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As we enter a season of reflection, it’s the perfect time to assess where we’ve been, where we’re going, and how to create lasting change. In this episode, we’re diving into six powerful fitness mindset hacks that will help you transform your year—and your life. Inspired by key takeaways from The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy and The Mountain Is You by Brianna Wiest, I’ll share actionable strategies for shifting your mindset, breaking free from perfectionism, and achieving progress in fitness, health, and personal development.
Key Topics Include:
Key Topics Include:
- The power of small, consistent choices (The Compound Effect)
- Why no decision is ever meaningless
- Breaking free from the all-or-nothing mindset
- Taking radical responsibility for your progress
- Overcoming excuses and shifting from “can’t” to “can”
- How better implementation—not more information—leads to real results
If you’re ready to create real momentum and build a life you’re proud of, this one’s for you! 🎧✨
For next level fat loss strategies, hormone/gut health help, serious performance goals and unparalleled support, apply for Mountain Metabolic coaching. Learn more HERE.
For more free wellness resources, hiking/travel guides, and other blog posts, check out my website HERE.
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!
Fitness Mindset Hacks to Transform your Year
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 the fit for Hiking podcast. This is your host, Brady, and if you are listening to this in real time, you know, as this episode is rolling out, we're entering the time of year where we start kind of becoming introspective about our habits, our choices over the past year, how the year panned out in comparison to some of the things that we maybe hoped would happen or areas that we wanted to change or improve. Right. So we're getting ready to close out a year and begin a new one. And this is a really good time to to have those real conversations with not only ourselves, but with others and kind of talk through what are some ways that maybe we we didn't improve in the ways that we were hoping, and how can we set ourselves up for success in the new year to actually create lasting changes, have it changes, maybe break some habits, all of these things that start to kind of weigh on us as we look back on, on the year and, and get honest with ourselves about how it went. Um, so I wanted to talk about fitness mindset hacks. That will really transform your new year. And even if you're not listening to this in real time, maybe you just stumbled upon this episode randomly and it's midway through the year. And this really doesn't apply to like, New Year's resolutions or goal setting. This is a great, uh, topic to kind of work through any time of the year to really audit your choices and become introspective, and that we don't have to wait until the end of the year or the beginning of a new one in order to do this. So no matter when you're listening to this episode, let's talk about some mindset hacks that will really transform the way that you look at behavior change at fitness. And this can also translate to just all areas of personal development relationships, business pursuits, health. So it doesn't even just have to apply to fitness, right? But these principles can really be applied across the board. So a lot of what we're going to be talking about today are, uh, kind of mindset principles that I have gleaned from a couple books that I read this year, personal development books that we read within metabolic coaching. So we do a little bit of a book club type of thing with ladies who are able to hop on zoom calls. Um, all of our one on one clients are welcome to this and, and all of our coaches. And we have read The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy, and The Mountain Is You by Brianna Wiest. And I loved these books so much. Um, I feel like there's just so much that you can gain from really investing your time in reading personal development books that challenge you, that kind of break some patterns, or just get in your head a little bit and make you rethink, why do I do the things that I do on an ongoing basis when they're maybe not serving the person that I'm trying to become? Okay, so if you have areas of your life where you're feeling like you're not seeing progress that you want to see, or you're feeling super stuck or in a bad rut with certain behaviors that you don't love, um, then this episode is for you. And I definitely recommend these two books. Um, a lot of what we're going to be talking about today kind of reflect some of the things that I've personally taken away from reading these two books. So let's get into it. Number one, our first mindset hack is to understand the compound effect. This means basically the compound effect is the principle of reaping huge rewards from a series of small smart choices, massive results, but small steps that at the time maybe don't feel all that significant. And this is something that we apply big time in mountain metabolic coaching. And unfortunately, these types of practices in the fitness and health world don't market well. They don't look super sexy or flashy because no one wants to buy something that's slow and sustainable and you barely feel like you're making changes. But over time, you've completely transformed your habits, your mindset, your health, your body. Right? So it's hard because it's not an easy sell to anyone else or yourself. Itself. Sometimes it's easier to take these quick fix routes that seem like, oh, 30 days and I'll be where I want to be. Awesome. But the principle of the compound effect is actually the opposite, and it's that you set yourself up for life transformation through the tiny, small, smart choices that you make on a daily basis. It's not a complete overhaul overnight. It's nothing drastic, but it's changing or tweaking one small, manageable thing and then letting that build and compound over time to create massive changes. Um, and this is huge because we often do look for the quick fix when really what's going to change our life is auditing our day to day and looking at what could I change? That's not going to feel crazy or super hard or very unmanageable in the season of life, but we'll have big, lasting results over time. This could be as simple as deciding to go for a ten minute walk every single day. If you find that you're super sedentary, and then maybe over time you start building on the amount of time that you're walking. And now it's 20 minutes a day, and now it's 30 minutes a day. And now you have this amazing habit established of movement and the time increases. And now you have all of these ripple effects of benefits of increased energy. Maybe body composition changes, better mood, better stress regulation, better relationships because of that stress regulation, all of these small choices that actually aren't that small in the grand scheme of things have big ripple effects. So that's kind of the principle of the compound effect is that even these small, seemingly insignificant things really do matter. And that's why really being honest about how we're spending our time on a daily basis matters so much. Another example of the compound effect would be. Like buying a coffee every single day instead of making one at home. At the time, it doesn't feel significant, right? You think, oh, I'm only spending $4, $5 a day, that's nothing. But when you look at it over the course of a year, five years, ten years, that is an insane amount of money that you've spent on a daily coffee habit. And of course, if that's a simple joy for you, it might be something that you say, okay, yeah, I see that, but it's worth it to me. But it's important to look at these choices. If saving money is your objective, looking at what are the small things that I'm spending money on on a daily basis that I write off because they're so small, the little tiny subscriptions that I have paid for or, um, you know, a drink out three times a week or a coffee every day, or this, you know, TV subscription, things like that. Um, and getting an honest with with how that compounds over time instead of just looking at it at face value. Okay. Number two is that no choices are meaningless. They're all leading us somewhere. So every single choice that we make on a daily basis is either progressing us, regressing us, or keeping us stagnant. That means that nothing that we're doing is just allowing us to coast. There's always a direction, whether it's positive or negative or staying stuck exactly where you are. So you really have to get honest with yourself about how are my decisions leading me in the direction that I want to go? Are they actually moving me forward? Are they maybe moving me backwards? Or are they just not moving me anywhere because I'm being indecisive, or just doing the same old, same and not actually changing anything that I need to change? I feel like a lot of us probably fall in that third category, where maybe you look back on your year and you don't see a ton of like Negative changes necessarily, but you don't see anything new that's happened that's positive. Like maybe you set out with big ambitions to lose some weight, feel better in your clothes, establish a fitness habit routine where you're working out a few times a week, make better food choices, and you're not necessarily making worse choices than you were a year ago. But you're also still kind of where you where you were at the beginning of 2024. That is still a choice. You still make choices that kept you stagnant, right? Instead of moving you forward or backward. So really examining our choices because they're not meaningless. And this really starts with no longer living most of our lives unconsciously, or just going along with routines and traditions that kind of have become a part of our programming day today. Right? As we establish ourselves as adults, we tend to. Just kind of accept certain things about ourselves, and we settle into these habits and routines almost unconsciously most of the time, where we're not actively choosing to be extremely sad and teary, or to always have a dessert after dinner. You know, it's not something where we're like, I'm going to make this choice to be a person who always has to have something sweet after every single meal. But these things kind of just happen over time. They become a part of your life, a part of your routine, and we're not really voting on our decisions anymore. We're just letting our decisions carry us. Kind of like we're just out in the ocean, getting tossed to and fro by the waves, right? So asking yourself, how many of my decisions have I not voted on today? Like actually take some time to look at a standard day and go through what choices did you make in regards to an area that you want to see improvement? If it's your health, you look at, what did you put in your mouth that day? What did your breakfast, lunch and dinner look like? What did your snacks look like? What does your movement look like? What did your stress management look like? Your sleep? Your bedtime routine? Your morning routine? All of these different components that affect how we feel and our overall health quality, which then is reflected in our body composition and our muscle mass, our strength. And look at how many of how many of these things that I've done throughout this day did I just kind of do unconsciously, instead of really proactively making these decisions? And how many of those are maybe leading me either towards regression or stagnation instead of towards progress? And this is hard to do because it does require a lot of introspection and just intentionality. Oftentimes, we get so caught up in our day to day that we don't take the time to be intentional with our choices or reflecting. And so since we're in a time of year of reflection, I really challenge you to do that with your own choices. What are you doing that you didn't consciously choose to do, yet you continue to do every single day? Get honest with yourself about the choices that you're making, because ultimately, that is what is going to change the trajectory of your year and completely transform your life. Number three taking 100% responsibility for the outcomes of your life. Where in your life are you not taking 100% responsibility for either the success or failure of your present condition? So look back on your year and instead of looking for excuses of, well, I really didn't see this coming, I got sick so much or this thing happened that completely derailed me. I lost my job, this relationship crumbled, this setback, this setback, this setback. Yes, these things happen. And while we're not in control of what's happening to us, we are responsible for the different outcomes of whatever those things are. If we don't take radical responsibility for the things that happen in our life, then we're going to just become a victim to all of these things and to the excuses that then we can come up with. And yes, all of us can have a million excuses for why we didn't start the business this year, for why we didn't lose the weight that we wanted to lose, or why we didn't establish the healthy routines that we wanted. There's a million excuses and we all have very valid excuses at the end of the day that we can all swap and talk about and commiserate, but ultimately, that's not going to really lead you to any transformation. If all we're focusing on is the things that we couldn't control that led us to not reaching our goals. What does that really do for us? Yeah, it might make us feel better in the moment. We can prop ourselves up and say, hey, it's not your fault, but that's not going to actually get you anywhere, right? So all that we can do is take 100% responsibility for the outcomes where we are and where we maybe want to be. And once we start to take 100% responsibility, it really affects the choices that we make in response to the things that happen to us that we can't control the unforeseen setbacks, all the things that are frustrating in life that we tend to make excuses around. So a little exercise for you would be to list three things that you should have done this year, but you didn't. And list three things that you can start doing right now to take back responsibility for the outcomes of your life in these areas. Okay, so first we're taking we're taking a moment to be introspective and say, where did I fall short and acknowledge that, yes, maybe there were things that were very valid that stood in the way. But ultimately, we are still responsible for our our reactions and our choices to the things that happen to us and then take responsibility. What can I do to actually reroute and do something different? Because that is ultimately my the only control that I have is how I respond to these things. I have to be responsible for them. Number four is perfectionism holding you back? If you're someone who leans towards all or nothing mindsets with exercise and food, how would it look for you to really start adopting a mindset of something is better than nothing? This is honestly one of the biggest crippling mindsets that I've seen in the fitness industry, in the health industry, after working in this field for 11 years now, um, is just the inability to. Not be perfect. We really want to. We're taking on a routine or we're starting a program. We feel like we have to be perfect, otherwise it's completely pointless and we've immediately failed. And we label things so black and white, it's either a pass or a fail grade. Right? Um, and why this holds us back so much is because that is so not realistic. When you actually look at how life goes when people start Mountain Metabolic program, there's this all this momentum and energy in the beginning. Right. It's exciting. And you feel like there's all this hope of of all the change to come. But then life sets in and you realize that ultimately it's still going to be hard to make these changes because you're still living the same life that you've always lived. But now you're trying to implement these small changes, work in some new habits, maybe break some bad ones. And a lot of it has to do with your mindset, and you're going to have setbacks no matter if it's January 1st, midway through the year, end of the year, no matter if you just started a program, there's going to be sickness in your household. There's going to be vacations, holidays, social events, people visiting town, family tragedies, things that will inevitably ruin your quote unquote perfect routine. So if perfection is what you're striving towards, you're always going to feel like you're falling short. And when we quit because we have labeled ourselves as a fail, we're just constantly starting over. And it's this vicious cycle of, I'm going to go hard. I'm going to give it everything I have. I have to be perfect. I'm perfect for a week. Then something happens. I fall off the wagon, and then I do nothing for months until I get this burst of motivation and inspiration, and then I start it all over again. This process, this cycle. I promise we'll keep you stuck your entire life. And I was in that that cycle, that vicious cycle for years. So I know how detrimental this mindset is firsthand. And I've seen it in real time with the clients that I work with, the clients who are able to stop aiming for perfection and instead do something instead of nothing. Even on the weeks when life is just pure chaos and you feel like you can't make hardly any good decisions, what can you do? Instead of just saying, well, this week is just an automatic fail, I'll start again on Monday, right? This goes such a long way when you look at that compounding effect of making on, you know, if we had to like rank healthy decisions, say, in a given day, you have ten opportunities to make healthy decisions and you make two healthy decisions every single day of a week. That could have been a total wash because you're sick, you're traveling, there's no control over the food you're eating, you're not able to work out, blah, blah, blah. But you still go for a walk every day and you still focus on good quality sleep, or you still get a protein at every single meal. You look for some of these really small ways to still show up for your health, instead of just doing absolutely nothing and saying that you'll start again next week, or next month, or next year, those small things still do add up versus if you had a zero every day for that week. Okay, so think about it. Just like the small deposits that you're making in your bank account for your health, something is always better than nothing. So how can you look for that on the weeks or days when it feels like you have zero control, or it feels like it's just going to be a total fail instead of looking at it black and white, what are some ways where you can still show up for your health that maybe don't feel as productive as as getting an hour long workout in, or having all of your meals perfectly meal prepped. But there's still small things that you can do to move the needle for your health. Number five. Usually we don't need more information. We need better implementation. And this is a quote from the mountain issue. Your life is ultimately measured by your outcomes, not your intentions. It is not about what you wanted to do or would have done, but didn't have the time. It's not about why you thought you couldn't. It's just whether you whether or not you eventually did. This is such a challenging quote, and it goes back to kind of taking that radical responsibility. But ultimately we have access to so much information, it's almost overwhelming. It can become this like paralysis by over analysis type of deal, where because we have more information at our fingertips than any other generation ever in the history of the world, it sometimes turns us into these people who think about a lot of different things, know about a lot of different options, but really ultimately don't implement anything. And that leaves us very stagnant and stuck and paralyzed. So this is why having a coach is actually so helpful and transformative for people who fall into this category of maybe you know what to do, and you bought a bunch of like self-paced programs, or you have workouts that you could do. You could look up things on YouTube really easily, right? But you're not doing the things even though you have access to the information, you have the recipes, you have the the healthy tips and ideas, and you generally kind of know what to do. But it's where where you're lacking is really that implementation in your day to day life, or just being consistent with implementing on a regular basis. Having a coach kind of breaks that up because there's the accountability factor. There's someone who's checking in with you. There's someone who you're able to talk through when you have crappy mindset weeks or days when you need to troubleshoot. Why am I falling short here? Why am I not doing these things? It's often kind of getting to the root of the issue instead of just being like, well, I'm just not a consistent person. I just can't do it. Why though? Like, what is holding you back and having a coach who's not just giving you workouts and, and a meal plan, but actually working through these hiccups and road bumps with you and kind of examining what's going on on the mental side of things and how can we troubleshoot, how can we work around this in this season of life? Because we're not stagnant creatures. Our life is always changing, ebbing, flowing. There's different seasons, there's different things going on that could disrupt our positive habits. Um, and so it's important to. Just kind of reroute when we get to these places where we feel stuck. And a lot of that comes with having accountability, having a coach, having someone to talk through things with and really taking responsibility then for our actions because we are held responsible by someone else. This is why having like a financial advisor or having a budget or doing some of these things, like when it comes to finances, makes such a big difference versus if we're just left to our own devices, we're great at making excuses and saying, oh, it's okay, you'll you'll start next week. We're great at justifying the things that we do or don't do, no matter how detrimental it is to our own health and happiness or goals. Right? So we don't need more information. We really ultimately do need better implementation. And so looking honestly at like what is keeping you from implementing the things that you know are good for you, the things that you know will lead to a healthier you one year from now? And if it's the lack of accountability, I highly, highly recommend taking a moment to look into a good coach and investing in that. Yes, it's a bigger investment than having an app on your phone or having a self-paced guide or just printing something off of Pinterest. But when we pay, we pay attention, right? When we invest in something, we're much more likely to actually give a crap about what we're doing and follow through. And if not, having accountability hasn't gotten you where you want to be, maybe it's time to try having some accountability. Try a new tactic this year. That way you don't get to the end of another year and think, well, I'm right where I was last year because I didn't do anything different. I didn't change anything, and I really didn't implement anything new. Um, and obviously we have a really awesome coaching service with within Mountain Metabolic Coaching that I've talked about on this show quite a bit. Um, if you're new to the show, we always have the application link in the show notes. Um, this will kind of start the process. We'll reach out to you if we have availability. And as we head into the new year, we do have ten spots that we are opening for ladies who want to join us in the new year starting January 1st. So if you're interested in that, jump on it now and kind of get ahead of the curve here because we have limited spots heading into the new year. All right, number six, examine your top and most commonly used excuses for why certain results aren't happening for you. Now write out ways that you can counteract these excuses and start to shift your mindset from can't to can. Okay, so this is something a little interactive here. You really need to take some time. Maybe this is like a journal prompt that you can do tomorrow morning. Or maybe you just stop and you do it right now, but really sit and write out what are my most common excuses in the area where I'm not seeing progress, that I want to see progress? Maybe it's, oh, I'm not a morning person, so I just can't work out in the mornings, or I haven't been getting good sleep because I have little kids. Very valid. I've been there, but it is still kind of an excuse because we can still find other times in the day to work out, even if it's not the morning. Right? Maybe it's my schedule is so inconsistent or I'm so tired by the end of the day because my work schedule is crazy. Um, that I just don't have time to get to the gym, or I don't have any equipment at home, and the only option for me is at home workouts. Or I don't love to grocery shop, you know, think about what are these excuses for you and write them out, and then write out ways that you can counteract these excuses, workarounds that you can realistically fit into your life and start to shift your mindset. Because when we just keep telling ourselves that I can't do this, I can't do this, I just can't. This is why we ingrain these excuses so deeply into our mindset around why we're not seeing results. Then we really start to believe that it's just not an option for us. And that's total B.S., okay? We are ultimately responsible for our outcomes, and it really is so much about our mindset around these things. I've had clients who have the craziest work schedules that I've ever seen in my life and have four kids, and they still manage to lose the weight that they want to lose, establish amazing habits, transform their confidence and their body image in a matter of six months. And then I've worked with people who have every excuse in the book and kind of just coast and don't really see a whole lot of change. Right. So you are not a victim of your circumstances or what's going on in your life. We just have to maybe shift the mindset a little bit from Kant to can and finding a way. If it matters enough to you, you will find a way. Ultimately, that's kind of just the way that it breaks down. If we want to get super direct here, the same way like that, you here with relationship advice, like if they want to, they will write. If someone cares, then they will find a way to communicate with you, to plan a date, to pursue you. And if they kind of are just wishy washy about it, then you're not going to feel that intentionality or that pursuit from them, right? Same with you and your and your health habits or your personal development habits. If you want something badly enough, you will find a way to make time for it. Here's another awesome, awesome quote that I loved. Stop accepting your own excuses. Stop being complacent with your own justifications. Start quantifying your days by how many healthy, positive things you accomplished, and you will see how quickly you begin to make progress. And that's also from the mountain issue. So really getting honest with yourself about what are the excuses that I've just begun accepting about myself. And if you're not happy with the direction that they're leading you, then it's time to do something different and reroute a bit. Okay guys, we made it through six Fitness Mindset Hacks to Transform your New Year. I hope that you have found this helpful. I think that mindset work is the foundation of everything within our fitness and health and personal development. We really have to start there to kind of let that ripple effect happen and for our choices and habits to ultimately be affected. So we have a couple other awesome mindset episodes. You can search through those. Um, but I hope that this has been helpful as we start to shift our focus into how we want the new year to look for ourselves. Um, if you guys have any topics that you'd love to see covered on the show, we'd love to hear from you. You can reach out to us at the Fit Underscore for Hiking Instagram page. Um, if you enjoy the show and you get a lot out of the content that I put out here, really appreciate ratings and reviews or even just sharing the podcast with people. Um, you can do that by just sending it to a friend or posting it to stories on social media. That also is a really great way to help us out. Show your support and it takes almost no time at all. Um, so I really appreciate spreading the word so that other people can also listen and learn along with you. Also, thank you so much for tuning in today 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.
Fitness mindset hacks
Sustainable health habits
New Year’s resolutions for women
Personal growth tips
Hiking training for women
Nutrition for hiking and adventure
Female metabolism improvement
Overcoming perfectionism in fitness
Weight loss mindset strategies
Fitness coaching for women