Transcript: Stop 30-Day Challenges: Why Baby Steps Beat Fad Diets for Lasting Results
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Ashley introduces the episode's topic by pointing to the flood of New Year fitness challenges on her Facebook feed and argues that treating them as short-term challenges — rather than permanent changes — is why people give up and regain weight, referencing her own experience with shots and pills.
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
Ashley suggests concrete, low-barrier ways to add more movement to daily life — parking farther away, getting up every hour to do squats or jumping jacks, or taking a 20-minute walk before going inside after work — framing these as sustainable habits rather than overhauls.
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
Ashley shares her personal approach to reducing soda: drinking two glasses of water for every soda, only filling the glass halfway, and noticing that as she works out more she naturally craves water over soda — without banning soda entirely.
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
Ashley describes drinking a full glass of water before treats, portioning out a quarter cup of peanut butter M&Ms instead of eating the whole bag, and actively thinking about what she's consuming — finding she needs less when she's paying attention.
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?
Ashley wraps up by arguing that small, gradual improvements feel less abrupt and less restrictive than fad approaches, and that going back to old habits after a challenge is exactly what leads to regaining weight and giving up on fitness altogether.
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