Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 1462: Setting New Year's Resolutions That Actually Work

Episode Date: January 7, 2021

In this episode Sal, Adam & Justin cover five steps you can take to achieve your goals this year. Crazy statistics surrounding New Year's Resolutions. (3:11) The biggest mistakes people make when it comes to making resolutions. (7:35) 5 Steps to Setting New Year’s Resolutions that Actually Work. (8:49) #1 – Set small attainable goals to build wins. (9:10) Slower is better. (13:35) #2 – Create a plan and be specific. (17:26) Track your progress. (21:46) #3 – Construct a strategy to improve your accountability. (26:17) Food prepping. (30:38) Invest in quality programming. (32:32) #4 – Fall in love with the journey and not the goal. (34:14) #5 – Practice self-care and be kind to yourself. (40:08) Related Links/Products Mentioned December Special (Extended 1 week!): 3 MAPS Bundles for your level of fitness! Visit ZBiotics for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! ONLY 8% OF PEOPLE ACHIEVE THEIR NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS What You Need to Know if You Want to Hire a Personal Trainer – Mind Pump Blog MAPS Fitness Products Workout Because You Love Yourself Not Because You Hate Yourself – Mind Pump Blog Mind Pump Podcast – YouTube Mind Pump Free Resources

If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, with your hosts. Salda Stefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. You are listening to the number one fitness health and entertainment podcast. This is Mind Pump. Now, in today's episode, we talk about New Year's resolutions. Now, most people, a lot of people, set New Year's resolutions, most people fail at them. And the people that do get to those resolution goals fail at maintaining them.

So in today's episode, we talk about how you can set those resolutions and stick to them and keep them forever. Remember, we have trained people for over two decades and over those two decades, we figured out what works long terms. So we talk about all the steps you can take to setting the right goals, hitting your goals, and then staying there for the rest of your life. Now today's episode is brought to you by our sponsor, Zbiotics. Now Zbiotics is a company that makes probiotics, these are genetically modified probiotics that you take before you drink alcohol that help destroy some of the negative compounds that alcohol produces in your body.

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L-effective Z Zbiotics is. Now you can try them out and use the Mind Pump discount. Here's what you gotta do. Go to Zbiotics.com. That's Z-B-I-O-T-I-C-S.com. Forward slash Mind Pump. And then use the code Mind Pump for 10% off your first purchase. Also, we have developed three bundle workout plans that we had on sale last year

that we've extended this year. So we've extended this till the 10th of this month. Let me go over those three bundles and see which one works for you. The first bundle is called the New to Weightlifting Bundle. This is for beginners. It's nine plus months of exercise program. So nine months plus of all your workouts mapped out and planned out for you with video demos, everything. The new to weightlifting bundle is for you beginners. The next one is called the Body Transformation Bundle. This is for intermediate people.

So if you've been working out for six months to a year consistently, this is the one for you. Again, it's nine plus months of all your workouts planned out for you. The third one is for advanced people. So if you've been working out for one to two years consistently, this is the new year extreme intensity bundle. If you want to take it to the next level, this is the one that you do.

Also nine plus months of exercise programming. And by the way, all of these come with a year of free access to our private forum where you could talk to other fitness enthusiasts, trainers, you can ask questions, you can post videos of your exercises to get critiques, you can get debates about fitness and nutrition, and you can also find your favorite fitness hosts, myself, Adam, and Justin on there as well. So those are included with any of those bundles,

one year of free access to that private forum. So here's how you sign up. You go to mapsdiscember.com, that's the word word maps M-A-P-S December.com. Dude, I looked up an interesting statistic, but it makes sense after working in gyms for so long. So check this out, right? 45%. So almost 50% of Americans make a New Year's resolution every single year. That's mostly fitness resolutions by far. Yeah. The most common New Year's resolution is to get in shape, lose weight.

Is it still one in two lose weight in cigarettes? Yeah, as you can see, cigarettes are alcohol or... Yeah, number one fitness by far. It's like the vast majority. Okay. And then I think that those are the other. Okay. But 45, almost half of everybody in America, so you're talking, you know, 150

plus million people start a New Year's resolution. Now, here's the crazy stuff, right? Only 25% of those who make resolutions carry the resolution past the first week of January. First week. So almost half drop off after one week. I would have surprised. I would have percentage you think hit the goals. Hit actually hit their goal. The less after one week. I would have surprised. Oh wow, I would have. What percentage do you think hit the goals? Hit actually hit their goal. The less than one percent. No, no, more than one percent. I would guess 10.

Eight. Oh, I think you're good. That's a good game. That's a good game. Take your 10 minus his one. You're right. See? Yeah, what does it mean?

Just a zero. I don't have any. He's like half a percent. No, no, no, no. No, no, no, no, no. He's like half a percent. No, no, no, no, no, no. No, no, no, no, no, no. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no need confidence in anybody, apparently. So, sorry guys. Interesting statistic. Now working in gyms, you know,

because all of us worked in gyms for most of our careers, most of our professional careers, right? I started working in gyms at the age of 18. And January is such a, it's a whole nother animal in the gym space. I mean, you have your normal crowd that comes in, people signing up, people,

working out, making goals, happens all year long. It starts to slow down around November, October, slows down a little bit. November, December definitely slows down holidays. And then January, it's insane. You're looking at 50% to over 100% increase over your normal traffic. And that's just people coming in

working out, people signing up. It's like, it's insane. I mean, I would manage gyms where we would hit 150 to 170 thousand dollars of new revenue, sometimes 200 thousand dollars of new revenue for a club. That same club would hit over $300,000 in a month of January just to give some people perspective how crazy it gets. And then like clockwork, by April, it's back to normal every time.

Well, it's interesting that they say the first week that 45% people drop off. Oh, 25% or 25% of the 45% that made the resolution. But I don't remember, I don't recall the gym starting to really get busy till at least two weeks in. Yeah. So I wonder if the left over, I wonder if the traffic that we are used to seeing in our space, working in the gym at the gym, right, was the people after the first initial 25 dropped off because it wouldn't even get busy until months 15 on.

Yeah, I'm curious to see like, when people actually start their resolution, you know, because I'm sure there's a lot of people that don't start like January 1st, like right away, like how long they delay before they finally like, or like, okay, I'm gonna get going. Well, I mean, that's a good point because I think like what Adam is saying,

that's 45% people, let's say, okay, 150 million people make a resolution. Almost half of them, or sorry, yeah, a quarter of them, I should say, almost a quarter of them don't even start, right? That's the first week. They make the resolution, they don't even start, right? Yeah, it was a drunk resolution.

Yeah, yeah. I'm gonna get Helen shaped this year, and you wake up the next day like, what the hell was that? I don't think it feels so good. Yeah, that's a, yeah. You ever do, next Helen shaped this year. And you wake up the next day like, what the hell is that? I don't think it feels so good. Yeah, that's a, you're ever do next year, next year. Hey, you ever do that

where you're with your buddies and you're all drunk and it's like three o'clock in the morning. Do tomorrow you wanna wake up, really go hiking? Oh, dude, we're doing everything tomorrow. Great idea. Never happens. But yeah, so then you get the rest of the people

that probably start, but like it said, only 8% actually hit their goals. And of those 8%, this, I couldn't find. I was looking this up and I couldn't find it. I would venture to say that out, only 8% actually hit their goals and of those 8% this I couldn't find I was looking this up And I couldn't find it. I would venture to say that out of the 8% that actually hit the goals a Super small percentage of them maintain the goal. So let's say 8% hit their 20 pound weight loss goal Very very small percentage of them actually I mean, that's the hardest part is sustainability. What can you start with that you can keep going and be able to see all the way through? It really has to be well thought out for that to happen.

So I have a theory on why I think that we fail so much, right? I think that it's how unrealistic the goals are. That's got to be the first thing. To me, the biggest mistake that I think most people make on New Year's resolution is they swing for the fences. They set some massive goal. And I know we're taught, like, oh, be very specific. If you're going to set a goal, be very specific about it.

But in this case, if you have not been working out, you've not been exercising at all, or eating clean, or anything like that, and you head into this New Year's resolution, you're like, okay, I'm gonna get this fit. I'm gonna do all these things. And none of these things you were doing the previous year, I just think you're setting yourself up for failure. At least from the perspective of a coach and a trainer who would help people get in shape

and try and maintain your training. You're totally right because what I used to think was successful as a trainer was just hitting the goal. All right, you got a goal, it's a big goal, fine. Hire me and I'll make sure we get there. Sticking to whatever got you there was impossible. Took me a long time to really self-example. I know you say this all the time, Adam,

where at some point in your career and I did the same thing, you look back and you say, am I really helping people? Right. Half of my people don't even hit their goal and then the ones that do don't stay there. So I think it's important we talk about not only how to hit your goal,

but how to get to, not just get to the goal, but maintain it. And I think that there's, after working with people for over two decades, I think we've, I know we've talked about this off air, there's definitely some things we've figured out in terms of what works, what works, not just to get you there, but what works to keep you there.

The first thing you talked about was the unrealistic aspect of goal setting oftentimes. Now the reason why it's so unrealistic, the reason why we set goals that are unrealistic is that some psychological reasons. Number one, when a goal is far away from us, we tend to overestimate. Right? So if a psychologist takes a group of people and says, if they do a study and they say, what can you do two years from now? The goals are crazy and lofty. The closer it gets to today, the more realistic it starts to get when they say, oh, what can you do a month from now? Like, oh, I don't know. I don't know if I can do too much a month from now,

but two years from now, I definitely can do a lot. So I think that's number one. And the second one is the state of mind that we do it in. When it's a new year, right, the calendar changes. Oh, it's a brand new year. That's it. I'm gonna be a different person. We're in this motivated state of mind.

And we have a tendency when we're in a motivated state of mind. It's, you know what it's like? My kids do this all the time. It really annoys me. You're super hungry, so you order way too much food at the restaurant. Your state of mind is hunger, so everything looks good, and then you order way too much food,

and then you sit there in your full, and half of the food is sitting there, in that super hyper-motivated state of mind, making a goal, you have to be mindful of the fact that you're in a state of mind that you're not gonna be in all your long. Well, don't forget the goal can change, right? So I mean, I like the idea of setting like a long term goal, but making short term decisions

based off that goal. So maybe you have this massive goal of, you know, I want to lose 50 or 100 pounds at one point. That's fine, but you're not going to focus on that. You're going to focus on the short term decisions. What like you said, what can I do tomorrow? And you set these small goals, like, hey, if I haven't, if I haven't, strong a one month in of lifting two times

or three times in a month, that's a good place to start. That's a really good place just to start. Instead of going like, okay, I'm super motivated. I'm, you know, I hate the way I look. I'm gonna change that. 2020 was a shit year. I'm gonna, it's way I look. I'm going to change that. 2020 was a shit year. It's going to be great. I'm going to the gym every day this week and going out the gates was something so extreme from where you were just two months ago. Start

off with a very simple, small goal and start to build wins and build on that. Yeah, here's the exercise I used to have my clients do. I would say, what is it, give me a goal that you have that you think you can do forever. And what I mean by that is not necessarily the end point, lose 30 pounds, but rather the behaviors. Okay, you wanna start working out five days a week. Do you think you can maintain that forever? When you say forever, people tend to be a little bit more

realistic, like, they backped a little bit. Yes, so what can you do now, what's the change you know you can do now? That's challenging, that's the whole purpose of having a setting of goals. It's got to be meaningful, it's got to be challenging. But what can you change now that you think realistically you can do forever?

That's a better way to set a goal. And usually what it looks like is way less than what you thought, right? So if you're not working out right now, and say to you, how many days a week can you work out starting now that you know you can maintain forever starting now? It usually looks like one day a week or two days a week. Definitely didn't look like five or six days a week. So realist, you have to set the most realistic goal first.

Well, another reason why I think this is really challenging is that what happens during this time we talked about what happened in the gym space, right? So the marketing that gets pushed in January, I mean, it's like, I think most companies that are fitness companies front load all of their marketing to this time right now, because they know that, they know these are, and so what you have to, as a consumer,

or somebody who's wanting to get into fitness, or somebody that's wanting to pursue their fitness goal, is you have to be aware of the marketing that's gonna be coming your way in the next few days, few weeks, and a month leading up. And all of it is centered around quick results. Yeah. If you're a marketing budget, if you're in the fitness, weight loss space, the diet space, the health fitness space, a huge chunk of your marketing budget is for January.

In fact, did you guys see planet fitness sponsoring all the New Year's resolution, which is the New Year's start? Yeah, I mean, that's the demographic. You know, I was watching that, and I was so, what I was taking back by was, wow, why did not any of the other big chains think of this first? Smart.

Yeah, why did, why did platinum fitness be the first? Well, I mean, obviously, the number one New Year's resolution is weight loss. So the fact that and 90% of the people who are watching the ball drop right during New Year's Eve, why would you not, if you're a fitness company market like crazy? Super smart.

So I would say this, really when you're just getting started, you have a goal, be careful for the gimmicks. If it sounds too good to be true, it is. I promise you it is. There is no weight loss pill, there is no miracle diet, and there is no special workout that's gonna magically make your body change quickly, effortlessly, and easily.

It's just not gonna happen. There's just gonna be so much of that out in the environment right now. Like it's just gonna be all over social media, it's gonna be all over the TV. Everybody wants you to basically shuttle your momentum into their product or their quick fix way to approach it. So yeah, you definitely have to be conscious

of a lot of these short-term 30-day, I'm gonna lose all this weight and turn my whole life around. You gotta be very conscious that's gonna be thrown at. Right, and you're navigating to something that you might have never achieved before, which is permanent health and fitness. Not a, I was leaned before and now I'm at overweight. You obviously, if you, this is your goal,

you've obviously never achieved permanence with this. So because you're navigating something new, slower is better. If you go too fast, you can take a lot of wrong terms and you're more likely to fail, so take your time and do it one step at a time. Have you guys remember how you used to communicate that slower is better to a client? You remember how, because that was like a hurdle. It was a major hurdle as a trainer. When you get somebody who hires you and they desperately want to get this 30, 40, 50 pounds off and they say, I want to do it as fast as possible. Do you guys remember that conversation with that sound and like from your side?

For me, it was always really trying to communicate the gravity of what they're trying to do. In order to change your body forever, that means you have to change your lifestyle forever. How you eat needs to be changed forever and your activity level needs to be changed forever. Those are not small things. And in order to change fundamental aspects of your life, big things of your life, there's nothing that we do that changes overnight that way.

So that would be the way I talk to them and say, listen, this is a big deal when we're talking about forever results. So if we can't be done permanently and fast, it can't be done. I tried to paint the picture of what they were doing activity wise and what they're doing cardio wise and what they were eating and how many calories that was. Once they achieve that quick sort of fixed goal, and is that something that you're willing to live with? Is that something that sounds like you can. And you know, is that something that you're willing to live with? Is that something that sounds like you can sustain and you can keep repeating that process long-term,

or is there something, you know, I can show you another way where we can build to get you to your goal. It's going to take a bit longer, but it's going to be something that you can last forever. I used to give him this extreme analogy, right? So if someone came in and no matter, I mean, obviously depending on the weight amount, it would, I'd have to extend this analogy, but it tend to get the picture across, right? Which was, if you came in, you said, I want Adam, I want to lose 30 pounds as fast as possible

or 50 pounds fast as possible, I said, well, that's actually really easy to do. If all you want to do is stop eating and get on the dress. Exactly. So what I would say to them is, I open the so, if all you care about is losing those 30 pounds, it's actually not as

hard as you think it is. So stop eating for the next two months, come in here on the treadmill for an hour. And then of course, I'd say, listen, you know, I'm not being serious, and you'd probably die if you did that or feel absolutely miserable. And we both know you can never do that. But that's just an extreme analogy of what people are asking for when they say they want to get to their goal that fast. Maybe we won't go to that extreme, but we'll fall somewhere on that spectrum of doing things unhealthy and unrealistic and un, and without you being able to maintain it for the rest of your life. So if you care about changing this, losing this way, and then maintaining it for your

rest of your life, there's a better way to do it. But if all you care about is losing 30 pounds, well, then you go that extreme route. But the more extreme you go, the more unrealistic is that you'll maintain it for the rest of the life. Totally, now the next thing to focus on here is really about making a plan. And it's interesting how little, how few people when they set a goal, don't go about setting or creating the plan.

You know, say, oh, I wanna save this much money. And then I just wanna save that, and they don't have a plan to do it, or I just wanna get in shape, but they don't necessarily have a plan to do it. Actually sit down and create a plan. And again, this goes online with being realistic with your goal.

So if your goal is to lose 20 pounds, you're not working out right now, you're going to sit down, by the way, the plan can be very basic or it can start to get more complex. Usually the way it looks is it starts off basic and as you continue to stay consistent, it becomes a little bit more detailed

and a little bit more complex. So to give you an example, you want to lose 20 pounds, I've never, I don't work out, I'm it worked out for a long time. Okay, let me sit down, let me see what I can do. Can I realistically exercise every single week for the rest of my life three days a week and then, you know, have that thought with myself and I think, no, I don't think that I think that might be too much. How about two days a week?

I think I can do two days a week. So that's one part of the plan. Two days a week, I'm going to exercise, and I'm going to stick to it. Now, here's the next part of the plan. What days are they going to be? This is important, okay, because, you know, working with clients again, a loose two days a week versus a specific two days a week, the people who tend to have specifics tend to be more consistent. Pick the two days, pick the time, and then within those times say, what am I going to do on those two days?

And here you can get as detailed as you want, you can follow programs, or you can say something like, I'm going to walk for 20 minutes, and then I'm going to do some resistance training for another 20 minutes. It's going to be on Mondays at 3pm and Thursday. and Thursdays at 8 a.m. or whatever. And you want to set a plan because then you have something to follow. It's in your schedule and it's something that you can look forward to and move through as your map. Well, and creating a plan very similar to setting the goal. Again, this is moldable.

Just because you have this ultimate goal of losing 100 pounds and you want to plan for that. The better strategy is to set a more realistic goal and set a more realistic plan. So it doesn't mean that after two months, after you hit that first goal and followed that first bit of your plan, you can't build upon that. Right. So it's kind of echoing what you're saying right now, Saul, which is, you know, set up things that you know that you can accomplish, start to get some wins.

Make the plan very basic and simple. Do not, I'm gonna all sudden be weighing and tracking my food, you know, every single day. I'm gonna start doing the treadmill for 30 minutes. I'm gonna follow this program, go to gym six days, we come, don't add all this stuff. Start off with a very simple plan that is better than the plan that you had two months ago.

And then as you start to get some wins and create some behaviors, then you can build upon that plan. I've seen a lot of mistakes from, some clients have come in with all of this like excess, like momentum that, you know, well, it's gonna be really tough to make this day work, but they like try and force, you know,

their time in on something that really just isn't going to be something that's going to be easy for them to rearrange and to be able to kind of figure out, you know, what is something that is like a total win. It's something that's already going to be not that far away from your current schedule is going to be a much better approach. Yeah, and I used to tell my clients that whatever goal we set, whatever plan we set, and it's realistic, make those rocks in your schedule. Okay, so this is, again, part of the realistic thing. What time on Monday do you think for sure

that you can work out, and they'll give me a time, and I'll say, now nothing gets in front of this for now. Let's just keep this as consistent as possible. Make those rocks. Here's another tip. Par activity with other behaviors. This is very successful because other behaviors that you do consistently are things you already do consistently. And when you attach something to it, it serves as a reminder

and is an impetus to get you to do those things. So here's an example, one of my favorites. Walk 10 minutes after breakfast lunch and dinner. That's 30 minutes of walking a day that you're not doing right now, 30 minutes of cardiovascular activity. It could also be after breakfast lunch and dinner, I do 15 squats and 10 pushups or something like that, right? So you're attaching activity to things

you already do every single day, and then it's much more likely to become part of something that you do, it's something that is a part of your normal day, your daily behavior. No, another thing that I didn't start doing till after I actually got into competing, but I really liked this to help my clients. And the reason why I liked adding this into

like part of their plan, which is to track your progress. And I like to take over measuring body fat percentage and weight all the time. I actually just like to have them take a picture, front, side, and back of them. First thing in the morning, every Friday, right? And what I like about that is one of the challenges

as a trainer, when you're coaching somebody through like a big weight loss goal, is the very first 30 days, I don't want to see any weight loss. Even though that's their goal, I really want to start to build their metabolism up. And so a lot of times we're increasing calories, we're adding foods in the diet.

And so they don't see the scale really shift that much. But I promise, if you've been consistent for that month and you look at the pictures on day one versus the pictures on the fourth week of being consistent with lifting weights and making better food choices, even if the scale has not moved, you'll start to see a body composition change.

Yeah, I like to track performance. And the reason why I like to track performance is because if you're stronger or faster or you have more stamina, it usually means you're doing things things are working for. In a healthy way, right? I mean, not always, there's unhealthy ways

of improving performance, but generally speaking, it's a healthy way, right? I mean, not always. There's unhealthy ways of improving performance, but generally speaking, it's a more consistent, it's gonna show that somebody's doing something in the right way. But here's how you measure performance, because here's where you can, some of the pitfalls. One of the pitfalls with tracking performances, people expect linear progress every single week.

So I have to get stronger every week. I have to get better every week. It doesn't work that way. Instead, what I would tell clients to do is track every workout, how much weight you lifted, how many reps, or how much cardio you did, how you felt, you know, that kind of stuff. And then average it out for the week and then average out those weeks for the month. Then you can start to see some trends. And if month over month, you're seeing progress with your performance, you are moving in the right direction. You're talking about moving the right direction.

I mean, I look at it so I like that because I think that speaks to everybody. Like if you have, especially if you have body image issues, right? I don't, if I, and I think it's important than I say this, right? If I have a client who's got body image issues, I'm certainly not making them stand in front of a mirror and take pictures of a week and compare themselves, right? But if you have a good relationship and you're okay with going like, hey, I'm not a shape right now.

And I wanna get in better shape. And I'm okay with that. That's not an issue for me. I think that there's a lot of value in the pictures. This strength thing is, I think the easy one that everybody is okay with and probably a better focus for most people. But it's as simple as this.

It's just, I think it's, you know, day one of the month compared to the end of the month. If you try and do week by week looking at strength gains or body composition change week over week, you know, it doesn't work that way. You're going to have a good week on both those sometimes. Your body's going to change one week really, really well. The next week, you may see it like kind of stays the same. So instead of looking at it as a week to week screenshot, we're taking it every week, the picture, or we're paying and tracking the strength

over every single week, but we're really comparing the first of the month to the end of the month, every single month. And if you are seeing progress over that, you know you're moving. Yeah, I also like circumference measurements. I like those waist, hips, you can do thighs, arms. Of course, the scale.

Now here's why I don't push the scale too much. People get obsessed with it, and then they start to lose weight in the wrong way, or they lose muscle. So you wanna use a comment, by the way, the best thing to do if you really wanna get, more specific with tracking is to use more than one method. Because each method on its own,

you can actually start to game it. You won't realize you're gaming it, but you start to game it, right? If you just wanna lose weight, you start finding yourself starving yourself a little more. If you're just just wanna lose weight, you start finding yourself starving yourself a little more. If you're just trying to gain weight, you'll find yourself stuffing yourself a little more. If it's just strength, you might start to cheat

in your exercises, right? With circumference, you might start to suck in your stomach a little more. But if you have three things that you track, and you can start to see the trends all of them, it's more likely to paint an accurate picture. I've seen actually some cool apps now that they offer where you can take pictures of yourself

and you can actually see over a timeline, a time span, like just a video of how your body's been kind of morphing pretty cool. Now here's the thing with tracking your progress. This is very, very effective early on in your journey, but eventually in your long-term journey, it's not something you really use all the time. I don't track my progress anymore,

unless I have more of a specificle. So keep that in mind. It's okay to drop off on the tracking once you find yourself in this really good and smooth rhythm. Which actually brings me to the next point, which I think this is very important. One of the hardest, with biggest challenges, I should say, with people hitting their goals,

is just they're not consistent. I thought that sounds obvious. A lot of people listening are like, well duh. But knowing that, I think it's important to create a strategy to improve your accountability. There are things you can do that have been shown statistically and things that I've observed in my clients that dramatically improve accountability.

For example, when you set yourself up with a goal, the more people you tell, and the more likely you are to actually stick to what you need to do to hit that goal. So if you just keep it to yourself, we let ourselves down very easily, right? I can promise myself things all the time and then be okay with it because I forgive myself. It's not a big deal. But if I promise, you know, Adam or Justin or Doug or my wife or someone else that I'm gonna do something, I'm much more likely to stay consistent

because I don't wanna let them know. This is a very big deal for me, especially like when I verbalize it, when I say to somebody else, like to me, that's like a bond. That's something that I am working my best to get to exactly what I said I was gonna do. So I'm very careful about like, you know, telling people about that.

But if that's something you're really serious about, I definitely think it's a valid strategy to get people rallying behind you. That's funny. I think we're all very similar when it comes to that. Like I'm like you, Justin, I'm very careful about what I put out there and say. Because I'm the type of person that if I'm gonna say

that I'm gonna do that, then you're gonna do it. I'm gonna do it. So I better be careful on what I commit myself to. That was like a man, I tell you that what led to the consistency into competing was I put that out into the Instagram ether, you know. Said that on a platform where I, at that time, probably only hundreds of people were there. So your reputation is on the line?

Yeah, and what I knew was okay, the ultimate goal, where it wasn't a weight loss goal for me, the ultimate goal was to build a business around this social media platform. So I knew if I came out and I said, I'm gonna do this, and then I didn't, I could just kiss that big goal goodbye, because then I'll lose all credibility,

nobody will believe me anything else that I say. If I say I'm gonna do something, and then I'm not gonna fall through, I'll lose everybody. So there was a lot of pressure that, okay If I say I'm gonna do something and then I'm not gonna follow through, I'll lose everybody. So there was a lot of pressure of that. Okay, I said I'm gonna do this transformation. I'm documenting it like I can't stop. Or I'm gonna ruin my big goal,

which is to build a business. And this is why it's important. You carefully pick the people that you tell that are gonna help keep you accountable. Tell the people that matter to you, people that support you, people that cheer and celebrate your victories and mourn your losses. Right, you don't wanna tell somebody that's like, people that cheer and celebrate your victories and mourn your losses, right?

You don't want to tell somebody that's like, you don't want to tell your jealous friend about your goal because they're gonna sabotage you. I've seen this before, I've actually seen this with clients where I've had clients who are... Are there significant others? Yes, they're working out, there's significant others not working out and they're kind of jealous

about them working out and then there's significant others like, oh, it's okay if we eat out. Oh, if you miss a workout, not a big deal, because they're sabotaging them. So tell people you know that matter, that's celebrate your victories. Tell those people, and have a serious conversation. Hey, listen, I have the school I want to accomplish.

I'm telling you because you're somebody I don't want to let down and I want help with remaining accountable. And again, studies show that this actually works. Just telling people actually makes a big difference. By the way, this is one of the reasons, not all the reasons, but one of the reasons why hiring a trainer or a coach is so successful. When you look at people reaching their goals, their fitness goals, when they hire a trainer versus when they don't, obviously you have someone who knows what they're doing, teaching them to exercise

properly, that stuff. But a big part of that is the accountability. They know that the trainers waiting for them at six o'clock on Tuesday to train them, I don't feel like working out. I can't cancel my session, so and so is waiting for me. I gotta show up. Makes a big difference. Well, that's why you see a lot of coaches that have coaches for that exact reason.

It's not a lack of knowledge or experience or know-how for themselves. It's that they know that, man, if I paid for this or I tell somebody else to be there, I'm not gonna let them down whether I want to not versus if it's just me real easy for me to go, like, oh, I'm fucking tired today. I'll wait till the next day.

Yes, so hiring a trainer or a coach, obviously you're gonna get a lot of the value of their knowledge, which is, I can't speak more to that. There's so much value there and just that. But then the accountability, this is a trainer in a coach, especially if you hire a good one. They know how to keep people motivated, inspired. They know how to take people through the process.

So it does make a very big difference to hire somebody that's good. You know, along the lines of accountability, this is another thing that I like this too. And I know that we've kind of bashed it early on, but I use this strategy lot, which was the prepping. Oh, food prepping? Yeah.

And part of why the food prepping worked for me so well was I think that I go out, I buy all this chicken and rice and vegetable and steak, and then I prep, you know, hundreds of dollars of meat and stuff in one sitting, and then I have like, I don't want to waste that. And so if it's ready for me in the refrigerator, even when I have those cravings like everybody has, you know, at a certain time in the day, or watching a show, or whatever,

and I'm like, oh God, this sounds really good, but I know I've got five meals that I've already paid for, I took the time to prep, and it's ready for me right there. I normally go, okay, I'm gonna go eat that. And then I eat it, and then I feel 10 times good. That's why it works for me, because when I food, because eating out for me can be a problem, right? So if I'm trying go eat that. And then I eat it and then I feel 10 times good. That's why it works for me, because when I food, because eating out for me

can be a problem, right? So if I'm trying to get leaner and I eat out a lot, eating out is just gonna screw you over. Cal, you know, the calories and the macros and a lot of stuff in restaurant food is just through the roof. It's very difficult to get a good healthy meal. They sell food that's super tasty and palatable,

so that's what they tend to make. But if I have food set up, if I have lunch ready, breakfast ready, dinner ready, and it's there, you know, I hate to drink it for success. You want? That's basically like what, you're just like, you're making sure like everything's gonna work out and you know, clearing the cupboards and things that aren't like excess temptations for me.

It's just, that's all part of the process. If I'm really serious about a goal, I'm gonna stick to it by setting myself up for success. One strategy with food pre me, it's just, that's all part of the process. If I'm really serious about a goal, I'm going to stick to it by setting myself up for success. One strategy with food prepping, by the way, you can, two ways you can do it. One way is on the weekend, you can make a bunch of food for the whole week. Another way is to make a big dinner and then the following day, the leftovers of what you have for lunch, the following day.

I do that often, so I'll make a big, healthy dinner, and then I'll have enough food left over for the day after, and so I tend to prep one day in advance. Another accountability thing, and this took me a long time because I guess as a trainer, maybe it's our trainer pride, right? Where I've read all the books, and I know how to put together a program for myself,

and so I don't need anybody else coaching me or telling me what to do. But there is something to be said about having that completely mapped out for you to where you don't have to think about it and you know what you're supposed to do every day. And you either accomplish it or you don't versus I'm gonna go in and work out

and I'm gonna hit arms today or chest today. And it's like you, maybe I could if you sets early, maybe I do a few extra ones. And it's just kind of there's no rhyme or reason or structure to it. Where if you have early, maybe do a few extra ones, and it's just kind of there's no rhyme or reason or structure to it. Where if you have invested in like a really good program that's done a good job of like it's written well right by somebody you trust, it's got a good progressive overload built in it. All I need to do is execute, I just need to follow the plan, do it, then if I've done it and if I've got a good program, I know that I'll see results.

Yeah, when you have a good workout program, that's all set up for you, a lot of great digital program. Obviously, we have our own that we sell, and on them it shows, you know, it's your workout demos, shows you the exercise form, all that stuff. And what happens when you do this is you know what you're doing on Monday. You know what you're doing on Wednesday.

You know what you're doing on Friday or whatever. So it helps keep you accountable because Monday comes along, and you're like, I gotta do Mondays workout on Monday. Otherwise, what am I gonna do with Wednesday's work? I gotta bump it. And it tends to make people more accountable and consistent. Not to mention, like Adam said, takes out all the guesswork.

You know what you're doing that day. Yeah, when you gotta think your way through it, it's like you're coaching yourself on top of also training through the process. So even for somebody like me that, I know what to do and I can, you know, I've learned all these techniques and it's just really nice to be able to just show up

and get through workouts just like an athlete. Right. Now here's the next thing that I think is important and this is a psychological piece that is imperative. It's absolutely imperative for anything you want to accomplish long term and that is to fall in love with the journey and not the goal, right? So your goal is to lose 30 pounds. That's great.

But don't get so focused on the goal that once you get there, you think to yourself, well, okay, now what, where do I go from here? Rather, you got your goal of 30 pound weight loss, but now start to teach yourself to fall in love with what it takes to lose the 30 pounds. Because here's the deal. If you fall in love with eating healthy, if you fall in love with what it takes to lose the 30 pounds. Because here's the deal. If you fall in love with eating healthy, if you fall in love with exercise, then you're always gonna do it.

It's never an issue. And it is very much mental, okay? It is very much a mental thing. In fact, I've done this with myself with things that I previously used to hate. Like I used to hate chores around the house. These would be something I totally hated. But at one point, I had to grow up and say to myself,

I needed to start doing this, so I'm gonna learn how to enjoy it. I'm actually teach myself to fall in love with it, and then I find myself being more consistent. One of the quotes that I like to use all the time is who's gonna walk further? The man who's in love with reaching a destination, or the man who's in love with walking, right?

The guy who loves the walk, he's always gonna be walking. So falling in love with the journey is the most important part. If you do that, you'll not just hit your goal, but you'll surpass it and you'll never wanna stop. You know, as a bunch of trainers, it's really easy for us to say that, right? But if you're somebody who hates working out,

you know, do that, this is a very tough hurdle right here. And it took me a long time as a coach and trainer on, how do I help somebody who comes in admittedly and says, Adam, I don't fucking like being here. Like, I'm here because I know I need to be here, I need to make this change. I know it's important to me, I love my family, I want to live a long, healthy life, but I hate it, you know, and then try and tell them, like, hey, you just need to love your journey.

You're like, you fuck you guys. I don't like coming in here, you tell me to love this place. So the thing that, and it took me a long time to figure out, how do I get this person to love that? And that was starting to act like they do I get this person to love that and that was Starting to act like they would come into the gym to see me and now we would no longer talk about their goal We never talk about building the five pounds of muscle or losing the 50 pounds of fat or running faster What all the all the goals that they set for their new years resolution?

I quit talking about that and I started to make all the connections in all the other aspects of their life So if I just told them like hey, let's start eating this way. I add something to their diet. Like I say, I do one with a new client. You know, I'd add something in their diet and then I would see them the next time in our training session. And instead of going like, you know, how do you, how, how's your day going and all the other bullshit stuff? I'd be like, hey, how was your digestion? Did you notice her?

How did you sleep or how was your energy levels? And as they'd say, oh, I've been good, or I find, or I noticed this, or my stool's all normal. And then I would connect it with the behaviors that we were starting to implement, whether that be eating behaviors, or that be training. Like, oh yeah, I noticed that I feel really good when I do this.

Oh, the exercises that we did the last week is starting to make connections with their day-to-day activities with the work that we were putting in the gym. Yeah, big one is the stress relief that you get from exercise. I think when people hate exercise to them, it's a stress, like, oh, I know I need at least 30 pounds, I gotta go work out, right?

So I would help my clients, it's okay. How do you feel before the workout and how do you feel after and pay attention to that? And of course, if you work out properly, by the way, if you do a good workout, a proper and appropriate workout, you should feel better at the end. You should not feel like you need to,

you wanna throw up or crawl to your car. You should feel more energized at the end of your workout. So when I would train people at the very end and say, how do you feel now versus how you feel when you came in and they'd say, oh man, I feel way more energized, they feel really good. And I would ask them that for a while. And eventually they would get to the point

where they'd be like, you know what? I wanna have that after workout feeling. I feel crummy right now. I wanna have a workout and appropriate workout. That makes me feel good. So once you fall in love with that, it's like you're done. And there's other things too, like your relationships with your family

and the things that you get done around the house and your productivity and work. There's so many things that I don't think I really noticed and connected before. I mean, I just, I notice again right now, right? We're ramping up our own consistency. And I'm just, boy, am I just a better partner and husband at home.

Like I'm in a better mood, like I'm just more balanced. Yeah, if Katrina asks for something that I have to like get up and go do, like when I'm in like just November, like Thanksgiving time, lazy mode, and she's like hits me when I'm sitting down watching football, like, hey, could you go do this in the garage? You know, grumbling as I go downstairs to do it or I'll get to it later. Where when I'm on my kick and I'm training, like I feel like I have so much more energy that when those those things I'll get

up and go do it on my own or I find myself just assisting her and helping her. A lot of times we just don't make that connection. We don't realize this is perfect. Yeah, you don't realize from that, you're using all I'm in a better. A lot of times we just don't make that connection. We don't realize this is from that. Yeah, you don't realize from that. You're using, oh, I'm in a better mood today or whatever, but you don't realize where that came from, that the root cause of that was because you train

and you've been consistent with your eating and you've been good with your workout. You're so right because we tend to only pay attention to the physical changes. I'm more muscular, I'm leaner, I look better, but exercise, proper exercise and nutrition literally positively affects everything, everything. You're mood, you're attitude, you're skin, you're hair, you're nails, you're sleep, you're libido, you're, you know,

you're productivity, how much sharper I had one guy want confidence. Oh, yet confidence. I had a client once that I trained who hated working out, right? He was this business. He owned his own business, self-made millionaire, very successful guy. I hated working out, but he did it in you. He was one of those discipline guys. I'll just do what I hate because I have to. And I remember one day, this is after, I don't know, six months of training, he comes to me and he says, hey, Sal, I just noticed something.

He goes, since I started working out and since my fitness has improved, he goes, I'm a way bit, and he did sales. He did a lot of sales because I'm a way better sales person. I said, oh really, go so yeah, when I'm in front of a potential customer, he's like, I have this energy and confidence, he goes, I'm way more effective. You think that guy want to stop working out, the guy who loved to sell products and build his business? No, because he's connected exercise to making him better at the stuff that he loved doing. And this is something that you can do if you just pay attention. Get a build those associations. You just got to pay attention. And now here's the last one. And this is something that you can do if you just pay attention.

Get a build those associations. You just gotta pay attention. And now here's the last one. And this is important. This is an important thing to understand. Okay. Most of you, 99% of you listening right now, if you get on this resolution

and you follow all the steps we just said, you're gonna stumble. You're still gonna stumble. That's part of the process. Almost nobody is gonna go all the way through smoothly, no hiccups whatsoever. Almost everybody is going to screw up, fall off, lose, you know, consistency, whatever.

This is a wonderful opportunity to practice self-care and to be kind with yourself. Because if you're not kind with yourself, then you'll get into this situation where you just say screw it all on, I don't wanna do it anymore. I don't wanna get into this situation where I keep messing up, so I'm just over it. Be kind to yourself, then you'll get into this situation where you just say screw it all on, I don't want to do it anymore. I don't want to get into this situation where I keep messing up, so I'm just over it. Be kind to yourself, everybody, everybody screws up, everybody stumbles when they are on this journey.

It's not just that, it's that when what happens to so many people, when you, again, you set these very rigid, big goals and you, and you mess up, you have a, a bad day or two or whatever like that, you think you've just, you fucked it all off. It's like, oh my God. I'm already off. Yeah, you don't say never get there now. Yeah, I'll never get there now. It's so much further away.

And then it just causes this spiral effect. I remember getting clients, right? And you would do their follow up. And you'd see that they didn't get progress, right? It's like a month later and we go to track and they put on body fat. Like the worst thing ever is a coach you want to see your trainer. And they would blame it on like eight time.

Oh man, that must have been from that weekend that I went drinking. This is a solicit. You didn't consume 12,000 calories in one sitting and put on two pounds of fat in that one sitting. What's I promise you, what happened was you might have had that hiccup and then from that, you started to create better or worse habits again and

falling off versus just realizing like, ah, I had a bad day back on it tomorrow. Like, and then you just get back on the horse. Like, it's going to happen. So I had this strategy and this has worked for me for a really long time. I share it with all my clients. And so I would compete with myself. And the way I would compete with myself is I would consider what I consider a perfect day is, you know, eating well all day long, getting my training in. And so when I would start off on a goal like this,

or in a New Year's resolution, or any sort of a fitness journey that where I have been off the wagon for a while, I go, okay, I'm on it, and I may start going. And then inevitably, just like Sal said, a day will happen where I'll stumble. This will happen to me this time around, like every time, when what I do is I go,

okay, how many days was that? Oh, I made 12 in a row without a single stumble. So my new goal is to beat that. It's 13 days. Brilliant. Can I get to 13 days? And then of course, what ends up happening on day 13, I normally can make 14, 15 or 16.

And then day 17, a stumble happens. Okay, new goal, can I make 18 days? And what ends up happening is that just keeps compounding, and before you know it, you've been able to string a whole month or two months in a row without even messing up, but you don't stress yourself out on it. You say, hey man, instead I celebrate that, like, oh shit, I want a whole 12 days without a single stumble.

That's cool, okay, let's try and make 13 now. And it's so much more encouraging. Looking at it as a positive thing that when you have that stumble, because we know it's inevitable. So when it happens, look at it as like, okay, I got this many in a row. Let's see if I can beat that.

See, and if you're not kind to yourself, here's what it looks like. And this may be you. This is probably you, the last time that you, you know, quote unquote screwed up right instead of having you know one Oreo cookie you had a whole sleeve of Oreo cookies or one you know scoop of ice cream you went nuts and ate the whole pint this is the behavior that happens when we're not kind to ourselves when we stumble because then we stumble and we're like

screw it it's over and then we go crazy we go go, wait, we actually create behaviors that we didn't even do before, before we started. We go crazy. But if you're kind to yourself and you stumble, you get up, you dust yourself off and you say, okay, you know, I screwed up, everybody screws up. It's a part of the game. Let's get back on it and let's see what happens.

Let's beat what we did last time. I love that strategy. Look, with that, mine pump is recorded on video as well as audio. Come find us on YouTube, it's Mind Pump Podcast. You can also find all of us on social media, Instagram is our favorite place to be. You can find Justin at Mind Pump Justin, me at Mind Pump Sal, Adam at Mind Pump Atom and behind the scenes Doug, the producer at Mind Pump Doug. Thank you for listening to Mind Pump.

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