Ep. 90 From Couch to Confidence: Starting Your Fitness Journey

Struggling to start your fitness journey? Feeling overwhelmed and unsure where to begin? In today’s episode, I’m breaking down exactly how to go from feeling stuck to building confidence in your workouts and routines. Whether you’ve never exercised before, keep falling off track, or just need a fresh start, this episode will help you create a sustainable plan that works for your life.

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What is Fit for Hiking?

Where fitness and outdoors meet. In this space we chat all things hiking, exercise, wellness, adventure, motherhood, and metabolic health from a female perspective! Get ready to learn + be inspired to live your fullest, most adventurous life!

Hi, my name is Brady and I'm a longtime fitness professional and Midwest girl turned mountain living hiking addict. And combining my knowledge of fitness and passion for hiking, I've helped hundreds of women get lean and strong for the trails. Think of this as your one stop shop for both education and inspiration on all things female wellness, trail talk and adventure. Hiking, female metabolism, motherhood, nutrition, travel and fitness are all topics you'll hear discussed here. If you are outdoorsy and active, looking to level up your health, unlock your potential and become inspired to live your most vibrant life, you're in the right place. You're listening to the fit for hiking podcast. Hello everybody, and welcome back to another episode of the fit for Hiking podcast. This is your host, Brady. And today we're going to be talking about going from couch to confidence. So literally just starting out in your fitness journey, what the heck do you do? How do you actually get started? It sounds so easy, but to actually put this into practice and to figure out how to kind of overcome some mental barriers and figure out a really solid starting point is easier said than done. It can be actually pretty overwhelming and daunting to be a beginner at anything, but especially something that you're looking at and you're saying, I have to make this a habit for the rest of my life. That seems like a pretty big deal. Or like, I just don't know if I can actually commit to this, but I know that I want to, and I know that I'm really unhappy with how my health is progressing right now. Um, kind of where I'm at with my energy, with my body composition, with my fitness level. Maybe you had a really eye opening experience recently, like going on a hike and just feeling like you were literally sucking wind in the back the entire time. Or maybe you go to the doctor and you have a really, um, kind of scary doctor's report where it's like, okay, I really have to make some changes. Or maybe you just saw some pictures of yourself from a trip, um, and you realized, wow, I I've just kind of not been taking care of myself the way that I want to, and I want to make some changes. So no matter what your kind of aha moment was that got you to click on this episode. Honestly, having a moment like that is a really important catalyst for making changes, because if we don't feel that sense of urgency, then we're not going to do anything because making changes is really hard. Developing new habits and breaking old ones is difficult, especially the more established that we become in our routines and in our lifestyles. So congratulations, first of all, for even getting to that point of contemplation, of saying, I think I am ready to make some changes. Or maybe you're someone who you have had healthy practices and some fitness routine in the past. However, you are just not consistent with it. You feel like you're always starting over. You'll be on for like a few weeks, maybe even a few months, and then something happens and then you just completely fall off the wagon and you're back at square one. And it's just this cycle that you can't seem to break. So no matter if you are like, I've literally never worked out in my life or it's been since, you know, high school, college, five years, even one year ago. I'm happy that you're here. I'm happy that you're listening. And the goal of this episode is really just to get you to a place of feeling confident and ready to make some changes and feel like you have a game plan of where to start. So. Let's get into it. I have, um, several points of kind of how you can get started and the things that you're going to want to look at and figure out for yourself as you are preparing to start your fitness journey. So everybody's path is going to be different. It's important to mention that not every person is going to have the exact same fitness journey, or it's not going to look the same. Um, you know, me as a a mom of a toddler, a business owner, and seven months pregnant. My fitness journey looks very different from what my life did when I was 24 and didn't have kids and was working in a fitness studio and had all the time in the world, and I didn't have my own business, right. It's just going to look different in different stages of your life, and that's why it's important to not compare or really like focus too much on what other people are doing. Get too caught up on the people that seem like they have it all figured out, or they're doing all the things because it's so much better to find what works for you as a unique individual that you can consistently do long term, with most of the time enjoying it, than to try to just take up somebody else's routine. Um, and it doesn't fit your life at all, and then it's not realistic, and then you just don't do it and you fall off after a week or two, right? So just keep that in mind that this is a personal journey. Your path will be different from mine and from everybody else that you come in contact with. Um, so as you get started, let's talk about just kind of the building blocks, building that foundation. The first thing that you're going to want to do is to actually sit down and set a few Smart goals. So Smart goals means. Specific, measurable, achievable, relevant or realistic, and time bound. Okay, so as you are sitting down, I want you to think about those five different things and make sure that you are actually getting specific. Um, just saying something like I want to get healthier is honestly a really bad goal. Um, it's not helpful. It's not specific enough. It's not time bound. It's not measurable. Um, it's not something that you can really say, like, did I do this? Yes. You might be able to say yes. I feel vaguely healthier after a certain amount of time. However, I want you to get specific. Where do you not feel healthy? Where are you feeling frustrated. What are the specifics of your day to day that you want to see different? Get really honest with yourself and say, what does success actually look like for me? What would it take very specifically for me to feel like I'm happy with my results in 3 to 6 months, a year, whatever time frame you're looking at. Um, and setting a realistic time frame too, right? If you are, um, you know, £50 overweight and you haven't worked out in a decade, or you are, you know, having a slew of different symptoms, it's not realistic to say, I want all of these things to be fixed and I want to be down £50 in a month. That's just setting yourself up for failure. So if you have big goals, then you're going to want to set longer time frames. But sitting down and actually setting some specific and measurable, time sensitive and realistic goals is going to be a really important place to start, because otherwise you kind of are just shooting in the dark. You don't have any real focus or aim and having that, um, tangible result that you can look at and say, did I do this or not? And same with the steps. You know, some of these goals you might be setting are going to be like, um, you know, here's an example. I'd like to lose three inches off of my waist in the next two months. That's kind of a more result driven goal. I would say you want to set maybe 1 or 2 of those. However, most of your Smart goals should be more like this. I will work out two times a week with weights for the next month. Okay, so you're saying what you're going to do. How often? What kind and for how long? Okay. So that's very specific. And that is more of a process goal. It's more of. Here is how I'm getting to this goal of losing three inches over the next two months. Another one would be I will eat a portion of fruits and veggies every day for the next three months. Or I will go on a daily walk for at least 20 minutes for the next eight weeks. Okay, so you have some ideas of of wow, how this looks for you. Okay. So what are some process goals that you can set that actually fit into your day to day life, that get you from point A to point B? Because if all we're setting is these big, overarching goals of I want to be healthier, I want to lose weight, I want to lose inches, I want to see this big result. But we don't actually lay out the steps to get us there. Then we're kind of just dreaming. We're just thinking about what we'd like to see happen, but we're not really coming up with the action steps that are necessary to get us to the place that we want to be, and kind of bridge that gap. So setting both is really important. Um, and starting small and progressing over time. So not setting crazy unrealistic goals. If you are just starting out, I would say setting a goal of two times a week is actually a really good place to start. A lot of people make the mistake of going way too hard and they're like, oh my gosh, I'm gonna work out 5 to 6 days a week for an hour at a time, and I'm going to cut out carbs and cut out sugar and do all these things at once. And it's so unrealistic and far from what they've been doing, that they can only do it for like a week or two, and then it just feels extremely overwhelming. And then you feel like a failure when you inevitably can't follow it. So setting appropriate goals is really important part of goal setting. Um, so start small and then build over time. So say you start with two days a week of of weight training and the daily walks. That is such a great place to start. And honestly, most people aren't even doing that. So that's a really great place to be two times a week of weight training, daily walks for 30 minutes, and then if you nail that consistently for a month or two, then you can say, okay, I think I could actually realistically turn one of my walks into another weight training session, um, and just build from there. Same with like the weights that you're starting out with. You're not going to go crazy and lift weights that you've never lifted before, like insanely heavy. You're going to start small. It may be body weight and then progress to £5 in each hand, and then £10 in each hand, and then go from there. Right. It has to be a progression. Otherwise you are not really setting yourself up for success. And how we feel mentally make such a big difference. If you are just berating yourself because you're like, oh my gosh, I couldn't even follow the plan for a week, or I couldn't do this unrealistic thing that I set in my mind for myself. Then you are more likely to just get overwhelmed and quit. And I would say that is honestly one of the biggest barriers for people getting into a fitness journey or staying in a fitness journey is doing too much and then getting overwhelmed and feeling like a failure. So just telling you right off the bat, don't fall into that trap. Start small and progress over time to avoid giving up or just falling into overwhelm. All right. Our next tip is to find your sweet spot with exercise and then stay consistent with it. So what do I mean by sweet spot? Is finding that ideally kind of placed between the activity that you somewhat enjoy and then what will actually give you the best results? So we know now just through research and through lots and lots of people personal experiences over the past few decades, that our best results for just overall health, bone density, body composition, strength and endurance would be kind of a combination of doing resistance training, weight bearing activity a few days a week and getting some walking in and then maybe a little bit of extra cardiovascular activity. Um, which would be like going for a steady state jog, um, or using the elliptical or swimming or hiking something where you're not jacking your heart rate up crazy high, but you are, um, getting your heart rate into a moderate place, maybe like a six out of ten effort level, and you're staying there for 20 plus minutes. Okay, so that would be like steady state cardio. So that is kind of the the best recipe for overall fitness strength, better body composition, maintaining your muscle mass as you as you get older, bone density, all of that. Um, so say that you're someone who just loves yoga. Like, just restorative, stretchy, kind of Zen yoga. Um, we know that that is not necessarily going to reap the best results when it comes to body composition changes or muscle mass or cardiovascular endurance. Right? It's more helpful for mobility, for getting your nervous system regulated, for staying flexible. But as far as those other areas, it might not be kind of hitting what we need. So what you can do if you love yoga is still incorporate yoga maybe 1 to 2 days a week, but then also add in 1 to 2 days a week of strength training and then do some walking, right. Get out and do something. Maybe a hike. If you're someone who just like, loves to be zen and be relaxed. Hiking is great for that. It's such a good form of cardiovascular activity because you are still able to relax your nervous system, be in nature while still getting the benefits, um, cardiovascular early. So that would be a good middle ground of still enjoying what you love, while incorporating some things that will help you progress beyond what you've done. Okay, so, um, finding that sweet spot and again, you're not going to love every activity every single day. Even as someone who's been working in fitness for my whole life, 11 plus years, I've always been active. I've always enjoyed activity. For the most part. There are still days when I have to really force myself to get moving. I don't feel like it. I don't enjoy the workout, I don't love what I'm doing in the moment, but I've established the habits enough that I can get myself through those days where I'm just kind of feeling in a mental slump, right? So just know you're not going to love every single workout, and you might need to change things up every now and then to keep that enjoyment alive. But finding that balance is important because you don't want to hate what you're doing, otherwise you're just not going to do it consistently. Okay. Um, so speaking of consistency, this is the biggest component you can find, the most perfect program in the world. Literally, someone could hand you JLo's workout program or your favorite celebrity who you just think has a rock and bar. They can hand you their exact celebrity routine. But if it's not realistic for you, and if you're not going to actually do it, it's not the right program for you and it's not going to ultimately lead to success for you. So let's talk about what this could look like. So we have two different people. We have someone who decides, I don't have a ton of time, but I'm going to just work out in these small pockets of time that I do have. So let's say on a Monday, they're like, oh, I only have 20 minutes. Okay. That's fine. I'm just going to do 20 minute dumbbell workout at home. Next day they have 40 minutes. Great. So they go to the gym for 40 minutes. Wednesday they have ten minutes. So they just go and do a ten minute workout or a ten minute walk and just use that quick ten minute time period instead of saying, oh my gosh, I only have ten minutes, so it's not worth it. Thursday they have 30 minutes, so they do a 30 minute quick thing Friday 20 minutes. Saturday they have a bigger chunk of time. They have 60 minutes. Awesome. Go to the gym for 64 minutes. At the end of that week, they've racked up 180 minutes of activity. Now let's look at the second person. This second person is more of like a perfectionist. And they're saying, well, if I don't have a full hour, then it's not worth it to me. I'm like, I'm just not going to do anything. So Monday they hit it hard. They're like, I'm feeling good. I'm going to work out for a full hour. Well, then the week starts to get busy. Tuesday, Wednesday go by. They do nothing because they don't have that full hour that they can devote Thursday. They have that time again. So they do another full hour and then they get into the weekend and it gets busy. And Friday, Saturday, Sunday they do nothing. At the end of that week, they've only racked up 120 minutes of activity. Okay, so you see where I'm going with this. The person who just used the small amounts of time that they had, even though it didn't feel perfect, even though it felt like, oh, you know, I only have ten minutes, I only have 20 minutes. They still use that time consistently throughout the week. They racked up an extra hour over the person that used full hour time frames, but did it less frequently. Okay, so similarly, when we go all or nothing with our schedule like, oh, um, the next few weeks, I don't have anything going on, so I'm just going to go super hard and you work out five days a week for two weeks, and then something happens. Life gets busy, work gets stressful, whatever it is, then you're off for two months. Like you just completely post your workout plan for two full months. It would have been so much better to just take a balanced approach where you worked out maybe one day a week and then two days a week, and then one day a week, and then three days a week during that busy time, even if it was only for 20 to 30 minutes at a time, then to just completely stop. You lose the habit. You lose your momentum. Typically, this trickles into other areas of your overall health and fitness, right? Like, if you're not working out at all, then you typically have less motivation to eat well. You're usually not as focused on your overall health and well-being. So maybe you're scrolling your phone at night instead of focusing on getting good quality sleep so you can wake up and get your workout in. Maybe you just stay totally sedentary because you have that all or nothing mindset already. So you're like, well, if I can't work out, then what's the point of getting out for a walk? So I'm just gonna watch TV all night, right? So it definitely does bleed into other areas of our mindset and our lifestyle when we take that all or nothing approach. So all of this to say, consistency over perfection Thousand percent. I cannot preach this enough. I've seen this in my own life. Um, just the ability to stay consistent, even when I've had really rough pregnancies, when I've been living in a van, when I've been traveling overseas for months, at a time when I've had a newborn who doesn't sleep for literally a year and a half. My daughter was a horrible sleeper. Um, if I would have just said, like, oh, I just can't work out until my daughter's sleeping better, or I just can't work out while I'm traveling, or I just can't work out while I'm in the van. I would have gone like months and months even maybe upwards of a year at a time, not prioritizing my health at all. Instead, I just did what I could with the time, the space, the equipment that I had access to and made the most of the situations. And that is how I've been able to stay consistent and actually keep off the weight that I've lost over the past four years. So it all comes down to consistency and just being willing to do something over nothing. All right. Our next step is to make a plan. So you probably heard the phrase fail to plan. Plan to fail. This is very true when it comes to our fitness and nutrition. Um, and this is where having a fitness schedule or a plan is really crucial to help with the consistency. Because when our minds get bogged down with all the other responsibilities that we have, all the other variables of life, the last thing that we want to have to do, especially if we're not very well versed with exercises and fitness, is to say, oh my gosh, crap, now I have to decide what I'm doing today. I don't even know what to do in the gym. I guess I'll just pull up a YouTube workout. I don't really like that. That's not what I was looking for. And then you spend all this time and energy on indecision and it really takes its mental toll. And then we kind of have wasted our time and energy. And then also ultimately, you might end up just kind of like wandering around the gym or getting on the elliptical aimlessly and not really giving it your best. And that is not maximizing your time versus if you can show up. Especially if you have only 20 to 30 minutes. Right. If we're talking about making the most of these small pockets of time, you don't have the luxury of standing around and wondering what the heck you should be doing that's actually going to move the needle for you progress wise. So if you can already have something on an app or with a coach or written out whatever that looks like, where you can just say, okay, I already know, I'm just going to show up and do exactly what this says to do, and that's going to actually give me the progress that I want to see without all the mental energy. Um, and that that really goes a long way, especially as our mental load increases throughout life. Like it's a little bit different when you're maybe a teenager or early 20s, but as you get more in depth into your career, or you have a family or you have all these big responsibilities and things on your mind. The last thing you want to have to do is also figure out if what you're doing for a workout is helpful or not, especially if this again, is not your area of expertise. So having some sort of a plan is going to help. Big time with your consistency. So there's different types of workouts that you can do. Right. We talked about like resistance training or strength training. Those are the same things. Um, there's hit there's high intensity interval training. There's just standard like steady state cardio. There's flexibility and mobility work. Obviously there's group classes and things like that. Um, so if I had to start out as a beginner right now, if I was going from couch to confidence, I would do 2 to 3 days a week, a full body resistance training using light dumbbells. Okay, so maybe even body weight for some of them. Um, but just using weights that feel accessible to me, hand weights, probably from home because maybe I'm feeling a little bit, um, nervous to be in the gym when I feel self-conscious about what I'm doing. I just want to build that confidence up first. So I am going to invest in a few pairs of hand weights, maybe some fives, tens and 15 seconds, and I'm going to follow a dumbbell only plan that's full body 2 to 3 days a week and then build from there as I get stronger. Maybe I'm like, okay, I feel like I know what I'm doing form wise now. I could go dabble in the gym, or I'm going to invest in adjustable dumbbells that go up a little bit higher, um, 30 to 40 minute sessions, 2 to 3 days a week. The other days, I would set aside that 30 minute time frame that I would normally be working out. And I'm going to go for a walk. Okay. Just focusing on getting steps in. Nothing crazy. Over time as I've built those habits. Now I have that habit of activity for 30 minutes, seven days a week. Because even on the days when I'm not working out, I'm walking. Okay, so over time, maybe you can start to include some mobility and stretching into your workouts if you aren't already doing that. So maybe they're just going a little bit longer. So now it's like 40 to 50 minute workouts because you add extra ten minutes of five minutes of stretching at the beginning. Kind of like dynamic mobility work and then five minutes of static stretching at the end for flexibility. Um, you can also add a cardio day or two. So depending on your goals it could be hit style. So intervals or it could be more steady state. And again that's just going to depend on what you're trying to achieve. If you're a hiker um or have like big um endurance type of goals with a race or a run, then I would say you're going to want to gravitate towards steady state cardio if you have, um, goals of, you know, being able to do like short term type of burst events like a Tough Mudder or something like that. Then you could focus more on, uh, like one day of hit, one day of endurance training. So it's going to change and vary based on your goals. But you can start to build on that foundation. But starting small again, you're only doing 2 to 3 days of formal workouts for 30 minutes at a time and then walking the other days. But you're establishing those habits and then going from there. And strength is going to increase as you progressively overload. So ideally you're not still using the same weights that you started with in week one. If three months into a program you're still using the exact same weights, you are going to get diminishing returns, meaning you are not probably going to continue seeing progress that you saw initially. Because your body's adapted, you've gotten stronger. You need to throw new stimuli at your muscles. So not to say you have to change your workout plan, but you have to at least use heavier weights on those lifts. Okay, so that's going to naturally improve as you up your weights. And 2 to 3 weeks or 2 to 3 times a week is still really good for even more advanced people who have been working a long time. I would say right now, in this current season of life, that's all that I'm doing, is 2 to 3 days a week of strength training, walking the other days, and then maybe like a long hike on the weekends. Um, so this is not even just for beginners. It's a good place to start and then you can progress from there. If you have like, big muscle building goals, then maybe you're doing 4 to 5 times a week in the gym, but the average person can really benefit from just doing three days a week of something consistently and then getting some other non exercise moving in like walks or um, you know, 1 to 2 days of some cardiovascular work if you're able to add that in. Um, if you're not sure where to start and you're like, okay, I hear you, I think I could do all of this, but what the heck, workouts do I do? Um, I am going to link the beginner Fit for hiking guide in the show notes. So this is your baseline plan. It's 12 weeks of at home dumbbell workouts. Um, a little bit of conditioning work as well, since it is aimed towards hikers to help set a foundation of strength and endurance both on and off the trail. So, I mean, honestly, even if you're not a hiker, this is such a great place to start because you're going to get a good mix of cardiovascular conditioning as well as the strength training in a very easy to access way that doesn't feel scary or too crazy. Um, and you can do them from home. Like I said, all you need is dumbbells and there's going to be demonstration videos included an exact workout instructions for every single day, every single week. So again, that's the beginner fit for hiking guide. I will include that in the show notes if you're looking for a really great place to start. It's also very cheap. It's 80 bucks for 12 weeks, so it's a great, great place to start if you just are like, I need a plan and just give me some structure to get going. Um, ultimately, just don't overcomplicate it. You don't want to spend all this time in indecision or like over analysis paralysis, right? When we just, like, look at a million different things and then ultimately don't decide on anything. Just find something that provides what you need and stick with it for at least 12 weeks. Don't jump from thing to thing, right? Just pick something. Stick with it until the habits are established, and then you can always refine as you go. Maybe you do something for 12 weeks and you're like, okay, I have the habits now. I'd like to find something that's a little bit more geared towards XYZ or something with more accountability or whatever that is. Okay. Speaking of accountability, our next point is to stay accountable. Um, so finding either a partner or joining a fitness community, having a coach goes such a long way. And I would even argue that not having any accountability is a surefire way to stay where you are, or just get caught in that vicious cycle of like, on and off. Because especially as you're establishing a new habit, we need some outside structure and accountability. Um, this is why a lot of people fall short. They'll buy a program. Like what? I was just mentioning my fit for hiking program. If you know that you're someone who would just buy that, and then it would just sit on your phone or on your computer and you would never do anything about it. Or maybe you're someone who, like, gets a gym membership with all these high hopes and then you, like, never go, or you go twice a month and then don't go for another two months, and then you go twice a month again. If that sounds like you, then you definitely are someone who needs some more accountability, and there's nothing wrong with that. I would say probably 95% of people, especially when starting something, do need that accountability. Um, to actually get the habits established before you can fly solo. And there's absolutely nothing weak or wrong with that. Um, it's just how we work as human beings. We need. External support and to know that we are truly accountable to somebody else, that we are putting something on the line. Otherwise we're going to just kind of want to stay comfortable, right? Um, so if you're someone who kind of falls into this category and you know that you do need external accountability, um, mountain metabolic coaching is a much better route than just like a self-paced guide, because you're going to have a coach with you every single step of the way. Um, they're going to be very high touch with you checking in multiple times a week. Um, you are not going to be able to escape the accountability unless you just totally ghost us, right? So, um, if this sounds like the type of support that you need, like zoom calls, message check ins, a community of support, then, um, I'm going to be giving the first five people who DM us at the Fit Underscore for Hiking Instagram page, which will link in the show notes. Um, if you DMs beginner, you will get half off your first month of coaching. Okay, first five people who do that. So DMs at the fit underscore for hiking Instagram page beginner. And we'll get the application process started. And you can get half off of your first month of coaching just so you can get started. Like, that's how much I want this for you. Um, I would say it's almost better to start with accountability versus trying to figure it out on your own, and then you're in this frustrating process. And unfortunately, a lot of people stay stuck in that process for years of being like, no, no, okay, I really do it this time. No, I'm doing it, okay, I'm doing it. But then they have no support, structure or accountability and then they ultimately don't do it. Or they do it for a few weeks and then they're inconsistent for years and they don't see progress. That is very frustrating. I would so much rather just invest in something, even if it's kind of a scary investment. And I've had to do this many, many times in the last few years of my life for business purposes and other personal development reasons. Um, investing in something instead of trying to figure it out on my own. Just shooting in the dark, getting frustrated. I'd rather just invest in something right off the bat and actually see progress and set the habit so I can figure it out on my own from then on out. Okay, so it's six months of your life. How much better to actually see progress in those six months instead of six months from now being like, well, I sort of kind of didn't commit, and I'm right where I was six months ago. That is very frustrating. And a lot of people start every new year with the exact same goals, because they won't just do something different, as in enlisting a coach or finding a program where they get true accountability. Okay, so. Really seriously. Consider what type of accountability you need as a person. If you're someone who's, like, very self-motivated, and if you have a program in front of you or you have a gym membership, you'll show up. Awesome. Great. You probably don't need coaching then, but if you're someone who knows that you fall into these cycles that I've been talking about, or you will purchase something and maybe do it twice, then I would say definitely enlisting in a coach is going to be the right decision for you. All right. Our next one is focusing on nutrition as well. So nutrition and fitness really go hand in hand, especially if you are aiming for feeling your absolute best in your workouts, changing your body composition, whether that's through muscle gain or fat loss or just overall performance, like getting the most out of your workouts, you're going to maximize your workouts with your nutrition. So if you're looking for basics of nutrition, I just did an episode on this last week. Episode 89 of the show is called um. It's all about nutrition for different fitness goals. So this is going to be a really good one to listen to. If you're like just needing nutrition 101. Going back to the basics, understanding how to eat based on your specific goals that hopefully you have set up for this episode. Um, and there's also a resource that I give away with that one that is really helpful, um, for figuring out where to start. So definitely check that out if you are feeling overwhelmed in the nutrition category and you're not sure where to start. Um, but proper nutrition is going to help support your energy levels, body composition, goals, muscle recovery, and overall well-being. So it is not something that you really want to skip out on. Um, especially if you want to really feel your best and make the most of your workouts. A lot of times people can start working out and they're like, well, I feel better, I feel stronger, but I look the exact same. That's going to be a result of your nutrition okay. And other lifestyle components. So a fitness journey is journey is really about exercise, but it's also a lot more holistic than that. We have to look at sleep quality, your nutrition both in your quantity and quality of the nutrition that you're getting. Stress management, water intake, mental health, daily movement, metabolic and hormone health. There's so many other categories that encompass our holistic health, and that's really what we look at with mountain metabolic coaching and why I feel like it is different than a lot of just basic fitness programs, because we're not just looking at the workouts and saying, okay, well, you're doing your workouts, why aren't you seeing the results you want? There's so much more to the picture that we have to look at. So I would say if you're just getting started in this, maybe just focus on the nutrition for a few weeks and then you can start to layer in some of these other things. So again you don't get too overwhelmed. We don't want to do everything at once. We want this to be a process. But eventually you're going to want to look at all of these other lifestyle components. And our next one that we're talking about is overcoming obstacles. And this is a really important topic to discuss when we're talking about starting a nutrition program, because you are a fitness program because you're going to have obstacles. Every single person, no matter what walk of life they're in, what season of life they're in, what they have going on. When they start something. Say you're doing a six month program. I always tell my clients this, you are going to have a lot of crap come up in the next six months. Inevitably, there's going to be sickness, um, unforeseen circumstances, stressful day, stressful weeks, times when everything feels like it's going wrong and you can't control anything in your life. It's important to prepare mentally that that will happen. Okay. And some of the common roadblocks that really throw people off or cause people to just completely give up on their fitness routine are things like lack of time, unforeseen obstacles, sickness, life events, work stress, uh, fluctuations in motivation, or just not seeing results right away. So then you just give up. Okay, so all of these things are going to ultimately come down to your mindset because they're going to happen. It's not a matter of if it's a matter of when. So we have to have the proper mindset starting out. If we're expecting this magical transformation to take place where our life no longer has any obstacles or roadblocks, then you're just going to feel frustrated all the time and never actually stick with anything. So you have to focus on progress over perfection. Know that some weeks are going to look way more chaotic than others. Um, for instance, this week my toddler had both a virus and then an ear infection. On top of that, we ended up in urgent care. One night she was up through the night most nights. I'm also currently seven months pregnant, so, um, my pregnancy insomnia is already bad. So with all the wake ups, I was not getting good quality sleep. And I'm still trying to obviously run a business during the day. Um, it was not an ideal week. I'll just say that. And it would have been a really easy week to just say, screw it, I'm not doing anything. But instead I've still gotten in two gym sessions. On the other days, I've prioritized just going for walks and regulating my nervous system because stress has been high and sleep quality has been low. I've also really focused on eating at home every single meal and cooking really nutrient dense things, getting lots of good berries and veggies and protein intake. Um, so even though it hasn't looked perfect, I'm still doing what I can. Okay. Despite the obstacle. So progress over perfection. Know that not every single week is going to be like leaps and bounds of progress. You're going to just maybe maintain some weeks or just try to get by, but just focusing on what you can do instead of just focusing on all the excuses that could. Could just, like, drag down your week and you could just say, screw it. Um, so not looking for excuses. And that is hard to do. It's easy, especially in the beginning, to just say, oh, well, all this happened. Like, I don't have time or energy to work out. It's just not happening. Instead, look for what you can do as an alternative, even if it's not perfect, right? Also, prepping and planning this goes such a long way, especially when you do have things that come up. Like if I hadn't grocery shopping and I ordered groceries earlier in the week and had a lot of good like grab and go healthy options on hand, then this week would have been a lot harder because I would have just been tempted to say, okay, well, let's just have frozen pizza every night because this week has been chaos. Or let's just, you know, order out every night, like the night that my daughter had to go to urgent care. I had already prepped brussel sprouts and salmon. So we packed that up and took it with us to urgent care instead of having to order out or just pick up fast food, because I planned just a little bit, just enough in advance to help us out in that regard. Okay, so prepping and planning goes a long way. And then relying on discipline over motivation, nobody's going to feel like it all the time, especially if you're tired, especially when you have a million other things that are draining you or pulling at your attention. In time, you're not going to feel motivated. You're probably not going to feel the exact same motivation that you do. Maybe right now, as you're listening to this episode or the day that you sign up for something or commit to something. So you really have to let discipline take over. Reflect back on your Smart goals and say, why does this matter to me? It has to matter to you a whole heck of a lot. Otherwise, you're going to kind of just drop off with the ebbs and flows of motivation. So finding that intrinsic, intrinsic motivation that really carries you through and turns into discipline even when you don't feel like it. And then having accountability like we were talking about, goes a long way in overcoming these roadblocks. Having someone to talk through, how do we troubleshoot this? This is maybe my number one job as a coach is getting on calls with people that I'm working with my clients and saying, okay, here's what you struggled with last week. Why do we feel like the walks aren't happening? Why are we struggling with this? Okay, how can we fit this into your schedule? What does this look like? What are we maybe removing from your day? How can we improve your bedtime routine so that you wake up with better energy? How can we realistically fit in two workouts a week into your life? Maybe it requires bringing bands to literally your office. If you can't get away from your office or, um, you know, x, y, z. So actually troubleshooting what this looks like for you real time with somebody else and then having the accountability to actually follow through with that plan and then being patient. If you're someone who is expecting immediate results, then you're always going to be frustrated. You're always going to feel let down. You're always going to program hop because nothing's ever going to feel good enough. You have to see through the whole process and stick with it. And also be honest with yourself. If you're giving like a B-minus effort and expecting A-plus results, that's really unfair. Um, to both yourself. And like, if you're working with a coach or whatever, you can't expect a miracle. You have to put in the type of effort that you want to see as far as your results. So being honest with yourself about that. So a couple of ways that you can stay motivated. And obviously, like I said, a lot of this is going to come down to discipline and and just saying, okay, I'm going to do something over nothing, even when I don't feel like it. But a few ways that you can keep things fresh would be making sure that you're changing up your workout program. So this is not to say you're jumping, um, entire programs all the time, but your programming within a program should change every few weeks, uh, at least every 4 to 8 weeks. So you're doing new exercises, you're doing new things. It keeps it a little bit fresh. I still definitely recommend repetition. Like if you're doing a new workout every single day, um, it's going to be really hard to see progressive progression or to progressively overload your workouts, so I recommend at least repeating for about four weeks. However, after that four week period, you should, uh, switch up your workouts and have some new exercises to look forward to, or new tempos or new variations of the things that you've been working on, um, having time sensitive event to work towards. So whether that's like a half marathon or a big through hike or a strength competition, or maybe it's more of like a, uh, something that you want to look good for, like a vacation or a wedding or something like that. Having a community makes such a big difference to, um, having people who are rallying around you and celebrating your wins with you, you have people to share stuff with makes a big difference. Um, setting mini goals. So at the beginning of each month or even the beginning of each week, you can just say, okay, here's where I didn't feel great last week. What could I do differently? Okay, this week I'm going to really focus on hydration, or I'm going to really focus on taking my supplements and actually being consistent with that. Or I'm going to really focus on increasing my fiber intake or upping my weight in this certain, um, workout that I'm doing. Also maybe switching up your workout environment. So if you've been working out at home, maybe you're like, okay, I kind of want to work out around other people. I'm going to check out some local gyms and see if I can find something else just to have an extra motivation. Um, or maybe doing some outside stuff if you really find that motivating. So being willing to be flexible so that you can keep that enjoyment and motivation going and just know that literally everybody is going to have hundreds of obstacles every single month, every single year. So don't wait for the perfect time or circumstance to work towards consistency, or you're going to be waiting your entire life. Um, I always repeat this mantra to myself in my own head and to my clients. Something is always better than nothing. Instead of doing the bare minimum or literally nothing because it doesn't look perfect. Find little things that you can still do to focus on your health, even when it doesn't look perfect. So I really just want to wrap this up by saying. Figure out how you can start today, no matter how small. Okay, so take this motivation that you're feeling as you're listening to this, and let's run with this momentum before you lose it, okay. So I want you to do a few different things. Here are your action steps. Very tangible. First, write out 3 to 5 Smart goals that encompass both your results and your daily action goals. Like we talked about at the beginning of the episode. Okay. So write out 3 to 5 that you can start with literally right now and then just begin. Okay. So 3 to 5 goals. Write them out. Put them on your fridge, put them on your mirror or whatever. Just keep them top of mind. Um, number two is to decide on a program that fits your ability level, kind of where you're starting out. Time you can commit. Type of training you're interested in. Environment that fits your life and schedule and equipment you have access to. Okay. So find something. And also figuring out is this more of a self-paced program or do I really need to invest in accountability? Through a coaching program or whatever that looks like? Um, number three would be to make sure that you do have accountability. So whether that's built into the program that you're doing, like mountain metabolic coaching or you're asking somebody else in your life, but just make sure you actually feel accountable to them. If it's someone that you could go weeks without talking to and they're not going to actually check on you and they're not going to hold you accountable, or if you share something, they're just going to be like, oh, same like, let's just forget about it and have a junk food night or whatever. They're probably not the best source of accountability. And this is where actually hiring someone does make a big difference okay. So make sure you actually feel accountable to your accountability source. And then number four is to write out potential roadblocks and obstacles and how you plan to overcome them mentally when they arise. Okay. So write out at least 3 to 5. And then in tandem with that, write out what you can do to troubleshoot those roadblocks when they come up. Okay, you guys, that is everything for today. Thank you so much for tuning in. I hope that this has been helpful. And just to recap, we have the beginner Fit for hiking guide linked in the show notes. If you're just looking for a really solid plan to get started with something, it is self-paced, so if that's what you're looking for, that's going to be perfect for you. We also have the link to coaching the application link listed in the show notes. But if you're wanting to get half off of your first month, be sure to DM us at the Fit Underscore for Hiking Instagram page and just send us beginner and we will get you on the right path to get that half off of your first month. All right. Thank you so much for tuning in, and I will chat with you guys in the next episode. Thanks for tuning in to this episode of the fit for hiking podcast. As always, I hope it leaves you feeling inspired and informed on how to take your health and adventure into your own hands. For more content like this, be sure to follow along with my daily posts at Ponytail Underscore. On a trail that's ponytail underscore on a trail. You can also stay up to date on my new episodes being released at Fit Underscore for hiking, and find more free resources at Pony Tail on a trail.com. Happy and healthy trails.