Ep. 72 Start Doing These Things Today to Feel Like a New Person by the End of the Year

In this episode we go over some mindset tools and action items that can get momentum going in a positive direction during these last few months of 2024 (or whenever you tune in). If you started the year with big goals and feel like you still haven't met them yet, today is the best day to start, and making the most of the rest of the year will pay dividends down the road. You got this, and I've got you - let's dive in!

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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 long time 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 and welcome back to another episode of the fit for Hiking podcast. What is up you guys? This is your host, Brady. Um, wow, I had an amazing weekend, you guys. Okay, so I just have to tell you about it because this was the coolest experience. Um, so once a year in Albuquerque, New Mexico, there is a massive hot air balloon festival, and this one happens to be the biggest one in the world. So people come from all over. It's an international balloon fiesta is what it's called, and they have it for a couple of weeks every October in New Mexico. And so you have just hundreds and hundreds of hot air balloons going up at sunrise. There's some that go up at night and glow. It's just such a cool event. So I went this past weekend with my daughter and husband and a group of friends because we have friends that live in Albuquerque, so it was just like perfect. We were able to stay with them and attend the event really seamlessly and it was such a cool experience. So definitely something to add to your bucket list. You can you can go up in the hot air balloons, but you pay like a premium fee. Um, I think that would make me a little bit nervous because it goes so high. At first when I went, I was like, no, I could definitely do that. And then watching them just drift higher and higher and higher. I was kind of second guessing myself. I think my fear of heights might take over a bit, but whether you go up in one or you just observe from the ground, it is such a cool event. So, um, yeah, definitely something to look into if that sounds fun to you. Um, other personal notes I am, uh, 15 weeks pregnant as this episode is rolling out and I am finally starting to feel like myself again, finally starting to feel more energetic, less nauseous. I can eat foods again without feeling like everything is just disgusting to me. Um, it just feels like I've walked out of the fog that is the first trimester, and if you've been pregnant before, you totally know what I mean. When I say it's like it's literally like a fog and you feel like you're never going to find your way out of it. And then around like week 14, week 15, at least for me. I just feel like a new person. Like all of a sudden the symptoms I've had are feeling so much better. I feel like I don't need to lay down and take a nap every day, or go to bed at 8:00. It's just amazing. I feel like I'm finding my energy and my zest for life again after just such a rough couple of months, so that is encouraging. If you are still in the thick of it. If you are currently listening to this and you're maybe in your first trimester and just struggling, just know that it does actually end and it gets better, even though you feel like it's lasting forever. Um, okay guys, today I want to talk about a little bit of mindset, a little bit of some tangible tips and kind of just some practicality for how to actually implement things that change your life in these small steps. Right? Because I think the phrase like, oh, change your life. Yeah, it sounds amazing. And we think of like this one big thing that happens and all of a sudden our life has changed. But in reality, life change and personal development really actually happen in the really small minute things that we choose every single day. The smallest of choices, over and over again on repeat, hour after hour, day after day. We got to week, month after month. That's what creates life change and personal change, right? It's not usually just like this one thing. One thing that's really big might be a catalyst, right? It might be the tipping point that makes you say, I can't live like this anymore, and I have to make changes in this area, but it's always going to be our small daily decisions and habits that actually produce the life change. So as we're listening to this, like as as of the actual release date, there are 11 weeks left in the year 2024. Crazy. Okay, but this actually applies no matter when you listen to this episode. So even if you're listening to this, you know, months and months later, applying the following to your life by the end of the year is still going to create some major life change. So I want to talk about things that you can start doing today that will make you feel like a new person by the end of the year. Okay. You're going to feel better, look leaner, and be mentally healthier. And it takes about an average of 66 days to form a new habit. And as of now, there are 76 days left in 2024. Okay, this means we actually can make lasting lifelong changes in these final months of the year. So the rest of the year is not a wash. Okay? Yet so often we will call the whole year like just to fail, you know, like pass fail. It's a fail because we haven't kept up with our resolutions or we feel like if we haven't made changes yet, then might as well just wait until January 1st. Um. But the reality is that no matter when you're hearing this, we can make changes and even completely change our lives, no matter what the time of year or month. It doesn't need to be January 1st, the first of a new month, a Monday, etc. there's nothing insignificant about those days. Hence why more people fail than not at their New Year's resolutions, right? Like they're based in nothing but this arbitrary hope for a clean slate when the with the turn of the calendar, instead of an actual plan or strategy, without support, or without actually changing your actions at all. Right. So often we want a different result, but we don't want to change anything about what we're doing to elicit a new result. Um, which is why we fail at New Year's resolutions, or we just don't give it enough time to actually establish some new habits, because that stuff is hard, right? We rely on motivation. And then when motivation wears off a few weeks later, then we just kind of go back to old familiar patterns. So I want to talk about what we can actually do tangibly to establish really awesome habits by the end of the year. What are some little action steps that you can take that actually will move the needle in how you feel, how you look, how you feel mentally on a daily basis. And really, you're going to be amazed at the power of just a few adjustments consistently made in your life. Just simply actually taking action and getting momentum going in a new positive direction, right? It doesn't have to be anything crazy huge, just a few small things, but you have to do them consistently. That's the kicker. You can't do them for three days and expect to feel completely different, right? It takes consistency and time. Um, okay, so let's get into it. I have seven things that you can start doing today to feel like a new person by the end of the year. All right. Number one is to begin doing resistance training at least three times a week. Okay. And resistance training can take on many forms. This could be really dependent on where your starting point is. So if you're listening to this and you already are lifting weights at the gym three times a week, then great, you're already doing this. So this could just be something that you continue doing. You probably have already seen the benefits for your body composition, your mental health, your bone density, your functionality in life in general. Um, so you can just keep this up if you're someone who, you know, has never done any sort of resistance training in your life, maybe it's just starting with body weight because that is going to feel challenging to you. Um, but a resistance training can also look like lifting dumbbells at home. Um, using band resistance tracks. Resistance, cable resistance. Um, it does not have to mean going into the heavy section of the gym when that feels like totally out of your comfort zone. Okay, so just know that this can be different and look different based on where your starting point is. But doing some form of exercise where you are challenging your Junior muscles three times a week. Okay. Ideally having some sort of like progressive plan. So you're not just winging it and hoping for the best or doing the same like five movements on repeat forever. Would be ideal to go into this with a plan, and I'll talk a little bit more about what that could look like for you later. Um, but starting to do three times a week of resistance training is a game changer for your health and mental health if you're not doing this right now. I highly encourage you start. This is why, number one, it is huge for our health, and especially if it's something that you haven't done before, you're going to want to maintain as much muscle as you possibly can throughout your life. The average person is just gaining lots of fat. Every few years we're slowly accumulating maybe a few pounds a year, and we're not doing anything to counteract muscle loss. So unfortunately, that's a pretty bad equation. We're gaining body fat, but we're losing muscle, which having more muscle is helping us maintain a healthier basal metabolic rate, which helps us stay leaner more easily. Um, and just so many other benefits for our health and daily living. So make sure you do your resistance training three times a week, ideally, would be amazing. All right. Number two is to have a serving of fruits veggies two times a day. And again, if you're listening to this, there might be some of these that you're already doing. And you're like I'm already doing like more than that. Great. This is for someone who's coming into this. And maybe they're like, oh, I'm not doing even that. Or like, I can't remember the last time I had a vegetable. Okay. So just know if you're doing more than this. Amazing. This is just kind of like a baseline for people who are wanting to start implementing behaviors that they haven't yet or just aren't doing consistently. Okay, so having a serving of fruit or veggies two times a day. So that could be one serving of fruit, one serving of veggies, a serving. Typically you're looking at about a fistful or a handful and trying to have at least one of each every day. It seems like that's not very much, but for a lot of us, you know, we can go several days and not have any fruit to veggies, and we're missing out on a lot of great fiber content, micronutrients, which are so healthy for our gut and just overall health markers. And we're getting a lot of good volume without increasing calories, right? So many of our foods today are just barely any food, but like, crazy amount of calories because they're so filled with oils and fats and sugars and and unhealthy things for our bodies. Um, so really prioritizing this and, and just get serious about it. If we don't pay attention to it, we're so much less likely to actually do it right. If you're not actively looking for, how can I get a veggie in today, you're probably not going to. Okay. It doesn't. It doesn't usually just happen by happenstance unless you already have that habit established. So know that you're going to have to be proactive about this for a while. Same goes for lifting weights. If you haven't established the habit yet. And remember, it takes an average of about 66 days to do so. It's going to feel uncomfortable and take extra mental work for a while until it's like just something that you do without having to think about it at all. All right, number three. Okay. Let's see. Replace half of your beverages that you usually drink on a daily basis with water okay. So this is kind of for the person who maybe likes to have a lot of like sugary Starbucks drinks or soda or juices or alcohol. Um, just drinking a lot of things that are not water, basically. If you're having multiple drinks a day that are not water, you need to look at this. Okay? So really get serious about evaluate evaluating your sugary or alcoholic drink content on a daily basis, because ultimately it's going to be really hard to maintain a healthy body weight. Um, keep your blood sugar stable and just pursue overall health. If we're having an insane amount of sugary beverages or alcohol. Okay, so this doesn't mean you have to go cold turkey with all of this stuff. However, I would say replacing half of what you have on a daily basis or weekly basis, like maybe you don't have an alcoholic drink every day, but you have like, you know, four on a Friday and three on a Saturday. So on those days, cutting it down by half and having water instead, that's going to make a significant difference in your life and not only just how you're feeling from a health standpoint, and how much easier it's going to be to pursue health goals, but also your mental health. Alcohol really affects our mental health. How we feel the next day, how we feel in the moment. Anxiety, like hangs, is such a real thing. So you're only going to benefit by evaluating this and looking for ways to cut down. Okay. All right, number four. Go into a walk every day. Um, this is something every single person can benefit from. And it doesn't have to be crazy if you're not doing this at all right now. If you never go for walks, start with a ten minute walk every day. But get in the habit and make it a priority again. It's not going to happen just willy nilly. You have to prioritize it. You have to find ways to fit it into your day until it becomes second nature, okay, and then start to build on it. If you're already doing a daily walk, great. See if you can maybe add a few minutes every day. This is going to give you so many mental and physical benefits. Walking is one of the best exercises that we can do, and you can do it ideally your whole life. So if you're taking care of your body, walking is something that you can do always and that is going to really benefit you. Um, so get out for a walk every single day. It's also going to get you out into nature more. And even if you live somewhere where you have some crazy winters like I do here in Colorado, there are a lot of resources to allow you to still get walks in. If you have a gym membership, you can go and use the cardio equipment. I have a walking pad at my house, so on super snowy days when I don't want to get outside, I'll do that. I have snowshoes and spikes. So even though we get crazy amount of snow here in evergreen, Colorado. I'll still get out and go for a walk. I'll just bundle up and turn it into kind of like a winter wonderland type of adventure. I'll pull my daughter on a sled. You can get creative with it. Okay. All right. Number five is to have a protein source at every meal. Um, and again, this might be something where you're like, oh, great. I heard you do this. Awesome. You're crushing it. Keep it up. But a lot of people are under eating protein quite drastically. And it's not until you really start to look closely at what you're doing on a daily basis that you realize that, um, so trying to get at least a fistful or a palm sized amount of protein at every single meal and kind of making that the foundation of your meal, and even if you don't eat meat, you can still do this. I have a client who works with me in Mountain Metabolic who is vegan, and so our protein sources are definitely a bit more limited. But she still gets 100g of protein every day and we had to work up to that. But it can be done. You just might have to do some extra research about what are the types of protein that I can have, and then make sure that you have that stocked at the beginning of each week just takes a little bit more intentionality, even if you are not vegan, even if you're not vegetarian, it still takes intentionality because you have to have protein at your house, prepped, ready to go to make it easier in the day to day. Okay. Have a protein source at every single meal. This is going to help with stabilizing your blood sugar, which helps with sustained energy throughout the day. Also, it's going to help increase your satiety throughout the day so your ability to stay full. If we're constantly hungry, we're so much more likely to just snack and graze and kind of eat things that are higher in calories, higher in fat, um, and not really doing a whole lot for us nutritional wise. So this tends to happen when we're under eating. Protein protein's also going to be essential if you are participating in exercise, especially if you're starting to do some resistance training. You need extra protein to rebuild your muscles after you're kind of breaking them down in your workouts. Okay, so pairing protein with your activity is going to be crucial. So instead of focusing on the grams, if that overwhelms you, just focus on getting a protein source at every single meal okay. Number six get serious. About seven plus hours of sleep every night. Sleep is so important. And I know that this is kind of like a boring one that nobody wants to hear. Um, it really just is that important, though. We're so much more likely to make healthier decisions in every facet of life. The next day, when we are well rested and getting good quality sleep for at least seven hours. Um, so make it a priority. You know, if you don't have a bedtime routine, it's probably time to start looking into what that could look like for you. How are you winding down? How are you preparing your environment in your home for sleep? To signal to your brain that it's time to go to bed, right? If you're listening to. TV or watching TV or looking at screens. You have bright lights on in the house. It's loud. It's not relaxing. You're staying up until midnight with the TV on. Um, and also scrolling your phone at the same time. You're not prepping your nervous system to go to sleep. You're telling your brain that it's still the middle of the day because it's looking at all of this bright light. Okay, so get serious about how to set yourself up for success in the evenings, whatever that looks like for you. Maybe you have a cut off time with your devices where you say starting at 10 p.m., I am switching to just reading. I'm putting my phone on the charger and it's across the room and I'm not looking at it and I'm turning off all external noise. I know some people really like having TV on for like just having the background noise, but I really encourage you to like, maybe turn on some white noise on your phone instead, or turning on an audiobook or something different that's not visually stimulating. Your brain. Um, so get serious about getting good sleep. And I know this is really hard in certain seasons of life. Like if you're a new parent or you just have a kiddo that's struggling to sleep, I've totally been there. My daughter did not start sleeping through the night until a year and a half. It was a year and a half of really bad sleep. Um, so, you know, it's not always feasible to get unbroken sleep or like great sleep quality, but do prioritize it as much as you can possibly control it. Um, okay. Number seven, our final tip is to get honest with yourself about how you're actually feeling, your body and your life in general. So this one's kind of multifaceted. So you can look at it like how are you feeling your body just food wise. Right. Like how are you filling up your body and what kind of nutrients or lack thereof are you putting in your body on a daily basis? Um, you know, just from a food standpoint, beverage standpoint, alcohol, any other substances? Um, you know, everything that we're putting in our body will affect our brain, how we're feeling, how we're operating the next day, physical and mental health. So it's not something that you want to take lightly. And that doesn't mean that everything's going to be picture perfect healthy. However, it does really benefit, I think, all of us to do a little bit of a nutrition audit from time to time, maybe once a year. You just keep track of your food, keep a little food log for a week and you see, what am I actually eating on a daily basis? How much am I consuming? How much protein am I getting? How many veggies and fruits am I getting on a daily basis? What is my alcohol intake actually look like? Um, you know, how are you spacing out your your meals? Are you just kind of snacking and grazing all day? Are you actually getting good quality meals in? All of these things are going to affect how you're feeling and your body composition, right? So depending on what your goal is, it really doesn't matter what the goal. This is going to be helpful no matter what. Um, just for you to feel and look your best. Um, so doing a little food audit and seeing what are the areas that are kind of derailing you. Is it like late night snacking? Is it your weekends? Is it alcohol? Is it, um, snacking and grazing and not really having good quality meals, is it? Failing to prep anything or have any sort of plan? Is it failing to grocery shop? Is it eating out constantly and then looking at how can I realistically move forward and tweak this now that I know that this is probably causing me some issues and maybe not? Why? Maybe why I'm not the happiest that I could be with my diet and my and how I'm feeling in my body. Um, also, how are you feeling your life in general? Like what's going into not only your body, but what's going into your head every day? What are you intaking as far as content, the things you're listening to, the things you're reading, the things you're seeing when you're scrolling all affects how you view yourself, how you view your day, your success or lack thereof. If you feel good enough, um, if you feel like you have enough, um, all of your sense of self and kind of how you. Value yourself can be shaped by these things. Also, just your overall mental health is so affected by what you consume. If you're constantly looking at things that are kind of just draining your dopamine, um, that's going to really affect how you're feeling. If you're constantly looking at things that make you feel like you don't have friends, or you're not as popular, or you're not successful, or you don't have the life that you thought you wanted, or your body isn't good enough, then you're always going to have these negative connotations of yourself floating around versus if you're listening to things that inspire you, uplift you, following people on Instagram that you know, get you moving, get you excited about life, get you moving towards a goal, um, but not in a way that you're doing it out of shame or or hating your body. That is so important. Um, you know, one thing that's been really helpful for me has been removing like Instagram in the evenings and it really has helped me minimize like just my consumption, um, of things that can just kind of make me feel down about myself. Like it's just not healthy for us to constantly be comparing ourselves to everybody else's picture perfect moments. And I found that I just was going to bed, like, more anxious and it wasn't positive for me. So instead, I just read in the evenings, like when I'm having downtime, instead of looking at Instagram, I just read. And it's a much better headspace for me and I've noticed I get much better sleep. Quality of falling asleep better. My mind's not on overdrive as I'm trying to fall asleep because I'm just laying there stimulating my brain with all these things as I scroll right. So looking at how you're actually fueling your body, your brain, the things that you're in, taking on a daily basis, and also how are you filling your cup? Are you doing things that are going to naturally produce dopamine in your life? Or are you just doing things that give you like a quick hit of dopamine, like alcohol or, um, you know, the things that are kind of more artificial instead of actually positive for your life. Um, and that really does make a big difference if you're not doing anything on a daily basis that fills your cup, like if days go by and you've done nothing to fill your cup, all you're doing is the things that you have to do and checking tasks and then scrolling in between and then sitting on the couch and watching TV. And you're not doing anything that's positive for your soul and your brain and your heart that wears on you after a while. And it really does affect your stress, your health, your mental health, your quality of life, how you view yourself. So doing at least one thing a day that fills your cup, whether that's like a family walk or turning off your phone and. Listening to music in the evening and just talking with a loved one. A phone call to a friend or cooking a fun dinner just because you like it. Um, going to a workout class that gets you excited or doing something for yourself, like hiring a coach and having someone who's supporting you. Um, going for a walk with a friend. Playing with your kiddos in a way where you're not distracted by things that you should do on your to do list. Cuddling your dog. Um, you know, these types of things are natural dopamine producers, and they're going to do so much to fill your cup. So whether that's first thing in the morning, you know, you could get ahead of it and do something like, you know, a devotion in the morning, whether that's like reading the Bible or, or doing some journaling or meditating first thing in the morning, having something that's positive as you start your day. It could also look like maybe a podcast that motivates you or something that just is putting some positivity into your brain first thing in the morning. Going outside without any distractions and listening to nature as you sip your coffee. Um, you know, whatever that whatever fits into your life realistically. Or maybe it's more it's more realistic to do something in the evening. You know, maybe your mornings are just crazy and you know that you don't have time for yourself and prioritize one thing in the evening that's going to fill your cup. But don't let days go by without doing anything that's going to produce natural dopamine and and just kind of fill your soul up. Okay. So that's our seven that's our seven tasks okay. So number one, begin doing a resistance training routine three times per week. Number two have a serving of fruits and veggies two times per day. Number three replace half your beverages with water. Number four go for a daily walk. Number five have a protein source at every meal. Number six, get serious about getting seven plus hours of sleep every night. And number seven, get honest with yourself about how you're fueling your body and your life. Um, so if you're doing none of these right now, don't overwhelm yourself. Because when we when we try to do too much, sometimes we can burn out faster and we get five days in and we say, this isn't realistic, right? So just start with a few. Look at the list and say, what can I do? Realistically, right now I'm going to start with three of these things, and I'm going to do them as much as I can until I just nail it. And then I'll start to add a few more. Once the first three becomes second nature, know that developing new habits and severing bad ones takes time, and it takes a lot of trial and error along the way. No one has ever established a new habit perfectly without having days where they fall back into what's familiar, what's easy. Okay, so if you have those days, I'll just throw in the towel. Don't just. Okay, well, I guess I can't do this or it's just so much easier to go back to what I was doing before. If that was true, then you wouldn't be doing this in the first place because you're you're choosing your heart, right? It's hard to be stuck in a place where you're deeply unhappy and unsatisfied with an area of your life, and it's also hard to make changes that move you in the right direction. That doesn't mean it's bad. It just means it's hard. But there's so much good on the other side, right? It's either go back to what you were doing before and it's easy, but you're still unsatisfied, and then you're probably going to have to just start this process over again, because ultimately you're still going to be discontent. Um, and if implementation is your struggle point and you know that you just kind of won't do this on your own, I definitely encourage you not to wait until after the holidays or after like this, to this arbitrary time frame when life is no longer stressful, or you have this perfect window of time where you're free. Like these things are never going to be the perfect time. Truly, there is no such thing as the perfect time. Um, and hiring a coach through the holidays can actually give you so much more of a balanced approach so that you can actually enjoy the holidays while entering the new year. Feeling good, instead of feeling like you treated your body like a garbage can for the last few months, right? Don't be that person that's like, oh, just wait until January 1st. Like there's nothing special about January 1st. Don't do it. Just start now or while you're feeling motivated, because know that it's going to be just as hard on January 1st to make changes. And remember that as a podcast listener, you do get 100 off of Mountain Metabolic coaching. So if you are someone who's saying, I know these things, I know what to do. I'm just not implementing, then Mountain Metabolic coaching is going to be the right step for you. It's time to do something different to elicit a new result, right? If you can't do this stuff on your own, which there's no shame there, it's really hard to do this stuff on our own. Then enlist the support of a coach for a season of time until you can do it on your own. Okay? It's not for life. It's just to get you going. And you can get 100 bucks off of coaching just for listening to this show. So be sure to check the link in the show notes to apply. And when we're chatting on the discovery call, just mentioned to me that you listen to the show. Um, okay, you guys, I hope that this has been helpful. Let's make the last 11 weeks of 2024 effective and just get re-energized, right? We still have time. The year is not over. We can make the most of it. We can make positive changes. And it starts with just implementing what we talked about today. Um, I would love to hear what you guys are enjoying about the show. If you have any suggestions. Um, give us a little review, a rating. It is so helpful for small podcasts like this to spread the word. Um, you can also tag us on Instagram to spread the word. And if you want to send us a message to let us know how we can better support you. Then, just in this message to the fit underscore for Hiking Instagram page. All right, you guys, thanks so much for listening and I will chat with you 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.