Lindsay: Welcome.
Welcome to today's Lifting Lindsay podcast episode where we are gonna
be talking about how decision fatigue is actually killing your fat loss.
Yes.
You heard that decision fatigue may be the one thing that can really throw
off and hurt your fat loss goals.
Um, so.
Oftentimes when I talk about fat loss, I really do like talking about there's,
there's two things we need to get on point really, during any phase in,
like whether it's fat loss, phase, maintenance builds, whatever it may be.
In your fitness and health journey, we oftentimes fixate on what's
needed for the physical right.
A calorie deficit is needed for fat loss., Energy balance, meaning
the calories coming in, the, the amount of activity going out.
If that's balanced, you're going to maintain your body weight.
If more calories are coming in than energy going out.
You are going to put on weight.
So oftentimes we focus a lot on, okay then what do my calories need to be?
What do my macros need to be?
What are my foods gonna look like?
What's my cardio gonna look like?
What's my training gonna look like?
We focus a lot on the physical, which is wonderful, wonderful.
Absolutely great.
But majority of people.
Well, let me put it this way.
The easiest part of coaching is writing the plan.
That's the easiest part.
The easiest part of for a client is getting the plan.
That's actually not the most complex part of it, and people treat it like it is.
Well, like they fixate on these little tiny things within the plan.
What, what, when do I need to get my protein in?
And studies show it actually doesn't matter as long as
you get it during the day.
That's all.
No, no, no.
It needs to be more complex than that.
No, it actually doesn't.
What, what is my nutrition need to look like around my workouts?
Uh, pre intra and post.
What, what does that need?
It actually, once again, studies have shown.
For general population, population that is not stepping on stage
for a bodybuilding competition.
It doesn't matter.
Choose the pre-workout, the post-workout meal, whatever that you enjoy and
you can be the most consistent with.
People wanna get these things really, they really wanna complicate.
People really wanna complicate these things.
Because we fixate so much on, well, if I'm not seeing results,
it's because of the plan.
I would actually say majority of the time, majority of the time, it is nothing
to do with the actual plan itself.
It has to do with the adherence to the plan.
The adherence to the plan comes.
Back to the mental factor, the psychological factor.
Even when women come to me and are like, well, I've been dieting for years.
The likelihood of you dieting for years is actually next to zero.
You would be anorexic.
You would be near death now you trying to diet for years, but not
mastering the mental psychological approach or game that's going to
keep you in a calorie deficit.
That is the net more accurate statement.
So today we're going to be talking about how decision fatigue.
Can actually harm our fat loss goals because it influences
our ability to stay on track.
What is decision fatigue?
Well, most people don't realize this, but on average,
every hour we have to make about 10,000 conscious decisions.
On average, that stacks up to around 35,000 conscious decisions a day.
So the other day on Instagram, I shared in stories what, um.
The creator of, uh, apple, what Steve Jobs did about this.
I had a few people reach out and say, can you do a fun fact
Friday on decision fatigue?
So here I am.
That's why I'm doing this.
So Steve Jobs.
I don't know if you've ever seen him in like speak any recordings
of him speaking, but he always has on the same exact outfit.
I can see him right now in it, this black shirt that and this same, pants.
He always had the exact same outfit and he just bought tons of the exact
same shirt and every single day when he woke up, he put the same outfit on
because he said, I have thousands of decisions to make every single day.
And decisions take time.
They take energy.
And what I wear, I do not want to take time or energy of thought.
I just wanna put it on.
Well, I have to laugh because my husband took this very literally, you
guys, he literally, he found these shirts that he loved and he literally
went out and bought like a dozen of the, the same color white shirt.
Didn't even wanna think about different colors.
Couldn't even think about variation.
He had the, the same exact idea of Steve Jobs.
He loved it.
So he went out and bought a dozen of the same white shirt, and
he wore that every single day.
And I laugh about it, but he loved it.
I have taken this concept of decision fatigue and I've applied it to other
things in my life, including fitness.
So that's what I wanna introduce to you guys today.
How is it hurting your goals and what can you do about it?
Um, in fact, I actually did, when I was researching on this, I, I
did find some quotes from a doctor that I really, really liked, where
she talked about how all day long.
So this is the general concept of decision fatigue.
It's the more decisions that you have to make in the day.
As the day goes on and on, it becomes harder and harder or more
exhausting to keep up the same high quality decision making.
Like that's, that's the general idea.
And um, and actually in our day and age, we have to make more
decisions than ever before.
But not only that, we have on another layer on top of that, we have the mass
amounts of constant information coming in.
We constantly are picking up our phones and jumping on, you know, social media.
We can pull up any information at any time.
We just have this constant like hookup right into like this, this
mass amount of just information being downloaded all the time and, and
that's wonderful, but it's also not
so, I mean, think about it right now.
If you go to a store and you have to wait in line even for two minutes,
how fast do you pull out your phone and pull up social media?
So it's almost like our, our brain doesn't have a ton of time where
we're having, what my husband calls is none thoughts, just none thoughts.
You're not trying to solve life problems.
You're not, you're just enjoying the quiet and the calm.
Of none thoughts, of just like nothing.
Right?
It's actually why I love weeding so much, and I love working in my yard.
I don't listen to audio books.
I choose consciously make the choice, do not listen to anything, and I'm not
even thinking a whole lot about any.
Once in a while I'll, I'll have something that's weighing on my mind
and I'll, I'll think through it.
Last Saturday I spent probably six hours in my yard just enjoying
being there and beautifying it.
And we don't have a ton of time like that anymore.
Those who have discovered, um, meditation.
Understand this because meditation is actually allowing thoughts to
come in and kind of guiding 'em out.
It's, it's learning to live in this non-thought stage where we're sitting
there just, and, and thoughts are gonna come in, but we show them out.
I think it's one of the greatest tools that people can utilize, especially
in our day and age where we are inundated constantly with information,
is we need to find that time and space, but majority of us don't.
We don't actively look for that, and you have to actively look for it Now.
You do.
You have to be.
You have to intentionally seek it out because so many of us are on autopilot
where if we sit down for one second, we pull out our phone, watch it.
Keep a close eye on how often you are taking in information.
I'm gonna share.
This is kind of a sidetrack with you guys, but I've actually been thinking about
how horrible I am at time management and energy management and mental management.
Like I've been thinking about how horrible I am at this, and the thought came to
me, um, that, you know, I always say I, I just don't have enough time where I
spend so much time doing this or that.
But the truth is, when was the last time I wrote and kept track of.
Everything I'm doing every minute of the day.
You know, oftentimes people come to me and they say, well, I'm
eating this and this and this.
How do you know?
Are you tracking it?
Well, no.
But then you don't know.
Then you actually don't know why, because we as human beings are horrible.
We are horrible at keeping track of these things, and the thought came to
me, I, I say that so often about food.
But we're actually really, really horrible at time management too.
Like we make these things, oh, I can't, I can't go to the
gym because I don't have time.
But yet you get sucked into the black hole of TikTok and reels for two hours
or for an hour, but you don't have time.
Like really?
We are horrible at it and, and I will be the first to tell you I am horrible
at guessing how much I do with my time.
I listen to my kids, tell me what they do all day long and I'm like, you did
that for two minutes, not two hours.
You weren't cleaning your, my favorite was I told my daughter, Hazel, I'm
setting the timer for 15 minutes.
Go into your room and clean until the timer goes off.
She went in and she came out and she goes.
The timer had to have gone off.
I've been in there for a half an hour and I, you guys, I've out died laughing.
I looked at, I looked at the clock.
Six minutes had passed.
Six minutes, okay.
I'm just like, do you know what I can think I'm so much better than my daughter,
than my 9-year-old, but I'm actually not.
I'm horrible at guesstimating these things too.
We just really are.
So I just kind of want to make you a little aware of where are
we spending our mental energy.
So I actually think that decision fatigue in our modern day is real.
Now we do have some people who say it's not, and they're very adamant about it.
Um, I believe that with the additional layer.
Of information constantly coming in.
That, to be honest, we choose 'cause we're the ones who pull out our phones.
Looking at social media, have to be, I, I have that problem, I have this,
I have to constantly be doing or thinking or I, I'm constantly searching
out for, you know, information too.
Uh, when I get tired, I just wanna.
Pull out my phone and go through reels and laugh at cat videos.
I'm so guilty of this too.
But decision fatigue in my opinion is very real.
And it's interesting this doctor was talking about how there are actual
symptoms that she is seen that those who, , experience decision
fatigue will actually have more experience feeling physically tired.
And even experiencing more brain fog.
Now, like I said, I do believe it's these two layers.
I believe nowadays we are making more decisions than ever, but on top of
that, exasperating the issue is the fact that we're constantly taking
in information and we're not letting ourselves have this peace and this, this
mental, none thoughts, this mental rest.
Right?
So as we go on throughout the day and we're adding more and
more and more decisions, like, well, am I gonna go to the gym?
When am I gonna go to the gym?
What am I going to eat?
It's another day tracking.
I'm gonna track, I'm gonna monitor, but what am I going to eat?
Right?
It we, we layer on more and more and more decisions.
So let's learn from.
Steve Jobs, we don't have to wear the same outfit every day.
Right?
Pick and choose which decisions do you want to help alleviate more, and which
maybe it's, maybe you're not gonna be like my husband Alex, and go out and
buy this exact shirt, but how can we, how can we take that same principle
and actually not allow it to affect.
Goals because I do believe that decision fatigue does begin to wear,
especially at the nutrition side when we are working towards fitness goals.
So I'm gonna share two things that we can do.
One is we can get enough sleep because there is a direct correlation with
our ability to make um, decisions.
And the amount of sleep that we are getting.
So they used to say, well, seven to eight hours of sleep is what you need.
I really appreciated recently when a new study was done saying,
Hey, that was done on all men.
Let's do one for women.
Let's see what's optimal for women.
And they actually found it was higher.
On average, it was an hour or two more is needed.
So it's now no longer seven and eight for women, we're looking closer.
It could be to, you know, eight to 10.
Depending on the quality of sleep, they even, they even said, and if
you're on your period, you might wanna throw on one more hour.
I'm like, well, wouldn't that be great?
Sleeping?
Sleeping 11 hours a night?
That would be wonderful.
Maybe not practical, but as much as you wanna say.
Well, I just can't get more than six hours and sleep six hours is fine for me.
Well, not only do we have studies showing that four in six hours actually perform
relatively similar, and they are all lower than the performance, and I'm talking
about mental and physical of a woman who is getting anywhere between eight
to 10 hours and immediately somebody's gonna say, well, I can't do that.
I can't do that.
And you know, if you are breastfeeding throughout the night, I get it.
I 100% get that.
But for the rest of y'all I am, I'm not so sure that we cannot do
something to actively help us get to better or get to bed sooner.
Maybe instead of sitting in bed and looking at reels for an hour
or watching a movie or thinking, no, I need that to put me to sleep.
Well, it actually prevents you from sleeping deeply and we can
get an additional hour even if you can just add, we really can.
When we step back and we look at our schedule and we see,
oh, the reason why my kids.
Aren't getting to bed until nine or 10 is because I haven't started their
sleep schedule until around 8 39.
Or the reason why we start taking ownership and we start looking and
realizing, do you know I can, there are ways I can even tell my family
this is a priority for me right now.
I really need this sleep.
We, as a family, need to change some things.
Uh, oftentimes I feel like people try to go at these, these new changes just
alone, and they don't include their family in the process or even their
husband or, um, significant other, just saying like, this is what I need.
This is what I need from you to help me, please.
We're we, no, we'll just do it on our own.
And then we get upset when nobody wants to support us, but we never really asked them
and we never really included them, and then we just end up building resentment
and being frustrated and blaming them.
I do think mass ownership of our lives, we, we, we all have an
opportunity to grow in that area.
Sleep.
Uh, not only affects decision making, but we have literally have studies
showing that those who increase their sleep were able to one more
easily sit in a calorie deficit.
We also have studies showing that when they sat in a calorie deficit.
Compared to others who were getting lower sleep at the same calorie
deficit, they saw more fat loss.
Those that, that even when the, the calorie deficit was equated,
those that got more sleep, their body actually was able to lose more body fat.
Do not forget how.
Huge.
Sleep is the other thing.
So we have sleep.
The other thing is reducing the amount of decisions around food.
You don't want to just try to wing it.
You don't wake up in the morning, oh, what am I gonna have for breakfast today?
Even though you're putting it in your tracker, no, we want to reduce that.
We have to streamline your days.
We have to make things more habitual.
I am literally convinced through coaching hundreds of women that those
who streamline their foods and actually.
Eat relatively the same thing for breakfast, lunch and snack a day.
More easily sit and stay in a calorie deficit or even more easily maintain body
con composition post dieting, phase two.
So how do we do this?
Let's talk about a few this, a few.
I've, I've, I've shared this a few times.
For breakfast, lunch, and snack.
I usually have one to three options that I just are my go-to foods.
So if you looked at what I ate last week, in fact, sometimes people are like, you
need to show every day what you're eating.
And I'm like, I will bore you to death because every day
I'm eating the same thing.
It's only dinner that changes.
Like that's, that's really it.
So I, I started posting and for a week I did it.
And a week it was like, people are like, you eat the same thing.
How do you eat the same thing?
I'll tell you how I eat the same thing.
I actually like what I eat.
That's the difference when, when you don't like your quote unquote
diet food for breakfast, you're not gonna have it on rotation.
You're not gonna keep it.
And I've shared this story so many times before when I would onboard clients
and I'd say, tell me what you eat.
And they would always say, well, in a diet.
I eat and then they tell me some food.
That honestly kind of sounded gross to me, and I'm like, oh, do you enjoy that?
Well, it works for a diet, so you're not going to eat that at maintenance?
Well, no.
Okay, then right there, red flags, that's a problem.
You have not learned.
The lifestyle you're not gonna maintain.
Have you ever maintained Well, I can lose weight.
Easy.
Yes, you're right because you, you have grit.
You can grit yourself through those gross breakfasts and lunch and snacks,
but you have yet to learn the lifestyle.
So if we can streamline this, it will actually reduce decision fatigue
and you will be able to make better decisions, especially at night.
You're usually tired at night, and that's usually when people
start making poor decisions.
So if we can streamline this, we can save some of that energy for
night, making better decisions.
But also if you are genuinely eating enough for breakfast, lunch, and
snack, and you're not just ravenous and starving yourself throughout
the day, just let me just drink a.
Protein shake, eat a protein bar, nibble and eat like a bird all day.
And then at nighttime, wonder why I sit and binge on all of the cookies.
It's because you haven't streamlined, you haven't made this lifestyle.
So this is what I often tell people.
'cause a, a lot of times it's, it's the question, well, how
do you eat the same thing?
Because I genuinely love my foods and in my membership site I share my recipes.
And I was so excited, uh, to get a review at just last, uh, well, I
guess it was two weeks ago when I shared, um, this month's maze, uh, new
recipes for breakfast, lunch, snack.
And I, I, I'll also share a few dinners So one woman said that this
has changed her family's food culture.
I was super excited about that.
Another woman said, um, this was under one of my recipes.
She said, again, another gem.
This month these recipes are helping me so much.
Someone who, from somebody who doesn't even know how to cook.
Lindsay, you're amazing and a gift.
And it's just, it really is just finding these yummy recipes.
So one, they can be on repeat because they're actually good.
They're high protein, around 25 to 30 grams of protein.
They're nutrient dense.
They're genuinely yummy.
And so you want to put them on repeat and then oftentimes people will say,
well, don't you get bored eating the same exact thing every day?
Yeah, I do.
So this is why I usually have a rotation.
I usually have two to three options.
And this, this leads to the the third that people are always like, well,
what if I wake up in the morning and I don't want what I wrote down the
day before that I'm going to eat?
Well, that's why I have two to three options.
Of these yummy breakfasts.
So for example, this month, um, this has been my rotation.
One, I have my protein packed pancakes that I absolutely love.
Absolutely they have real syrup on it because when you know how to cook,
um, and make recipes that are high protein, but lower calorie, then you
can include things like real syrup instead of some gross tasting nasty.
It doesn't even taste like syrup, but you're in a diet so you feel like you
have to, and sometimes those sugar free options can even give you gas issues,
but you just feel like, well, I have to eat, I have to deal with these GI
issues now because I need to lose weight.
No, you don't.
You need to learn how to cook.
You need to learn these recipes.
Um, and then I have.
Just coat 'em with strawberries that I absolutely love and I eat it up.
I make the same exact pancakes for my, my kids and they love them.
They have no clue how full of protein they are, and I can cut up strawberries
and add real syrup to 'em, and they're literally eating the same
thing that I'm eating for breakfast.
I love it.
So that has been on rotation for me.
My oatmeal has been on rotation for me.
And then, um, I also figured out how to make, I really loved
McDonald's the sausage McGriddle.
Well, I figured out how to make one with like 30 some grams of protein that
taste absolutely amazing, that are low calorie, like under, um, 400 calories.
And they fill me up and I usually put a side of fruit
with it that I absolutely love.
So that's been my rotation.
So every day I wake up and I can choose from those that I really, really love.
And then my snack has been, it looks like a dessert.
This is, this is one that I love so much.
I've literally been eating it for two weeks in a row.
And likewise, those on my, uh, community who have found this one,
they're like, this is amazing.
It tastes like I'm eating a cheesecake for my snack, and it's high protein.
I just absolutely love it.
Um.
Lunches.
I either have leftover dinner from the night before, so I
have some variation there.
Or on this month's rotation, there is this amazing, amazing chicken
salad sandwich that's high protein.
I.
I tell you guys, it's the fresh dill, the fresh dill, and the fresh
squeezed lemon on it that make this recipe absolutely amazing.
I even had a, a woman say that her, um, it's better than her mom's.
This is the, the chicken.
Salad sandwich that has like the grapes in it, the celery.
And she said, this is better than my mom's.
And my mom's has been my favorite.
And it's full of tons of fat where this one's not.
But anyways, so the whole thing is putting it on rotation, but you have
to genuinely love your meals, but it will actually reduce the amount
of decisions that you have to make.
And then let's talk really quickly around, uh, activity in the gym.
You have to make the decision.
You Sunday night look at your schedule and say, these are the three days I
go to the gym, or these are the four days that I go to the gym and the
decision is made the night before.
You don't have to ec decide and don't try to.
Some people are like, well, uh, do I really wanna go to the gym?
No, the decision has been made.
Now you are increasing decision fatigue because you're trying to remake decisions.
That's another layer to this is that when you decide, and you are all in, you are
a hundred percent in, did you know it's actually way easier than being 70% in, or
60% in, because 60 or 70% in, you have to remake the decision over and over again.
I don't know if I wanna go to the gym.
No.
The, the decision has been made.
The moment you decided that, and, and this is another thing, your decisions should
actually line up and be about the person that you are or the person you want to be.
The if you are like, I am going, I am somebody.
Who goes to the gym, don't have it about the person you were.
It's now about the person you are.
You are changing your identity.
You are now somebody who goes to the gym three times a week or four
times a week, or five times a week.
That's just who you are.
That is your identity.
When it's your identity, the decision is already made for you.
So that's how you know if you are a hundred percent in it's
about identity and who you are.
If you're 60% in, it's based off of who you were.
Well, I don't know if I, I, I don't know if I have time for it.
No, you, you do.
This is who you are.
But if, if it's all about who you were, then you have to make the decision
over and over and over again and that.
Is exhausting.
Okay, so hopefully this has helped.
I'm just gonna recap really fast.
We make 2000 decisions every single hour.
Let's reduce those.
We we can help in our decision making by getting enough sleep and also by
streamlining our day, making less decisions is what we're going for.
So if you just have on rotation, your usual breakfast, lunch, snack,
those are all less decisions that you have to make every single day.
When you streamline those decisions, when they are habitual, it's just what you do.
It's just who you are.
You will not find the process of this creating this new health and
fitness lifestyle, exhausting.
It will actually help you stay on track.
You won't be needing constant motivation because everything is streamlined.
Okay, so this is what you're gonna do.
You're gonna have a planning day where you show up for yourself.
I usually do this on Monday because that's my grocery shopping day.
And what I'm gonna do is I, I write at the top, 'cause I, I'm such a paper
person, I have to write everything out.
I usually write at the top, my, my breakfast for the week, my lunch for
the week, and my snack for the week.
That I'm just going to eat and, and then I write down on the
side groceries that I need.
Actually, I usually just put it in, uh, I have the Walmart app where it
does all the grocery shopping for me, and then it just shows up at my door
later that day to make my life easier.
So that's what I do.
And then Monday, you know, through Sunday, I write down what
we're going to have for dinner.
And I pull up some of my favorite, uh, recipes, um, or I, I search up new ones
from people who already have the macros figured out, which is really, really
nice, like macro friendly foods, or Lilly Eats and tells things like that.
Um, and then I write down about four recipes that I'm gonna make that week.
And then I have, um, I.
Usually on Friday, that's pizza day for us.
And then the other two are just leftover days or they're fast meal days.
So that's what I do to just put things on rotation, make things super, super simple.