GYM GIRLS LOCKER ROOM - this is why you’re NOT staying consistent and how to fix it

Episode Date: March 26, 2024

EP 04 - today we're chatting all things consistency. Syd shares her experiece with remaining consistent on her health and fitness journey. She also chats with Ellis about where people go wrong, why people struggle, tips on staying on track as well as some facts about consistency you may not know already. WATCH the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/BiPNp3D6vDE 💘 join the GGLR community: INSTA - https://www.instagram.com/gymgirlslockerroom/ FACEBOOK COMMUNITY PAGE - https://bit.ly/3TqhxDG TIKTOK - https://www.tiktok.com/@gymgirlslockerroom/ 📲 find Syd on socials: INSTA - https://www.instagram.com/sydgrows/ TIKTOK - https://www.tiktok.com/@sydgrows/ GYMSHARK - 10% off code: SYDNEY study - https://bit.ly/3x6hT9B research - https://bit.ly/3TvS7mQ

Hello and welcome back to the Dreaming Girls Locker Room podcast hosted by me Sydney Cassidy or some of you may know me as Sigrose alongside my sister and co-host Ellis Cassidy. How are you Ellis? I'm good. How are you actually? That was so a you know you asked people that question like how are you doing and they're like they look at you through like their teeth it was it through gritted teeth like yeah I'm great I'm doing great I don't know I'm scared yeah I'm not sure how much we're actually gonna end up leaving in but there was a little bit of a ladybird saga in the gym anxiety episode yeah um yeah it was a it was a we were i felt i really felt like i was kind of in i don't know the jungle or something a lady

found in the jungle no probably not maybe i was found like down my i don't know anyway um we've been a little bit on edge ever since just a little bit stressed a little bit scared to come back in but i am pleased to say there are no more ladybirds no and you know what i am taking it for good luck yeah i'm i'm seeing the positives many people when i put it on my story message me saying that it's a sign of good luck true love a heap of other things so um you know I'm gonna take it as that what are we covering today we okay okay girl we're driving oh how are you oh well thanks so nice of you to ask actually I'm okay I'm a little bit stressed yeah got a little bit of a stomach like ache um we I feel like we either have chill

days or it's just like non-stop yeah um I always find I live in Manchester now which if you don't know is in like the north the north of England don't know what that accent was um and so whenever I go down to London for work or to see family or whatever although usually it is unfortunately for work a lot of the time it's always a rush so it makes me feel a little bit like stressed I think you know being a dog mom as well I always have goose in tow so everything's just a lot harder I have so much respect for mums. I'm like, I understand now, and lol, me having a dog and being like, I understand the struggle, but I understand the struggle because I feel like you can't get out of the house.

Like caring for another thing. Well, yeah, just getting out of the house must be like so hard with children. Gosh, anyway. Yeah, so today's's episode we are talking all things consistency which I feel like the the sort of logic behind doing it now is that by this point we're like well into the year yeah we all had goals in January we all tried some of us may have stuck to them but I reckon a lot of people probably haven't and that's just normal so we're gonna do a consistency episode and we are gonna cover why people struggle with it um tips and tricks we've got to get you back on your grind, on your goals,

and anything else? Shall I say what consistency is? Yeah. Okay, let's start that. Okay, this is kind of an explanation. Consistency rather than perfection is key to making habits stick, which is essential for long-term health and fitness. The quick-fix mentality often leads to burnout and depression when unrealistic standards are not met emphasizing

the value of small sustainable changes over time did that make sense i know to the average person and hopefully to the listeners i did but like honestly my dyslexia is just like screaming right now that's more of a like what consistency causes I guess yeah um did you have any new year's resolutions any goals actually no I'm not I'm gonna be at least really said at least really said I'm not even gonna like trip at the first hurdle because I'm not even gonna set the hurdle up um okay let me think whilst i think did you have any um yeah and whilst i think um okay let me just think what were my and this is like literally like sat away she's like in her little she's got her eyes closed and she's tapping her head um I just feel like I don't know I mean I think for me a goal for the year was really to get back on my um consistency grind actually

wow this is kind of ideal it's kind of uh relevant I'll give you that one. No, so I actually, like, have I discussed this so far too much about just like my struggles with consistency? No. Well, if there's ever a time to do it, I would say it's in the consistency episode. So yeah, I've been struggling with consistency this past year um which is somewhat ironic considering my job is to be a gym girl so I really empathize with people that also have like a whole nine to five and a whole nother life and then maybe you're a caregiver, you know, it feels like the list is endless before you can actually get around to doing what you need to do. And I guess I probably just experienced that. And when I got into fitness, although I wasn't mentally in a great place, one thing I will take that was excellent about that was I wasn't really doing anything else so I had so much time and space to dedicate to training and getting to the gym it was like

the thing I looked forward to in the day now my life is very different and in ways you know sometimes I catch myself being really hard on myself and tough on myself like you've not been consistent some weeks I might not even train like three times a week which for me has always been like a base minimum and um it's like girl you got I really I check myself in the moment I'm like you've got so much going on and now gym as much as I don't like it this way it isn't a priority for me well it is it's a priority but unfortunately there's just some things that are like mandatory slot in tasks right so I'm just reaching adulthood and honestly and also I feel like you did like at the start of like this job you weren't as busy like your job was to film at a gym and like work out whereas yours is your job's changed

a lot yeah especially in the past like six months I'd say yeah so for me what sort of my lack of consistency looks like now is well actually I'm pleased to say I've come full circle and I'm actually back on my grind but for me like consistency what it was looking like when I was struggling with it was just like not being able to get to the the gym and not not prioritizing it um but also not really changing my behavior to allow me to be able to go I do actually remember my resolution as well go on but it's not related at all yeah at all uh just to save money oh yeah yeah that that was my thing and how have you done I've actually done very well and have you been consistent I'd say I have been very consistent we're doing so and I'm proud of myself yeah I'm proud of you too thank you sister thank you

consistency it's a it's a hard thing. But yeah, we're here to talk about it and we're here to break it down and come, you know, right back around, get back on the grind with whatever our goals were because we know how it goes. Should we start by why people do struggle with consistency? Wasn't there a fact? Oh, you wanted to do that before? There's a really relevant fact a study by strava based on over 800 million user logged activities pinpointed january 19th aka

quitter's day as the day most people are likely likely to give up on their new year's resolutions wow 19th the 19th of january yeah because I guess you're like three weeks in nearly and also January's a horrible time for weather and people struggle a lot that must be hard yeah I feel like it's probably just like by that point yeah you're starting to face like challenges with whatever it is it's kind of getting a bit like tedious you're starting to face like challenges with whatever it is it's kind of getting a bit like tedious you're just like um it's all swipe off yeah you're like fair I mean I get it 38% of people make new year's resolutions each year but only 9% of people stick to them all year long I can believe that wow oh yeah only 38% of people actually make new year's resolutions

well I think a lot of people kind of give up don't they they're just like oh for goodness sakes i feel like it's kind of a known thing that people will not do their resolutions yeah actively avoid yeah um i think also another thing is that i i'm sure i've had a thing before about how like people set all of these goals because they almost get like a dopamine hit from setting the goals yeah so true it's like vision boarding like oh my god I'm gonna do all this but then you don't the the actioning is the tough part and that's the part where we like struggle to kind of fulfill those those goals and ambitions I'd be interested to know like have you always struggled with consistency

like from a gym perspective and also just like yeah yeah um so when I when I started out I really set myself I try to doing that because I wanted it to be a sustainable action that I was taking in starting gym and so I knew that I knowing how I am if I started something and I just went all guns blazing especially as I hadn't really had much experience in the gym or hadn't you know trained in or exercised in years I just thought I'm not gonna do that because I just know it's not gonna end well um and so I think I had set myself a task of like go three days a week and so yeah I just kind of kept that and to begin with it was actually really quite tough like I enjoyed gym but going getting myself there yeah that was not

that is the hardest part wasn't pleasant I would say yeah it was it like and yeah it gets to a point where you are so used to it and it does become like such a sort of ingrained part of your week that if you're lucky you're not gonna have to sort of feel like you're sort of dragging yourself to go you know in ways or that you're it doesn't feel hard it doesn't you don't feel like there's some sort of like resistance um but it does come back around um I've definitely struggled with that in the past year but luckily I pulled myself out of it so it's not something that is always it's ever-changing it's kind of very much circumstantial and so I think that's what we want to um dive into I do feel like the way I think about consistency is like you receive you get consistency from discipline I personally think and I also think by setting yourself up to win like let's start off

with like where a lot of people go wrong because um before we discuss action actioning things to be more consistent that sort of thing I think it's really important to identify like where people do go wrong um because once you actually become aware of it and you kind of take note it becomes really obvious where you keep tripping up and then suddenly you know everything sort of makes sense you kind of understand why you're not being consistent in other areas of your life um so yeah I think we should dive into that so we've got a little list for you that we've composed of things that we think are places where people will trip up um so do you want to reel them off and then we can go through them it's also interesting to see like a lot of these go hand in hand with like dealing with gym anxiety like a lot of the things

that i will list right now is what we discussed in the gym anxiety episode yeah so why people struggle um not having a detailed plan or specific goal not prioritizing their goals well should we go through each one oh yeah okay um the the so like instantly when i hear the thing about like the the not detailed plan and art like yeah not detailed plan enough not having a detailed enough plan is like actually something that really resonates with me and why I've not been feeling consistent in this past like honestly year or so um part of the reason I mean there's for me there's many factors but part of the reason was that I wait what was the point I literally forgot it not having a detailed plan oh sorry um part of

the reason was that like I would go in and I know that if anyone's listening who ever like trains at my gym they'll just know this this I'm really they'll know exactly what I'm referring to when I say people would say to me oh what you training today Sid normally you just answer no legs or I'm doing a bit back I've never been someone that answers a question quickly I always seem to go around the houses but I literally was like I'd be like yeah I don't know I'm just not really on it with my training and I just didn't have I hadn't set myself a clear task and so everything I was doing at the gym just felt like it had no purpose and so go into whatever you're doing with purpose go in with like meaning and intention and have something to work towards um

planners are so helpful go in with like a planner and have a like write what you're doing track what you're doing and and plot out some goals what do you want to achieve um I think that was really kind of stunted where I was going in that year because I wasn't really working towards anything I'd just literally turn up and I'd be like especially especially with plans where um they have like week one week two week three i feel like that would be really helpful yeah definitely uh yep so our next one is um not prioritizing goals oh that kind of ties into that exactly period period next one is lack of accountability now this kind of will depend on who you are as a person. Either you like to train alone or you like to train with friends or maybe you have a coach.

But all of these things are basically like who's going to hold you accountable. I think a lot of people really benefit from training with people for that reason. Having a training buddy, having someone that they can go with and I've been doing that and it is really really helpful I think I hadn't realized quite how much I leaned on my gym friends back in London because I never formally like asked them to go and train and I never really made that association in my head that like they were helping me with my own accountability of like getting to the gym and training I didn't really realize until I don't have them now and suddenly it's like oh no one's gonna notice if I don't go to the gym I mean I'll notice but you know there's

not going to be anyone going where's Sid where's Sid and so I've been training recently with my boyfriend we've been going to the CrossFit gyms so not only does he expect to be training but also the coaches there it's a really new experience for me. The coaches there have been like, oh, where have you been? Oh, really? Yeah, they've been saying, where have you been? If he goes to one night we were working late and I couldn't go, much to my disappointment, I couldn't go. But the next time I went in, the coach was like, oh, where were you, Sid?

And it really helps it gives you a kick up the back side like it really does so if you are struggling with that and you do train alone definitely consider finding a coach definitely consider going with a friend I think friends are a bit of a complicated one because some can be so amazing and so helpful. If it's a flatmate or something like that, or you've got, you're both really passionate and you've got the same goals and you've got schedules that align, perfect. But if you've got a flaky friend or you've got like a friend that isn't so committed or maybe I don't know if they if you if you're feeling a little bit of weakness and then your friend is like oh should we just not make ghosts so true you'll lean on that I actually saw a tiktok the

other day about like what training at 5 a.m is like and then it was like oh it was like 5 or 6 a.m and then it was like what the actual reality is like and it was all these screenshots of like the friend being like hi are you awake and then the other friend being like oh yeah I am are you staying awake and the other friend was like no I'm gonna go to bed and then you know what I mean and it's like so that is where it's hard but say you find a gym friend that would be like so ideal you find a gym friend that you know is going and you guys keep seeing each other and then you make it a thing like yeah I think definitely having some sort of accountability is really really helpful and really underrated actually well a lot of people on the

Facebook group they're like oh looking for an accountability partner yeah a lot of people or like the on on the friendship applications people are like oh is anyone in my area yeah go together so on the gym girls locker room facebook community which if you aren't a part of what are you doing you need to get on there it's the most beautiful hole is where it all started um but that facebook page we we do see that don't we all the time and i remember people saying stuff to me before i've seen comments where people have said like oh you know i've made a an online internet friend and we just clock in with each other yeah when they've been to the gym so be like oh just went and did this you know it doesn't have to that sort of commute online community extends so far beyond just being like an influencer or a

creator there's a lot of people out there that actually want to connect I mean I think that's so freaking cute having like an online pen pal gym friend I love that yeah I love that so much so yeah if you are feeling like you need some accountability definitely check us out over on Facebook um gym girls locker room because I think yeah it would definitely help some people out uh links are always put in the show notes if anyone needs any um direction there okay next one track progress and I guess you could track that through multiple different ways pictures or like writing down I don't know oh yeah like I feel like I can understand would be a little bit of a sensitive one um for some people because it does lean into more kind of like physical attributes but um

yeah did you track progress yeah with videos well yeah I did because I was videoing however I wish I would have I always say to people take the damn progress photos because um it's really amazing you know consistency I think with fitness starts to come where you start seeing results that little like grace period is really tough if we were looking at like that fact we heard earlier about people saying about um falling off yeah I could understand that if that was gym related there's some sort of correlation between people expecting to see results not seeing results and then being like okay give up because when you see results you've it gives you such a drive you know you're doing the right thing you're like okay i want some more of this you know um

so yeah like definitely tracking and I also think like tracking as well in the sense of like if you do have fat loss goals if you do have like um muscle mass goals like if you do want to build muscle like it's really important to track that as well in terms of like your intake I have always been like an advocate of um intuitive eating however I've actually changed my opinion on that um do you know what intuitive eating is when you just eat when you're hungry yeah just like being a little bit more i mean yeah the word intuitive so i've never understood being in more like more in touch with like your body and your needs so if your body's telling you you're hungry you eat and if your body's telling you you fall you really try to tune into that like i mean obviously that's a way more

complicated subject we can totally cover that on another day but like um I just used to always think that that was healthiest for me personally but it's interesting because whenever I go through periods of like wanting to lose some fat wanting to like shred up a little bit or wanting to gain a little bit gaining is for me personally a bit easier but certainly for losing fat that's where actually you're gonna see better results if you track your calories track your protein intake like those sorts of things sometimes you'll have a slower problem progress you'll struggle with consistency so definitely consider it there's apps out there my fitness pal um a lot of coaches they have calorie trackers with them and and even trackers

for like how much weight you're doing that sort of thing and um lifting and you can track take photos but um give yourself something to measure and to go off don't just wing your way through it you know last one i don't know how to say this extreme extreme i believe in you extrinsic motivation if you are doing it for someone else you will likely fall off when things get difficult yeah that's so true so what i meant by this is like um i think this goes back to like what i was saying in the first episode of having this like deeper reason and this deeper connection that's why like I don't really force like fitness and health and all that onto people because it's like have a driving force that you really really connect connect with I've spoken with people that have really

struggled to like show up with the gym and that sort of thing um and I've heard them say that they've always connected they've always tried to go for aesthetic reasons and they've only just sort of connected with the gym and made sort of a real consistent effort when they actually took the emphasis off of their aesthetics and found a deeper reason and that's not to say that there's an it there's the aesthetics can't be a part of that journey for you but I think it's just worth knowing that when there's something a little bit deeper then skin then that surface level uh you're you're a lot more likely to be consistent that's just like my own experience and sort of what I've heard people say um along the way I want to cover now after kind of going through why we struggle and identifying these points where we might trip up and fall I really want to cover

tips and things that really help because they're things you might not have thought about that really really help make this process a lot easier and really like second nature for you at the first and foremost, at the first and forefront, is to do something you enjoy. Don't let it be a chore. Like, please, don't let it be a chore. Don't force yourself to go on that 5K. If you don't want to do it, exactly.

If you don't want to do it to a point where like, it's actually really really unpleasant not and I'm not talking about like there's a difference like not wanting to go to the gym just because you're like oh it's kind of comfy in my bed I'm not talking about that I'm talking about if it's really like just you're not vibing with it let me give you an example I've been loving power lifting since I started strength training lifting as much as I can I haven't been training consistently this past year as we've already discussed and I wasn't enjoying when I was struggling with my consistency I wasn't enjoying powerlifting

that wasn't a I'm not going to the gym because I kind of can't be bothered to train that was like I'm really actually not finding it pleasant to do what I want to do and there's other things I could be doing that I would enjoy and so I just really want you guys to like take note of what you're doing and if you are new on your journey or if you've been doing it for a while just really think like am I am I actually finding this fun you know because there's so much beauty in using exercise as kind of like a form of play as an adult I think like attitudes towards exercise have really changed now and it does feel like everyone's kind of along with like the rise of like social media and like people making content and that sort of stuff it does seem like a lot of people have that sort of same opinion but it definitely and I'm glad because like it seems like we are moving

away from that sort of mentality of like oh I've got to go to the gym after work because like I need to work off this like fat like you know I think it's changed a lot another thing I want to cover um that I don't think we've already spoken about is how important I think visualization is especially like if you're trying to work towards being becoming a better version of yourself so this isn't just about gym but if you're really struggling to be consistent with like a goal is like to visualize like what that person would do that was achieving that goal on a regular basis and like embody that um that's something that really really helped me when I was struggling with consistency in the gym and with my goals I have now that I'm working on like being consistent and I really want to get into like

Olympic weightlifting and I've been doing CrossFit and I'm really enjoying that it's like what would someone like that I do have aesthetic goals as well like what would someone who's got that body what would they do so they would eat well and they would eat like certain things they would train a certain amount of time and use that as like a motivation basically just like embody and be that girl I guess the final tip which um really helped myself with those goals as if I was like a little dog okay I don't know where I was going with that but I was thinking like a dog reward therapy you know like encourage good behavior so for me you know in 2021 when I was trying to like get really consistent with even just showing up to the gym I told myself if I went three times a week for a month that I would buy myself a set

a gym set actually this is a really cute little story I want to tell you really cute that set that I bought was like my first ever Gymshark set which Gymshark is expensive in my personal opinion but it's really high quality and it was like it was an investment for me at the time I didn't have much money at all and I really didn't have much disposable income but I remember saying like if I can if I can do this and I can achieve my my goal that I've set myself to be more consistent then I'm going to reward myself and I bought myself a yellow um camo tank and a yellow camo pair of shorts and then I got myself the green um oh no so I wanted to get the top I couldn't afford it so I got myself the green I don't know what the model's called adapt

shorts and I've still got them and I still wear them and I you'll see them cropping up in my videos because whenever I feel like I just need like a little bit of like umph um I'm just you know like belief or like encouraging myself I like to wear that so if there's like a big event or something I usually wear I don't know bring them with me but yeah um so like reward yourself reward yourself for freaking achieving your goals you know and it's something nice to work towards like treat yourself so I feel like that's pretty much it that's like a nice little roundabout of like I don't know consistency I think the main takeaway is to just like make uh set yourself like little like tasks and measurable things that will help you keep track of your goals know where you're at with

things know what you're trying to achieve and then implement some things that are actually going to help you do so um but I guess I want to leave you with like the fact that like comparison is the thief of joy so just with whatever you do just really try to not compare yourself in a sort of hurtful way um you're just trying you know show up for yourself focus on your own journey and it will come you know every step forward is a step in the right direction doesn't matter how big the step is I think also like just like don't be hard on yourself if you say you do fall off for a little bit be kind to yourself I guess yeah and get back on it like I feel we all so much have we we so easily have that sort of all or nothing mentality yeah you feel like oh just because

you've like skipped a few sessions or you've had a few cheat meals or whatever that you've fallen right off like track and that it's almost like not even worth it or that the whole you know say you've had an indulgent meal that the whole weekend needs to be a blowout and then that's when you kind of things like accelerate and I have so been there and I so know and that's still something I very much deal with I'm sure we all do um but I think just being more aware of what you're doing and moving with intention is really really helpful on this journey of being more consistent even if say you have had months off it's okay just. Yeah. Also just touching on like the whole comparison thing.

Like it feels like we're sort of overwhelmed with information and overwhelmed with, you know, all of these things and that people are doing and downs and that just because you've seen on social media doesn't mean that's someone's reality you know okay we have got should we listen to a little locker room confession yeah can we thank you for your submissions guys um if you don't know this is our segment we've got called locker room confessions it's where you submit in to our instagram at gym girls locker room any funny silly embarrassing gym stories um it could be anything really I haven't listened to any of them let's just go we're going blind a blind reaction there was one time in my early gym days where I was chest pressing like 25 pounds on a chest press machine. And this lady must have seen me struggling. Without saying anything, she came up,

switched out my 25 pound plates for 10s. And then I was speechless and shocked. I said, thank you. She walked away. And I've never lived it down. Oh my God. Yeah, no, that's like, that's not okay. Can people not? Like, can people actually not? Like, what wonder if she was i wonder if she was struggling with the oh she was struggling with the way like exerting herself right is that what she was saying yeah but like why

would someone interfere yeah the audacity oh my god yeah no i would have been like um excuse me miss i'm absolutely fine thank you i think i literally would have been like what would be how we just reacted i'd be flabbergasted yeah i'd actually be like i'd be perplexed 100 so strange yeah weird um i would love to know what she did after yeah put the weight back on wrap it out okay thank you so much for listening i think that's all for today um do us a favor please if you are listening on apple or watching on youtube please hit subscribe give us a follow on spotify uh it just pushes our channel out further to everyone else it gets people listening to the pod and um we'll love you forever sending you one big kiss

um um but yeah also do don't forget to give us a review if you are listening and um i guess between now and next week we'll see you over at gym girls locker room on facebook and instagram anything else to add ellis i hope this episode helped yeah um and maybe even if you're on youtube comment what helps you absolutely all right then girls see you later bye