Transcript: Talk Nice to Yourself: A Pep Talk for Bad Gym Days
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Ashley introduces the episode's focus on talking positively to yourself rather than waiting for others to acknowledge your fitness journey or fixating on the scale and pant sizes, which she says can be demotivating and defeatist.
Sometimes you have to be your own biggest cheerleader. What's up, my movers and shakers? Famous Ashley Grant here. Welcome to More Movement, Please, the podcast where I hope to inspire you to move your body more. Today, I want to talk about cheerleading and not the kind with pom poms, but the kind where you actually talk positively to yourself, where you get excited about the things you're doing for yourself. When you wait for other people to acknowledge the fact that you are on a weight loss journey or you focus too much on external factors like the scale or even your pant sizes, it really can demotivate you. It's very, it can be very defeatist. And so what I want to encourage you to do today is if you are starting your weight loss journey, if you're starting your fitness journey, I want you to just start being your biggest cheerleader, your biggest fan. Start talking positively to yourself about what you're
doing. Because what you're doing, even if you're not seeing progress immediately, it matters. And it's going to be a long road. That's something that I've had to learn a lot over this last year, is that even though I did lose four pant sizes pretty quickly, my body has sort of plateaued. And because of some health issues I'm having, I'm gaining a little bit of weight back. And obviously, that's not the intention. The goal was to... get stronger and keep losing inches and all the things. But if I focus on that, if I focus on the negative aspects of things, it's very, very demotivating. It's depressing. It makes you not want to get out of bed. It makes you not want to go to the gym. It makes you not want to try to move your body more. But when you start focusing instead on the progress that you're making, the fact that you're even trying, the fact that you're showing up, that's when the magic happens. That's when it starts feeling
Ashley shares that health issues caused her to plateau and gain some weight back, and that she had to go from 10s and 20s back to 8s and 15s at the gym — something she was 'hella angry' about — and describes struggling through a workout that same day, doing seven reps where her gym partner Rhonda was doing ten.
like, okay, I can keep doing this. I can keep going. I can keep trying. And the reason I bring this up and I, it's, it's all related to the whole transparency thing. When I first started getting a little bit of weight back and I was having so much trouble at the gym, I had to kind of check myself. I had to recognize that I was starting to get very upset about it and very, very depressed if I'm honest, because I was so excited that I was finally doing 10s as my low weight dumbbells and 20s as my big weight dumbbells.
I was so excited about that, that when I recognized that I kind of didn't have a choice, I was going to have to go back to my eights and 15s. I was really pissed off about it, like hella angry. And I'm still a little upset about it. And I'm still trying to go back to my 20s. Like today, I just left the gym and I was doing the 20s to try to. just feel better about things and try again. And I will not lie to y 'all, I was struggling really, really hard with the movements. I mean, you know, when Rhonda was doing 10 reps, I was doing maybe seven, if that. And the truth is, I was getting upset about it. Even then I was I was frustrated that I wasn't able to do the same amount of reps that she was doing. But what I started to do was change the narrative. I started trying to focus on the fact that, hey, even though I can't do as many reps as she's doing. I'm trying and I'm putting in the work and I'm still going.
And so, again, it's just a matter of focusing on the positive aspects of things because I get it, y 'all. It can really, really suck, especially when you are trying so hard to achieve goals and it feels like you're not having forward momentum. It can really hurt. It can really be frustrating. the more I focus on all the good that's happening, all the good things. And that's why I'm so excited about focusing on the milestones and sharing the fact that I even did work out. Because when I'm sharing those things, it's not just for y'all, it's for me. It's me looking at, oh my goodness, I have this record of proof that I am continuing to show up. I have this record of proof that... Every single day, I'm doing something to move my body. And any day where I don't have an entry in my calendar of some sort of movement, y 'all, I get up and move because I can't stand it when in my calendar, I don't
Ashley describes how she started focusing on the fact that she's still trying rather than comparing her reps to Rhonda's, and explains how logging every workout in her calendar serves as personal proof that she keeps showing up — not just for listeners, but for herself.
have movement listed somewhere. And so... That's how I'm becoming my own best cheerleader is I'm focusing on the milestones. I'm celebrating the wins. I'm paying attention to all the good that's coming out of what I'm doing because every time I focus on that stuff, that's when I get more excited to work out. That's the big takeaway I want you all to have today is if you are on a weight loss journey, even if you're just getting started, celebrate every single win. Celebrate the fact that you got up and you got dressed and you went to the gym. Celebrate the fact that you got up and you went for a walk. Celebrate the fact that you are trying to lift a dumbbell for the first time or that you're doing a Zumba class or that you're doing a spin class or that you are walking your dog just a little bit further or even if you're just parking further away from the gym. door to the grocery store or whatever
it may be, if you're putting some sort of effort into moving your body more, I want you to celebrate that today. Give yourself a round of applause. Give yourself a bear hug. Give yourself a pep talk and talk about how awesome it is that you're putting in the effort. Because even if no one else acknowledges it, you're the person that you have to live with every single day, all day. And so you might as well be kind to yourself.
You might as well focus on everything you're doing that is good for you. And the more that you focus on those wins, those good, positive energy things, the better it's going to feel. Onwards and upwards, my friends. Have you worked out today?
Ashley closes with a direct call to celebrate every effort — getting dressed, going for a walk, trying a Zumba class, parking farther from the store — and reminds listeners that since they're the person they live with every day, they might as well be kind to themselves.
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