Stop 30-Day Challenges: Why Baby Steps Beat Fad Diets for Lasting Results

What's up you guys? Famous Ashley Grant here

and welcome to More Movement Please, the podcast

where I hope to inspire you to move your body

more. Today what I want to talk about is fads

versus lifestyle change. So one of the things

that I see as we're coming to the new year is

all these things that are all over my Facebook

page of start your diet now or start this fitness

challenge now. Or, you know, 30 days of planks

or 30 days of push -ups or 30 days from couch

to, you know, a marathon. And all these challenges

are great. The problem, though, that I see happen

with a lot of people, and I know I am completely

guilty of this myself, is treating it as a challenge.

Something that you just do for a little while

and then you go back to your regular lifestyle.

Here's the problem with that. Whenever we only

look at something as a short -term thing rather

than a permanent lifestyle change, it's very

easy not only to give up, but also to not do

it anymore. So yeah, you can do what I did and

take all these shots and these pills and lose

a bunch of weight, but then the second you stop,

you gain it all back. So instead of doing fad

dieting or fad workout challenges or fad anything,

I want you to really look at the fact that what

you should do instead is commit to a lifestyle

change. And I'm not telling you you have to overhaul

everything overnight. You don't even have to

do it in a single week like I did. That was a

little bit nuts, I admit. But starting with small

steps, starting with small changes, like maybe

the first week you instead of parking at the

front of the store, you park at the back of the

parking lot and. have a little bit more room,

you have to walk from your car to the door. Or

maybe it's something like instead of sitting

around all day, you challenge yourself to every

hour you're going to get up and move your body.

It could be something as simple as doing some

squats or some, you know, jumping jacks or wall

pushups, even wall sits like. There's so many

different things that you could do just to start

including a little bit more movement in your

day. Or maybe it's you get home from work and

before you walk inside, you take 20 minutes to

yourself to go for a walk. Not only will it help

you decompress from your day, but it'll give

you a little bit of movement that'll help you

get your blood flowing. And you'll be less likely

to reach for the takeout menu because you know

you did something healthy for yourself. just

by making that simple change, you might eat something

healthier for dinner. And it's again, I've said

this before, and I'm going to say it again. I'm

not talking about restriction. I'm not talking

about making yourself unhappy or doing things

that don't feel good. Although let's admit sometimes

whenever we're working out, it doesn't feel good.

What instead I'm encouraging you to do is look

for ways to make simple changes to overhaul your

whole life and commit to it as a lifestyle thing.

So yes, I'm asking you to do things that you're

going to do for the rest of your life because

it will improve the rest of your life. So I'm

not asking you to overhaul everything, right?

I'm not asking you to change your diet completely.

I'm not asking you to give up everything that

you love. Instead, just look for small things

that you can do to better your lifestyle. So

one of the things I did early on is even though

I still love soda and I still kind of want it

in my life and I am working on it to where I

will try to phase it out completely. But what

I started doing is for every soda that I have,

I have to have two glasses of water. And the

other thing I started doing is I don't fill the

glass all the way anymore with soda. I do half

the glass. So I'll have half a glass of soda

and. you know, a full glass of water, sometimes

a glass and a half of water. And as I mentioned

in a previous episode, the funny thing is now

that I'm starting to work out as much as I am,

I'm reaching for water more than I ever have

in my whole life. So I'm not craving soda nearly

to the degree that I was, but the fact that I

am not keeping myself from it, telling myself

I can't have it. Just that alone makes me feel

better about the fact that I'm trying to reach

for healthier choices, knowing that I it's not

like I can't have it. I can have it if I want

to. But it's it's just a I guess it's a mindset

thing of just knowing that there is an option,

but I'm choosing to have the water instead. I

hope that makes sense. And then another thing

and this came up when when I was interviewing

Rhonda. And I'll leave the link to all of her

amazing episodes in the show notes. But one of

the things that she says is she doesn't subscribe

to no carbs and no happy foods. And so I've definitely

committed to that as well. I'm not telling myself

I can't have chocolate or I can't have the pumpkin

bread or I can't have the, you know, whatever

the item may be. But maybe I'll just have a little

bit of it instead of the amount I used to have.

And so one of the things I'll do with that is

I'll. Again, I'll grab myself a complete glass

of water and I'll have an entire glass of water

before I let myself have the treat that I want

to have. And again, it's not restriction. It

is just a choice to make sure that I'm full so

that I'm not anxiously just shoveling all these

cookies and treats and chocolates into my face.

Instead, I'm... like really thinking about it

and taking the time to savor it. And so that's

another thing I'm doing is I'm not mindlessly

eating the way that I was. I'm thinking about

the things that I'm consuming and taking the

time to determine whether or not I've had enough,

I've had my fill. And what I find is that a lot

of times whenever I'm actually actively thinking

about the things that I'm consuming, I don't

need as much of it. So it used to be that I could

easily clear an entire bag of peanut butter M

&Ms without even thinking twice. But now what

I catch myself doing is I will grab a little

quarter cup and I'll just fill just the quarter

cup and I'll put the rest of the bag of M &Ms

in a Ziploc bag or something and I'll put it

away. And then I'll sit there and I'll just think

about what I'm consuming as I'm consuming it.

And what I usually find is that just getting

through that quarter cup, that's all I need.

I don't need as much as I... you know, wanted

before. So that's just my tip for today. Just

start thinking about ways that you can add in

things slowly to your life to make it a lifestyle

change rather than just a fad. Because I think

if you look at small ways to make improvements,

you'll notice over time you get big changes and

these big changes. won't feel as abrupt. They

won't feel as restrictive. And instead, it'll

feel like you're just slowly changing your life

rather than putting a wham, bam, thank you, ma

'am into your life and then going right back

to your previous lifestyle. Because when you

go back to your previous lifestyle, what happens?

You gain all the weight back, right? Sometimes

you gain even more. And then you feel like, well,

this stupid fitness thing, it's not working.

So what's the point? Or the stupid diet thing's

not working. What's the point? Instead, if you're

taking taking the time to look at it as a lifestyle

change and really focus on the things that you're

doing and make it small baby steps, I think you'll

feel a lot better and you'll be a lot more likely

to commit to it. So I hope you guys will consider

that. I hope you enjoyed this quick episode.

Onwards and upwards, my friends. Have you worked

out today?