207. How To Get Back on Track

My name is Patrick McGilvray, and I’m an experienced marathoner, ultra runner, Sports Nutritionist, Master Life Coach, and weight loss coach for runners. I’ve dedicated my life to helping runners just like you properly fuel your body and your mind. So you can get leaner, get stronger, run faster, and run longer than you ever thought possible. This is Running Lean.

Hey there, and welcome to episode 207 of Running Lean. My name is Patrick McGilvray, The Weight Loss Coach for Runners, and today how to get back on track. So if you want to accomplish a big goal, the key to getting there is consistency.

You have to take aligned action and continue to take aligned action over and over and over again until you eventually reach that goal. The problem is that most people don’t stick with anything long enough to see that end result.

They get off track somewhere along the way, and they end up staying off track. So getting off track is actually not the problem, we all do it. The real problem is not getting back on track. So today, it’s all about how to get back on track, and how to stay there so that you can actually crush those big goals.

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Alright, let’s get into this topic how to get back on track. So I realized that a lot of people will start working towards some big goal like losing weight. And if you’re somebody that wants to, you know, lose 30 or 40 pounds, that’s a big goal.

And that’s going to take time to reach that goal. It’s not something you can do in a few weeks or even a couple of months, it usually takes longer than that. Or maybe it’s it’s something big like running your first marathon. Again, that’s going to take months of preparation, you have to build a good base. And then you got to do like 16-20 weeks of training.

These kinds of goals, these big goals, I love them because they cause you to level up. But they’re also hard and they take time. And eventually, you are going to, during the course of training for that marathon or trying to lose weight, you’re going to go off track, you’re going to slip up, you’re going to miss a workout, you’re going to eat something you shouldn’t be eating, you’re going to eat something that it was, you know the way you used to eat, you’re gonna eat a bunch of junk food.

And it’s okay to do that. It’s okay to have those little slip-ups here and there. But what most people do is they go off track, and then they end up quitting because they’re like, well, I can’t do it. See, look, I failed.

They consider themselves a failure, which is never true, by the way. But they end up quitting so easily. Right? Have you ever done this? Have you ever been doing something you were doing great, you’re moving right along, you are sticking with a plan.

Let’s say you’re trying to lose weight. So you change your diet, and you’re sticking with it. You’re doing great. And then you have this weakness moment and you’re like, I’m just going to eat up large pizza myself, right?

And then you look at yourself and go, you know what, I’m a complete failure. I can’t do this. Look, look at what happened to me. I went completely off track, I can’t do this and then they quit.

Well, when you quit, you’re absolutely giving up and you’re absolutely going to fail. You’re never going to reach that goal. You know, if you’re training for a marathon, and you just give up running like you’re not gonna run that marathon I’m going to tell you right now, it’s a little bit too hard to be able to just show up on the starting line and run a marathon without any training. (Although there are people that have done that and good for you. They probably did not feel too good for a couple of weeks afterward.)

But just know that these things require work they require time and that you will go off track during that process. Okay, and we have got to stop looking at going off track as the end because it’s not the end, the real problem, I think, is that many people are just afraid to fail. There’s a big fear of failure going on here.

This is why most people will never even start anything why most people won’t try to change their diet, they won’t even try to lose weight. They’ll convince themselves that it’s okay being the size they are. And for some people, that’s fine.

And a lot of people, you know, there’s a big movement of body positivity. And I’m all for that if you’re feeling good in your skin the way you are, and you like your size and everything, perfect, I love it.

But there’s a lot of people that are trying to convince themselves that it’s okay, because they’re afraid of trying to lose weight, they’re afraid of failing because when they’ve tried it in the past, it hasn’t worked.

And when you go off track, when you start something and you go a little bit off track, people will see that as a failure. And they’ll be like, yeah, see, I just showed myself that I can’t do it. This is not good thinking though. This is not the way you want to approach something big like this, okay?

If you want to accomplish these big goals, you have to stay consistent. Like you have to do things consistently. You have to eat the right foods, day in and day out, you have to do the training every single day, you have to show up for yourself no matter what. So this is all about taking aligned action and taking aligned action consistently.

Aligned action is an action that is in alignment with those big goals that you have for yourself. So if you’re taking aligned action around losing 40 pounds, it might be, you’re just not gonna eat sugar for a while.

If you, you know, want to run a marathon lined action would be you got to show up and do the training, you got to run four days a week, five days a week, whatever you decided you want to do, you got to do those long runs on the weekends.

Even though it’s raining out, even though it’s cold out, even though you got to, you know, dress in a hat and gloves and tights and jacket and everything and go out there and run in the cold. Like that’s aligned action is getting out there and showing up for yourself. Even though it’s hard, even though you don’t want to. That’s the only way you’re gonna reach these goals.

If you want to lose a bunch of weight, or get to run your first marathon or improve your marathon time, it’s going to take time, and it’s going to take consistent aligned action. That’s it like you just have to take consistent aligned action.

So what happens though, is people will be taking aligned action pretty consistently for a while. And then they’ll go a little bit off track. Well, listen, everybody goes off track. Nobody does this stuff perfectly. I work with clients every day, who are kicking ass, they are improving, they’re running, they’re losing weight, they’re getting stronger.

And not one person has done this perfectly, not one person has been 100% compliant with everything I’ve told him to do. And that’s okay. Because that’s the norm like, it’s normal to not do it 100% perfectly. But we do need to be consistent with this stuff.

Okay, we need to get our reps in, we need to do the same things over and over and over and over again until it becomes automatic behavior. So for me for a while there, I was working out at this local gym, a little small gym with a, I had a private trainer that was helping me and I would go twice a week.

And actually, this was when I was going in it was I was just doing this group, these group workout sessions. So I was doing these group workout sessions twice a week. And honestly, it just there wasn’t enough consistency there for me to get stronger. Like, I wanted to get bigger muscles, and I wanted to get stronger. And I just wasn’t doing it consistently enough.

And then I’d missed some weeks and missed some workouts and I was just sort of half-assing the whole thing. Okay. So the thing is, though, I decided at some point that I wanted more for myself, and that for me, I needed more consistency, that the aligned action was kind of there, but it wasn’t enough.

And so I needed to reevaluate what I was doing. And so what I started doing was I joined a different gym, you know, one where I didn’t have to go to these group classes where I could just go whenever I wanted to. And I started going five times a week and I started that just earlier this year.

So we’re coming to the end of 2023. So this was at the kind of the beginning of 2023. And I decided that for me, the kind of consistency I needed was to go five days a week, Monday through Friday. And I committed to doing that and I knew that if I was committed to going five days a week, the consistency would be there for me to get bigger muscles for me to get stronger for things to begin to change for me, and they did.

And it took a while, like, at the beginning, it was hard. It was not something I was used to, I wasn’t in the routine of going to the gym every day. I didn’t always feel motivated to go, but I just kept at it. And the thing is, every now and then, I had some, you know, things to do, I had some scheduling conflicts, or whatever, and I couldn’t show up, and I couldn’t, you know, go to the gym. So I went off track.

But the thing is, because I was going five days a week, if I missed one day, it wasn’t a big deal. When I’m going twice a week, and I missed a day, that’s a lot. That’s like 50%, of my workouts I missed for the week. But now if I’m doing five days a week, and I missed one, okay, no big deal.

But getting into this routine of going five days a week, I wasn’t motivated to do it all the time. I didn’t do it perfectly all the time. But I kept at it until it became automatic behavior, until it became something that felt easy and effortless.

Today I love going to the gym every day, it’s my happy place, I would much rather just go and lift weights than run. I got, I’ve kind of switched, I used to like hate lifting weights, and would just rather run now I’d rather just lift weights and running kind of has become secondary for me.

So my point with all this is that you have to practice consistency, you will not do it perfectly. But you have to get those reps in, you got to show up for yourself every single day. And you have to take that consistent aligned action.

Okay, so the key here is consistency, not perfection. So if you go off track, not a big deal. Now, with all the consistency in the world, you are going to go off track, and you’re going to experience some kind of failure along the way.

If you’re trying to change how you eat, and you know the family has all ordered pizza, and there’s pizza sitting there, you might eat some pizza because it’s pizza. It’s amazing, right? You might skip a workout because you don’t feel good and you didn’t get enough sleep last night or you just don’t feel like going, that’s fine.

You might skip a run because it’s like raining, pouring down rain outside, that’s about the only reason why I skip runs usually is if it’s absolutely pouring rain and cold. If it’s raining and warm, fine. But if it’s cold and rainy, I don’t like that combination.

So eating the pizza, skipping a workout, skipping a run, no big deal. It’s normal. It’s to be expected, it will happen sometimes. But you cannot look at these things as being the end, they are not the end. These are just little micro failures along the path that will eventually lead to your success.

So the big key is consistency, not perfection. And you’re going to have these little failures. But you have to recognize these little failures for what they are. They’re just little blips on the radar.

And the important thing is, is that as soon as possible, you get back on track, and you do not miss two workouts in a row. You never have two cheat meals in a row. You don’t turn one meal of eating pizza into well, you know what I’ve blown it already. So I might as well just go all in on this.

And then you end up eating and drinking your way through the weekend. And then you feel terrible on Monday. And you’re like, you know what I might as well just keep going because I’ve already blown this whole week anyway. So then you blow the rest of the week. And then you’re like, well, I’ve already blown this whole week might as well just blow the whole month.

And you see where I’m going with this right? This is terrible. This is terrible thinking, okay? Never have two cheat meals in a row. As soon as you can you get back on track. So if you have, you know, a dinner and that you know, was you ate a bunch of French fries, you know, because they were just sitting there and you’re like, I just want some french fries. And you sort of give in and you and you have that moment of like getting off track.

Okay, no big deal. Next meal that might be you know, lunch the next day or something like that. You’re back on track you you stick to the plan that you made for yourself.

Same with your workouts do not miss two workouts in a row. Everybody will miss a workout here and there. And I have done this, you know, a handful of times over the last year so like there’s just times where I couldn’t make a workout. I’m like, you know what, I’m just gonna I’m just gonna blow this one off. It’s fine. Next workout though I do not miss that next workout. That is key right there.

You don’t want to start spiraling downward so you have to stop it as soon as possible. You have to put the brakes on right there right? You have to stop that process from getting out of control. Because when you have this thinking where you’re like, well, I’ve already blown it, I might as well just keep going, that is very detrimental. You know, you have these big, important goals that you are working towards.

And basically, what you’re saying is, what’s more important to me is this one meal, and just, you know, giving in to all these desires that I’m experiencing right now. And just, you know, feeling comfortable, that’s more important than these long-term goals, that is not acting in alignment with who you really want to become in the future.

So think about that are your actions in alignment with who you really want to become in the future, getting off track is fine, you can get off track here and there, get back on track as soon as possible. It’s okay to fail. It’s part of the process, it should be expected. But failure does not mean it’s the end. getting off track here or there does not mean that you should stay off track for days or weeks or months at a time.

Right, those little off-track moments should just be that there should be little moments, little vignettes, little blips on the radar. The key to not letting these moments turn into days and weeks is to reflect on that moment of failure. And what I suggest to my clients to do is to write about it.

It doesn’t have to be this big, you know, time-consuming grandiose thing, just jot down a few questions and reflect on them. Ask yourself a few key questions. So let’s say you ate a bunch of pizza. What I want you to do is like fine, okay? Eat the pizza, enjoy it, whatever. Afterward, though, maybe that night before you go to bed, you pull out your journal. And I want you to do a little bit of writing.

And I want you to ask yourself some key questions like, Why did I do that? Get curious with yourself. Why did I go off track like that? What was the thought process that led me to make that particular decision? What feeling was I experiencing that I was trying to avoid experiencing? Or change? How was that feeling? And how was I trying to change that feeling? What could I have done differently in that moment?

You know, if I could have waved a magic wand and done things differently, what would I do differently? You know, what would I do differently next time because it’s there’s going to be a next time? And this little process, even simple, doing a little bit of writing a little bit of reflection on your thought process and on your decision making. And it is it’s very simple, but it’s also very powerful.

And honestly, most people don’t do it. Most people would not spend five minutes writing about why they made a particular decision. But understanding why you make the decisions that you make, why you go off track, learning about your own thought process, learning about how you’re dealing with emotions, or trying to squash your emotions, learning about how you give into temptation, or how you blow off a workout or why you do those things. This is amazing self-awareness.

And right here, this little exercise will help you stay on track next time 100%. Because when you do that work of doing a little bit of a post mortem on the incident and saying like, oh, here’s why I think I did this. Here’s what I would do differently next time when that next time comes around which it will, you are armed with new information, you’re armed with this new self-awareness, you’re armed with strategies and tactics that you can take. That will keep you on track.

So you don’t go off track in the first place, we will all go off track eventually. But the odds of you doing it go down a lot when you take the time to create this self-awareness. Okay, you want to understand yourself at a deep level. You want to understand why you do the things you do. You want to understand how you could do things differently next time so you can make different decisions in the future because every little decision helps to shape who you are. All these decisions you make there either moving you closer to that goal, or further away.

And failure is inevitable. Listen, you are going to fail. You’re not going to do this stuff perfectly. It’s okay. But each of these little failures you have to see is a learning experience. Every time you go off track. It has to be a learning experience.

So learn from these experiences. This is how you develop your mindset. This is how you grow, this is how you evolve, this is how you become more. You actually don’t learn anything from doing everything perfectly all the time, I wish it worked that way but it doesn’t. Okay that’s all I got for you today, love you all, keep on Running Lean and I will talk to you soon.