Transcript
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?