Running Lean with Patrick McGilvray
Wow! 100 episodes of the podcast! In this “best of” edition of the Running Lean podcast, I feature a dozen or so of your favorite moments - and mine - from the first 100 episodes. The timing of …
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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 100 of Running Lean. My name is Patrick McGilvray, the weight loss coach for runners. Holy wow. 100 episodes of the podcast. This is so awesome. In this next edition of the Running Lean podcast, I feature a dozen or so of your favorite moments and mine from the first 100 episodes.
And if you want to know which episodes each of these little clips come from, I’ve linked to all the episodes featured in this podcast in the show notes. So you can just go to runningleanpodcast.com to access the show notes for this episode.
And the timing of this particular episode, my 100th episode could not have been better. It was set to be released on Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, but I decided I was going to release it a day early. Because I wanted this episode this 100th episode to be my way of saying thank you to all of you for listening and for allowing me to be a part of your health and fitness journey.
I received a comment in the Running Lean Facebook group today from Michelle and she just said, thank you, you have made such a positive impact in my life. This is why I do what I do. And I’m just beyond grateful for all the love support and encouragement that I’ve received from you since I started doing this podcast back in January of 2020. And I can’t wait to share the next 100 episodes with each and every one of you. Love you all, keep on running lean. And enjoy the best of the Running Lean podcast so far.
So what’s the alternative? What’s the alternative to this, like a temporary diet mentality? You know, the alternative is the way of life mentality, right? You’ve got to change your whole mindset around healthy eating. You have to let go of that whole old diet mentality, idea, that temporary idea. And you have to adopt this new way of life mentality.
Why does this work? Well, when you make healthy eating a way of life, you’re no longer in this temporary mindset, okay, you have a mindset of permanence, right? Healthy eating becomes who you are, it becomes what you do, you’ll have a much easier time sticking to it. Because in your mind, you’re never going back to eating that way that you used to eat again.
You’ll never quit. Because quitting isn’t an option. You have this deep desire at the core of your being to be as healthy as possible. And it’s a for life kind of a deal. So you develop this unshakable determination.
Think about it this way, like it’s very similar to when you’re training for a marathon. Right? There’s something very powerful and deep inside you that when you’re dry when you’re training for a marathon, it drives you there’s something inside you that drives you to train to do all those long, hard runs.
To get up early on the Saturday mornings to run in the rain in the cold and the snow and all that other stuff, right? You’ll do it because there’s something like visceral that’s driving you right? No matter what I’m sticking to my marathon training schedule.
That’s what I mean by unshakable determination. We want to apply that same unshakable determination to healthy eating. No matter what happens. I’m sticking to my healthy eating plan. No matter what happens, I’m going to make this work for the long haul. I’m in this 100% I’m committed. That’s where we want to get to. Okay.
So how do we do that? Like, how do you develop that unshakable determination? Well, really, it involves not just changing what you do, because when you just change what you do, you’re changing your actions, your behaviors, kind of your habits, right? This is just this is surface-level stuff, right? You have to go deeper than that, you have to like, get to the core of who you are right? You have to make healthy eating part of your identity. Okay? You got to make healthy eating just a way of life. Right? It’s just what you do. It’s just who you are.
Tony Robbins says quality questions create a quality life. Successful people ask better questions. And as a result, they get better answers. Love Tony Robbins. So blaming people ask terrible questions, blaming people ask questions like, Why does this always happen to me?
Have you ever found yourself asking your yourself something like this? Or how come everybody else can do this, but not me? Or how come I can never get ahead? Why isn’t life fair? These are the kinds of questions that blaming people, that people who are living in the effect of everyone and everything around them, they ask questions like that.
People who take radical responsibility for everything in their life – they ask questions like, How can I get this done? Like what do I need to do to change? What do I need to change in this situation in order to get better results? You know, what internal resources can I tap into to make this better? How can I figure this out? What can I do better next time? What do I need to learn to make this happen for me now?
Those kinds of questions are empowering those kinds of questions will help you to take radical responsibility for everything that’s happening in your life. So what happens when you take radical responsibility for everything, you take back your control, you know, you, you regain agency over your own results, you take back your power, okay, you are empowered, you control your thinking.
And if you want to, you can change it, you control your emotions, you get to choose your feelings, somebody isn’t bestowing them upon you, okay. You control what you do, you control the actions that you take. And if you want to, you can always do something different, you can always take different actions.
The best part though, is you control your results. And results are not determined by others, you are in charge, your results are determined by you alone, okay? And you have no excuses, all the excuses are gone. Okay? That’s the good and the bad news.
So, think about this, you don’t need anyone else to change anything. They don’t need to change what they’re doing at all. You have the power within you right now. To get whatever you want in your life, stop living in the effect of what others are doing or saying or thinking, stop blaming others start taking radical responsibility, and you’re gonna see some amazing changes happening in your life.
Cool. Here’s the thing, if all you’re focused on is your weight, how many pounds your body weighs? You’re kind of missing the point. And the big secret is that listen, weight loss is really not the goal. Getting to some arbitrary number on the scale is not what you should be after, fitting into those jeans you rocked 10 years ago is not your only objective. Although that’s pretty awesome if you could do that.
So what are we talking about here? What’s the real goal, Patrick? Well, here it is. The real goal is to become the healthiest version of yourself losing weight, you know, getting back to your natural weight, whatever that is for you. That’s a side effect of becoming healthy. It’s secondary.
But most people have this backward. They think that you know, they need to lose weight to get healthy, but it’s the other way around. You become healthy, and then the weight comes off. You stop putting a bunch of crap into your body and your body responds. Inflammation disappears, your hormones get back in line. blood sugar and insulin levels become normal.
You start feeling better. You’re not hungry all the time. You start sleeping better. You no longer feel stressed out about everything and you have tons of energy. Running becomes easier, your cravings for sugar go away. And you seem to be able to think more clearly when all of these changes in your body start happening.
And then, as a result of all these good changes happening in your body becoming healthier, then you start burning fat like crazy, then the weight starts to drop off. Alright. And remember, we store body fat when we have when we’re taking in all this extra energy, usually in the form of sugar.
And our body can only use so much of that energy and the rest of it gets stored away to be used later. But later never comes where we’re always storing fat, we’re really good at storing fat, we’re just not really good at burning the fat, okay?
So we’re really good at storing and storing and storing fat, we want to be good at burning the fat, right, but all these other things have to happen in order for you get your body into that fat-burning mode, in order for the weight to start coming off.
Okay, so you get your body healthy first. And then you start losing the weight making sense. So it’s less about the number on the scale. And it’s more about becoming the healthiest human being possible.
The difference between people who succeed at stuff and those who don’t, a lot of times just comes down to a commitment. Successful people decide that they are going to succeed, they make a commitment to reach their goal. No matter how long it takes, no matter how hard it gets, no matter how many challenges they face, they are committed to making that happen.
So they don’t necessarily have some superpower, they don’t have more drive than you or more determination, more willpower, or anything like that. They just early on in the process, they made a decision that they were going all in on this, no matter what you have to make the decision that you are going to go all in that you are going to succeed, no matter what. No matter what challenges come up, no matter how uncomfortable you might get, no matter how hard it might seem in the moment.
Most people don’t do this though. Most people, you know, dabble in these concepts and principles. When we talk about losing weight and changing your diet and what you’re eating, and how much you’re eating. And when you’re eating the kinds of foods you’re eating, people do it kind of sort of, but they don’t make that commitment, they don’t go out there.
And because they’re afraid, they’re afraid of how they might feel because they might feel sluggish, they might have cravings, they might get an urge to eat some pizza or ice cream. And guess what, those people that kind of dabble, the kind of go, not all in, they go sort of a little bit in they get some little results.
I want you to see how complicated our relationship with food has become. And that this is not easy. This topic is controversial. It’s complicated, it’s complex. There are a lot of nuances here a lot of gray areas, I want you to be able to make informed decisions about your own health.
And I want you to feel good about what you choose to eat and choose not to eat, you got to do what feels good for you. I also want you to be open to different ideas. So maybe not the ideas that are pushed down from the big food companies, but maybe some more grassroots kinds of ideas.
You know, we are all an experiment of one. So you need to figure out what works best for you. Take control of your own health and your own fitness and your own diet and do what feels best for you. If you want to be a vegetarian or a vegan or do the Mediterranean diet or Weight Watchers, whatever you want to do is completely fine. I have no judgments about any of that stuff.
But if what you’re doing isn’t working, I want you to be open-minded to try something else. But if you think life is going to be good all the time; if you expect that you are going to be very disappointed and very miserable a lot of the time because you’re going to be rejecting and resisting the idea of reality of what it is, you have to accept it all, you have to embrace the suck.
Because without the pain, we don’t get to experience the pleasure. Without agony, we don’t know what joy is. Without feeling sadness, we don’t know what happiness feels like. Without frustration, we don’t learn patience. Without feeling anxiety, we don’t experience peace. Without failing, we don’t know what accomplishment feels like.
You know, without uncertainty, we don’t know what confidence is. When you can embrace all of it and when you become willing to experience all of these emotions, we’re talking about a lot of emotions here fear, anxiety, frustration, anger, pain, when you’re willing to experience these emotions, when you’re willing to embrace the suck; here’s nothing you can’t do.
Most people are afraid to feel uncomfortable. They are so afraid of the suck that they never do anything hard, they’re not going to try. They don’t even get up off the couch. Because they know that to put on their running shoes and go start running when they haven’t been running in forever.
And they want to run a 5k, they want to do that. But they know it’s gonna be hard. And so they just stay on the couch. They don’t embrace the suck. So they never do anything hard. And guess what? They never accomplish anything. They stay comfortable. Yeah. They don’t have to experience the sucky things. Yeah. They stay in their comfort zone.
But what does that do for you? What does that get you? Is that what you want for your life? I don’t think so. If you’re listening to this podcast, if you’re listening to me, then I’m pretty sure that’s not you. That does not sound like you.
Everything you want, but don’t already have, lies outside your comfort zone. So if you never embrace the suck, you never embrace the discomfort you never grow. You never become more than what you are today, right here. Now. You’ve never accomplished anything bigger than what you’ve already done in your life. The purpose of your life is not to be happy all the time, the purpose of your life is to become more.
Becoming more requires you to be somewhat unhappy and somewhat discontented with how things are and somewhat uncomfortable. Right, for yourself or others for your community for the world. Like there needs to be some level of discontentment with the way things are, in order for you to want to grow and become more to change to evolve.
Becoming more means experiencing some amount of discomfort, some amount of pain or hardness or suffering. We don’t grow and evolve by sitting around on our butts in our comfort zone all the time. If I could grow and become more by just sitting on the couch watching Netflix all day long, I would absolutely do that. But it doesn’t work that way. It does not work that way.
Becoming more means and I want to break this down for you because I talk about this idea of becoming more what does that mean? Becoming more means becoming more of who you are not becoming someone else. But just becoming more of you. More of who you want to be.
There’s this version of you that’s inside you that’s lurking inside you that maybe you’ve always been afraid to let out. That’s what I’m talking about. I want that for you. I want you to be more authentically you.
And I don’t know if I’ve shared this with you guys before this quote from Dr. Seuss. And it’s from one of the Dr. Seuss books. I can’t remember which book it’s from. But the quote is this: “Today you are you that is truer than true.”
There is no one alive who is you-er than you at anytime. I talk about like becoming more you. This quote always comes to mind, like there’s no one alive who’s you-er than you. Becoming more means living up to your true potential becoming the best you can be right, most of us are living up to about 40% of our potential.
This is below average, I want more for myself, I want to become more, I want more than that for myself, I want you to want more than that for yourself. I don’t want to be below average, I want to be well above average, 40% is not cool with me, shouldn’t be cool with you either. We need to tap into more of who we are more of what we are capable of.
You cannot hate yourself thin, you have to love yourself through all of this. You have to have your own back. I talk about this concept a lot with my clients; having your own back. And I’m going to explain what this means to you. So you understand this too because this is a cool concept.
So what does it mean to have your own back? So imagine you’re out running with a friend. And you could be in a race, maybe you’re helping a friend get through their first half marathon, right? And you’ve done this a million times. And so you feel pretty confident you’re just out there to support them. You’re helping them get through the tough part of this run.
How would you show up for that friend? What would you say to them? I think you’d say things like, hey, I’m here for you, you got this, you can do it, you are a badass, come on, keep going, you’re doing great, you look great. You can do hard things, you are crushing it out here you are almost there. Come on, let’s go.
Right, you’d be there to support them to encourage them to keep them motivated. You point out all the positive things you can about them, you’d push them, you make sure that they finished strong. So this is what it looks like to have someone’s back.
And when you do this for someone else that feels really good, right? It feels good to be the one that’s doing the encouraging the one that’s doling out all that love all that positive mojo, it feels good to be that person, right?
Because you’re helping them do something big, you’re helping them get through something that’s uncomfortable. And it feels good to do this. It’s very invigorating. I love doing this. I love helping people.
That’s why I love coaching so much. You know, it’s such a big part of coaching is to give people encouragement and motivation and all that positive mojo doling out the love, right. So you can dig deep within yourself when you need to help someone else, right?
You can dig deep within yourself and find that love and that encouragement to help push someone further even when it’s very challenging for them even when things are going very tough for them. Right. So it’s very easy for us to do for others.
But it’s very hard for us to do for ourselves. Why is that? You know, it’s interesting, isn’t it? That it’s hard for us to do that for ourselves, even though we can do it so easily for others. You know, if you can do this for someone else, which you can I know you can, you’ve done this before, then you can do it for yourself. It just takes a little practice. So some of the things you can practice are instead of practicing negative self-talk, practice, positive self-talk.
You know, instead of practicing, feeling discouraged all the time, practice encouraging yourself. Instead of practicing thinking about all the ways that you’re going to fail, or all the ways that you suck, practice thinking about all the ways you’re going to succeed and all the ways that you are awesome.
We get to choose how we respond to every circumstance in our life. We can respond like a toddler, lay on the ground and kick our legs and scream and cry about it. Or we can respond like an emotional adults.
Here’s an example from my life. Speaking of challenges, 14 years ago, I decided I’d had enough drinking alcohol just wasn’t working for me, okay. And so I quit drinking. And during the last 14 years, I have had all kinds of challenges in my life. I’ve gone through breakups and divorce. I’ve changed careers. I’ve lost jobs. Both my parents passed away.
I’ve started businesses and then failed businesses. And through all of these 14 years there were all kinds of reasons and excuses that I could have turned to alcohol as a solution, like, oh, yeah, my, my parents just died like I could choose that as an excuse to drink. And most people would probably say, Yeah, I’d probably drink over a lot of that stuff too.
But I never did, I never felt the need to take a drink. I’ve never felt the need to revert to being an emotional toddler because of what’s happening in my life. I don’t blame the outside world, for how I feel, or for what I’m doing or not doing. I’m staying true to myself through all of it.
In fact, staying true to myself is why I’ve been able to handle these big challenges in my life. Because I’m not afraid to experience the emotions. Not afraid to feel my feelings. I don’t have to numb my emotions with alcohol or food anymore. And numbing out is a way of being an emotional toddler.
This is the way we sort of practice emotional childhood, okay. So when you go through something that challenges you, and you’re absolutely going to feel some emotions, right. You’re going to feel fear, you’re going to feel frustration, you’re going to feel stress, you’re going to feel sadness, or, or loneliness, or failure, or shame, or whatever it is, you’re going to feel some emotions.
So when you go through these big things in your life, the most people the way most people deal with these difficult emotions is they, they drink something, or they eat something, they turn to some sort of external thing to make them feel better inside it temporarily anyway, like, it just feels good to eat some cake, right, it feels good to drink some alcohol.
The problem with this approach, though, is that it comes with negative consequences, right? And maybe you drink too much, or you wake up with a hangover, you know, or maybe you eat too much. And you end up gaining weight, and you feel terrible.
This is what it means to approach the challenges in your life, like an emotional toddler, or you’re just like, I don’t want to feel this way. So you just like drink yourself numb or eat yourself numb? No. So when I talk about all or nothing, it’s different from when I talk about going all-in on yourself.
Okay, so I talk a lot about this concept of, you know, when you have a big goal, you need to go all-in on yourself for that goal, okay? You need to approach these big things in your life with this attitude that you’re committed to making it work, right no matter what.
So let’s say you want to lose weight, you have this big weight loss goal, going all in on yourself means that you’re going to keep going, that you’re, you know, it may take a while you may have some slip-ups, you may have some failures along the way. You may not stick to your plan or whatever, but you keep moving forward, you don’t quit on yourself.
Okay, maybe you want to change your relationship with alcohol going all-in on that means you use the power of your thoughts and feelings about alcohol to change the habit, it means you create a drinking plan, maybe you just want to moderate, you create a drinking plan and you stick to it no matter what.
Going all in on yourself means you’re committed to your health, you’re committed to success you’re committed to, you know, maybe going after this PR and your marathon. It does not mean you’re never allowed to drink again. It does not mean you’re never allowed to eat a cupcake again. It does not mean like you can never, you know, run a half marathon or 5k or something like that, you know.
I would just want to make sure that we understand the difference between the all or nothing mentality and like going all-in on yourself. Okay.
There’s a big difference between swearing off something forever like sugar alcohol and changing the habit and changing your relationship with it. Okay. So going all-in on yourself does not equate to all or nothing it just means you aren’t half-assing it, you know. You’re not half-assing your efforts towards this goal you’re full-assing it with whatever it is you’re doing. Okay.
So an example of what this looks like. So a lot of people live their life in the past. And here’s what I mean by that. People wake up and they start thinking about their problems. Right, your problems are just memories of past situations, past issues past stressors, past trauma.
So you start each day living in the past you thinking about, Oh, this thing that happened to me a while back, you know. And we call these things problems, or memories, whatever it is, you’re consciously back there in the past. So you start each day just like living in the past.
And each one of these past memories has an emotion tied to it. So you immediately begin your day feeling. Maybe you’re really feeling the unhappiness or the hurt, or the unworthiness or the stress or the anger that you experienced in the past, just by thinking about that situation now brings up the same emotional response, right?
How you think and feel, creates your present state of being who you are, at this moment, is a result of how you’re thinking and feeling right now. And most people start their day feeling all these negative emotions from the past.
And so they’re just living in the past, your familiar past, the thing that you know, that you keep repeating over and over and over again, in your mind becomes who you are today. And it just goes on and on. And your familiar past becomes your predictable future.
So who you were in the past, you’re just going to continue to create more and more of that you just become more and more of who you already are. You can’t go beyond who you used to be. You can’t get beyond who you are up to this point. Because that’s all you know. And that’s what you’re ruminating on.
And that’s what you’re thinking about. And that’s the emotions that you’re experiencing right now. So your emotional state right now is the past. And all you can think about is the future for your future is how you’re feeling right now.
When all your feelings and all of your thoughts and your whole being is is focused on who you used to be in the past like that’s who you are right now, that’s just going to be what you keep creating more and more and more for yourself, okay? This is what it looks like to be stuck in the habit of being you.
Now listen, there’s nothing wrong with this, it doesn’t mean you’re a bad person, or you’re doing something wrong, this is the way most of us have just kind of conditioned ourselves to operate in, it’s okay.
But if you want something more for yourself, if you want to continue to learn and grow and evolve and become that badass version of yourself that I always like to say that phrase, I love it, becoming the most badass version of yourself. If that’s what you want for yourself, then you got to break this habit of being who you are today, you’ve got to get out of being who you are so that you can become more.
This is probably the biggest key if you want to create self-motivation, you’ve got to do hard things when you don’t feel like it. Because when you do some little thing that’s hard, and you didn’t feel like doing it, you know, it’s going to move you a little closer to your goal, you know. It’s good for you, you know, it’s like helping you, you know, it’s going to keep you heading in the right direction.
And that little bit of, of doing that hard thing, that little feeling that you get after you do that little bit of satisfaction you get after doing that is going to give you a little bit of motivation to do it again. And do it again, and do it again. And you can just keep going.
In order to create self-motivation you have to do the things you don’t feel like doing. And then you have to just keep repeating those things, you have to get your reps in. Again, this is something I talked about in last week’s podcast. Repetition causes motivation because you begin to make the hard stuff easier, the hard stuff becomes easier. Okay.
So the first thing I want you to focus on is like doing the hard thing, even though you don’t feel like it. So I’m going to be sharing my experience of the Goggins 4x4x48 challenge this weekend in the Running Lean community on Facebook.
So join us over there and I’ll be like, kind of documenting that my experience as I go, do some lives and stuff like that and share kind of what it’s like to try to get out there at like 3am to get motivated to run.
So I’m doing this because it’s hard. And this is like my number one tip for creating self-motivation is like, do the hard thing, especially if you don’t feel like it.
The second tip I have for you is this always focus on making slow and steady progress, or fast and steady progress. doesn’t matter. But always focus on making incremental progress. Just making a little bit of progress will help you to get a little bit more motivation to keep you going.
Because when you make a little bit of progress, you tell yourself a story about what that means. And that thought is, hey, this is working, right? So many people don’t see any progress. Or maybe they’re not tracking their progress. Or they’re not seeing progress fast enough. And they just quit, they give up.
They’re like, hey, this, this way of eating isn’t, is I’m not losing weight fast enough. I’m just gonna quit and go back to doing what I was doing before, which doesn’t work, either. But that’s a whole other story.
But little by little, you want to be making incremental progress, because when you do, you get this little hidden motivation every single time you see the, you know, one pound a week drop off, or something like that, you’re like, oh, my gosh, that’s awesome.
Or an inch off your waist. Oh, my gosh, that feels so good. Or, hey, you know what, I ran a longer mile this week, my longer than my longest run. And these little things just start to stack up. And you and you begin to feel more and more motivated. It’s like you keep your motivation tank topped off each time you do something like this.
And you keep increasing the amount of motivation that you create, you keep stacking these little, little bits of motivation, one on top of the other. So you know, like, for me lately, I’ve been I’m lifting more weights, I’m tracking my weightlifting, and I’m able to do more reps or lift more weights.
So maybe you’re like, oh, I was able to do five more pounds this week. You know, or one more rep, than the last week. Or one more, I ran that one more mile, whatever it is. All these little signs point to progress, and that it’s working. And they will help to keep you motivated to keep showing up and continue doing the hard thing that you don’t want to do.
I have this mantra this is like my mantra for life. It’s relentless forward progress, no matter what. Always moving forward, no matter what. Always moving forward, no matter how slow. No matter how you know, zigzaggy the courses or whatever, we’re always moving in the direction of our goals. This is my motto for life.
This is like this got me through ultramarathons has got me through, you know. Tough things that happen in my life like divorce and loss of jobs. This is how I build my business. Relentless forward progress, little by little we make progress and it feels good to just look back and say like, oh, I’m actually I’m making progress here.
It doesn’t feel like it sometimes, but I can see these little hitsof progress. And that gets me motivated. Okay, I hope you all have an amazing day. Lots of love, keep on Running Lean. I’ll talk to you soon.
If you’re a runner and you’ve been struggling to lose weight or you keep losing and gaining the same 10 pounds over and over again. Or you’re finally ready to get to your natural weight and stay there for good this time then I have something you will love. I’ve created a powerful new training just for you called running lean for life. You’ll learn exactly how to transform yourself into a lean fat-burning running machine. So you can run without bonking, lose weight without calorie counting and develop the habits required to make it last for life. To get this free training right now go to runningleanpodcast.com/leanforlife and start your transformation today.
One of the hardest things about losing weight is feeling like no one is supporting you in your weight loss journey. Not only do you feel a lack of support, but you feel like the people closest to …
Continue Reading about 95. Getting Your Family’s Support with Your Weight Loss Plan →
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 95 of Running Lean. My name is Patrick McGilvray, the weight loss coach for runners. And today I’m talking about getting your family’s support with your weight loss plan.
So one of the hardest things about losing weight is feeling like no one is supporting you in your weight loss journey. No one’s got your back. Not only do you feel a lack of support from the people closest to you, but you actually feel like these people are going out of their way to make it harder for you to stay on track.
Why are they doing this? Why do we feel unsupported when we decide to make these big changes in our health and diet? How do we get through this? How do we get the support that we need to be successful with being healthy and sticking to our plan with making this our new way of life? I’ve been getting these questions a lot lately.
So in this episode of the podcast, I’ve got some helpful tips for getting your family support with your weight loss plan. But first, if you’d like this podcast, please come check out the Running Lean podcast community on Facebook.
It’s a group of like-minded runners who are focused on improving their health improving their fitness getting stronger, getting leaner, getting faster, and we support each other, we encourage each other we inspire one another, we motivate one another.
And it’s a place where you can ask questions. And it’s a place where you get a voice. You know, this podcast is great, I get to talk to you. But I don’t get to hear from you. And you don’t get to share what’s going on with you.
Join the Facebook group and you can share what’s going on with you. You can ask questions you can get answers. And it’s a lot of fun. That’s fun. So just search for Running Lean community on Facebook and hope to see you over there.
And then people ask how they can work with me. And there are really two ways. There’s the Running Lean coaching group which meets once a week we do a live group coaching call. And this is a great way to introduce yourself to becoming a fat adapted runner to understanding how your thoughts and feelings drive your actions to learn all about, you know how to succeed with your weight loss goals with your running goals.
You get to hear from like-minded people, we get to share what’s going on, we do a little coaching and teaching in the group once a week. And you get access to all my online training materials. So this is a great introduction to coaching and a great way to kind of get yourself started and make some progress. And to learn more and join the group just go to runningleanpodcast.com/join.
And then the other way of working with me is as your coach, I’m a one-on-one coach, this is my jam, this is what I do, I can show you exactly how to become the healthiest, most badass version of yourself. I’ll show you how to do it, you can get there.
And when you sign up to coach with me, you get the personalized meal plans, you get personalized attention, you know, it’s you and me working together to get you to your goals. It’s a results-oriented coaching program.
It’s not about just like I don’t have like a blueprint that I just give to everybody that’s exactly the same. It’s you and me figuring out together, what works best for you what makes you feel the best.
What gets you to your weight loss goals, what gets you to your running goals? What helps you to become the best, healthiest version of yourself? That’s what we do. And we do it together and we have fun here. Are you sensing a theme here? Like we try to have fun with all this stuff.
Losing weight, getting healthy does not have to be a suffer fest, we can have fun doing it. Anyway, if you’re interested in coaching with me just go to runningleanpodcast.com/apply. And you and I will jump on a quick Zoom call, have a conversation and we’ll talk about your goals. We’ll see if this is a good fit for you. Cool. Awesome. All right.
So I’ve been mulling around this topic for a while now because it’s something that is recurring. I keep hearing people talking about this and variations of this topic of like not feeling supported by their family and I’ve been working on this for a while and I think I have helpful tips for you guys today.
So make sure you listen to this whole podcast. I don’t know, don’t like just skim through these sometimes because if you do, you’re missing out on the good stuff. But today I’ve got some really helpful tips at the end of this episode, so stick around for that.
But the issue is that I hear a lot of people talking about how they don’t feel supported in what they’re doing, especially when they change their diet when they change what they’re eating. And then they try to stick to their plan. And this is especially true at the beginning of their weight loss journey.
And they tell me, they feel like they’re all alone. They feel like they’re just on their own, they feel lonely, they feel like no one is supporting them, their spouse isn’t supporting them, their kids maybe aren’t supporting them, and they just and their friends aren’t supporting them. And they just feel all alone. And it makes it very difficult to want to stick to their plan.
So I really think this is an issue for a lot of people and we need to, you know, figure this out. Right? So that’s what we’re going to be talking about today is what do we do in these situations, when we don’t feel supported, especially from the people closest to us, like our spouses, okay.
So one thing I want you to understand here is that if you want everybody in your family, if you want your spouse, and your kids and everybody, your family and all your friends, to just be on board with what you’re doing, and to totally support you, and to think the way you think and feel the same way you feel and do the things that you’re doing.
I’m just gonna tell you right now, this is an exercise in futility, you are going to be disappointed when you are expecting other people to think the way you think and do what you’re doing and say things that support you all the time, you’re just setting yourself up for disappointment. I’m just going to tell you right now, when you expect people to say this thing or do that thing, I promise you, they will let you down.
Okay, so we just have to understand that the number one thing we have to understand here is that you cannot control what other people are thinking what other people are feeling, what they are saying what they’re doing. And you have to stop pretending like you can control all of that. Okay, because you cannot.
And one thing that keeps coming up for me is when people say, Well, you know that my husband isn’t saying these things to me that he’s not talking to me in a way that feels supportive. He’s saying negative things, you know, he’s saying, Well, why don’t you just, you know, live a little, you know, just enjoy yourself for once, you know, these kinds of things are not helpful. Okay?
And I hear people say this, and I’m like, okay, I get it, you wish that they said different things to you, which isn’t really going to happen. Okay, first of all, but are you saying these things to yourself? Are you being encouraging to yourself? How are you talking to yourself? This is an important thing for you to think about. And really be honest with yourself.
Are you saying to yourself, “I don’t know if I should do this? Maybe I should just live a little? Oh, maybe I am. I’m doing great. And I deserve a little something. Maybe I should reward myself because I’ve been staying on my plan all week. So I can just eat like a cake.” Right?
I mean, that’s fine. Like, how are you talking to yourself? What are you saying to yourself? What’s that inner dialogue look like for you? Because if you’re not supporting yourself in the way that you’re talking to yourself, do you really expect other people to do that for you? Yeah.
And listen, I understand that it can feel like people are supporting you like no one is supporting you. You can make everything that they do and say mean that they’re not supportive of you. Right?
So you go out to dinner with your husband, and he’s like, You know what, I’m going to get extra french fries, because I’m like, really hungry. So and you’re like, “Ah, see, he’s not supporting me.” Or, you know, you’re you come home from work and your wife brings home a pizza for her and she’s eating pizza with the kids and you’re like making yourself some chicken and a salad or whatever. And you’re like, “See, she’s not supporting me.”
Or, you know, you go out to dinner with your friends and they’re ordering all these fruity cocktails and you’re not drinking, you know, and you’re just sitting there like feeling sorry for yourself and like, look, my friends aren’t supporting me. See how all these people aren’t supportive.
You can make everything mean that people aren’t supporting you. Okay? Look what they’re doing. See, they’re not supporting me in reality, none of this stuff. None of this has anything to do with you. This is just them doing them. Right? You’ve got to do you let them do them, and you do you.
And when you start making everything mean that you’re not being supported, you’re going to start to find evidence for that everywhere. Everywhere you look, every person you talk to, you’re going to feel like they’re not supportive of you see, here’s another person that’s like eating something that I can’t eat. So that means they’re not supportive of me.
And we’ve just got to get over this. Alright, you have to learn how to support yourself like this is my number one tip for you here today, is that you have to be your own number one best supporter, you have to have your own back all the time. What does this mean?
What does it mean to have your own back? Having your own back means that you speak kindly to yourself the same way you would speak to a friend. So if you and a friend were trying to stick to a healthy eating plan, and you were doing it together, and your friend was feeling like, I’m not sure about this, what would you say to that friend?
You’d be like, “Listen, you got this, you can do this stick with the plan, we’re gonna, we’re gonna get through this.” Like, that’s how you would treat your friend. That’s what you would say to your friend. That’s the way you need to dialogue with yourself.
Because the way you dialogue with yourself is whether you had your own back or not. So speak kindly to yourself, encourage yourself. Don’t talk trash to yourself. Don’t be like, “Oh, look at you, you screwed up again. Nothing ever works for you, you can’t do this. You know, you might as well just give up.” Like this is trash talk that you do to yourself. And listen, we all do it, right? But you’ve got to stop doing that. So speak kindly to yourself, stop the trash-talking to yourself.
Having your own back means keeping the promises you made to yourself, you make a commitment. I’m going to stick to my food plan today. And then you honor that commitment that you made to yourself, that’s having your own back. Right?
You say you’re going to do something, you commit to doing that thing. And then you do that thing. You honor the commitments you make to yourself, that’s having your own back.
What’s not having your own back is constantly breaking those commitments to yourself. Letting yourself down, making a plan and saying, “Okay, tomorrow, I’m sticking to my plan no matter what.” And then tomorrow comes and you’re like, you know what, I just feel like Chick-fil-A, and you go eat a bunch of, you know, get a bunch of junk food on your way home from work and just gorge out on that. Right?
Like that’s not having your own back. You have to be your own best supporter. This is like the number one thing I want you to take away from this episode right here is that when it comes to who’s supporting you and who isn’t?
If you’re not supporting you, how can you expect other people to? If you’re not supporting yourself, and you’re expecting everybody else to do it for you, you’re going to be very disappointed. Every single day, it’s not gonna work for you, okay? So you have to have your own back, you have to be your best supporter.
And here’s something I really think is important, something that you have to understand. You have to stop trying to control your circumstances. So stop trying to control what other people are thinking what other people are feeling when other people are saying what other people are doing. These are all circumstances.
And if you heard me talk about this ever in the past, you know that circumstances are things you cannot control. What you have control over are your own thoughts, feelings, and actions. That’s it. So you can’t control what other people are doing or saying or thinking or whatever.
So, your husband will say what he says and he’s gonna think what he thinks he’s gonna do what he does. And if you’re hoping he’s gonna change all that stuff, you will forever be in turmoil around all of that. Alright, because he is not going to change except that he is the way he is.
He’s going to say what he says, he’s gonna think how he thinks, and what he does, he’s just gonna keep doing right. You have to take responsibility for your own thoughts, feelings and actions. You have to take responsibility for your own decisions for your own choices.
Don’t blame other people for your bad choices. Don’t blame other people because you didn’t stick to your plan. It’s not their responsibility for you to, you know, stick to your healthy eating plan. It’s yours. It’s on you to take ownership.
I want you to take extreme ownership of your own health. And listen, this is not bad news. This is good news, this is very empowering. Because when you rely on other people and other people’s opinions, then this can be very disempowering because you’re giving your power away to others. You’re letting others’ thoughts and feelings about us determine how we think about ourselves that’s not good, or their opinions don’t matter.
So friends, moms, spouses, they all have their opinions about what you’re doing. Everybody has an opinion, right? And most people are more than happy to share their opinion with you whether you ask for it or not, especially when it comes to what people are eating.
And I think this is so crazy, and like weird, like, people will tell me all the time, like, why would you eat that? Or that’s weird. Or I was standing in line recently at this little breakfast buffet thing. And I was, you know, it kind of just loaded up my plate with eggs and bacon. And that was it. And somebody next to me was like, well, that’s a lot of protein. You know, and I was like, thanks for your opinion, didn’t ask for it. But thank you.
But people are just more than happy to share their thoughts with us. Isn’t that funny that we do that? I don’t understand. I would never say anything to somebody about what they’re eating.
But here’s a story I heard recently, from one of my clients, they were feeling good. They had started a couple of weeks into their weight loss journey. And they were feeling great. They changed their diet. They’re losing weight, they had tons of energy, and they were just like, feeling great about themselves.
And so they were talking to a co-worker about it. And they said, you know, hey, this is what I’m doing. And I feel so amazing. And this person they were talking to at the office was like, oh, yeah, I tried that low carb thing. It didn’t work for me after a few months.
And so this person came back to me, and she was very concerned about this, like, “Oh, is this gonna happen for me, too?” Like she really internalized this, right? And she believed that because this other person who she doesn’t even know that well had this one experience that that’s going to be her experience, too.
And I was like, listen, you don’t have to. First of all, you don’t have to believe what other people are telling you. Their opinions are just that they are their own opinions, it’s their own experiences. And what they’re saying and what their experiences were don’t mean squat to their experiences, they’re not yours.
Maybe they did it wrong. Maybe they didn’t really do it at all, maybe they thought they were doing it right. But they weren’t, I don’t know that. Who knows what happened with that person, it doesn’t really matter.
To be honest with you, most people try some sort of dietary change, and then give up after some time, and then say it doesn’t work, or that didn’t work for them when they really didn’t like stick to it long enough.
Or they didn’t make some minor changes or whatever. Like there’s always something we can do. And this is one thing I do with all my coaching clients is like, we always check and see how are things working? Are we getting the results that we want? Are you feeling good? Or is running getting better? How are your energy levels? Are you hungry?
Are you losing weight?
But we keep looking at all these metrics, and then we keep making minor changes to stay on plan and to keep moving in the right direction. But we don’t quit. But this is what most people do. They get to a point with their diet or whatever they’re doing. And they’re like, this isn’t working anymore, that diet doesn’t work.
And so if you internalize that and say like, oh, maybe this doesn’t work, because this one person had this one experience, and I don’t even know what they were doing. Just we got to stop doing that. Okay?
Other people’s opinions are just that – they’re their opinions, what their experiences were or what their opinions are, does not matter to you, you get to choose what you believe about yourself. Even if your spouse is like, I don’t think this is a good idea.
You know, we can really internalize that and think like, oh, maybe it’s not a good idea. Maybe I shouldn’t be doing this. But really, do you feel good? Are you enjoying this? Are you getting results? Are you becoming healthier? Like, then just stick with it. You know, don’t worry about their opinion, let them have their opinion, because they will share it with you.
But at the same time, you get to choose what you want to believe about yourself, period. Right? It’s on you. So people will have their opinions. You don’t have to internalize all that stuff, okay? But here’s what happens when you do internalize that stuff.
When you start to believe all the BS that people are telling you or whatever, you start to doubt yourself. You stop believing in yourself, you lose confidence. You know, you get frustrated you get worried and so what do you do when you start feeling frustrated and you start feeling worse? A lot of times you give in, you go off your plan, and then you eat a bunch of crap, you start to feel like crap.
And then you slip into these old behaviors because you’re going to start using food to feel better again, and the cycle continues. And then you’re back to where you were at square one. This is not having your own back, this is the opposite. Okay?
This is like self-sabotage stuff that we do. Okay? So what I’m saying here is that, like, you have to have your own back. And you have to just like trust in yourself, trust the process, you have to believe in yourself. And you don’t have to believe what other people are telling you. Right? Take control of your own thoughts, feelings, and actions, you get to choose what you believe. Isn’t that awesome? I think that’s amazing.
You get to choose what you believe people can say whatever they want, you get to choose your own beliefs about yourself. So own this, own it. Really be in control of your own beliefs, your own thoughts, feelings, and actions. Take 100% ownership of your own health. Stop giving away your power to other people, you’re in control. You get to choose what you want to believe about yourself.
Okay, so this is like my number one, like, big overarching tip here today is you, you have to take ownership, and you have to be your own best supporter. Okay. Here are a few other tips for you. Tell your family, your spouse, your kids, whoever it is that’s closest to you.
Tell them that, make sure you explain to them that this is about me and not you. I’m doing this thing, I’m making these changes. I’m not going to force my plan on you, you get to do what you want. If you want to come along with me great, if not great, but this is what I’m doing. And I’m doing it for me. I’m not doing it for you. I don’t care what you think. I don’t care about your opinion.
I don’t care, you know, uh, whether or not you want to join me in this journey, but this is what I’m doing. For me. It’s not about you, you get to do whatever you want you to do you let me do me, okay. So make sure that you explain that.
And that, especially with your spouse, right, because a lot of times the spouses can just be like, they can say things that get under our skin, or they can try to pull us down to what they’re doing. They’re like, Come on, just have some french fries. Come on, let’s just get some pizza tonight. You’ve been doing great. These little things can be really subtle, but also very dangerous for us. Right?
Because then they’re starting to like influence you, you’re letting them influence you. You just have to let them know like, Listen, you do you and I’m going to do me okay? It’s not about you, it’s about me. My next tip is that you have to explain that you may be a little bit of a cranky pants at times, especially at the beginning. Okay?
Listen, I’m not gonna candy-coat here, change is hard. Change is uncomfortable. And when you’re changing your diet, and let’s say you’re used to eating a bunch of junk food and a bunch of sugar and a bunch of comfort food, all that stuff that you’ve been eating for a long time and you’re like, I’m going to stop eating the junk, I’m going to stop eating sugar.
And when you do that, it’s going to be uncomfortable, you’re going to go through a period of discomfort, okay, it’s part of the process. Like being uncomfortable is like the price you have to pay to make that change. Alright, it’s required, it’s a requirement.
So embrace the discomfort and just let them know, listen, I may be a pain in the butt here. Please understand, this is not about you, but I’m just doing something that is, you know, it’s challenging, and I’m going to feel a little uncomfortable doing it. I’m going to be embracing the discomfort and I’m going to keep going alright, you have been warned.
But just let them know it’s not about them, it’s just about you and it will pass you know, usually you know a few weeks into it, it starts to get a lot less uncomfortable.
Another tip here, make your environment work for you. And this is going to look different for different people. But you may have to go through your kitchen and get rid of the crap food that you’ve got sitting around okay. You may have to like just totally get rid of the cookies and the chips and all this stuff.
If this is not an option for you, if you’ve got somebody kids or spouse in your household that eats a lot of this stuff still and is not willing to give up some of this junk food, then put that stuff in a designated cabinet. This is just for them and you stay away from it.
Like this is a little environment hack to help us stick to our plan because every time you open the cabinet to get you to know, whatever it is you want for yourself, and you’re seeing all the junk food, you’re just going to keep getting reminded that that stuff is there.
And it’s gonna make it very difficult for you. So do your best to make your environment work for you. Right. And sometimes that’s throwing stuff away. Or sometimes it’s like just putting it into a place where you just have limited access to it. Okay.
Here’s another tip. And this one’s going to sound hard. But it’s actually really cool. It’s really, really empowering. And that is like practice, being around people being around food being around situations that are tempting for you. Say what now? Yes, I’m telling you to put yourself in situations where people are eating junk food in front of you.
And I want you to just be in those situations and do nothing. Because here’s the reality of life, you are going to be in situations like this, whether you want it or not. And if you’re trying to control for all of this, and you’re just trying to like live in some sort of bubble, where everything is just perfectly formulated around you, and everybody’s eating the right foods, and you’re never going to see tempting foods or alcohol or whatever, it’s going to be a really tough life for you.
Like, you’re just you’re going to be around these situations, whether you want to or not. So my tip is to practice being in this in these situations and do nothing. Practice being around people who are eating junk food or drinking and you’re not drinking.
Practice being around people who are eating a bunch of junk, sugar, candy, whatever it is, and don’t do it, you know. Let other people order their dessert and just watch them eat it and just like, notice what comes up for you, how are you feeling in those situations? It’s gonna feel probably a little terrible, it’s okay, embrace the discomfort, don’t do anything about it.
Because the more you do this, the more you build the skill of being in these situations without giving in to the urges and the cravings and stuff, right. And if you’re just trying to shelter yourself from these situations, and that’s how you’re going to deal with it, there’s going to be a time where you just find yourself around people who are eating dessert or drinking or something like that, and you’re just like, screw it, just give in, because you haven’t developed that skill.
So what I’m telling you is to embrace some of those situations, put yourself in those situations. You know, I wouldn’t do it like, every single day. But practice being in those situations. You know, your husband brings home pizza for him, and the kids just sit there with them and enjoy your salad while they’re eating pizza.
You’re going to smell it, it’s going to look great, that cheese is all gooey and just gonna look amazing. But just like you know, what, just be like, Yeah, that’s cool. How was your day?
And just be with the discomfort, you know, embrace the discomfort and don’t, don’t give in. And the more you do this, the easier it becomes. This is a skillset, a habit that you need to learn, okay.
And then another tip I have for you is to create your own support system, alright. So it can be very helpful to have a support system around you. And it doesn’t have to be your spouse or your immediate family members or whatever, or your mom or whoever. Like you can like have, you can sort of create your own support system. Okay.
And here’s what I mean by this. You might have some like-minded friends that are on board with you – spend more time with them. You might belong to Facebook groups, like the Running Lean community on Facebook, which is a bunch of like-minded people who support you, you might read books that support what you’re doing, or listen to podcasts that support what you’re doing.
You might follow people on social media, you might hire a coach, these are all ways of creating a support system for yourself. Because listen, you can have your own back and that’s awesome. And that’s great. Honestly, it is helpful to have supportive others around, but sometimes you just have to create it yourself.
You can’t expect other people to just magically be your support system. Okay? So create your own support system. When I get into something when I’m making a big change. Like when I was training for my Ironman, that’s a big deal, right? It’s a super challenging event and there are so many moving parts. Like when you talk about doing basically an all-day event that involves three different sports like there’s so much involved with that.
I created my own support system around that I was reading books and listening to podcasts and following people on social media and you know started to develop these friends who we would train together and talk about stuff together, and drive to different places to, to swim in open water, or go on long bike rides together. Like I just surrounded myself with my own support system, I created my own support system. And it was very, very helpful.
You know, instead of just sitting there by myself, you know, wondering, I don’t know what to do, or, you know, I don’t know how I’m going to get through this, or I’m afraid of not being able to finish this thing or whatever. Like, I created a support system, and it was so helpful. So this is something I want you to do for yourself, okay, take ownership of this stuff for yourself.
And then here’s the thing, sometimes people in your life will eventually get on board with what you’re doing. Sometimes, your spouse might see what you’re doing.
They see you’re doing great, they see you’re losing weight, they see that you’re feeling better, you’re in a better mood, you have lots of energy, you know, you love running, again, you’re working out, you’re getting fit, you have this halo about you, you’re just radiating good health.
When you get to this point, some people be like, hey, I want some of that, too. And I see this a lot with spouses, especially, who aren’t very supportive at the beginning, they’re like, I want nothing to do with your stupid diet, you know, I’m not doing any of that I’m sticking to my thing over here. But once they see their spouse making all these amazing changes and feeling great and losing weight, they just are this beacon of good health and happiness.
And then a lot of times the spouses are like, Hey, um, what is it you’re doing again? They all of a sudden want some of that, okay, so this can happen. And it’s awesome when it does. But listen, that’s not the goal, the goal is not to get people on board, right?
Because if that’s your goal, if you’re expecting people to come around, eventually, you’re probably going to be disappointed. It does happen sometimes. And what I always tell people is I just say, like, be an example. Be an example for your husband, be an example for your wife, be an example for your kids, or your grandkids, or whoever it is, that’s important to you in your life. Be a good example.
And a lot of times people will come around and want what you have because they see so many positive changes in you. And this is an awesome thing. If it does happen for you, but don’t expect it. That’s the key here like it can happen, but not all the time. Okay.
So listen, the biggest takeaway here and I kind of mentioned this before is like, it doesn’t matter who’s supporting you who isn’t, you have to be your own best supporter, you have to have your own back. I want you to take 100% ownership of your own health, your own fitness, your own diet, whatever it is that you’re doing, be your own best supporter.
Remember that you control you have control of your own thoughts, feelings, and actions and nothing else. Everything else that other people are doing, saying thinking, feeling whatever is on that. You get to believe what you want to believe about yourself.
Choose to believe the good things, have your own back, speak to yourself in a way that is kind and supportive, and encouraging of yourself. Because at the end of the day, it’s just you, right? This is the good news though, right? Because when you’re only relying on yourself, which you can do, then you can absolutely make so much progress.
When you’re relying on yourself and you have your own back it doesn’t matter what the rest of the world is thinking or doing or saying it doesn’t matter who’s on board and who isn’t who’s supporting and who isn’t. None of that stuff matters. What matters is that you 100% have your own back and that you are your number one supporter and always be there for you to just know that okay, you totally got this all right, that’s all I got for you today.
And if you’re looking for a little bit of help with all this, that’s what I do. I can offer the expert guidance, support encouragement, accountability, and experience you need to make this work for you. No matter what your goals no matter what your lifestyle no matter what your tastes we can make this work for you just go to runningleanpodcast.com/apply. And we can just jump on a call and see if coaching is a good fit for you. Cool. All right, you guys have an amazing day love you all keep on Running Lean, and I’ll talk to you soon.
If you’re a runner and you’ve been struggling to lose weight or you keep losing and gaining the same 10 pounds over and over again. Or you’re finally ready to get to your natural weight and stay there for good this time then I have something you will love. I’ve created a powerful new training just for you called running lean for life. You’ll learn exactly how to transform yourself into a lean fat-burning running machine. So you can run without bonking, lose weight without calorie counting and develop the habits required to make it last for life. To get this free training right now go to runningleanpodcast.com/leanforlife and start your transformation today.
When you think of discipline, what comes to mind? For some, it conjures up images of obeying rules and doling out punishment for anyone who disobeys. But when I think of discipline I think of …
Continue Reading about 82. Practicing the Art of Discipline →
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 82 of Running Lean. My name is Patrick McGilvray, the weight loss coach for runners, and today we’re going to be talking about practicing the art of discipline. So when you think of discipline, what comes to mind, because for some people, it conjures up images of like obeying rules. And if you don’t obey the rules, there’s a punishment being doled out.
But when I think of discipline, I think of training myself to do something on a consistent basis training myself to do something day in and day out. And it’s usually something that I don’t really feel like doing, but I do it anyway. So I never think of discipline as a punishment, but rather, as a means of achieving whatever worthwhile thing that I want for myself.
So if there’s something big that you want for yourself, I’m telling you right now, there’s no like magic formula to making it easy. It just takes practicing the art of discipline to get it. So that’s what we’re gonna be talking about today. Cool.
If you guys haven’t already checked it out, please come join us in the Facebook group, just search for Running Lean community on Facebook, the group goes hand in hand with the podcast, it’s a bunch of people just like you that are cool. And that are into running and maybe want to feel better and want to get leaner and get stronger and run faster and run longer than they ever could before. And that’s what we do.
This month, we’re kind of having some fun with the dry July challenge. We’ve been kind of challenging ourselves to take a break from alcohol for the month of July. And a lot of people have been posting some really positive experiences from doing this. Because a lot of times you don’t even realize that you feel much better when you’re not doing something like drinking alcohol every day or eating sugar every day.
You know, and then you’re just like, well, I feel amazing. You know, I didn’t even know that I could feel this good. Because I’m just not used to this. So there’s nothing wrong with alcohol, alcohol is fine is drinking is awesome, but whatever. But if you’re trying to lose weight, or you know you want to improve your running performance, it may be something you want to explore cutting out. So anyway, join us over in the Facebook group and check it out. Search for Running Lean community on Facebook and join us in the fun.
And here’s a quick little review that somebody posted about the podcast. So this is from Cara Lee and she says, “I only recently found this podcast, and I’m absolutely loving it. Love the podcast about stress. I’m one that’s always hated hills. But after listening to it and thinking of how to get stronger the next morning off, I went to do hill work with your voice inside my head. It was super motivating. And I went back to a few more podcast episodes. So now I’m hooked. So thanks and keep them coming.”
Thank you Kelly for posting that. And share your thoughts about the podcast. I love, love, love doing this podcast and I love when you guys tell me that it’s resonating with you. And if you want to leave a review, you can always do that on like Apple podcasts. Just go to the section where it says leave a review, tap the stars write a few words. And I so appreciate it I read all those reviews and I so appreciate it when you guys do that.
And then lastly, I’ve got a big announcement for you guys. Here’s a big update. I am opening up the Running Lean monthly coaching group starting now. So you can join now this is like something I’m just I didn’t do a lot of build-up to this I just want you to know that it is open and you can join today if you want to.
So what is the monthly coaching group? Well, it’s a group of like-minded people who are all working together to accomplish some big goals right it could be weight loss, it could be just improving your overall health and it could be becoming a more badass runner. It could be like improving your mental and emotional state so that you don’t keep doing the emotional eating and learning how to make all of these habits so that it lasts for the rest of your life.
So it’s a monthly membership program you get access to my online training materials, the weight loss training course for runners. My goal-setting course is called achieving the impossible which is how to create an extraordinary life by going after unrealistic goals. That’s super fun.
You get weekly live coaching with me. So this is a big change. I was only doing this every other week. And I’ve decided that I’m going to give more value to the group. So we’re going to start doing coaching every single week on a group zoom call. And so you’ll get personalized guidance and feedback. And you can hear other people being coached on some of the same things that you’re experiencing.
And you learn, even if you’re not getting the individual coaching if I’m not talking directly to you, hearing somebody else getting coached on a similar topic is so, so helpful. You get the support and the encouragement of people that are just like you and they’re going through the same things, you get accountability.
So we’re going to help you stay on track and help you move toward your goals. It’s a lot of fun to oh my gosh, these calls and this group is such a great group of people, oh my gosh, I do record all the coaching calls so that you’ll have access to them all on a website. And they’re all organized by month.
We’re doing something also new starting in August, we’re doing a topic of the month. So we’re going to focus all of our calls and a lot of the work that we’re going to be doing in August is going to be focused around taking a deep dive into this thought, feeling, action patterns that we have, like, how are your thought feeling action patterns keeping you stuck? And how can you start harnessing the power of your thoughts and your feelings to start getting better results in all kinds of areas of your life, you know. If you find yourself, you just can’t seem to stick to your food plan, you just can’t seem to lose the weight, you just keep getting stuck.
We’re going to talk about how to change your thoughts and feelings about this so that you can start getting unstuck, and start getting better results in your life. Okay. So just go to runningleanpodcast.com/join and you can just sign up today, you can join us we’ve got a members only Facebook group where we’ll all be posting more information about the next group call.
So it’s going to be every Tuesday from now on every Tuesday evening is when we do these group zoom calls. So I would love love, love for you to join us. And the other thing is that I’m not going to close the group, it’s just going to be open from now on.
Now, I want you to know why I’m doing this. I did it in the past because I wanted to, you know, I open the group, maybe once a quarter. And I wanted people to kind of go through the material together and sort of learn together. But I found that a lot of people wanted to join, and they were ready to join. But I was like, well, you’ve got to wait a couple of months.
And I don’t want that I want you to join when you’re ready. If you’re ready today, I would encourage you to just take some action and join. And you can start getting some amazing results in these different places in your life. Cool. So just go to runningleanpodcast.com/join, and we’ll see you over in the Running Lean monthly coaching group.
Okay, so let’s get into this topic today, which is practicing the art of discipline. So before we get into what discipline is, I want to talk a little bit about what we typically think we need in order to accomplish something big, which is motivation, a lot of people think, oh, you know, I need to feel motivated in order to like do something I need to feel motivated in order to take action.
And a lot of people look at their lack of motivation as a reason why they don’t do something. So let’s say you’re trying to stick to your food plan, and you just don’t feel like it. It’s like I’m not motivated to stick to my food plan. So that’s why I didn’t do it. And I’m going to explain a little bit, you know, why the motivation seems to like fade away.
But this is where discipline is going to trump motivation, like every single time, right? But what is motivation? So the definition of motivation is the general desire or willingness of someone to do something. So it’s like a desire and a willingness to do something, right. It’s a, it’s a desire and willingness to take action. Right?
Now, here’s what here’s what’s not the definition of motivation. Motivation is not something that is external. It’s not something that’s outside of you. Motivation is not something that gets bestowed upon you. Motivation is an emotion, it’s a feeling. It’s created within you. You create motivation by your thoughts.
Because if it’s an emotion, it’s created by your thoughts 100% of the time. And motivation is awesome and it can get you really, it can help you to take action. feeling motivated will get you into action, for sure. It’s a driving force. Feeling motivated can definitely help you to do something that maybe you don’t necessarily feel like doing.
Okay, but what happens when the motivation sort of fades away? What happens when you don’t feel like doing something? You know, what happens when you are all excited about losing weight? And so you, you know, maybe you get to change a food plan, you know, maybe you hire a coach, you know, maybe you’re like all gung ho about, you know what, what the future holds for you, and you’re super excited, and you’re like, on track, and you’re like, super motivated, and you’ve got this energy around you and, and you’re excited.
But what happens after a couple of weeks of doing this, and, and that motivation and that excitement, and that energy sort of fades away, then what do you do? Like, how do you keep going? You know, motivation is great for getting you started and getting you into action. But then how do you keep going when you don’t feel like it?
And this is where discipline comes into play. Because when your motivation is gone, you need something else to keep you going. And think about this, like people joining a gym in January, like how many people are motivated and excited to join a gym in January, right? Millions of people, you know, the gyms are so packed in January and February, but by March, I’m telling you, they’re like empty again, there’s like, you know, it’s like, all these people, their motivation went away.
And they were like, yeah, just don’t feel like doing this anymore. And so what happens when that, you know, motivation is no longer there? Well, you need something stronger to keep you going, you need something that’s going to keep you going for the long haul. And this is where we need discipline, we need to practice discipline.
So what is discipline? Well, discipline is training oneself to do something in a controlled and habitual way. So this is like I love this definition, by the way, training yourself to do something in a controlled and habitual way. Discipline is what creates what it takes to create new habits, right?
Discipline is doing something, even when you don’t feel like it. Discipline means you’re suiting up and showing up every single day, no matter what. So motivation might be that thing that gets you started. But discipline is the thing that’s going to keep you going.
So you might have been motivated when you signed up for that marathon. But then the training started, you’re gonna need some discipline to get you through the months of training, especially if you’re training in any kind of, you know, sub-optimal weather like so around here, this part of the country, if you’re training for a spring marathon, you’re doing all your training in the winter, and it’s dark, and it’s cold, and it’s windy, and it kinda can suck.
And then if you’re training for a fall marathon, guess what, it’s all the opposite. It’s sunny and hot and humid. And it sucks, like, so, motivation is not going to be there, I promise you, at some point, during that marathon training, you’re going to need to get into practicing discipline, or you’re just not going to make it through there through the training.
And you might be motivated when you made the decision to lose weight. So you may have, you know, gotten, you know, finally ready to drop the 40 pounds or whatever you’ve been carrying around and you’re like, you know what, I am finally going to do this for myself and I’m motivated and excited and you’ve got this energy.
And then after a few weeks, you know, you’re just like sticking with this food plan, you’re just not motivated anymore. Discipline is going to keep you on that food plan when you don’t feel like it. Okay? Accomplishing anything worthwhile is going to require practicing the art of discipline, there’s just no other way around it.
Discipline is not the fun and sexy and exciting stuff. Discipline means you’re doing the boring stuff over and over and over again, day in and day out. It’s like discipline is like getting up early, every single day so you can hit the gym and work out. Discipline means like, you know, whatever the run is on your schedule for today just doing it. Right.
It may not be fun. It may not be what you feel like doing but you do it anyway. Discipline is sticking to that food plan. Even though it’s not exciting. Even the food is kind of like it’s a little boring. It’s okay. It means sticking to it anyway. And listen, I totally get that discipline is not easy. It’s hard. It’s uncomfortable. It’s unfamiliar and just by the nature of it, like, you’re not gonna feel like doing it, you’re not gonna feel like sticking with it.
But this is the work of discipline, practicing the art of discipline is the work that you have to do. So I want to like challenge you to stop looking outside of yourself for motivation, before you do something, stop waiting to feel motivated before you take action. Because in the grand scheme of things, discipline beats motivation every single time. And here’s something cool. Like when you practice discipline when you get disciplined, and you do something, even though you don’t feel like doing it, oftentimes, just the act of doing, getting out there, and doing the thing will create a ton of motivation for you.
So like, when you don’t feel like running when you’re not motivated to run, and you go head out the door anyway, you will often get super motivated to keep going. So you get out there and you run a mile or so and you’re like, I do not feel like doing this. But then after a mile and a half, two miles, you’re like, you know, I’m feeling pretty good. After three miles, you’re like, you know, I’m actually pretty pumped about this.
People tell me this all the time. They’re like, you know what, Patrick, I didn’t feel like running. But then I did it. Anyway, I headed out the door. And I had like, the most amazing run, I hit a PR for my 5k time or I just had this amazing long run. And they feel super pumped about themselves. And they feel super motivated. That motivation was not there.
Before they headed out the door, they created that motivation, from discipline from being disciplined. Right, so you create the motivation by taking the action. Okay, I love this, I love this idea. Because it means that you have more control and more power.
Like you don’t have to just feel a certain way in order to like, get amazing results. Here’s an example. Like, I did not feel like lifting weights yesterday, I’ve been a little under the weather, I’ve got a little bug of something, you know, a little sore throat, I’ve been taking my temperature, I don’t have a fever or anything like that.
But I just feel like I’ve been out in the public more, I think it’s, you know, I just got some bug or something, you know, so I’m just feeling a little under the weather. So I hit the gym yesterday. And I did not feel like lifting weights, I was a little rundown, a little achy. And I was just like, I do not want to do this. And I told my trainer, Chris, I was like, dude, I just feel terrible today. So I’m just gonna, like take it easy, you know, when I was kind of giving myself an out.
And so I found myself putting a bunch of weight on the bar to do some back squats. And actually had a back squat PR yesterday, and I tied my deadlift PR yesterday. And I have to tell you that I didn’t think I was going to be able to do that. And for whatever reason, I just was like, let’s see what we can do. And I did it.
And I have to tell you like after I hit those two like PRs, I was so motivated, it was super motivating. I felt amazing. And the rest of my workout was so good. And I felt so proud of myself for sticking with it. And for showing up and doing what was hard. That’s the hard stuff, you guys, it’s not easy.
You know, maybe you’re like part of our dry July challenge in the Facebook group. And maybe you’re not drinking right now. And I know that this is not easy to do. Like if you’re in the habit of drinking on a regular basis, and then you decide you’re going to like take 30 days off or, you know, just even a few weeks or whatever. Like that could be very challenging, right.
But, you know, let’s say you, you decide you’re just going to skip that after-work happy hour on Friday, you know, and you’re not motivated to do this at all. You’re not going to feel like this is a good idea in the moment. Okay? But because you’re practicing the art of discipline, you say no.
And you see your friends leave and they all go hit the bar. And what you do is you say no, and you go home and you get in a nice run instead. Or maybe you hit the gym. Or maybe you just spend some time playing with your kids. And then I promise you, you’re going to feel something, you’re going to feel accomplished.
You’re going to feel a sense of pride in yourself. You’re going to gain confidence, you’re going to build trust with yourself, and this feeling that you have is just going to it’s going to feel so amazing and so motivating to keep you going back and keep you doing that and keep you staying on your plan.
And you’re gonna feel so good about yourself. Motivation is a feeling it’s an emotion it’s created by our thoughts. Right, discipline is taking action despite how you think and feel despite what your thoughts and feelings are in that moment. You may not think what you’re about to do is a good idea. It may seem like a dumb idea to not go to the bar with your friends, it may seem like you’re missing out on something, you may feel like, you know, left out, you know, you may feel sad, or you may feel, you know, frustrated by that.
And you’re taking action, despite those thoughts and despite those feelings, this is kind of cool. I mean, this is powerful, powerful stuff. And I want you to think about it this way, too. You are already practicing discipline in other areas of your life. And it’s funny because I hear people say, like, well, I’m in disciplined in this area over here, but I just can’t be disciplined in this area of my life.
So for example, like, I’m sure there’s probably been a time where you didn’t feel like going to work, you get up in the morning, and you’re like, I do not feel like going to work today. But you get up, you brush your teeth, you put your clothes on, you take a shower, whatever you do, get in your car, you drive to work, and you do it no matter what.
Or maybe you don’t feel like walking your dog every day at 4:30 in the morning, you know, whatever. But there you are out there in the cold walking the dog. And maybe you don’t feel like taking your kids to soccer practice again. But there you are doing it. And so you might argue, well, Patrick, the stakes are high, you know, with these things like you can’t lose your job, you can’t have poop on the carpet, you know, you can’t let your kids grow up to be mediocre soccer players. Think that’s funny. I’m glad I cracked myself up.
Because, I mean, there’s nobody else here. So it’s just me. You know, and I would argue that your health and your well-being and your fitness are pretty high stakes too. And I say that, if it isn’t for you, it should be. Because if you don’t have that, like what else do you have, you know, you’re not going to be there for your kids and your dog and your family and things like that, right?
So you’re already practicing this in other areas of your life, I just want you to see that. And understand that you can take that same mentality of like, I have to show up to my job, the stakes are high to your health and fitness. You know, you can absolutely apply those same principles here. Okay.
So instead of waiting to be, you know, struck with motivation, instead of waiting to be bestowed with motivation, practice the art of discipline. And I call it an art because it isn’t like an art form is something that you create, and you get to make it your own, you get to do it, however, you want to do it. You get to decide what discipline looks like for you. And then you get to practice it.
And just like an artist has to practice their craft to get better at it. You have to practice discipline to get better at it. And I understand this, it doesn’t come naturally. Our natural instinct is not to be disciplined, our natural instinct is to seek comfort. And discipline is oftentimes the opposite of that it’s uncomfortable. It doesn’t feel good sometimes. And that’s okay. Because here’s the thing, the more you practice it, the easier it becomes, the more you practice it, the better you get at it, just like anything else in your life.
Also, the art of discipline is making tiny decisions. It’s making little choices consistently over time. Every huge success is really just a series of small decisions that are made consistently, every single day. And all these tiny little actions, all these tiny things that you do all these tiny choices that you make, they can add up to something huge, something big, powerful.
I heard the saying that an ant can eat an elephant, one teeny tiny bite at a time. But this requires discipline. It’s not going to happen quickly. Motivation won’t get you there. So what is your elephant? What’s the big, seemingly impossible goal that you want for yourself? What is it that you want to become? That seems so huge?
It’s just like, there’s no way you could ever do it? And how can you take one teeny tiny bite of that today? And then what can you do tomorrow? And then the next day and so on? What little tiny decisions are you making in this moment right now? Can you lace up your running shoes and head out the door? Even though you don’t feel like it? Can you say no to the pizza that your husband brought home for dinner? Because yeah, that’s not part of your plan.
Can you skip the glass of wine after dinner because you said you weren’t drinking? Like I can say with almost certainty that you will not feel like doing these things you will not feel like running, you will not feel like saying no to the pizza. I mean, it’s pizza. Come on, right? You’re not gonna feel like saying no to the glass of wine. But can you do them anyway? Because that’s what discipline looks like.
Things just don’t happen, right, you make things happen. And in order to make things happen, you have to take action, and taking action requires discipline. And like I said before when you practice this, you get good at it, it becomes easier. There’s another side to this too, like, when you practice slacking off, you get good at that too. slagging off can be an art form, too.
You know, people get really creative and really fanciful with the excuses and reasons why they didn’t do what they said they’re going to do, you know, things are crazy at work, right now, the kids are out of school, you know, so you know, that means or it’s hot this time of the year, it’s cold this time of the year, whatever.
Like, we can get really fanciful and creative with all these excuses. And, and we’re good at this already, we’re good at coming up with excuses for not to do something. What if you instead practiced the opposite, you know, and took a different approach? Instead of practicing excuse as you practiced doing, you practiced taking action, even when the motivation wasn’t there, even when you didn’t feel like it.
So you got some work to do this week, I want you to practice the art of discipline and however that looks for you. Like, maybe you just set your alarm earlier, and you get your butt out of bed. You know, maybe you stick to that running schedule, you lace up your running shoes, and you head out the door. Maybe it’s saying no to that party after work and happy hour and hitting the gym instead. Don’t wait to feel motivated before taking action. Create those feelings of motivation by taking action, even when you don’t feel like it. Okay?
This is all about doing stuff. This is about taking action. So it’s not enough to just listen to this podcast and say, hey, cool stuff, bro. I get it. No, you got to do it. You got to practice it, nothing changes if nothing changes. So I want you to pick something. Pick one thing that you want to be disciplined about this week and stick to it. Do it even though you don’t feel like it, practice it.
And then jump into our Facebook group and post your results. Let’s talk about it. I would love to hear what you’re practicing this week. Because we’re there to support you. We’re here to help you and encourage you. And you know, just you know, celebrate you when you do stick to it for this week. Okay, cool.
You totally got this, you guys. I hope you got something out of this episode today. If you did, please consider sharing it with a friend. I love you all keep on Running Lean. I’ll talk to you soon.
If you’re a runner and you’ve been struggling to lose weight or you keep losing and gaining the same 10 pounds over and over again. Or you’re finally ready to get to your natural weight and stay there for good this time then I have something you will love. I’ve created a powerful new training just for you called running lean for life. You’ll learn exactly how to transform yourself into a lean fat-burning running machine. So you can run without bonking, lose weight without calorie counting and develop the habits required to make it last for life. To get this free training right now go to runningleanpodcast.com/leanforlife and start your transformation today.
We often think of stress as being something annoying, a mental or emotional issue, but stress can also have serious implications on our physical health as well. The NIH (National Institutes of …
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 81 of Running Lean. My name is Patrick McGilvray, the weight loss coach for runners, and today we’re talking about stress, in particular, good stress and bad stress. So we often think of stress as being just something that is annoying. It’s like a mental or emotional issue. But stress can also have serious implications on our physical health as well.
The NIH, National Institutes of Health, says that continued strain on your body from routine stress could lead to serious health problems such as heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, depression, anxiety disorder, and other serious illnesses. But here’s the thing, stress is not always a bad thing.
There’s another side of stress that’s actually considered not just good for us but actually required in order for us to grow and thrive as humans. In other words, some types of stress are bad and should be avoided, and some are considered good and should be embraced. So today on the podcast, I’m going to talk about good stress and bad stress, which types are detrimental, and which are considered beneficial for our health and well-being.
But first, hey, if you like this podcast, you have to come check us out on Facebook, the Running Lean podcast community is a group of positive, like-minded people, the group goes hand in hand with this podcast, it extends the conversation that we’re having here on this podcast, it gives you a chance to have a voice. So you can ask questions and get answers and feel supported and get encouragement and inspiration.
And this month, in the Facebook group, we’re doing the dry July challenge, which is we’re giving up alcohol for the month of July. And just to see how that affects our mental, emotional, and physical well-being.
And a lot of people are getting some pretty interesting, positive results from just not drinking, you know, they didn’t realize that they had, that they could have so much more energy, or that maybe their weight loss was really stalled because they were drinking or they just feel better, you know, or maybe their running is improved.
So this is an opportunity for you to kind of check us out and take a challenge with us. And the dry July challenge is something we’re just doing for the rest of this month. But I mean, you can do this anytime you want, right? It’s just a chance to like take a break from alcohol to see how it feels for you, right?
So if you’re one of those people that just wants a little bit more than what you’re getting here on the podcast, come and check us out in the Facebook group. I do some weekly coaching and teaching in the group as well. So we sort of have more than what you get here on the podcast. Okay. And it’s fun. Did I mention that we’re fun? So just search for Running Lean community on Facebook and join us over there.
And if you ever want a little help with all this stuff, like speaking of stress, I understand how stressful it can be to try to figure out what’s the right diet, you know, what’s the right exercise regimen? How much running should I be doing? What does strength training look like? You know, I want to like stop eating sugar, but I’m not sure exactly how to do that. What does it mean to be fat-adapted? How does that work? Like? How do I do that?
This can be kind of confusing, and I get it, I totally get it. And that’s why I work one on one with you as your coach. I work with runners every single day who are becoming the healthiest and most badass versions of themselves. And a coach is there to help guide you provide experience, expertise, support, encouragement, motivation.
And one of the most important parts of coaching is accountability. People tell me all the time. Yeah, I wasn’t going to stick to my plan, but then I knew I was going to be talking to you later today. So I definitely went for my run. Or I did the workout I said I was going to do or I didn’t eat cake because I knew that I would have to report it to you and tell you that I did that and I didn’t want to feel like I let you down or feel like I let myself down so that accountability is a huge part of coaching.
And just coaching is just one of those things that helps you stay on track and helps you to achieve goals you have. Goals that otherwise seem pretty daunting and pretty hard to do on your own. If you’re interested in coaching, just go to runningleanpodcast.com/apply. And that’s it. Well, you and I will jump on a quick zoom call, we’ll have a conversation, and we’ll just see if this is something that you’re interested in. Cool. Awesome.
Okay, let’s get into this topic of stress today. So I was doing a little bit of research on this. And I came across some pretty interesting stuff, which I’ll be sharing with you here in a moment. But I just want you to know that there’s this sort of stigma around stress and like stress just being all bad.
And I just have to say that there is another side of stress that is good and required, and absolutely essential for certain functions here. So I’m going to get into all of that. But just let’s talk about what stress is. So, you know, there’s the one type of stress that we really kind of focus on is this chronic stress, okay, this is where, you know, maybe it’s because of your job, or because of relationship issues or financial issues or whatever.
You are in a state of chronically elevated stress hormones, you are chronically worried about things, you’re chronically angry about things, you’re chronically fearful, or in some sort of conflict. And this is the bad kind of stress. So chronic stress is the kind of stress that we really want to avoid.
Because your body in a state of chronic stress is a sick body. Alright. So chronic stress will manifest in this way where, you know, we constantly have raised cortisol levels, cortisol is the stress hormone. And when we have raised cortisol, we’re always under this like fight or flight mode, like our body is in a state of like, chronic panic mode.
And this is something we’re we’re wired for, it’s something that we’ve evolved as humans to, for a reason, like, stress is a good thing. Okay, so if you’re facing a saber-toothed tiger, you know, it’s good to feel stress in that situation. So, cortisol gets produced, and that raises your blood sugar. And that gives you some energy, your heightened awareness, you know, your awareness is super heightened.
And you’re in this state of like, you know, fight or flight. And, oh, you know, it’s kind of like panic mode, right? And it gives you energy, you know, you get this release of like, sugar into your system so that you can fight or run away. And so this is why stress is this is kind of how we’ve evolved with stress. And it’s normal, and it’s good, it’s a good thing.
Like, we want to be able to experience that moment of stress when we’re faced with some kind of immediate danger like that. You know, and today, though, here’s the thing today is different. Like, we don’t have a saber-toothed tiger, we’re not faced with these types of immediate dangers, like you may step out into the street and not see that a car is coming.
And you know, all of a sudden, you have this burst of adrenaline, cortisol, heightened sense of awareness, and you immediately step back and don’t get hit by the car, like that’s probably about the equivalent of, you know, facing off the saber-toothed tiger.
But what chronic stress looks like today is, you know, you’re just all day at work, you’re worried about things, you’re getting bombarded with emails, and, you know, you’ve got five different managers yelling at you all the time. And then you come home, and maybe you’re in conflict with your partner.
And of course, on the drive home, you’ve had to deal with all this traffic, and you’re just like, we’re in this state of chronically being in panic mode, we’re chronically in that fight or flight mode. And this is not a good place to be at all. It can cause all kinds of issues, all right, we can cause all kinds of physical ailments.
And so we’ve got to really be careful not to fall into the trap of, you know, living our lives in a way where we’re chronically stressing ourselves out. Some other causes of physical stress would be, besides like work-related things, or maybe your relationship, you know, issues would be not getting enough sleep or poor quality sleep, this is going to put your body into a chronic state of stress.
If you never get enough sleep, if you just you’re not getting enough sleep every night or your sleep quality is really terrible, then you’re not getting the rest that you need. And you are going to be in a state of elevated stress all the time. Your diet can cause physical stress on your body.
You know, a diet high in sugar will cause stress and inflammation to your cells. And diets like, like actual like, quote, unquote diets, like when people go on these extreme diets where they’re super low calorie for extended periods of time, that puts your body in a, in a state of stress, that’s not good for you.
Another thing that a lot of people don’t realize they’re doing to themselves, but they work out too much. So they’re actually like, every single day is a hard day, you know, they’re doing two workouts a day all the time. And they’re just like, cranking it out every single day, they’re always they’re stressing out their body, they’re always like going hard, they’re never giving themselves a chance to recover, and repair, and, and get the rest that they need. Right.
So it’s just like too much, too hard, and too often. So we got to be careful about some of these physical causes of stress. And then we have like, emotional stress as well, as well, we have like, you know, like I mentioned, relationship issues, or, you know, some of the leading causes of stress with people is like the death of a loved one.
This is a huge cause of stress for a lot of people or loss of a job, or divorce, or getting married. And I think these two things are funny, it’s like getting married or divorced, or to vote one of two of the most stressful things that can happen in your life, right. And we think of getting married as being such a blissful thing, right? But no, it’s like one of the biggest stressful events in your life, or moving to a new home.
These are all stressful things that cause like emotional stress, okay. And I want to say this about these types of stressors, stressors in our life, like, the real cause of the stress is not these things, you know, getting married is not what’s causing you to be stressed.
Okay, stress is an emotion, stress is a feeling. And we know that all feelings are created by your thoughts. The fact that you are getting married, does not automatically mean that you are going to be stressed out. Getting married is, you know, for a lot of people, it’s just pretty chill and pretty fun. But for a lot of people it isn’t, it’s stressful, because they think it’s got to be perfect.
And they’re worried about how you know about the table seating and about relatives sitting with each other, or you know about the food or about, you know, what kind of cake they’re going to get whatever it is, you know, there’s like a million different decisions to make. Is it going to be as magical as is all the Instagram posts I see about it?
You know, the same thing with like, getting divorced, like it’s the divorce itself does not cause the stress, but it’s your thoughts about the divorce that caused you to feel stressed. It’s not that you know, somebody dies that causes you to feel stress, it’s your thoughts about them and what that means to you, you’re thinking to yourself, I’m never gonna see this person again.
You know, it’s those types of thoughts that cause you to feel stress. Or maybe it’s somebody that you have to, you know, you have to take care of the funeral arrangements and things like that, that can be stressful. But again, it’s all about your thoughts. Okay. I just wanted to like, quickly mention that, like, we’ve talked a lot about this on the podcast, where, you know, our thoughts always cause our feelings and stress is a feeling it’s an emotion, and that we have control over how much of this we want to feel now is sometimes, you know, stress a common and a totally applicable emotion and that experience.
Yeah, it’s okay to feel stressed out when you’re getting divorced or getting married or somebody, somebody dies that you love. It’s totally normal to feel that way. And it’s okay to feel that way. We don’t want to necessarily change that. But I’m just I just want you to know that it isn’t the event itself. It’s always your thoughts about it.
Okay, so anyway, we want to try to prevent these types of emotional stress though, we want to try to prevent these things from becoming chronic. You know, if you get a divorce and it’s been like three years and you still are just eaten up about it, like, that’s something we need to work on, right?
You need to learn how to manage your thoughts and feelings around these types of situations. Yes, it’s okay. If somebody you love dies and you feel stressed, and you feel sadness, and, and all these other emotions, that’s totally normal. But if it’s chronic, that’s when it becomes problematic, okay?
So chronic stress from whatever the cause whether it’s emotional stress, or whether it’s physical stress, you know, from working out too much or not getting enough sleep. Chronic stress can put your body into that panic mode into that fight or flight mode, and it just stays there. So your cortisol, always high, your blood sugar, always high insulin, always elevated, you’re storing fat all the time, because your body’s in this survival mode, right?
It’s not in, you know, the mode of like, you know, everything is cool and chill. It’s like, oh, I got to hold on to all this extra body fat because, you know, I needed it for survival. And this causes a ripple effect on your hormones, you end up you know, feeling hungry all the time, and you end up overeating and you can’t lose weight and your athletic performance suffers, you feel tired and sluggish all the time.
Chronic stress can just lead to all kinds of physical issues. And, you know, I mentioned earlier the NIH talked about, you know, stress-causing heart disease and blood pressure and diabetes, depression, anxiety disorder, and other serious illnesses, and maybe not causing them 100%.
But absolutely, leading to these things and, and a factor in these things becoming prevalent in our lives. Even more disturbing though, according to the American Psychological Association, chronic stress is linked to six leading causes of death, including heart disease, cancer, lung ailments, accidents, cirrhosis of the liver, and suicide.
This is a problem. Chronic stress is not good, it is not good. And we need to be doing whatever we can to eliminate chronic stress from our lives so that we don’t end up one of these statistics, right. So there’s, there’s another side of stress that I want to talk about here today.
And that is the one I’m just going to call it the good stress. Okay. So we’ve talked about chronic stress and how it can have really detrimental effects on your mental, emotional and physical well-being.
But then there’s a different kind of stress, it’s the good type of stress, which is acute stress. So acute means severe and sudden, acute is short term stress is the kind of stress that’s here momentarily, and then it’s gone. As opposed to chronic stress, which is long-term, it’s ongoing.
Chronic stress is like never-ending there’s no end in sight to it. Okay. So why is acute stress good. So acute stress is actually required, in order to improve certain systematic functions in your body, right, we need to have certain stressors on our systems, in order for them to adapt, grow and improve and get stronger.
Okay, so for example, if you want to get stronger, if you want to build stronger muscles, then you need to do some weight training, you need to do resistance training, you need to overload your muscles, you need to stress out that system.
Like you need to literally lift things that are so heavy that they cause microscopic sub-cellular tears in your muscle fibers so that you will become stronger so that those muscles will then those muscle fibers will grow stronger in repairing themselves, right? This is the overload principle, we overload the muscles so that they will repair and get stronger. But we don’t do this you know, 10 times a day every day, right?
You do weight training a couple of times a week. And then you do it for a short period of time, maybe 30 minutes, maybe an hour, and then you take a day off or two days off. And when you do it this way you’re creating acute stress, acute stress in your muscles. Very short term, very severe, and sudden.
And then you let them rest. You let them prepare, you let them grow and you become stronger in the process. There’s no other way around it, if you want to get stronger, you have to stress your muscles, you got to stress your muscular system, your skeletal muscular system has to be stressed in order for it to get stronger and grow.
Same thing with if you want to become a faster runner like you have to do some sort of speed work, right? For example, sprinting, sprinting is an amazing workout super hard, though, right? But we’re talking about sprinting as fast as you can for like 20 or 30 seconds at a time very, very hard, very acute, very severe, very sudden, very short term, but very stressful, very stressful on the system, on your cardiovascular system.
And on your entire muscular system that is you know, functioning that is up responsible for your muscles functioning properly for good running form, and to get faster as a runner. And so you do like 30 second sprints, then you may rest for a minute or two, you do this like five or six times, and then boom, your workout is done.
And again, it may be 30 minute, 45 minute workout, something like that. It’s very short but very stressful on your system. But then your system responds by becoming more efficient, you become more efficient at running faster, you develop more cardiovascular endurance, from running faster, faster, so you can actually run faster for longer periods, and your muscles become stronger in your form becomes better.
If you want to become a more powerful runner, maybe you do something like hill repeats, right, so this is a terrible workout, right? Pick a hill and run up the hill hard. You know, by the time you get to the top, you should be totally cooked, like your lactic acid should be building up and you should just be like, I can’t run another step. And then you know, jog it back down and do it again, do that six times, right?
Again, we’re stressing out the system, but it’s a very quick, very short bursts of highly stressful situations on your body here. But this is what makes you become more powerful, you’re going to build much more power in your legs, because then when you’re running the flats, you’re going to be like this is easy.
And then when you do face a hill in a race or something like that, you’re like got this no problem at all right. And this all like ties into just building cardiovascular endurance, you know, if you want to improve your cardiovascular system, and improve your endurance, as a runner, you want to be able to run longer and longer, you just got to you got to get out there and run longer miles, you got to keep increasing your mileage.
Slowly, you don’t do it all at once you don’t go out there and run 50 miles every other day. That’s because that’s just going to put your body into way too much stress. So what you do is you build up your mileage slowly, you increase it by, you know, I think a good rule of thumb is 10% a week.
And you build up to that, and then you back it down you like you know, then you go through you might do up week, like three weeks where you’re increasing mileage, and then you do a couple of down weeks, and then you go up up up a couple of down weeks, you know, and this is how we increase our endurance, you know, we can run 50 miles or 100 miles, you know.
So this is the difference between acute stress and chronic stress. Another thing is, that’s kind of cool. Like, let’s say you want to increase your body’s ability to burn fat. So you could do something that’s kind of acute, you can kind of stress your system a little bit by doing like a 24 hour fast.
This is something that on the outset, you might think, oh my god, that’s crazy. How can you not eat for 24 hours, it’s not that big a deal, to be honest with you. You eat dinner, and then the next day you just eat dinner like, right, it’s not a big deal. Especially if you’re not eating a lot of sugar and carbohydrates, you’re going to find this actually pretty easy because your hunger is not out of control anymore, right?
But again, this is kind of stressful on your system, right? Because your body is like goes into this little bit of like panic mode in a way. And it starts tapping into your stored body fat for fuel because it’s like, oh, we need fuel. We’re not getting anything. So let’s tap into the stored body fat over here.
Again, this is like stressing out the system in a very short burst and in a very controlled way. And then you go back to eating normally after that. And so this is how we improve our systems. This is how we get stronger. This is how we become more powerful. This is how we get faster. Faster is how we improve things like our fat-burning system, right?
So intermittent stress is actually a good thing, it’s good for your brain too. They’ve done these studies where they’ve shown that short-term stress actually primes the brain for improved performance. Intermittent stressful events help keep your brain more alert. And you tend to perform better when you’re more alert, right?
So these researchers at UC Berkeley, this is about 10 years ago or so now. But they did this study on rats, and they found that significant but brief, stressful events. So like acute stress caused these rats, they cause the stem cells in their brains to proliferate into new nerve cells that improved the rats’ mental performance.
And the researchers’ findings reinforce the idea that stress hormones help an animal to adapt to become more aware to become more resilient. The next time they’re faced with that same type of stressor, like think about this, like, let’s say, you are you go through a tough breakup, well, in your next relationship, you’re going to be more resilient and less fragile, right? If you end up in a breakup again, right.
And the same principle applies to, you know, lifting heavier weights will build stronger and more resilient muscles. Alright. So stress has a ripple effect. And it can be a good ripple effect or a bad ripple effect. So chronic stress has this negative ripple effect, right?
Like I mentioned earlier, cortisol is higher, insulin is higher, blood sugar is higher, you’re in the state of elevated, elevated panic mode, like all the time, and this leads to chronic diseases, and a lot of times it can lead to death. Right.
So chronic stress has a ripple effect, but it’s not a good one. Acute stress, though, has a ripple effect. But it’s a positive ripple effect, right? Because it leads to adaptation to improved cognitive function to improve muscle growth, to improve speed, and improve endurance, even fighting disease is a ripple effect of a good stressor.
So if you think about how we fight disease, like a pathogen that comes into your body, like a virus or a bacteria, that’s a stressor on your system. But then our body responds in a way and fights that off. Right. So this is a natural kind of stress response, which I think is kind of cool.
So my kind of takeaway that I want you to kind of take from this episode would be to choose your stress intentionally. I want you to seek out stressors that are good for you, like seek out the good kind of stress, the ones that have positive benefits. And here’s something I need to say like, yes, these types of stressors are going to be hard, and they hurt and they’re stressful, right? If they weren’t, there wouldn’t be an adaptive response.
So you cannot get stronger without going through the stress. You cannot get faster without stressing out your system. Like people want to run faster, but they don’t want to practice running faster. Why? Because it’s hard because it sucks because, you know, it’s just like, it’s really terrible like to do sprints or speed work or hills or anything like that. Like it’s really tough, right?
But if you don’t do it, and they’re just like, oh, I’m so slow. You know, I don’t understand why I’m not getting faster. Okay. Are you doing speed work? No, no, I hate speed work. Oh, okay, then I got nothing for you. Like you got to do the work. You know, if you want to get stronger, you have to lift weights.
And so many people are like, I wish I was stronger, but they’re not doing anything to change that they’re not doing the hard stuff. And again, it’s hard, it feels terrible. It hurts you know lifting weights hurts it should you’re literally tearing your muscles a little bit, you know, and but it’s a good thing, right? It’s that good kind of acute stress that we want, we want to embrace that we want to choose that type of stress intentionally.
Even some type of like mental and emotional stresses like you know at work if you have to complete some big project on time or maybe you got to give a speech in front of a large crowd these things will create some acute stress for you. But then what happens you adapt you grow. You increase your comfort zone, you improve your cognitive function.
The next time you have a big project do like you’re going to be more confident the next time you have to stand up in front of a large crowd and talk, you’re gonna feel more poised, like, all these things help you to adapt and grow.
So choose acute stress, choose your stress wisely, you know, becoming faster or stronger or more emotionally involved, it requires a certain amount of stress, it requires some discomfort, some unease, you know, intentionally, putting your body and your mind through stressful events will help you to adapt, and grow and become more.
Listen, there’s no easy button, you can’t just sit around watching Netflix all day, and hope to become a better runner. Right? You can’t just sit around running the same, you know, speed all the time. And hope to get faster, you have to push yourself, you have to push yourself past your level of comfort, you have to get out of your comfort zone, right?
This is the does the hard hard part, I know. You got to get uncomfortable, right? And you have to do it the right way. You have to do it acutely, not chronically not every single day, this does not mean you go and do speed work every single day. You know, I suggest doing speed work once a week, do it hard. You know and do it quickly and get it over with and then give yourself a break. Give yourself a chance to adapt to that.
So your work this week is to embrace it, embrace the good stress. So whatever that means for you lift the heavy things, do that speed work, run those hill repeats. But do these things intentionally and quickly, and then give yourself a break. Take a rest day so that you can recover and so you can grow and adapt and then we continue this process right?
So here’s a good example yesterday at the gym, I did some heavy back squats. Very very heavy is very hard. And right after that, I did a sprint workout. And when I started running for my sprint workout, I just did like a mile warm-up. My legs were cooked. I mean, I was it was so hard just doing the warm-up to get to where I was going to do my sprints.
I was like, I don’t know about this. This isn’t a good idea. Because my legs were literally like pretty toast but I’m like okay, here’s my goal for today. A hard leg workout. And then sprints like I did some this is acute stress, total, totally good example of acute stress, right. But I knew that today was going to be my rest day. And then I wasn’t doing anything. No, no lifting today, no running today.
And I knew that today was going to be a day where I can repair and adapt and recover. And that I’m going to improve. You know, so that workout yesterday was really hard. I did my sprints, I did six by 30 seconds and 30 seconds is my limit like I’m running as hard as I can for 30 seconds. And those last 10 seconds are just miserable, right?
So the point here is that today, I’m just giving myself a chance to adapt and grow and totally recover from all of that. So that really acute stress on my body yesterday is a good thing. I’m not going to do that every day, there’s no way I could do that. And I actually have been combining my strength workouts and my speed workouts. And so that I can actually have a day off.
So I make my hard days hard and I make my easy days super easy. And that way I am not burning myself out. Because I was kind of getting in that way when I was running every day, I was running or working out or lifting weights or whatever, every single day. I wasn’t running every day. But I was doing some sort of a quote-unquote hard workout seven days a week.
And I was starting to feel pretty burned out. This is like my body going into this panic mode and staying in this state of chronic stress. So I was like, Okay, I got to do something about this. And ever since I’ve been, you know, making my hard days, combining my hard workouts on the same day and then taking like a total rest day.
Oh my gosh, I’m sleeping better. I feel more energized. My workouts have been improving. So this is all good stuff. And this is the way we’re designed, right? Avoid the chronic stress. Embrace the acute stress, choose your stress wisely, you know, and become stronger, become faster, and become that badass version of yourself. Cool. All right, well, I hope y’all got something out of this episode today. And if you did, consider sharing it with a friend I love you all keep Running Lean. I’ll talk to you soon.
If you’re a runner and you’ve been struggling to lose weight or you keep losing and gaining the same 10 pounds over and over again. Or you’re finally ready to get to your natural weight and stay there for good this time then I have something you will love. I’ve created a powerful new training just for you called running lean for life. You’ll learn exactly how to transform yourself into a lean fat-burning running machine. So you can run without bonking, lose weight without calorie counting and develop the habits required to make it last for life. To get this free training right now go to runningleanpodcast.com/leanforlife and start your transformation today.
Self-sabotage is one of those terms that you hear and you think you have a pretty good handle on what it means. But do you really? Because if you find yourself engaging in self-sabotaging behavior, …
Continue Reading about 80. Understanding and Eliminating Self-Sabotage →
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 80 of Running Lean. My name is Patrick McGilvray, the weight loss coach for runners and today, I’ve got a fun topic for you understanding and eliminating self sabotage. Self sabotage is one of those things that we hear the term and you think you have a pretty good handle on what it means. But do you really, because if you find yourself engaging in self sabotaging behavior, then you’re not sure why you keep doing this to yourself, then you may not understand it as well as you think.
Because until you have a better understanding of what self sabotage really is, and how it shows up in your life, you can’t change it, or you can’t prevent it from happening. So in this episode, I’m going to help you to understand what self sabotage really is, how it prevents you from achieving your goals, why you do it, and how you can eliminate it from your life. Cool, it’s gonna be fun.
And just really quick, if you like this podcast, please come check us out on Facebook, we have this awesome community, the Running Lean podcast community. And the the Facebook group goes hand in hand with the podcast. It’s a place where you can ask questions and get answers, and get some support. And feel the love, feel the encouragement, get some inspiration, we talked about running, we talked about mindset stuff in there, I do a little coaching and training in there every week.
And right now it’s July, and we’re doing the dry July challenge. So it’s a place where we are taking the month of July and eliminating alcohol. And the group is a place where you can you know, kind of get supported through that journey if this is something you’re interested in. And you’re just you know, now hearing about this, you can still join in and, and and start with us it’s it’s kind of fun.
It’s not like alcohol is bad, or, you know, it’s not about good or bad. It’s not about moral judgments. It’s just about, you know, I want to see what it feels like to take a break from alcohol, maybe I want to improve my health or my running performance. And I just want to see how this will work. So come join us. It’ll be fun. It’s all about fun, right? Just search for the Running Lean community on Facebook, and join us over there. Cool.
And listen, I understand how overwhelming a lot of these topics can feel. You know, we talked about changing your mindset, changing habits, changing your, the way you’re eating, changing your exercise regimen, starting to do some strength training, getting into running, improving your running performance, all of these things can feel quite honestly overwhelming. And it can feel very confusing. And there’s a lot of conflicting information out there. And I get all of that.
That’s why I am a coach. That’s why I coach people every day to kind of navigate all of that stuff, and make it make sense for you in a way that will work for you. Coaching isn’t about you know, here’s what you do is like one thing that we do, we just here’s a list of stuff to do. And it works for everybody. It’s not like that at all. It’s about figuring out what works for you as an individual, what works for you, and your goals and your lifestyle and your likes and dislikes and your you know running performance and all these things we want to support ports support you where you are today and help you get to where you want to be tomorrow. So if you’re ever interested in working with me as your coach, just go to runningleanpodcast.com/apply.
And you’ll have to apply for coaching because I don’t work with everybody. You know, I want to I want to have a conversation with you. I want to see if this is a good fit for you. I want you to see if I’m a good fit for you for you. Like you may think like well, I thought Patrick would be awesome to work with. But then I started talking to him and I don’t think so.
I haven’t had that happen yet, by the way, but you know, it’s possible. But anyway, it just can’t hurt to have a conversation about coaching and what that would look like for you. Okay, so I’m here for you. If you ever want to do that, just go to runningleanpodcast.com/apply, and we can talk about it. Cool. Awesome. All right.
I want to get into this topic today. I’ve been thinking about this for a few weeks now. And I’m excited about this topic because I think it’s really important to understand what self sabotage really is. How you do it, why you do it, and how you can prevent it.
And really one of the biggest keys here and the biggest takeaway from this episode is going to be that when you understand how self sabotage is showing up for you, and some of these things I’m going to talk about you may not have heard of before, and it may surprise you how you might be self sabotaging yourself or why you self sabotage.
But one of the keys is that when you understand what’s happening, just right there, this can be life changing for you, this can absolutely help you to just eliminate it from happening going forward. Okay, so just a really having a deep understanding of what’s happening with you and how you self sabotage is key to fixing the problem. Okay.
So the reason I really started getting into this and got excited about talking about this is because I was reading a book called The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks, and he talks about in the book, this this issue called, he calls it the upper limit problem. And this is a problem where we all have some sort of self imposed upper limit. And when we reach that upper limit, and we try to go past that upper limit, things get very uncomfortable.
So we might have a self imposed upper limit of how much happiness we want to experience or how much success we can experience or how much you know how healthy we can be, or how much wealth we can have, you know, how much money we can have in the bank, or how much love we can experience any, it can be positive things, too. It’s not just about, you know, how much, you know, adversity can you handle it’s not about that, it’s about like, good things, right.
So we have this self imposed sort of upper limit, and when we hit that upper limit, we get very, very uncomfortable. And here’s why. Because your brain sees this upper limit, as unsafe, as unfamiliar. And as something that maybe it’s dangerous for you, you know, it’s out of your comfort zone. And so, you might be like feeling really good and feeling all this happiness, and you’re maybe you’re sticking to your eating plan, and you’re losing some weight, and you’re feeling really good.
And your brain is like, wait a minute, what is happening here, this is not normal, this doesn’t feel right, this feels uncomfortable, this place of like, everything is going well. And so what will happen is, and you don’t even know you’re doing this, but subconsciously, you pull yourself back away from that upper limit, you pull yourself back to what feels comfortable, what feels familiar, and what feels to your primitive brain safe for you. Back to your comfort zone, right?
Some examples of how this shows up for people is, you know, kind of what I was just mentioning, you start to lose weight, you’re starting to feel good, you’re sticking to your plan. And all of a sudden, you find yourself, you know, face first into a Boston Cream Pie. And you’re like, what is happening? Why am I doing this to myself? I didn’t want to eat this. But I find myself, you know, with a cupcake in my face, like, what am I doing here?
Because subconsciously, you don’t even know you’re doing this, you think, you know, it’s all just happening to you. But you’re, you’re doing this to yourself, okay, but it’s subconscious. It’s not within your awareness. It’s like outside of your awareness. Okay. Subconsciously, you’re just trying to get back to what, what you know, and what is familiar to you, and what feels safe to you and what feels comfortable for you.
And that is a certain weight, like, let’s say you, you know, you’re you’re on this track to lose 40 pounds, all right, and you haven’t lost, you know, you haven’t been down 40 pounds in 40 years or something like that. And it’s been, you know, 10 years since you’ve lost 20 pounds. And so you start to get close to that 20 pound mark, and all of a sudden, you know, this feels really unfamiliar and very uncomfortable for you.
And so subconsciously, you will do something, you’ll start over eating, you’ll start eating a bunch of crap, just to get yourself back to where you feel comfortable. Isn’t this sort of insidious? It’s very sneaky. What happens what our brains are doing to us here, okay, but we have to understand what’s going on in order to fix it.
Another example is, you’ve probably heard this one before people that win the lottery. So people that are, you know, have, you know, let’s say middle class, you know, they have you know, they they’re not used to having a lot of money, right? They’re just like, whatever, living paycheck to paycheck, they win the lottery, they get millions of dollars.
And I think the statistics are something like this. 60% of these people within two years are back to where they were financially, before they won the lottery, like they have this pull back to their comfort zone. Because having millions of dollars in the bank, investing it and making it grow, and like all this other stuff feels so uncomfortable for them. It’s so unfamiliar.
And they’re, you know, they just want to go back to what feels good and what feels comfortable for them. And everybody else, maybe even them would look at this situation and go, you’re crazy. How can you do this to yourself, this is total self sabotage.
But in reality, it’s so hard to discern what’s happening, because it feels like it’s automatic, it’s feels like it’s just happening to you. But it’s very, it’s very sneaky. And it’s subconscious that’s happening. It’s your subconscious at work, it’s your primitive brain at work, we have to just have this awareness to understand what’s going on here.
Another way this shows up is, you know, let’s say you want to quit drinking, and you find yourself doing well, for some time for some period of time, you might like, you know, we’re on day, eight now of the dry July challenge. And there’s people that are doing really well, and they haven’t had a drink in eight days.
And maybe some of these people will find themselves, you know, drinking tonight, and they don’t understand why. And it could just be that that feeling that they’re feeling and experiencing of like not being drunk or not being buzzed or not being hungover, whatever, that doesn’t feel normal to them. It doesn’t feel, you know, familiar. It’s not what they’re used to feels uncomfortable.
And your primitive brain just wants to go back to what feels comfortable. And so your primitive brain will be like you need to drink. And you might think, well, this is a dumb idea. Why am I doing this? And you might just find yourself doing it anyway.
When I first started, when I first stopped drinking, many years ago, I remember waking up feeling good. For the first time in a long time, you know, waking up, not feeling hungover. And this felt very uncomfortable for me. I had all this energy, I felt very clear headed. I wasn’t sick to my stomach. And I did not like that feeling. This was so uncomfortable for me. And so not normal it’s not funny.
Like I remember driving to work every day. And I had like a 30 minute commute or whatever to work. And I just remember everyday thinking, man I wish I just felt better. I wish I felt I wish I wasn’t so sick, driving to work, but then I would you know, then I stopped drinking. And then I was like, Oh my gosh, what am I feeling now as I’m driving to work, but this feels so uncomfortable.
I feel so like jittery and like, you know, clear headed like, this is crazy, you know, so that that felt very foreign to me and very uncomfortable for me. And here’s the thing, happiness can feel very uncomfortable. Feeling good, feels uncomfortable for us. We’re not wired, to seek out happiness and to pursue happiness.
We’re not wired to pursue joy, and to pursue love and to pursue success and to pursue good health. We’re wired to pursue comfort. This is not a bad thing, okay, you just have to understand that this is what’s going on in your brain. And this is something that we’ve evolved over millions of years, as human beings, we have this natural instinct to seek out the familiar to seek out what is comfortable for us to always be running back to the safety of what’s comfortable, even though comfort may be what’s bad for us.
It doesn’t matter, even though we know like I want to, you know, improve my relationship with my romantic partner. And so I’m going to like, you know, try to you know, I want more love, and more joy in our relationship. And then when you start to get that, it’s like, whoa, this feels really weird and feels uncomfortable.
I’m just going to pick a fight with them just to make sure we go back to where we were before, where everything was comfortable and familiar to us where we’re fighting all the time. Right? This is kind of insidious.
Now we just have to understand this is the way your brain works. It’s not a bad thing. It’s no moral judgment here. This is just how our brains are wired. And it’s okay. All change anytime we want to change anything, it’s somewhat uncomfortable. All change is uncomfortable until it becomes familiar to us. All change is uncomfortable until it becomes more familiar to us.
So we have this thing, and I see this all the time with with clients who want something for themselves, they want to lose weight, let’s say, you know, they want to quit drinking, they want to run faster. So they want something they’ve wanted this for a long time. That wanting is very familiar, it’s part of who they are. Right.
So maybe they’ve wanted to lose weight for 20 years, they’ve tried all kinds of things, and they haven’t worked. But they keep wanting it. And they keep having this wanting this wanting becomes the familiar thing for them, the wanting of the thing, the wanting of the goal becomes their comfort zone, they’re just comfortable wanting this thing, you know, you may want to quit drinking, and you want to quit drinking. And that’s just where you’ve been for a long time.
Or maybe you want to get in shape, and you’ve been wanting to get in shape for many years. You’ve wanted it for so long. It’s now it’s just a comfortable and familiar thing this wanting. But then you get the thing, you get in shape, you do quit drinking, you lose the weight. And now you start to you have to make this shift from the wanting to the having that feels really uncomfortable for people.
Okay, because you’re just so used to wanting something you’re so used to wanting, you know, to reach this goal, that having it feels weird and feels uncomfortable and feels unfamiliar and feels unsafe. I, you know, you you may have experienced this, if you’ve ever set a big goal for yourself, like running a marathon, you know, and you cross the finish line of that marathon and it feels so amazing.
But then all of a sudden, you feel sort of let down and you feel uncomfortable, and you feel weird and, and you’re like I need another goal, I need to put something else on the calendar, I need a bigger goal. This was my experience for sure. I ran my first real big race I ever ran was a 10k. And I remember thinking, oh my god, I just I’ve been training for this for so long. And now I’m out of the habit and it’s done. Now I feel uncomfortable having this thing like I have to want something else.
So then I was like I’m gonna train for a marathon. And then I needed something else. And I started, you know, training for ultra marathons. And then I was like, I want something else. And I started training for triathlons and Ironman and I want to run 50 Miles 100 Miles and in the wanting can go on and on and on. And it feels uncomfortable when we get the thing because now we’re not, we’re not in that wanting place anymore. Okay?
You’ve gotten so good at wanting that having it just seems too big or too scary or just weird or uncomfortable for us, okay. And when we get close to reaching a goal, sometimes we will self sabotage will pull ourselves back from achieving the goal so that we don’t get it so that we don’t have it so that we don’t have to make that switch from the wanting to have.
So you might be close to losing weight. And you might think to yourself, like you know, you don’t really deserve this, like who do you think you are? What are people gonna think of me? Or are I’m really not good enough, I’m not going to be able to sustain this. This is really not for me, this might be for other people, but this is not who I am.
All of these thoughts are going to come up and all of these things are going to come up and they’re going to make you want to go running back to safety, running back to what feels safe and comfortable and familiar for you, which is the wanting.
And so you’re just going to continue with the wanting and you’ll just go go through that your whole life. I work with people every day who are like I want this so bad, Patrick. All right, cool. And we start to make some progress and they find themselves month after month, week after week, whatever it is just self sabotaging.
They don’t understand why this is a big part of it. Because having the thing just feels too uncomfortable for them. Well, now that I’ve lost the weight, how am I going to make it work? How am I going to sustain it? And a lot of times it’s just just keep doing what you’re doing.
If you desire you lost the weight and this is how you’re going to keep it off right it’s not a big mystery there. But we get so used to the wanting that the having just seems too too uncomfortable to deal with for us. And I think part of it is like we have this idea that once we get somewhere once we have the thing that we can just coast we can just like cruise, put it in a cruise control and we don’t have to work anymore at it.
So the discomfort you feel around having something I think that’s increased by this false belief that when you get the thing that you know you’ve been chasing for so long that you can just coast like when you reach your goal weight then you can go back to eating whatever you want. When you hit your marathon PR then running is you can just coast like running. It would just be so much easier, and you can just, you know, he pretty much no effort anymore, right?
Or let’s say you quit drinking for 30 days, and you hit 30 days, and then all of a sudden, something’s gonna happen where you just no longer gonna crave alcohol anymore. And you know, I have to do any work around this again. And the truth is, none of this is true, like the work is ongoing, right, you don’t get to some destination, and you have your thing, you have your goal, you’ve reached your, your goal, and then your work is done. And you, you know, can just rest and just chill and cruise control, right?
It doesn’t really work that way. Sorry. It’s just not right. This is, you know, the, the work is ongoing. You know, it’s how you live your life from here on out. Like, if you change your diet, so that you’re, you’re losing weight, and you’re feeling good, and you’re fueling your runs properly, and you’re becoming the healthiest version of you. That’s not something you stopped doing. It’s just not like there’s no, there’s no destination, there’s no finish line that you’re crossing, and then you can go back to doing what you were doing before.
There’s no “there”, that’s better than here. Okay, there’s only here. And that’s okay, and what you’re doing right now, if you’re on this, on this journey of self discovery, if you’re on this journey of personal growth, if you’re on this journey of becoming the healthiest, most badass version of you, then that is your journey from here on out. And that’s cool. That’s okay, that’s good.
We want to be on this journey, we’ll want to keep learning and growing and exploring becoming more always. So when, when it comes down to it, self sabotage is really a product of a lack of self awareness, you just don’t understand what’s happening, you just don’t understand the way your brain is working. Right.
And when you don’t understand what’s going on in your brain, it just can seem like everything is happening to you. Like, you know, everything’s happening to you. You know, when you have the self awareness, when you understand how your thoughts create your feelings, and your feelings, drive your actions. This is when you can start taking back control. This is when you understand that you have the power to change whatever you want in your life.
And psychologists call this type of self awareness, they call it emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence is the ability to understand, interpret, and respond to your thoughts and feelings in an enlightened and in an in a healthy way. And so the root of self sabotage is really is a lack of emotional intelligence, the root of self sabotage is a lack of self awareness. But when you have self awareness and emotional intelligence, it kind of looks like that.
So emotional intelligence is like you have a feeling, you have this feeling inside you that maybe you have a feeling like anger, like you understand what the feeling is, you can name it, I have, I’m angry, I have an urge to drink something or to eat something, I’m having a craving, these are all feelings, I’m stressed. This is a feeling I’m bored.
And then you understand that you have a thought that caused that feeling, you know, you maybe you’re thinking you know, a drink sure would take the edge off right now or eating this cookie will probably make me feel better. Or my husband should show more support. For me, these are thoughts that cause feelings, my husband should show more support for me might cause you to feel anger.
And so you have a feeling you understand what it is you can name it, you know the thought that’s causing the feeling. And then you allow that feeling to just be there without having to do anything to change it or to make it go away. This is what emotional intelligence looks like. You can have a feeling you understand what it is where it’s coming from, that you’re having these thoughts that are causing the feeling. And then you don’t have to do anything about it.
You can just have a feeling of wanting to drink or not drink, you can have the feeling of you know, wanting to eat the cookie, but don’t eat the cookie. You could have the feeling of anger at your husband and you don’t yell at him. Even though you’re angry with him. You can just be angry. And that’s cool. This is what emotional intelligence looks like.
And honestly, it’s just one of those things that you have to practice because it feels kind of terrible at first, until you get better at it. Because it’s so uncomfortable. It’s so unfamiliar and you’re in this place and you’re outside your comfort zone because all of a sudden things are coming up and you just got to deal with it. You just got to let it be there. Just allow it to be there. Allow that anger to be there without doing anything about it without acting on it.
But you practice it and you get better at it. And then you practice it some more and you get, it gets easier for you. And it becomes just a part of who you are. Emotional Intelligence is something you can learn, and practice and get good at. And listen, you’re already doing this in other areas of your life, like, you know, your co worker sends you a nasty email and you just want to punch them in the face, but you don’t, you don’t punch them in the face, even though you feel like it, you got angry, you’re feeling the anger, you understand, it’s just a feeling and that you don’t have to act on it. Right?
Because you know, there’s like negative consequences that go along with this, you probably get fired, or, you know, get go to jail or something. And the same goes for sticking with your eating plan or not taking a drink, you can still feel like you want to drink, you can still feel a craving for a cookie and not eat the cookie. You can just be there with that urge to drink and not do anything about it. Just be there. It will feel uncomfortable. It will. It’s cool. Just feel uncomfortable. No biggie.
I was just talking to someone last night who was telling me she was really proud of herself because she was sitting at dinner with friends and she’s trying not to do sugar and flour right now. And there was a you know, basket of bread, they just kept putting these baskets of bread in front of her at this restaurant.
And she just looked at the bread and was like, nope, not doing it. And it felt uncomfortable. But she just just let it be there. Just let it let the discomfort be there. And just went on with you know, talking with their friends and eating dinner and all this other stuff with all this bread just staring at her in the face calling out her name, eat me. Just didn’t do anything about it. You know it wasn’t comfortable, but she got through it.
And the more you practice stuff like that, the better you get at it, the more the more you practice not drinking when you feel like taking a drink like you may be at a party and you don’t know anybody there and you feel super uncomfortable. You’re like I just know a drink would sure make make things easier here.
Don’t do it, just feel uncomfortable. Be the uncomfortable person at the party. You know what other people are probably uncomfortable to. But is that drink really going to help you in that situation? Probably not. Maybe you can just go talk to somebody, you know, just talk to one person, ask them, you know what they do ask them about their family, their kids, whatever. Just you don’t have to drink, you don’t have to make yourself feel comfortable all the time. It’s okay to feel uncomfortable.
So understanding this emotional intelligence piece is so key and understanding the that your thoughts create your feelings and your feelings drive your actions. This is key to ending self sabotaging behavior. The key to changing anything in your life really, is to practice a different pattern, you got to practice a different thought feeling action pattern, you have to train yourself to prefer habits that are good for you.
Like you have to make the good habits familiar to you. And they won’t be easy until they become familiar won’t be comfortable until they become familiar to you. So you have to practice doing it. Like you know, not eating the bread. That’s a good habit. Right? If you don’t eat bread, and everybody else is eating bread, you got to practice not eating the bread. And then that’ll become easier for you. And it’ll become more familiar to you.
And when you do this and you practice it, you get good at it, you expand what’s comfortable for you, you your comfort zone gets larger, you expand your comfort zone. And listen, it’s not enough to know what you should be doing. You know, it’s not about good habits versus bad habits. It’s not about being a good person or a bad person. It’s never about a moral judgment. Never.
It’s just about changing what’s familiar to you. So don’t judge yourself. For you know, wanting to eat the bread, you’re not a bad person because you want to eat the bread. That’s just what’s comfortable to you. It’s just what you’ve done. It’s what’s familiar to you.
Change what’s familiar to you. And you can change anything you want in your life. And honestly, you’re right now where you are today, you’re already good at doing everything you’re doing today. Okay, here, like whatever you’re doing today. You’re good at already. This is comfortable for you. Okay, all the habits that you have right now all the thought patterns, all the things you do automatically or that seem automatic for you. This is all familiar, it’s comfortable and safe. This is your comfort zone.
So when you want to change something, it’s going to feel uncomfortable to you. Are you willing to go through that? Are you willing to feel uncomfortable to change? You have to be willing to feel uncomfortable? It’s the only way you can change anything in your life. Are you willing to do the work to feel terrible for a little while until things start to feel more familiar, more habitual, more comfortable for you?
And you’re probably saying yes, Patrick, I am. And people tell me yes all the time. In advance, they tell me yes, before they feel uncomfortable. They’re like, of course, I’m willing to feel uncomfortable. But then when they actually do start to feel the discomfort, and they start to feel kind of terrible, then they’re like, Hell, no, I didn’t sign up for this. This is not what I thought you meant when you said I was going to be uncomfortable.
And I’m like, Yeah, that’s what it is. It doesn’t feel good. It feels terrible. And it’s okay. You can get through it. It’s temporary. It doesn’t last forever, you can get good, you just got to practice it. But it’s funny, because people are, are all in with the discomfort ahead of time. You know, they’re like, Yes, I’m willing to feel uncomfortable in a few weeks, no problem at all.
But then a few weeks go by, and they’re like, Oh, I really feel terrible. Get me off of this thing, you’re like, Nope, you got to just stay where you are. That’s the only way you got to get, you just got to get through it. So, but when you when you start to feel that discomfort, that’s when you start engaging in the self sabotaging behaviors, even though you don’t even know you’re doing it, you’re going to start to do things just to get back to the comfortable just to get back to the familiar. Even if it’s something that’s bad for you.
You know that, like let’s say you’re trying not to drink alcohol right now. And you know that, you know, drinking alcohol is bad for you, let’s say okay, and you just know that you want to take a break for those months, you know, and it’s gonna start to feel uncomfortable, and you’re gonna find yourself wanting to drink or maybe you find yourself drinking, even though you don’t want to do that.
Consciously you’re like, I don’t even want this right now. Subconsciously, your primitive brain is like, you got to get something good, you got to get something to make you feel more comfortable here. Alcohol is what we usually do. So let’s go back to doing that. Alright. Even though you know, it’s like, it’s not good for you. It’s not healthy. It’s not what you want for yourself in this moment, you’re going to do it anyway.
Listen, if you find yourself stuck, or find yourself not making progress toward a goal, you need to hear this, you’re not stuck because you’re incapable of change, you’re stuck because you don’t feel like doing what it takes to change. I’m going to say this again. Because I think this is really important.
You’re not stuck because you’re incapable of change. You’re stuck because you don’t feel like doing what it takes to change. You don’t feel like doing what it takes to change because what it takes to change is getting uncomfortable is seeking out the unfamiliar, seeking out the uncomfortable. And we get hung up on labels sometimes like we use these labels of like we have good feelings which equal comfort and safety and familiar familiarity and we have bad feelings like discomfort, danger unfamiliar. And I just want to say right now that I don’t think these are accurate labels, I don’t think any feeling is good or bad.
Being a human being means we get to experience all of our emotions, the quote unquote positive emotions, the quote unquote, negative emotions, we experience joy and sadness, happiness, and sorrow, peace and confusion, you know, anger and contentment, we get to experience all these things. And it’s cool, it’s cool, we can experience all these emotions, we’re not going to die from feeling our feelings, right.
But when you live your life from a place of always trying to avoid any of these negative feelings, you’re going to find yourself stuck in a loop of always trying to avoid feeling stuff, you’re going to always be seeking pleasure. You’re always going to be avoiding discomfort, avoiding anything unfamiliar. And you’re gonna find yourself stuck and frustrated, and never becoming more never changing anything.
Because you’re always trying to avoid feeling half your feelings, basically. All right. The way you stop the self sabotage is to get really good at feeling uncomfortable about embracing the discomfort. Get out into the unfamiliar territory, on purpose, do it on purpose. Do things that are hard, do things that don’t feel good, but that will move you in the direction of your goals and dreams. Do the hard stuff even though you don’t feel like it?
This is like the key to accomplishing anything is you make a plan and then you stick to the plan even when you don’t feel like it. Even if it feels you know unfamiliar even if it feels scary. Even if you don’t understand how it’s all going to work even though it feels uncomfortable. I’m doing this right now for myself.
I started, I found myself getting to this place where I kept hitting snooze in the morning a bunch of times, like I set my alarm for six o’clock, and I would hit snooze a bunch of times, right? And listen, as an entrepreneur, I get to make my own hours. Okay, so I’m like, Yeah, I make my own hours, I can get up whenever I want to, you know, and I just found myself wasting time.
So hitting snooze, you know. And I decided in pretty recently, a few weeks ago, that I was going to be the kind of person who got up at 5:30. And started working and just got to work right away. And so I’ve been doing that I’ve set my alarm for 5:30. I don’t hit snooze, I use my, you know, phone as like an alarm. And so I hit stop. And then the feet are on the ground. Every morning, 5:30, stop, feet hit the floor.
And this, I got to tell you guys, this feels terrible. It’s really hard. It’s very unfamiliar for me, for me, because I’ve been doing this snooze thing for like, a long time, you know. And it’s uncomfortable, it’s unfamiliar, I don’t like it, it feels terrible, I’m tired, I want to sleep more. I feel like I need more sleep, you know, when I wake up in the morning.
But I gotta tell you, every day that I do this, I feel better about myself, I’m building confidence in myself, because that hitting snooze over and over again was like a form of me self sabotage and wanting to stay in the familiar. And so I’m forcing myself to break that habit. And this is how you do it.
You just got to get out into the unfamiliar, decide what it is you want for yourself and do that thing, even though you don’t feel like it. When my alarm went off this morning at 5:30. I was deep in sleep, I was in the middle of some dream. And I was just like, so deeply asleep. And I open my eyes. And I hit stop and the feet are on the ground. And I got up. And literally within like two minutes, I’m wide awake, and it’s fine.
But it’s like, you just got to do the hard thing she got to do what, what you need to do, even though you don’t feel like it. I don’t feel like getting up at 5:30. But I’m doing it. I’m getting a lot done. And I feel so much better about myself and the self sabotage has stopped.
So here’s your homework for this week. I got a homework assignment for you. I want you to decide what it is you want for yourself. And then I want you to see what you are doing or not doing. Because you just want to stay with the familiar and the comfortable.
So what do you want to be doing? Or what do you want to stop doing? Because it’s too hard or unfamiliar or uncomfortable. So this could be you know, not drinking or sticking to your food plan or sticking to a running schedule? Or running faster or doing weight training, or doing speed work or whatever it is for you. What is it that you want to be doing? Or what do you want to stop doing? But you’re not because it’s unfamiliar, because it’s uncomfortable, because it’s hard because you don’t feel like it.
I want you to do that thing this week. Do it even though you don’t feel like it. So if you tell yourself, I don’t want to be eating sugar this week, then don’t eat the sugar this week. And there’s going to be times when you are going to feel like eating the sugar. Don’t do it.
Or you’re going to say you know, hey, I want to, you know, do speed work two times this week, and then you’re gonna wake up and you’re gonna put your running shoes on, you’re gonna be like, I really don’t feel like doing this right now. This I hate speed work. It’s so hard. I’m gonna feel terrible. Do it anyway, even though you don’t feel like it. This is how you stop the self sabotage. This is how you change anything that you want for yourself.
Okay, so that’s your work for this week. Cool. Let me know how that goes for you. I want to hear about it. You can post your homework assignment, you can post your results in our Facebook group. Cool. Alright, that’s all I got for you guys. I hope you got something out of this episode today. And if you did, I would love it if you would share this with a friend I love you all keep on Running Lean. Talk to you soon.
If you’re a runner and you’ve been struggling to lose weight or you keep losing and gaining the same 10 pounds over and over again. Or you’re finally ready to get to your natural weight and stay there for good this time then I have something you will love. I’ve created a powerful new training just for you called running lean for life. You’ll learn exactly how to transform yourself into a lean fat-burning running machine. So you can run without bonking, lose weight without calorie counting and develop the habits required to make it last for life. To get this free training right now go to runningleanpodcast.com/leanforlife and start your transformation today.
I have a very special guest joining me here on the podcast today. A few months ago, Latisha Simmons was facing some pretty serious health issues and decided she needed to make some big changes in …
Continue Reading about 75. How Being Healthy Becomes a Lifestyle with Latisha Simmons →
Patrick McGilvray
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 75 of Running Lean. My name is Patrick McGilvray, the weight loss coach for runners. And today, I’ve got a very special episode for you. I’ve got a special guest joining me here on the podcast today. Latisha Simmons.
So a few months ago, Latisha was facing some pretty serious health issues. And she decided that she needed to make some big changes in her life. So she changed her entire approach to diet to running to strength training. And most importantly, though, she changed her mindset around all of this.
And she’s worked really hard on making this whole idea of becoming healthy and being healthy. She’s worked hard on making this her new lifestyle. Like I said, she’s come a long way in just a few months. And I thought it’d be beneficial for all of us to hear her story of transformation. So that’s coming right up.
We had this conversation, Latisha and I, recently in the Running Lean Facebook group. And if you haven’t checked it out yet, please come check out the Running Lean podcast community on Facebook, I created this group so that you and I could have a conversation, that it was a place where you can ask questions and get answers and do it all in a way that’s like fun and encouraging and motivating. So just go on Facebook and search for Running Lean community and come join us. Come join in on the fun.
And then quickly, here’s another five star review of the Running Lean podcast. This one’s from Tammy. Tammy says, “I love everything you teach. I listened to your podcast when I run. And when I work out. Thank you for everything. I’m in love with my new lifestyle. I love to listen to your new podcasts and the old ones too. Thank you again, Tammy.”
Tammy, thank you so much for leaving this nice review, I really appreciate it. And if you enjoy the podcast, I would love it if you could tap the stars just leave a quick rating and review. It just helps other people to find the show. So you can do that on Apple podcasts and probably other places where you listen to podcasts.
And then hey, if you ever want a little help losing weight, or, or making all of this a lifestyle, I’ve got you covered. As a one on one coach, I work with runners every day who are working to become the healthiest and most badass versions of themselves.
So a coach doesn’t just show you what to do. A coach will hold you accountable. Coach will help you get through all of the challenging stuff. And there will be challenging stuff, I promise you. A good coach will encourage you to do the stuff you don’t want to do so that you can become the person you want to become. So not everyone needs coaching.
But for those who who want the expert guidance, who want the support, the encouragement, the accountability, then coaching might be perfect for you to learn more and apply. Just go torunningleanpodcast.com/apply.
And what happens is you’ll schedule a call with me and you and I’ll jump on a quick zoom call, we’ll have a short conversation. And we’ll see if coaching is a good fit for you. It might be it may not be either way. It’s cool. You have nothing to lose from just having a quick conversation. Okay, cool. So let’s get into this.
So like I said in the intro Latisha has come a long way in just a few months. She feels amazing. She’s lost a bunch of weight running is amazing for her. And she’s developed this awesome new mindset about what it really means to be healthy, how she’s sort of made this into a lifestyle.
Because listen, she’s tried other things before and they just never worked for her long term. But now she says things are different. She’s developed this new mindset about what it means to be healthy. And she’s just kind of made this how she lives her life. Now, this is just who she is and what she does. It’s really cool.
And no, it wasn’t a walk in the park for her. It was challenging. And she talks about this, she talks about especially at the beginning, it was very challenging for her but she had this determination that she was going to make it work and she was able to get through all of it. So I hope you enjoy this conversation that I had recently with Latisha Simmons. So let’s just get into this conversation if that’s cool with you, first of all, welcome, Latisha.
Latisha Simmons
Hi, Patrick. Thank you for having me.
Patrick McGilvray
This is my first time doing an interview in the group here like this. So…
Latisha Simmons
Guinea pig is what you tell me.
Patrick McGilvray
So you’re my guinea pig. Thank you for playing along with me, you are pretty awesome for doing that. I appreciate that you’re brave, you’re courageous. So just like introduce yourself and like, tell us like, where you tell us where you live. And like, tell us a little bit about your you know where you were a few months back and why you decided to make some changes and stuff. So just kind of give us a little bit of background and tell us like where you were coming from.
Latisha Simmons
Okay, so I live in Chattanooga, Tennessee, which is a small town in Tennessee, couple hours from Nashville, and a couple hours from Atlanta, Georgia born and raised here. So when I first came to purchase a little bit of backstory, I started running back in 2015, just to lose some weight, and I’ve been a yo-yo dieter all my life building weight issues.
So I started in 2015, to lose some weight. The way I lost at that time was by running and doing some strength training in basically counting calories. So I was successful with that 10 months after that I had lost 80 pounds, kept it off for a couple of years.
But then 2019 it started to creep back. And I just started regaining some of the weight. So Patrick talks to us about that all the time. So because I started gaining the weight back, of course, I wasn’t happy about that. Honestly, I was ashamed of gaining it back again.
So as a result, I just, I was still running the whole time. But my you know what, my eating wasn’t good. So I didn’t even like want to go like to my doctor’s appointments, like my annual doctor’s appointments, because I knew my doctors were gonna be like blessing.
So anyway, I didn’t go to the doctor for a year or two. And so finally, I went to the doctor earlier this year. And it actually was my gynecologist who was running, you know, some tests and she was like, I think you might be insulin resistant. Of course, I had really no idea what that was.
But because I have a family history of diabetes, is what made her even look at that for me. And she knows I had gained a significant amount of weight in a short period of time. So she ran tests, and sure enough, I was insulin resistant.
So that’s basically where I was when I found Patrick, I was insulin resistant, I had high blood pressure, because I had regained you know, so much of the weight back that I had lost. And because of the genetic predispositions has started to show up, I’m in my mid 40s. And apparently, that’s when all that starts to show up. So anyway, that’s where I was when I found you, Patrick.
Patrick McGilvray
Yeah, and then, you know, talk a little bit more about that feeling of like gaining the weight back. And you mentioned like that feeling of just feeling like ashamed of like, you know, you you did something, you know, that was good for you, and you did something good for yourself, and you made a big positive change in your life and your health. And then you slipped, you know, when you went back to a, you know, gaining a bunch of the weight back, like talk a little bit about how that felt.
Latisha Simmons
Yeah, I mean, I really, I mean, honestly, I felt like a failure, like I failed myself again. So it wasn’t a good feeling at all, I really didn’t understand what was happening because like I said, I was still running the whole time. I was still strength training the whole time. And you know that you hear, you know, if you’re a runner, you can eat whatever you want. So and I know that’s not true, but kinda sorta I was still doing that. And it’s worth a try. Right?
Exactly. Well, I’m here to tell you that doesn’t, you know, doesn’t matter how much you run if you don’t have your diet under control. It’s just not going to work. So yeah, I wasn’t in a good place. I didn’t feel good. Didn’t have the energy I used to have.
My running was hard to think about, you know, the more weight you’re carrying around, of course, it’s just uncomfortable. So yeah, I wasn’t in a good place wasn’t feeling good at all. And like I said, I just, I was feeling just really down on myself for you again, you know, losing the way but only to regain it again. So yeah.
Patrick McGilvray
And so you went to the doctor and the doctor said you’re insulin resistant. And what that means is that your body will no longer respond to the effects of insulin so your body just starts producing more and more insulin.
And when that happens, so insulin is that hormone that that locks up your fat in your in your fat cells and it doesn’t allow you to burn the fat so you’re always storing fat when insulin is high. So that’s kind of what was happening in with you. And, and so your doctor recommended something for you, what did she recommend that you do?
Latisha Simmons
Yes, she, when I left her office that day, I left with a low carb diet, low carb, low sugar diet. And basically, it was a list of foods that I could eat and a list of foods that I couldn’t eat. So she was like this is what you have to do.
The good thing about it is, so basically, insulin resistance is pretty much pre diabetes. Which means, you know, if you catch it early, you you know, if you change your lifestyle, your eating habits and workout and all that stuff, you can, you know, pretty much reverse it. So that’s the good thing.
She was like, you know, we caught it early. If you do what I tell you, you can you can beat this. So of course, I’m like, okay, just tell me what I need to do. So yeah, she gave me that, that told me you know what I needed to do. Um, but you know, I left there with two prescriptions that I didn’t have, when I when I walked in the door.
I’ve never been on any medication, you know, regularly like that in my life, knock on wood, but I am now. So that was really my motivation to really like, basically get my life together. Because she’s like, if you don’t, you’re gonna be on this medication the rest of your life. But if you do what I tell you, you know, you can come off of it within a couple of months.
So that’s what she told me. And around that same time, I feel like it was meant to be because I somehow found the Running Lean community on Facebook, which you and I were talking before, I don’t know how it took me so long to find it. But timing is everything.
So anyway, I found I found the Running Lean community. And it was right around the time you were doing the February challenge. We were starting on February 1. So all of that aligned with my doctor telling me to do this same diet that you were challenging us to do. So worked out perfectly. So I’ve been doing it every since February 1.
Patrick McGilvray
Awesome. We’ll just call that divine intervention. Yes, I like that. The gods were smiling upon all of us. Okay, so she sends you home with like this list of foods to eat, and you start doing the low carb thing. And then, okay, so what was your diet like before that, like what was it that was? What was the diet like that kind of got you to putting on all that weight again?
Latisha Simmons
So it pretty much was a free for all, like, I was just eating, you know, whatever I wanted to eat as much as I wanted to eat course, you know, all the meat, the three meals, the snacking in between. So that’s pretty much what my diet was.
I mean, I was eating, I’m a huge sweet eater. So of course, I was eating, you know, cakes, and cookies and doughnuts, and just all the stuff that I like to eat. Just really not even being mindful of what I was eating, just eating and that started happening.
It’s happening like right around 2019 ish, then of course, when the pandemic hit, I mean, you know, just, you know, that didn’t help the situation either. So just a lot of sugar, a lot of carbs, and just basically, anything I wanted to eat whenever I wanted to eat. So it was basically eating all the time. It felt like even as I was eating, I’ll be thinking about what am I gonna eat next meal. That’s, that’s kind of the state I was in.
Patrick McGilvray
Yeah, so you mentioned sort of, like just eating on was almost like unconscious eating. That’d be a way of describing it. Yeah, just eating. Yes. Like you don’t even know you’re like, how did I just eat that whole bag of chips?
Latisha Simmons
Exactly. Exactly. I was only supposed to eat three cookies. And now the whole bag is gone. Yeah.
Patrick McGilvray
Hmm. Once you start once you start you can’t stop though, right? I know. What about alcohol? Did you drink alcohol before?
Latisha Simmons
I did. So so like I said, I didn’t realize that I guess I was addicted to sugar because it will start in the morning with my coffee creamer. And in at night with a glass of desert wine, and of course, sugar and carbs in between the day too.
So I was drinking like a glass of wine every night, you know, in sweet wine so you know full of sugar. So that’s where I was before I started the low carb, low sugar.
Patrick McGilvray
Yeah, so you were drinking dessert wine. You were drinking dessert coffee in the morning, basically right? And like dessert breakfast and lunch dessert snacks. Isn’t it funny like everything? Like you know will say like, well you can’t eat cake for breakfast but have this pile of pancakes with maple syrup all over it and that’s fine.
Latisha Simmons
That was a regular breakfast for me that I love pancakes and syrup. Yes. And cranberry juice. Of course we know that juices are full of sugar. Just yeah, just sugar all throughout the day in different formats. And of course, we know sugars and so many things that we don’t even realize have sugar in it. And everything more. So yeah, that was my life. Yes.
Patrick McGilvray
Okay. Okay, so what were some of the big changes that you made? Like what was what kind of stands out to you? Now? Obviously, you stopped eating sugar. But what were some of the things that you did that were? Well, let’s let me put it this way. What were the hardest changes for you to make?
Latisha Simmons
How long we got? No. I know the answer. But I was just, I mean, man, there were a lot of things that it was hard, but I think I mean, it was hard to stop drinking wine every night. You know, that was hard to do.
You know, my little coffee creamer. That was hard to do. I mean, just think I mean, everything I was eating, and drinking has some kind of sugar in it. So I mean, it was just hard not to eat. You know, every time I looked around, you know, it’s just, there was a lot of things that was hard about my running was hard.
Once I you know, started not eating so much sugar, and carbs and all of that stuff. So I don’t know, honestly, patching back and saving. One thing was hard. I do know. Most everything was hard.
Everything, just everything about it was hard. Everything about it was hard. It was not easy at all. It was just hard to stop eating, you know, all the carbs all the sugar eating all the time. I mean, it was it was hard. It really was, yeah.
Patrick McGilvray
But you’re able to stick with it. You did a really good job of sticking with it, like you made a decision early on, that this is you know, I’m going to make this work. Because I’m not going on this medication for the rest of my life. And like, I’m not going to become a diabetic. And you made a work and you stuck to it. Like you were really, really good about sticking to it. Talk a little bit about that, like, what was that like for you?
Latisha Simmons
Well, I mean, like most runners, we’re pretty competitive people in you know, with ourselves. So one way to get me to do something is to tell me, I can’t do it, or expect me not to do it. Because my doctor didn’t tell me, you know, I couldn’t do it. She knows me. So she knows, she knew that if she told me if you don’t do this, this is gonna happen.
And you know, this is what we need to tell she knows me. So she knew that. So that’s basically what it is. It’s like, no, I’m not gonna be on this medication forever. I’m not gonna end up a full blown diabetic. No, so let’s do what we need to do. So, yeah, I was all in. I mean, one.
And like you said, I do feel like it was divine intervention, because it all kind of happened at the same time. So I was like, Okay, it’s meant for me to get my diet together and make this really a lifestyle change this time, stick with it, and you know, get take back control of my health is what I need to do.
So, I mean, that’s, that’s pretty much the mindset that I’ve had, I mean, you talk to us and several other podcasts about how important mindset is, and honestly, that’s it is, it’s all about your mindset. And so once I, you know, made up my mind that this is what we’re gonna do, like you said, I was all in.
And, of course, you know, having you there for support and accountability, and just, you know, walk me through every step of the way, is really a big part of why I’ve been so successful. So I mean, yes, I had to do the work, but I couldn’t have done it without all the support and accountability that I’ve gotten from working with you.
Patrick McGilvray
Yeah, and you know, what that whole mindset of like, going all in is really the key, it really is. Because I can be like, the motivator over here and your cheerleader, and I can show you what to do and encourage you and, you know, support you and hold you accountable. I can do all that stuff.
But at the end of the day, you’ve got to like do the work yourself, you’ve got to stick to your plan, you’ve got to, you know, show up and do your runs, even though it sucks. We’ll talk about that in a second. But like, you have to have the attitude of like, I’m going to do this for me, because I’m worth it.
And it’s important to me, you know, and my health is the most important thing that I have, you know, and so you made that commitment. And so I want to say, you know, I’m proud of you for for sticking with it, but mostly I’m impressed, because you made that commitment early on, and you just you nailed it. You know what I mean?
Like you just were like, I’m not going off my plan. And you you really stuck with it like like crazy, which is awesome. And here’s the thing, and you kind of mentioned this at the beginning like runners are good about stuff like that, like we’re competitive. And we can stick to a training program, no problem, you know, marathon training in the snow, you know, no problem I’ll show for that.
But then it’s like, don’t eat waffles. And you’re like, why isn’t oh my god crazy talk, you know. And so that’s I’m glad you brought that up. Because runners already have that mentality of like being able to stick with stuff and do the hard things, you know, we can absolutely do that, we just need to take that same attitude we have about sticking to our training plan and apply it over here to our to our diet and our nutrition and stuff like that.
So let’s talk a little bit about running because I know you struggled for a while. So there’s this thing that happens with runners and I’ve talked about this a million times. But it’s this fat adaptation period where when you as a runner decide to stop eating a lot of sugar and a lot of carbs, then it takes a while for your body to switch over from burning all that sugar and carbs to burning fat.
And burning fat is where you want to be because that’s where you lose weight. And that makes running so much easier. And stuff. I’ve talked about this so many times. But it’s hard to do, because there’s that period where you where you’re running, and you don’t have the energy here because you haven’t made the switch yet.
And so that that fat adaptation period can take on average, most people two to six weeks. I talk about this all the time. Some people it’s like a week or two, and it’s like, boom, no big deal. It took me like eight weeks, it took me a long time. What did that feel like for you? Like, what was that transition period? Like for you?
Latisha Simmons
Oh, my goodness, oh, man, it was really bad. The first couple of weeks, I don’t, I couldn’t run more than two, maybe three miles at a time. That’s as far as I could go. And so you can imagine, you know, you used to, you know, run in, you know, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14 miles, you know, depending on where you are in your training cycle. And you can’t even run two miles? You know, so it was hard.
And I think that was really one of the there was one of the times where you really came in handy for me because you were literally my cheerleader every week when I would meet with you because I’m like, they suck. And I don’t want to do it.
And you were like, you have to keep doing it. You know, so you really helped me through that period, because I really wanted to quit. I mean, that was the end now that you say what was the hardest part, there probably was the hardest part. Because I run really, I mean, it’s mainly mental health, I run for the mental benefits of running.
Sure, physically, it helps us to, but it really helps me mentally. So as much as I, I like how I feel when I run it wasn’t feeling good at all. And that went on for several weeks. And, and I think Patrick, I’m like you I think it took me probably six, seven weeks before my run started feeling good. So yeah, that was a long time.
But you know, I trusted you. And I really think too, that you have in your own personal journey, you know, your own struggles with you know, your lifestyle before you major change. I think, you know, knowing that this work for you, and you have no personal experience with this really helped me to trust you.
Even when you know you were saying, just keep going just keep going, I promise you on the other side is gonna be better. Knowing that you personally had that experience is what kept me going. I mean, cause I’m just gonna be honest, if it was somebody else that you know, is selling this whole thing and don’t have a personal experience with it. I probably wouldn’t have done and it would have just given up.
But knowing that you had had gone through the same thing. I was like, Okay, I’m trusting him. And I’m glad I did. Because now I mean, when I run, I look forward to running. I mean, I have rekindled my love for running again. When it’s you know, thanks to you telling me just don’t give up. Just keep going. It’ll get better to get better. I’m like, Okay, I’m trusting you, Patrick. So anyway, you know, it worked at it every week.
Patrick McGilvray
I was like, it’s just got to be getting better and you’re like no it took a while but but here’s the thing it’s like yeah, so you’re right that this is the the part where most people will just quit on this process because it does kind of suck and it’s hard.
And it just feels like you don’t have energy when you’re running and it’s not it’s not comfortable at all right? And so I just kept saying like you’re going to get through it I promise you it will happen it just takes what it takes for any everybody’s a little bit different. So and you did you eventually got to that point. So let’s think about a little bit now what is it like for you now running Like how is running for you today?
Latisha Simmons
Man running now it I mean, I am back to looking forward to it on my run days because I run four days a week and bike two days a week. So I run days I’m like, Oh yes, I get to run today it feels good. I have more energy to do it.
Even like on my speed days and my heal repeat days. I mean, I’m just killing those now. My recovery is better. Like, I feel like I recover quicker. There are times where I will go and do a 12 mile run on a Saturday. And that’s pretty much all I’m doing. I’m coming home, I’m eating, taking a shower, and I’m laying around all day.
Now I come home, eat, shower, and I go out and you know, enjoy my weekend because I just feel better. Even after the run, I feel like my recovery is better. So my running is I’m really enjoying it now. Because I look forward to my long runs even though it’s getting hot here in the south. Still just looking forward to my runs.
And honestly, and I never believed you when you would say this, but you like it’s come to feel amazing. And you’re gonna feel like you can just run all day. And yeah, I have to give it to you. That’s true.
There there are times where I’m like, oh, man, you know, if I’m only scheduled to do 8 or 10 I’m like, oh, I could have kept running. I mean, cause it felt that good today. So yeah, my running definitely is much better than it was when I first started the you know, the low carb low sugar. But yeah, I definitely have rekindled my love for running now. And it just feels great. And I look forward to doing it on my running days.
Patrick McGilvray
Yeah. And runnings probably also a little bit easier for you, Latisha because you’ve lost some weight. Well, yeah, I mean, would you say that’s true?
Latisha Simmons
Oh, absolutely. Absolutely.
Patrick McGilvray
So how much have you lost so far? Just in the last three months or so?
Latisha Simmons
I’m 32 pounds down. So yeah. 32 pounds since? Yeah, since I started.
Patrick McGilvray
Awesome work. Yeah, that’s a lot in a short amount of time. It is.
Latisha Simmons
And the good thing about it is, you know, once you get over, you know, I’d say the first probably two weeks. You don’t feel you know, deprived. You don’t you’re not hungry all the time, you’re not always thinking about what you need to eat next, you know, like, all those sugar cravings are gone.
So it’s just been just a whole 360 for me, like I and every week, of course, you know, this passion happy. Like, I can’t believe I’m not like thinking about food all the time. I’m not hungry all the time. Because I just couldn’t believe it because that, you know, that had been my life for so many years.
So yeah, that’s just been amazing not to, not to feel like a slave to food basically. This I felt before, like, you know, I was always thinking about him, it was just consuming, you know, my thoughts and my behavior and to not have that now.
I mean, there are times where, you know, it’s two, three o’clock in the afternoon. I’m like, oh, I need to eat. Like, I haven’t even had anything to eat, but I still have energy. I’m not crashing. And I’m not thinking about food all the time. So, man, it’s, it’s been a life changer. For me, it really has been.
Patrick McGilvray
That’s crazy right there. And that’s one of the things that I love about eating this way is that I’m not hungry all the time. Like, I didn’t eat until after 1:00 to 1:30. And I was just like, what what is this, you know? But there’s like this incredible amount of freedom in that because you’re not like, like you just said you’re not like obsessing about food 24 hours a day anymore.
You know, and when that goes away, you can start doing other things, you know, like, get on with your life, go for a run or whatever. And, and running, you know, drop, take 32 pounds and put it in a backpack and strap it to you and go run with that. And you know, runnings gonna be a lot easier without that 32 pounds on you for sure.
So what do you think about like, your ability to take this low carb sort of like lifestyle and like, go forward with it into the future? Is this something you feel like you can do forever? Is this something because you’ve tried other diets that didn’t work for you and you’ve tried to do other things? But do you feel like what you’ve learned here is something that you can perpetuate and that you can do pretty easily or does it seem like it’ll still be hard?
Latisha Simmons
Well, I mean, honestly, when when I walked out of my doctor’s office with this diet, I was like, there’s no way am I gonna be able to do this, first of all. Secondly, definitely not long term like, this is gonna be awful. Because you know, of course, we’ve all tried, like you said, the other low carb diets and stuff in the past.
But this, and again, you told me this, but I didn’t believe it. I mean, it definitely is easy. It’s a lifestyle. And I think that it’s not hard to do. Like, I still go to all my favorite restaurants. And there’s always something I can eat, that I can enjoy eating. So it’s not hard to do, like, it’s easy to fit into your lifestyle.
And, and that is what sets it apart from all the other diets I’ve ever done. The other ones were not sustainable. They just were not not long term. But this one to answer your question, I really do feel like I can do this for the rest of my life. And sure I have, you know, this threat of, you know, these health issues over my head, if I do go back to eating, you know, different types of diet.
But we all know, I mean, sometimes that’s not enough for people. But I do feel like for me, it’s I feel like I’m literally in a race against diabetes. I feel like that. And so it’s like, if you go back this way, then that’s what you’re looking at. But if you keep going this way, you know, you’ll be fine.
And you’ll be able to live a healthier life. And so, you know, I really don’t have a choice. I mean, I do, I mean, I could make that choice and end up on this, you know, medication, and you know, all of that, but I’m choosing not to do that. And I think this this low carb lifestyle definitely is the key to me being successful.
And I yeah, I don’t I really, I guess I still can’t believe that I don’t feel deprived. I mean, I keep waiting for that, you know, all the time like it. I mean, the fact that I don’t really I can’t eat pasta. I mean, I can I mean because of course you tell us, if there’s something you feel like you just really need to eat, eat it, then your very next meal, go back to your diet.
But I haven’t even had to do that like because I just don’t miss it. It’s like a life’s like this is what we’re doing. And so I’m just automatically, you know, making my choices based on my lifestyle. So I can’t believe it.
I never thought that I will find something that actually works for me. It’s good for my health in this sustainable. I just never thought that I will find that. But I really have and I just I can’t tell you how ecstatic I am about that.
Patrick McGilvray
So, so awesome. How about that dessert wine? Do you miss that?
Latisha Simmons
You know, I like to say after about two weeks. I didn’t because I don’t crave sugar like that anymore? Ah, interesting. No, I don’t crave sugar like that. And I’m just like, I mean, because I’ve been thinking I’m like, maybe I could just have a glass of wine. I’m like, I really don’t want because the the thought of how sweet is gonna be.
Patrick McGilvray
Yeah, you were concerned about that at the beginning. You’re like, I don’t know about giving up this dessert wine. I mean, because this is part of like who I am, you know? And you were not too thrilled about that part.
Latisha Simmons
Yeah. But when I think about, you know, just the consequences of it. It’s just not worth it. I mean, you know, will I drink alcohol again, I’m sure I will. But I don’t think that I’m going to be drinking a glass of wine every night. And it definitely won’t even be dessert wine. It’s going to be you know, something with less sugar than that. Like I said, not every night. So I really yeah, I’m surprised that I’ve been able to just just keep doing it.
Patrick McGilvray
So you were drinking a glass of wine every night and you haven’t you haven’t had any alcohol?
Latisha Simmons
I have had one drink. Not a dessert one.
Patrick McGilvray
One drink in three months versus every night. That’s a big change.
Latisha Simmons
Oh yeah, I’m not going to be. And I wanted to do that just to see what would happen. Yeah. And I you know, to be honest, I was scared to do it. Because it was like, a trigger or something? But you know, and it wasn’t as a really sweet drink either.
So I definitely know that’s not going to be the case. But yeah, I didn’t. I was like, okay, one drink of coke. And now I’ve been fine. So yeah, it’s not something that I just have to have anymore. But you’re right. I was concerned about it in the beginning.
Patrick McGilvray
Awesome. Yeah. So any final thoughts? Anything that you want to share that we haven’t talked about yet? Or, you know, what do you see yourself in the future? What’s next for you?
Latisha Simmons
Well, I still have some weight that I want to lose. Some of course. Everybody just keep doing what you’re doing. Just keep doing what you’re doing. And that’s what my plan is, is to keep doing what I’ve been doing because it’s been working for me.
You know, my daughter is excited about the progress that I’ve made. And she’s, you know, she’s hopeful that I’ll be able to come off these medications soon. So that’s obviously a big motivator for me. And again, knowing that if I go back to my old lifestyle that, you know, I’ve got some major consequences, you know, that I’ll be facing.
And so that’s, you know, a huge motivator for me to keep going and not only logistics, set an example for, you know, other people that may be going through this same, you know, situation, or I have family members that have some some of these similar health issues.
And, you know, I really want people to know that if you change your diet and your lifestyle, that you really can’t overcome some of these health issues that you might be facing, you know, even though you know, it is, you know, a genetic, you know, issue.
Sometimes that doesn’t necessarily mean that, you know, you have to just give up, you know, you still can, you know, fight and see, you know, can you change it, do all you can basically I’m trying to control what I can control, you know, I can’t control my genetics, I know that, but I definitely control you know, how much I exercise what I eat, you know, that whole thing, I like what I drink, and that has a big impact on, you know, the outcome here.
So, that’s definitely a big motivator for me. So my goal is to keep running from diabetes. And also, you know, just get some back to my goal weight, cause running wise, you know, once I get back to my goal weight, I want to set some some PR’s. Once I get back to that, I got a couple of races coming up. So that’s basically where I am.
But I’m excited about it for the first time ever, I actually feel like I can, once I get back to my race late in my healthy weight, that I can sustain it. And I have never felt like that in my entire life. So that is really just a wonderful feeling to have. And again, being able to do that and not feel deprived.
I mean, because if you feel like you miss an out or you feel deprived, you’re not gonna stick with it. But this type of lifestyle, you just don’t feel that way. At least I don’t. And I’m just super excited about it. And coming into it. I was just like, there’s no way I’m going to be able to be…
Patrick McGilvray
You were skeptical, you were a little skeptical. You’re like I don’t know about this guy. But we made a believer out of you, Latisha. So I just want to say thank you for coming on here and sharing your story.
And I also want to say that I’m really proud of you for just like, being courageous and making these changes, because it was hard for you at the beginning, you know, just to make that decision to like, go all in on yourself and to like, make these big changes in your life. That requires a lot of courage.
And a lot of people don’t have that, you know, a lot of people it’s just too scary for them, you know, but you you are like, I’m I’m going to make this happen. I’m going to do this, I’m going to fix my health. And yeah, you mentioned like diabetes being you know, genetic, you there’s a genetic predisposition predisposition for diabetes and insulin resistance and stuff like that. But it’s a lifestyle disease, you know, and you can absolutely change it with your lifestyle.
Just because you have the genetic predisposition does not mean the genes will be turned on. So if you don’t, you know, if you don’t feed the bad lifestyle, then the genes don’t get expressed, you know, and so you can definitely affect even a genetic disease, like diabetes with the right kind of lifestyle.
Latisha Simmons
Exactly. And, and I’m glad you brought that up. Because, you know, my doctor told me so I’m like, What do you mean? Like, I’ve never had this problem before. And she’s, you know, she’s like, because you’ve been keeping your weight under control, you know, you’ve been running and exercise and, and all of that.
So, you know, it didn’t show up. She said, but once you start eating what you want it to and, you know, started gaining all this weight, you know, then it showed up, she says so this has been there, but you’ve been able to control it with your lifestyle.
And so now that you know your lifestyle, it’s out of control, basically, here it is. I’m like, oh, so yeah, you bring up a good point. I mean, it’s just because it’s there and you can still control the lifestyle. And I’m definitely a believer of that now, because I’m seeing it. I mean, you know, it’s working. So I’m like..
Patrick McGilvray
Yeah, the whatever you want diet, that one doesn’t work for that. Even if you run it don’t matter. Doesn’t matter how much you run that diet doesn’t work.
Latisha Simmons
Yeah, I mean, I trained and did a 50k during that time. And so like I said, I was being austere running marathons and ultra marathons, but I’ll still eat what I wanted to and yeah, that didn’t help.
Patrick McGilvray
I mean that’s such a such a common story. Well, thank you again, Latisha. I appreciate you so much. And I’m so proud of you. And we’re gonna keep following your story here. I want you to keep us posted on your progress and let us know how this how these PRs go for you.
Latisha Simmons
Absolutely, I will do that. Thank you for having me, Patrick.
Patrick McGilvray
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