHY, is going to be your motivation. And when the motivation starts to wane, you can say this is my why! The last time you tried to do this, WHY did it fail? Was it my expectations? Did I come out of the gate super hard? Or too hard?
I want you to feel like a winner!
My goal is for you to enjoy the process… The process is like building a house. You don’t start with the roof; you start with the foundation. Your habits, your process, that is your main foundation because there is always going to be something coming your way. If it’s too fast, too extreme, too hard, if your foundation isn’t fully secure, this is when you are going to struggle, have problems, and say you are over it!
How do I set myself up for success?
This starts with that mindset shift. I need to know where I am so I can make an assessment. Then say to myself, what is possible for me to do? What can I do in the season of life I am in? Pick 1-3 things and get really freaking good at them. Then pick 1-3 things more and just build and build on them.
How can we make our body fuel more efficient? How can we make our bodies work more efficiently?
Our body is this ridiculously smart machine! If you keep giving our body the same exact thing over and over again, it’s like, “Yup I know what you are doing I am not going to give you shit because I am content.” But if I throw in a little extra stimulus in my work out every 4-6 weeks, our body is like ok! Hey! If I throw different food at it, they are like woah! Alright! Our body wants to have different things, so it knows how to burn it and do something with it. You have to be okay with alternatives. If I am not getting to the goals I want, I have to do something different.
Celebrate the wins.
We have to say to ourselves, where am I having my successes?
During a busy week, am I still making better choices than eating at McDonald’s? Little wins! Better ways to streamline your food, add new elements, and increase your enjoyment. Look at the workouts, if you don’t enjoy going to the gym for 90 minutes… then don’t do it! Do 30-45 minutes! Do 15 if you have that! How can we integrate new elements to enhance your enjoyment? If you don’t enjoy the process, you are not going to stick with it. And it’s not about sticking with the process for 12-16 weeks, it shows can I stick with this for my life?
Our process is ever-evolving.
There is a process to this so that my body is always evolving where I am in my life, instead of saying it MUST look like this all the time regardless of my life and the seasons I am in. Where am I having success and where am I not? Then make the tweaks along the way. Do assessments after 30 days. What is working and why is it working? If I am not having success what is going on? Am I doing too much, am I trying to be perfect? Do I not have a repeatable system?
Fit Girl Magic… I need to have great habits that lead to great routines and those routines lead to consistency. And that is going to give you the results. If you don’t have those 4 pieces, you are always going to feel like a robot walking into walls. We need to create an environment that makes things easier so we can find that bridge between what our goals are and our life so that our goals are not driving our life.
Embrace your setbacks as a way to understand an opportunity learned. What caused me to have this setback? Ask those better questions of yourself. Why isn’t this working? What is going on? If I am not enjoying the process, it’s never going to work!
I am always going to feel like a person chasing my tail and spinning my wheels. The process helps you to minimize distractions so that you are not chasing every shiny object. Now it’s okay to experiment, but you have to break free of being SO RIGID!
Know where you are so you can experiment and see what works best for you.
Many of you, (and I am guilty as charged) have a process that was/is broken AF. I needed to come in and revamp and clean up. Every handful of years, or every year, you need to look at where you are. Are you anywhere you want to go? If you are not you need to start to assess. What is happening? What is going on? Who do I have to talk to make it different? Who do I have to be to make a change to create a better process?
LINKS
Facebook Page:
https://www.facebook.com/kimbarnesjeffersoncoach
Facebook Group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/fitgirlmagic/
Website:
https://www.kimbarnesjefferson.com/
Podcast:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fit-girl-magic-healthy-living-for-women-over-40/id1476883661
If you’re over 35 and curious about your menopausal status, I’ve got a handy checklist of symptoms to help clue you in. So grab this menopause tracker and take back the reins!
https://kimbarnesjefferson.lpages.co/menopause-checklist/
