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Running Lean with Patrick McGilvray

Marathon Training

120. How to Fail Properly

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Failure. It’s such a negative word, isn’t it? What do you think of when you hear the word “failure”? If you’re like most people, you probably think of something you tried but were not …

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Podcast Transcript

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 120 of Running Lean. My name is Patrick McGilvray, the weight loss coach for runners, and today how to fail properly. Failure. It’s such a negative word, isn’t it? What do you think of when you hear the word failure?

If you’re anything like most people, you probably think of something you tried, but then were not successful. It didn’t work, you failed. And then it brings up all these feelings like disappointment, regret, and defeat. failure means you’ve been defeated, you lost it’s over the end, right?

But what if there was a totally different way to think about failure? What would it look like if you learned how to fail properly. And that’s what I’m talking about here on the podcast today. So get ready to learn a whole new way to look at failure, what failing means and how to fail properly.

And before I get into this topic, today, I wanted to share a quick story about someone I’m working with. This person came to me as a runner, wanting to lose weight around 20 pounds or so. And he had tried everything on his own and just couldn’t do it. And in the five weeks that we’ve been working together, he’s lost over 14 pounds. And that’s a lot of weight. And it’s not really uncommon.

Okay, it’s well, within the range of average weight loss of like one to three pounds per week seems to be pretty average for most people that I work with. The reason I bring this up is because of something he said to me on our call the other day. And I’m paraphrasing here, I didn’t you know, write down everything exactly, as he said.

But he basically said, ‘You know, I’m super happy with this weight loss, I haven’t been this weight and over 30 years, I feel so good. I’m getting stronger running is getting easier every day. But the thing that surprised me the most is all the stuff I’m learning about myself. I’ve really changed my mindset about food and exercise and running and everything. And I’m feeling so much better about myself, I don’t have all those intense cravings to eat junk food anymore, I’m feeling much more confident, I’m standing taller and carrying myself better.’

And I just want to say that I’m so proud of this person for doing the work. Because this is not easy stuff to do. Not everyone is willing to commit, not everyone is willing to put in the effort and actually show up and do this work every day. Not everybody sticks to their plan. But when you do, that’s when the good stuff happens. It does work if you show up and do the work.

So if you’d like to experience the same kind of results, then I want to invite you to apply for coaching with me. Just go to runningleancoaching.com/apply. When you get on that page, you can fill out a short application and then schedule a free zoom call with me and we’ll talk about your goals.

And we’ll talk about how coaching works and how coaching can help you reach those goals. I would love for you to experience these same kinds of changes for yourself. If you’re ready for some realistic lifestyle changes for mindset shifts, and you’re ready to get some sustainable results. Then I think you’re ready for coaching. Just go to runningleancoaching.com/apply to get started.

Alright, let’s talk about how to fail properly. So why am I bringing this up today? Well, I work with a lot of people and sometimes I see people that experience a failure of some sort and then give up. I’ve seen some examples of this lately, where someone has embarked on their weight loss journey and maybe experienced some sort of a failure or a setback.

You know, maybe they hit a stall like so their weight. They were losing weight pretty steadily but then their weight loss sort of stalled out. They hit what’s called a plateau which is super common. In fact, I’ve almost never seen it not happen or maybe they’ve gained a couple of pounds back.

And so they start slipping back into old behaviors. And the reason people do this is because they get frustrated. And when you get frustrated, what do you do, you want to go eat some food to feel better, right? But what happens internally is these, some people like they tell themselves, I have failed, I am a failure, this program, this diet, this food plan, whatever it is, isn’t working. So they quit. They give up, they see failure as the end.

And this is not some fringe thing. I see this all the time, mostly not from my clients, to be honest with you. Because if you’re one of my clients, if you’re one of the members of my program, you’re not allowed to quit. And I’ll talk more about this later. But I see it’s super common in the weight loss industry in general, in the health and fitness industry in general.

My training coach, and I, my weightlifting coach, and I were talking about this the other day, he sees a lot of times with people who are, you know, wanting to get fit. And so they start lifting weights, and they start getting healthier. And then, you know, maybe they just kind of stall out or they have a bad workout, or they’ve experienced some sort of a setback, maybe they get sick, and then they just quit, they just stopped coming back to the gym, they just give up.

So I’m going to go so far as to say that here in the Western world, this is kind of an epidemic. All right, I think that we’re taught at an early age, that the worst possible thing that we can do is to fail at something, you know, you better do well, in third grade, or you’ll fail, and we’re gonna hold you back. And this means that you don’t measure up, you’re not good enough, you are a failure.

And a little sidebar here, I think we need to do a better job of teaching kids that failure is not the end, it’s just part of the process of learning. I don’t think this whole grading system and failing kids and things like that is really working very well, I think it just puts a lot of pressure on kids, kids are filled with fear and anxiety about failure, and I think there’s a better way to do it. But that’s for another topic.

But we as adults need to understand the same thing. We need to understand that failure is just part of how we learn and how we grow, how we evolve, and how we become more. But we get it in our heads that failure is the end. So even as old wise adults, we need to learn how to fail properly because we never have. So that’s what we’re talking about here today.

So let’s get into this a little bit like what is failure? Exactly. If you look up the dictionary definition of failure, it says: an act or instance of failing or proving unsuccessful, lack of success, that’s all it means is lack of success. And I always add the phrase “for now” at the end of that. So failure to me is a lack of success right now.

Doesn’t mean lack of success forever, it just means that whatever you’re doing didn’t work big up. Notice it doesn’t say a lack of success forever. And it’s the end of your journey. It’s not the end. One story I love about failure is the story of Stephen King.

So Stephen King is one of my favorite authors. And I remember in high school and after high school reading, just like every one of his books, you know, I was kind of hooked on Stephen King at the time. And I love that kind of writing. Now you may not enjoy his particular style of writing or his subject matter, you know, kind of gruesome and horror-type stuff, but I enjoy it.

I think it’s really fun to just get lost in these crazy, supernatural stories. But anyway, the first manuscript that he wrote was Carrie, and he submitted this to publishers trying to get this book published, right. And he took it to like 30 different publishers and was rejected every time he was rejected over 30 times for this manuscript of Carrie.

One of the rejection letters that he received said, we are not interested in science fiction which deals with negative utopias, they do not sell. And he eventually took that manuscript and threw it in the garbage. He was like, this is the end screw it. I’m not going to keep trying. I’ve tried 30 times and failed 30 times.

But his wife convinced him to try again and she like, dug it out of the garbage, I guess. And he was, you know, he resigned himself to just keep trying. And he did. And of course, he eventually sold it. And he’s become one of the most popular and successful writers of our time. To date, he’s the only author to have over 30 books become number one bestsellers. That’s crazy.

But what if he gave up? What if, after one of those failures, or 9 or 21 of those failures, he just said, you know, screw it, I’m not doing this anymore, and just quit writing, he would never experience the kind of success he did. So I love that story of failure, it does not mean it’s the end, it just means it’s the end for now.

And I like to use this analogy of failure as like, imagine yourself being an airplane pilot, and you’re flying a commercial airliner from LA to New York. So you plot your course and you take off and everything’s looking good. And you’re flying through the air, everything’s like smooth sailing, but then you like, realize there’s this big storm ahead, you know, a huge storm.

And you’d have to make a decision of what you’re gonna do. Do you just quit? Do you like land the plane and say, sorry, there’s a storm in our way. There’s a big obstacle in our path we just can’t go on? Or do you go around it? You know, it’s going to take longer, you know, it’s not the way it was supposed to go. Things are not going according to plan, but you’re going to make it work, right?

Obviously, you’re going to make it work. You’re just gonna go around the storm, you keep going, right. But what if there was like a mechanical issue with the plane, you had to land it? Okay, now, you’re really off track, you had to actually take the time, you have to land somewhere, you got to sit there and wait for them to check it out. You know? So do you just quit? Do you just give up in that moment?

No, you just keep going. Obviously, as long as there’s nothing terribly wrong, you know, as long as the mechanics check it out, and the plane looks good. Then you get back on it, right, you just get back on track. These failures along the way, though, we look at our own failures as the end like it’s an excuse to give up.

And if you were that pilot, you would never give up, you would just continue, you got a plane full of people, you got to get them safely to their destination, right? Think about your health and fitness journey, your weight loss journey, you want to get to that destination. And so you have to experience a little bit of turbulence, a little bit of rough weather, just expect that on the path. It’s okay. It doesn’t mean it’s the end, it just means that it’s a setback. It’s a detour. All right.

So one thing I love about runners is that they’re already really good at doing this, like you guys, you guys are amazing at experiencing failures in your training. When you’re training for a marathon, you know, you got this 16,18, 20 weeks of training. And I see people all the time experience failures and setbacks and disappointments, you know, you might get injured, and you have to take some time off of running to nurse an injury.

Or maybe you have to travel for work or vacation. And it’s the same week, you’re supposed to be doing like a 20 miler. And so what do you do in those situations? Or maybe you get sick, this has been happening a lot, right? Over the last couple of years, you get sick, and you have to take time off? You know, do you quit?

No, you don’t you keep going and you like you get back at it. As soon as you can you get just pick up where you left off with your training plan, right? You keep training because you have this goal, and it’s important to you to finish that marathon, that’s a priority. And whether you’re traveling or if you’re sick or injured, none of these things are going to derail you from accomplishing that goal, right?

You probably paid for the race. So you have some skin in the game, which helps to drive you forward as well. Right? You’re focused, you’re determined, and you’re not going to allow these failures to stop you. You’re laser-focused on hitting this goal of finishing this marathon, you’re gonna finish that no matter what. Right, that’s amazing, you know, character trait, to have that sort of tenacity to just keep going no matter what.

And it’s really the same with your weight loss journey. But here’s the thing, I see runners all the time who can do this with their running plan, they might get injured, and they just, they do all their physical therapy and they, you know, get back on track, and then they finish that marathon like they are focused on completing that task and that goal.

But when it comes to losing weight, I see people experience some minor setbacks like hey, their weight stayed the same for a couple of weeks in a row and then give up. Like, what if you were as laser-focused on your weight loss as you know, health and fitness goals as you were on finishing that marathon?

What if you never let some little failures along the way stop you from continuing on? What if you took that same all-in attitude about your marathon training, and applied it to losing weight and becoming the most badass version of yourself? What would that look like for you? Would you look at failure differently? What would you do the next time you experienced that weight loss stall or plateau?

Or maybe you gave into a temptation to eat some junk food? Would this mean you can’t do it? And you give up and you just declare this doesn’t work and go back to doing whatever you’ve been doing? Which already, you know, that doesn’t work? I know, it sounds kind of crazy. The way I’m explaining it here, you’re probably thinking to yourself, like, oh, no, of course, I wouldn’t do that.

But this is exactly the thing I see people do all the time. You know, I’ve even talked to people who said they had their diet all dialed in years ago. Like they never felt better. I was at my goal weight. Running was awesome. Everything was amazing. I was eating all this amazing food. But then something happened, something seemed like it wasn’t working. And they gave up.

They experienced some sort of a setback, some sort of a failure, and they quit. And they went back to doing whatever they were used to doing before, which got them kind of overweight in the first place, and blah, blah, blah. I really wished this was an uncommon story. I really wish this was like the exception, but it’s not a people tell me this all the time.

So instead of avoiding failure at all costs, instead of giving up when you experience failure, you have to expect failure. What would that look like for you? Like ehat would it look like if you just expected to fail? I know it sounds like a kind of a crazy concept, right? What if you just expected there to be some turbulence along the way?

What if you just expected to have to, you know, lay in the plane to fix a stabilizer flap. I clearly don’t know much about airplanes. But whatever thing you would need to fix on a plane. Like what if you expected a weight-loss stall or a plateau? And what if you just expected your weight loss journey to take a little bit longer?

Failure is not to be avoided, failure is inevitable, you will fail. So why not embrace it, deal with it, learn from it, and then keep going. You cannot spend all your time trying to avoid failure. If you do, you will never try anything hard, you will never push yourself to accomplish anything more. You won’t ever get out of your comfort zone.

Because when you avoid failure, it keeps you in that comfort zone. But it also keeps you stuck and keeps you small and keeps you from growing and becoming more expected and embracing failure has the opposite effect. It gets you out of your comfort zone and drives you forward toward your goals. It’s how you evolve and grow and become more it’s how you accomplish hard things like losing 20, 30, 50 pounds.

You have to look at failures as stepping stones along your path. If when you fail, it is not the end, every one of these failures you experience is just one more step on the path to your eventual success. So each time you fail, it becomes one more step closer to your goal. And each failure is a chance to learn something. This is the important part of failing you have to learn the lesson from the failure.

You have to learn what works and what doesn’t. And the only way you learn this is by failing because success doesn’t teach you anything. So each failure actually becomes necessary in order to reach your goal. Each failure is one step closer to that goal. So you try something you fail. You learn something, you course correct, then you try again. Boom. Now you’re one step closer to your goal.

Every success is built upon a pile of failures. And no one does anything challenging perfectly. There’s no such thing as success without setbacks and failures along the way. So just expect them to be there. Embrace the failures. If you look at failures, in the end you’re gonna be quitting a lot. You’re gonna be quitting everything you ever start.

Are you the kind of person that quits things a lot? it’s probably because you look at failures, the end, failure is never the end, it’s just another step closer to becoming who you really want to be. So when you embrace failure, this means that you’re going to try things that might not work. And this is a scary thing for a lot of people.

Well, what if it doesn’t work? Who cares? A lot of people just use this as an excuse to quit or not even start something, because what they’re gonna do, you know, what they’re setting out to do is hard, it’s uncomfortable. And I get that doing this work. Like if you’re losing weight, if you want to lose weight and become a leaner, stronger runner, this is not an easy thing to do.

This takes some time, it takes some time to build new habits, it takes some time to learn what works for you. If it was easy, none of us would be overweight, none of us would need help with staying on track. You know, nobody would ever slip into old habits, again, like this would be simple, but it’s not. It’s, it’s it takes some work, I get that right.

In order to change your habits, you have to do things that feel uncomfortable, right? At least at first, once you do things for a while, it gets more comfortable, it gets easier, and all that. But at first, especially it doesn’t feel good. And so a lot of people just use failure as an excuse to quit. So they’re just chasing, they’re chasing after comfort and security, at the cost of their goals, they really want for themselves.

They don’t want to feel uncomfortable. They don’t want to do anything hard. They want more for themselves. But they don’t want to put the time and effort into reaching some people like they don’t want to put the actual effort into doing it. They don’t want to experience the discomfort that is required to reach that goal.

So it’s way easier to just say, you know, this failed, and go back to being comfortable and safe and small and doing all the stuff you used to do. And that’s fine if that’s what you want for yourself. But you’re listening to this podcast right now, I don’t think that’s what you want for yourself.

The people that listen to this podcast, I know you want more for yourself. Like I was saying earlier, this whole idea of like staying small and comfortable, and not wanting to get uncomfortable. I think this is an epidemic. This is like the disease of modern society, at least in the Western world.

Chasing after comfort. Avoiding discomfort at all costs, and avoiding failure at all costs has caused us to become weak and soft and small. And staying safe, and uncomfortable just keeps us from evolving, right? If you want to become badass, you got to embrace discomfort, you got to embrace failure as often as you can, and you got to do stuff that might not work.

Change your diet, sign up for an ultra marathon, start lifting some heavy-ass weights, guess what, you’re gonna try these things. And you might fail, you probably will fail, Big whoop. Learn from it. Try something else and try it again. Do not give up on yourself just to be comfortable. Because I know you’re capable of so much more.

You may not believe that about yourself. But I know that about you, you’re capable of so much more than you give yourself credit for. Most of us are only living up to about 40% of our actual potential increase that goes beyond 40%.

And the last thing I want to say about all this is probably one of the most important things that I want you to take away from this episode. And that is that any time you fail, and if you’re following my lead here, and you’re kind of doing what I’m suggesting here, you will fail maybe a lot.

Anytime you fail, it does not mean anything about you, it does not mean that you are a failure. When you try something and fail, it’s really easy to fall into that trap of thinking that you are a failure. feeling like a failure is really caused by a lot of negative thinking. And if you feel like you’re a failure, that’s an internal state caused by your thoughts about what this failure means about you.

So feeling like a failure is just an emotional state that you’re in. And emotional states are just caused by your thoughts. Okay. So just know that you are never a failure. The reason you feel this way is just you’re projecting that onto yourself. You are an amazing human being. You’re capable of greatness. You are perfect just the way you are right now. Yeah, you can still work to change yourself but that does not mean that you are a failure just because you tried something and it didn’t work does not mean that you are a failure.

You analyze your results. You try something else. And you see if that works, but you are never a failure. Do things that are hard, try things that may not work, fail, fail often fail fast. But none of this means anything about you as a person, it does not mean that you are a failure. You’re amazing.

So, your call to action this week, what I want you to do, is I want you to allow failure. Allow it to become part of your health and fitness journey. Allow it to become part of your weight loss journey. Try things that may not work. Get out of your comfort zone. Stop expecting your life to be failure-free and there’s no such thing as a failure-free life. So embrace failure.

Try something hard fail, learn from it course correct, then keep going. Rinse and repeat until you hit your goal. Cool. And remember, if you’re ready to make realistic lifestyle changes, mindset shifts and get sustainable results. Then you’re ready for coaching. Just go to runningleancoaching.com/apply to get started. 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.

118. The Biggest Mistakes of Habit Change

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In my coaching practice, I’ve helped hundreds of runners ditch old bad habits and create ones. This is really the core of the work we do together - creating new habits that get you to your weight …

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Podcast Transcript

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 118 of Running Lean. My name is Patrick McGilvray, the weight loss coach for runners. And today I’m going to be talking about the biggest mistakes of habit change. So in my coaching practice, I’ve helped hundreds of runners ditch old habits and create new ones. And this is really the core of the work that we do together, creating new habits that get you to your weight loss goals and get you to your running goals.

So when it comes to changing a habit, I know what works and what doesn’t. I’ve also seen a lot of people make the same mistakes over and over again. So today, I’m going to share a few of those biggest mistakes of habit change that I’ve seen.

And these are the things that people do that make it very hard to create any kind of lasting change any kind of permanent change in their habits. And my hope here today is that this is going to help you to avoid making these same mistakes yourself.

So I just want to let you guys know that we just finished up a whole month of working toward eliminating emotional eating for good over in the Running Lean coaching project. It was an intense learning experience for everyone in the group. We all learned some powerful skills for permanently ending emotional eating stress, automatic eating whatever you want to call it, it’s basically the same thing.

And in case you don’t know, I’ve just opened up my brand new immersive coaching program called the Running Lean coaching project. This program combines the best elements of my group coaching program, and also includes personal one-on-one coaching with me to help you get all the knowledge, guidance, encouragement, and accountability that you need to hit your weight loss and running goals.

And starting in April, our whole focus for the month of April is going to be on building healthy habits that stick there’s an art and science to habit change. And all month long we’ll be doing live trainings, q&a sessions, workshops, and coaching to learn how to ditch the old habits and replace them with new healthy habits that get you to your goals. I hope you’ll join us you can learn more and sign up now at runningleanpodcast.com/join. I would love to have you in the Running Lean coaching project where the project is you.

Alright, so let’s talk about why habit change is so hard. And the biggest mistakes people make around habit change. Okay. So why is it so hard? Why does it seem to be so grueling for us to stop doing our bad habits? Like why do we struggle when we want to change a habit? Break an old habit develop a new habit? Why is this such a struggle? Okay.

You know, you should be doing this, but instead, you don’t do it right? You know, you really want to stop doing this. But you keep going back to that old behavior time and time again. Okay? Why do we do this to ourselves? So that’s what I’m going to be talking about here today, okay, I’m gonna be talking about the importance of not making these mistakes, the same mistakes that I see a lot of people make, okay, you have to avoid these mistakes.

If you want to create healthy habits that actually stick that become automatic, become part of who you are and what you do that becomes easy and effortless behavior for you going forward. Okay. So this is the crux of, of the work that we do in my coaching programs because when it comes to building a better you, it’s all about what you’re doing day after day after day after day after day.

It’s not about one thing that you change one time, it’s about consistency in habits and consistent behaviors over time. And if you don’t understand this, and if you don’t wrap your head around the fact that you’re going to have to create new habits, it’s going to be very challenging for you.

Okay, so here are some of the mistakes that I see people make around this. And there’s more probably, but I’ve got a few to share with you today. These are the big ones. All right. So the first one is this. The first mistake of habit change is not understanding how your brain works and not understanding that your brain is actually designed to fight against you.

So most people don’t understand what their brain is doing and they get very frustrated. When they try to create some kind of a new habit, because they’re suddenly faced with all this resistance, it’s like internal resistance. And they don’t really see that they don’t know where it’s coming from. They don’t know why it’s such a struggle for them mentally and emotionally to like, stick with their plan.

Okay, so you have to understand what’s going on in your brain. So here’s what you need to understand. Your brain has one job, and your brain’s job is to keep you safe and to keep you alive. And whenever you make any kind of big change, your brain goes into freakout mode, it goes into fight-flight or freeze mode.

So doing a new habit, like say, you want to get up early, you want to get up earlier than normal to start running before you go to work. And this is a great idea. But to your brain, this feels uncomfortable, it feels unsafe, it feels unfamiliar, and your brain will reject this behavior. Your brain will seek comfort, and safety.

And whatever is familiar to it, even though what you’re trying to do is actually good for you. And will make you healthier, and we’ll make you feel better. Because getting up early to run, you know, it’s great for you, right, it helps you start your day with some good endorphins, you’re less stressed throughout the day, you feel more invigorated, you’re generally happier when you start your day with exercise. So this is all good.

There’s no logical reason why, you know, your brain would be against this idea. But here’s what’s going on your brain, this to your brain, this whole idea is like, foreign, it’s not what you’re, it’s not what it’s used to. Your brain is used to you hitting the snooze button three or four times and then grabbing quick coffee as you sprint out the door at the last minute, that’s what your brain sees as normal.

That’s what your brain sees as safe and comfortable. And familiar. Even though it’s not good for you, it’s not good for your mental health or physical or emotional health. But this is what just seems safe and familiar and comfortable to your brain. So that’s what your brain wants you to do. Right?

It just wants you to just keep doing what you’re doing, stay comfortable, stay with the familiar. So doing something different. Getting up early, putting your running shoes on, and going outside and running just seems so foreign and like unsafe, like your brain is literally thinking we’re gonna die if we did this, you know.

So you really have to understand this, you have to understand that your brain will force your progress in these scenarios, right. And it will cause you to self-sabotage just to keep you comfortable, your brain just wants to keep you comfortable and safe. You have to understand this have to, have to, have to.

So this is one of the biggest mistakes that I see people make all the time, they don’t understand this, they don’t get it and they can’t figure out why they just can’t get up in the morning, you know that they put their shoes out, they set the alarm, they made an intention, but they just can’t do it.

You know, they can’t stick to their food plan, they made a food plan and they’re, you know, trying to stick to it, and they just can’t do it, they can’t make any traction towards their goals. Because they’re just letting their brain run the show their primitive brain, you know, that’s that part of our brain that just wants to keep us safe. That’s called our amygdala that’s like that old primitive reptilian part of our brain.

Okay, so you have to override your brain, you have to take back control of your own behavior. And so, you know, one of the ways you need to do this is to embrace the discomfort of habit change, you have to embrace the discomfort that will be there. I talk about this all the time, right, you got to embrace the suck, right?

You have to be willing to get uncomfortable because your brain just wants to keep you comfortable, and you have to do the opposite. You have to get uncomfortable. And if you want to create new habits, and ditch old ones and create new healthy habits, you absolutely are going to have to get uncomfortable. And this means doing the opposite of what your brain wants you to do sometimes and you just have to be willing to be uncomfortable to do it. Okay.

So that is the first mistake that I see people make they don’t understand this. They don’t understand what’s going on. They’re not willing to get uncomfortable. And they just go with whatever their brain is, is trying to do by default, which is to keep them safe and comfortable. Hit snooze. That’s what feels normal. Don’t get up and go running. It doesn’t feel good. That’s hard. Right? But you know that that’s what’s good for you. You know that that’s required.

Another big mistake I see a lot of runners make when it comes to changing habits is procrastination. And I know you’ve done this, you’ve probably said to yourself, I really want to lose weight, or I really want to run a marathon. But right now, it’s not a good time. Not right now you’ve got this big thing going on at work, maybe when that’s done, or, you know, the kids are in school, so I got a lot of stuff going on with that.

So maybe after the kids get out of school, or when we have more money I can invest in myself, you know, or when I have more time when I have some free time, then I’ll do it. And we just keep going on and on and on about all the reasons why we should put this thing off till later. When we all do this, we all procrastinate. No one is immune, I do it. I’m very guilty of doing this.

But here’s the thing, in order to change your habits, you have to be taking action, you have to be actively practicing new behaviors. That’s what habit change is all about. You have to be actively practicing new behaviors.

The problem is new behaviors are hard. And it’s uncomfortable. See mistake number one that I just mentioned about our brain wanting to keep you safe and comfortable, right.

So we do whatever we can to just not do it. And we use this excuse of procrastination as a reason to not have to do anything right now. So you just tell yourself this little light, you’re like, I’m going to do it later, I’m going to lose the weight, I’m gonna run a marathon, just not right now, later, later, later, later, later, is the killer of hopes and dreams later is a goal crusher.

You want something for yourself, but you just keep saying later, I’m just going to tell you right now, it’s not going to happen. And I say that this is a lie that you tell yourself that you’re going to do it later. Because you really, you’re just you just don’t want to do it. You don’t want to do it at all. And so you just convince yourself that you’ll do it later. But in reality, you’re never going to do that thing.

And the reason you don’t want to do it is because you are afraid you’re afraid that you know, you might fail. That’s what this boils down to. You might feel in your heart that you really want to run that marathon, but you’re scared, you may not be able to do it. You know, what if I don’t finish?

What is that gonna be mean about me, I’m gonna feel like a failure. Or you really want to lose the weight, but you’ve failed so many times before. You just can’t bear to do that again. You know, what is that going to say about you? It’s this fear of failure that’s often at the root of all procrastination. So you have to know that this fear of failing is going to be there.

And that putting off starting something, doesn’t do anything to make that fear of failure, go away, still gonna be there. It just makes you feel worse because now you have this thing that you really want to do. But you’re not doing it, you’re kind of procrastinating because you’re afraid you’re gonna fail. So you put it off till later. And that even makes you feel worse.

But what if you just took action today toward that goal? What if you said to yourself, no more delaying this, let’s go. And you actually signed up for that marathon? Or you change something about your diet starting today? How would that feel? Well, honestly, it would feel a little scary, right?

But here’s the thing with procrastination, taking action is always going to feel scary. Because you don’t know if this is gonna work or not, you don’t know, if you’re gonna be able to lose the weight, you don’t know, if you’re gonna be able to cross that finish line that marathon. And delaying it is not gonna make it any less scary. It just means you’ve wasted a bunch of time that you could have been using to train for that marathon, or get your diet figured out.

You know, you’re still going to feel the fear. When you set out to do that thing later. You might as well just take action now and not waste all this time. Because you know that later, it really means never stop putting off that thing. And take action today.

Another big mistake related to this whole idea of habit change and kind of related to procrastination is getting into what I call information overload. And here’s what this looks like. So let’s say you want to lose weight. So you Google weight loss. A

nd you get a billion articles that all tell you different things. And I actually just did this. I’m like, I wonder how many articles if I just type in weight loss and Google will come back 1.6 billion results B with a B billion. With this much information out there on this topic. Why on earth does anyone have trouble losing weight?

Right, it would seem like all the information you need is out there. But oh my gosh, the problem with this is that there’s like, so many different ways to approach this thing, right, and everything, not everything works for everyone, everybody’s different. And you kind of need to figure out what works for you.

And I have to tell you that this is kind of a struggle for a lot of people. I’ve been there I’ve tried it. And I’ve tried so many different things. And I’ve gotten into this information overload too. And I’ve gotten stuck with like, what about this idea? What about that? Well, this says this, and this says this is all kind of contradicts each other too, right?

And I’ve tried so many different things. It didn’t work for me. I was Googling this stuff for like years, years of the Googles. And it just didn’t work I couldn’t figure it out was very frustrating. Super overwhelming. But here’s the thing, you can’t just get stuck in this information overload mode, right?

You have to get out of that state you’re in. Because what happens when you get overwhelmed, right, you end up like doing nothing, you get stuck in this analysis paralysis. And you don’t do anything because it’s all too frustrating. It’s too complex. There’s too many contradictory methodologies. There’s too many options. There’s too much information. And this is again, where your brain is just like goes into freakout mode and just like shuts down and just wants to do nothing.

But you know, that’s not the answer. That is not going to get you there. You have to do something, right. So what’s the right plan for you? And honestly, I wish I could tell you that I wish I could just tell you right now, here’s what you do. And this is what’s gonna work for you because this works for everybody. And the truth is that we’re all different. And there is not one thing, there’s not one diet, there’s not one plan that works for everyone. There’s no one size fits all, when it comes to nutrition and weight loss, there just isn’t.

And this is one of the big principles that I use in my coaching practice that I treat every person is an individual. And we look at your specific goals, your metabolism, your activity levels, your lifestyle, your food preferences, your likes, your dislikes, we put all this stuff together. And we create an individualized plan that works for you. And it’s something that you can feel good about.

So you have to get out of this mode of information overload. So get out of this, like research mode on Google, like to try to figure out what’s going to work for you. Because I’m just going to tell you right now, it’s going to drive you crazy, it’s going to drive you crazy, like looking at all this information out there.

Okay, sometimes you just have to get into action, and sort of figure it out as you go. Now, obviously, having someone knowledgeable there to help you put your plan together is ideal. But even if you try to go it alone, just get out of information overload and get into action, try something, try something that feels good to you.

That feels in alignment with your goals, your values, and then see if it works for you. And if it doesn’t, you can always try something else. Okay? Get out of information overload.

Another big mistake I see people make when they’re trying to change habits is they play the blame game. They set out to change a habit, they can’t seem to make it work. And then they blame everybody else in their life and everything in the world for their inability to make it work. So here’s a scenario you might be able to relate to.

Let’s say you’ve decided you’re going to stop eating sugar, like sugar is a problem for most people, right? It makes it really hard to lose weight. If you have a regular sugar habit. There are no real positive health benefits from consuming sugar. So you make this decision. You’re like, you know, I’m just gonna stop eating sugar. Okay. And it’s going okay for a week or so. And then your husband is doing something nice for you. So he decides he’s gonna bring home doughnuts for breakfast on like a Sunday morning. Right?

And he’s like, just have a doughnut. You know, just live a little. Have a little fun. You deserve it. You’ve been doing great all week. Just treat yourself. It’s just a don’t, it’s gonna be fine. And of course, you agree with him. You’re like, yeah, I have been doing great all week. I do deserve this. I do want to have a little bit of fun. And so you cave and you eat, you know, a few donuts.

And then you’re like, well, you know what I mean? I’ve already blown it for today. So I might as well just like, you know, this whole day it’s shot. Sometimes we’ll just like eat more sugar. Alright, so you just spend the rest of the day scarfing down muffins and cookies and cupcakes and for a snack, you’re eating like candy and oh, you have ice cream for dessert and whatever.

And of course, you feel like crap because you’ve been sugar all day. But you also feel bad because you let yourself down and so you’re like in this downward spiral now, right, and of course, you’re coming off with a sugar buzz. And so what’s gonna make you feel better? That’s right, more sugar, it feels great to eat the sugar.

But then you’re back on the sugar train, and you just say, eff it to the whole, not eating sugar thing. And you justify it, you justify it by telling yourself that it’s really not your fault. If your husband didn’t force you to eat those donuts, you’d be fine. If your husband would just support you, you’d be able to make this work.

But since I don’t have a supportive husband, this is just not going to work for me, right. And this story is really not a made-up story. I hear stories like this once a week, once or twice a week from people who legitimately think that it’s not their fault that they can’t stick to their food plan.

They blame other people, they have lots of stories, lots of excuses, lots of justifications for their behavior, and they believe in these things fiercely. And they will defend these stories and excuses and justifications, right? They blame their spouses, their friends, their kids, their kids’ friends, their boss, their stressful job, their culture, society in general, they blame the seasons, the weather, it’s too hot, it’s too cold, you name it. Nothing is ever their fault.

And if everything and everyone around them would just change, then they’d be able to stick to their plan. But here’s the thing, if you want to change your habits, it’s going to require that you take ownership of your own behavior. You cannot blame anyone else for your own choices. No one ever holds you down and forces the donuts into your mouth. And if this is happening to you, you need to seek some professional help right now, right?

But I really doubt that that is the case, right? Nobody’s making you eat doughnuts. You make your own decisions every minute of every day. And changing a habit requires that you are 100% responsible for everything that you do or don’t do. You cannot blame other people, you cannot blame anything outside of yourself.

You have to stop blaming and start taking full responsibility for everything that you do. Here’s what you can control, you can control your own thoughts, your own feelings in your own actions. That’s it, nothing else is within your control. You can’t control other people, what other people think how they feel or what they do.

This also means that no one else can control your thoughts or your feelings or your actions. No one else is ever to blame for what you are choosing to do. So stop acting like you are powerless and out of control. You’re always making decisions about what you are doing. Every bite of food you put into your mouth is a decision and a choice you’re making at that moment. Always, always, always.

In order to change habits, you have to take full responsibility for your own behaviors and your own results. If things aren’t going the way you’d like them to be going. Other people don’t need to change. You need to do something, you need to do something different. You need to change something within yourself. Okay.

So those are the biggest mistakes I see around habit change. I hope you will avoid these mistakes for yourself. And remember, we’re going to be spending the whole month of April on the art and science of habit change over in the Running Lean coaching project you’ll learn exactly how to ditch the old habits and make healthy habits stick and we’re going to have some fun doing it.

I hope you’ll join us just go to runningleanpodcast.com/join. 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.

107. Prioritizing Rest & Recovery

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If you’re anything like most runners, you have a very hard time taking time off. Rest days can feel like torture, you feel like you’re losing fitness, and you are convinced that your running is …

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Podcast Transcript

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 107 of Running Lean. My name is Patrick McGilvray, the weight loss coach for runners. And today I’m talking about prioritizing rest and recovery. If you are anything like most runners, then you probably have a pretty hard time taking time off right?

Rest days can feel like torture, you feel like you’re gonna lose your fitness and you’re convinced that your running is going to suffer, right? But the reality is most runners do not prioritize rest and recovery properly. So most runners are not getting the most out there training. You cannot become that lean badass runner you want to be if you never take the time to rest and recover properly. That’s just incredibly important. I cannot stress this enough.

That’s why I’ve dedicated this whole podcast episode to this topic, rest and recovery has to be part of your training plan. Okay, so today I’m going to just share the importance of prioritizing rest and recovery. I’m going to talk about how to do it because I want you to be able to show up at the start of your race in peak fitness and you cannot do it if you’re not taking rest days properly.

Okay. But first, if you like this podcast, please come check us out on Facebook, you can join the Running Lean Community. It’s a group of like-minded runners that support encourage and motivate one another. You can ask questions you can get answers. Get the kind of like, the camaraderie that you get from your running pals, you know, and I do some weekly coaching and training in the group. And we just have a lot of fun. It’s one of the most positive communities that I’ve experienced on Facebook. And a lot of people tell me that too. That’s not just my opinion. This is what I hear from other people.

And the Facebook group is full of people that are just like you people that are tired of struggling and ready to become more I talk about this all the time, we are people that are becoming more. If you’re tired of struggling or if you’re tired of feeling sluggish all the time. If you’re tired of gaining and losing the same 10-20 pounds over and over again. If you’ve ever been there, it’s not a fun place to be. I’ve been there.

If you’re done with all the like fad diets and meal replacement shakes. If you’re ready to end all this struggle with you know not feeling how you know you should feel, then I want to encourage you to take action for yourself. Nothing changes if nothing changes, right. So I want to encourage you to get into action starting now. I want you to start this new year, by learning how to create the good habits you need to make eating healthy a permanent part of your life.

Listen, we’re not interested in short-term results here. We’re focused on the long game. I want to help you make being healthy, just a part of who you are from now on out. And the easiest way to get there is to have someone there guiding you every step of the way, helping you overcome the things that you always struggle with. Like giving into cravings on the weekends like you do find all week long, and then the weekend comes along, you just blow it right, you keep reverting back to these old patterns of behavior. Having a coach means that you have someone in your corner, someone supporting you, someone who’s got your back, someone who’s holding you accountable to do the things you need to do to become the healthiest, most badass version of yourself.

I want you to make this year count. I want this year to be the year that you finally take control of your health and fitness for good. I want you to make this the year that you finally become the lean, strong, badass runner that you’ve always wanted to be. Everything I do here on the podcast and in the Facebook group I do with my group program with my one on one coaching clients is to help you to become the most amazing, most better version of yourself yet. And I put my heart and soul into doing this.

I put my heart and soul into helping you become your best self. Why? Because I want to be an example of what’s possible and I will inspire you to do the same thing and so on and so on. I’m on a mission to create a ripple effect of health and positivity in this world. But it requires action change requires action. So I want to encourage you to take action now. And make this the year that you make some permanent changes for yourself and become that badass runner that badass version of yourself that you know, you can be.

You can apply for coaching over at runningleanpodcast.com/apply. Let’s do this. Let’s make this your year. Cool.

Okay, let’s get into this topic of prioritizing rest and recovery. And let me tell you a little bit about why I’m thinking about this so much right now, you’ve probably heard me talk about this already, I’ve been kind of talking about this on the last couple of episodes, that I’ve been sort of forced to rest, right. I’ve been forced to take some time off from running from lifting weights from really doing any kind of strenuous activity at all.

So six weeks ago, I had rotator cuff surgery to repair three torn muscles in my rotator cuff. This is a pretty brutal recovery from this surgery. It is a long process is like three or four months of really not being able to do a whole lot. You know, I mean, I’m in physical therapy, I’m starting to get more active and starting to move things around a bit. But it’s still, you know, I’m still in a pretty good amount of pain. And there’s still a very limited range of motion. I’m only about halfway through this recovery process, right. And then, and this is something I really haven’t talked about before.

Back in September, of this past year, I developed a hernia and probably developed that from, you know, some really heavy weight lifting. Maybe I did something wrong. I’m not really sure exactly how I did it. It’s sort of just kind of appeared one day. And I was like, well, that’s weird what’s going on there when saw the doctor.

And yeah, so I had an inguinal hernia that needed to get repaired. And because of COVID, and because of the way the hospitals have been jammed up and stuff like that, I had to wait. I had to wait. And I had to push that surgery off until just a week ago. So I had to finish up my marathon training and run a marathon with a hernia, this is not a good situation to be in. I’m just going to tell you right now.

I ended up having this like neoprene belt that I wore under my clothes to kind of hold things so that I could actually run. But I’m telling you right now having like this shoulder pain, and then having a hernia at the same time made this whole marathon experience that much tougher and more challenging for me, but I got through it, okay. And I finally had the hernia surgery a week ago. And so within five weeks, I’ve had two pretty major surgeries.

Alright. So I started to make some progress, I started to get back to the gym, up until you know, had hernia surgery. So now I’ve got to like scale everything back. Again, I can’t lift anything more than 20 pounds, I can’t do any strenuous activity for six weeks, which is kind of fine. It’s kind of just goes along with what I’m doing with my rotator cuff recovery period here.

So long story short here, I’ve experienced a lot of downtime, right? I’ve just been like having to take time off. And it’s gonna be a while for me until I get back to where I want to be and the level of activity and doing all the things that I want to do again. But this really got me thinking about how hard it is for runners, especially to take time off.

It’s really hard to just give yourself a rest especially when you’re in training mode, especially when you’re in the thick of your marathon training, let’s say prioritize prioritizing rest and recovery days is something that runners just they don’t do well, right runners don’t like to rest they’d rather just go go go go go, go, go. And when you can’t just go go go all the time it can be very frustrating. Right?

You feel bad when you can’t run or you can’t do a workout. And so most runners just don’t do it. They don’t make rest and recovery days a priority. It’s like the last thing they want to do, right? So most runners just would rather do anything than take a rest day. Right? It’s so hard like mentally, physically. Emotionally.

It’s hard to tell yourself that this is an important part of your training plan. So most people just don’t include this kind of rest and recovery time as part of their training program. Okay. So why wouldn’t we do this though? Like, why? Why aren’t we making rest and sleep and recovery time a priority?

And I think it goes back to like this mindset of like, if you’re not doing something active, if you’re not like moving and pushing, and just grind in and out all the time, that you’re going to lose fitness, that you’re not going to perform as well, on race day, that you’re going to be taking steps backward.

And I have to say that this is absolutely not true. In fact, if anything, the opposite is true. If you want to perform well on race day, if you want to maximize your training program, whatever it is, you’re training for, whether it’s a 5k, half marathon, marathon, whatever, you’re doing yourself a disservice by not prioritizing rest and recovery days. All right, you are doing yourself a disservice. And you’re actually going to perform worse than if you are making rest and recovery part of your training program and a priority. Okay.

So here, I just want to kind of list out some of the problems that happen when you don’t prioritize rest and recovery when you don’t take the time off that you need. In order to give your body a chance to kind of heal and repair and recover from your hard workouts right? Not prioritizing rest and recovery days will have a bunch of negative impacts on your running performance, and basically your overall health and fitness.

Okay, so here are some of the things that we need to be careful of, right. First of all, running is catabolic, it breaks you down, if you’re just running all the time, you are just constantly breaking yourself down. So when you run, especially when you do like a hard workout, there are micro microscopic muscle tears that happen in your, in your muscles, in your legs, in your arms, in your glutes, and it’s very much like weight training.

You know when you lift heavy weights, you get these microscopic tears in your muscles. And then you give yourself a chance to rest and recover and your body repairs and get stronger. Right, you don’t gain muscle at the gym, you gain muscle on your rest days you gain muscle while you’re sleeping and recovering. And it’s the same thing with running Okay.

Without the rest and recovery days, your body will not heal properly, okay, you’re not going to adapt your body to the training load that you’re putting yourself under. Right, so this goes to the overload principle which I’ve just kind of talking about here, which is you overload a muscle. So you put a strain on a muscle to the point where you get to failure on a muscle and you overload that muscle.

You cannot lift the weight you’re trying to lift that creates an adaptive response in your body and your muscle grows stronger and bigger in response to that overload. The same thing happens with your other systems in your body like your cardiovascular system okay. You overload the cardiovascular system by doing something like a sprint workout, right you go out there and crush a hard you know hit training or interval workout you know, hill repeats or you know, sprints or whatever, and your cardiovascular system in response will will improve it will get stronger, right? It’ll become more efficient.

But this does not happen while you’re doing it. It only happens on the rest and recovery days. It happens when you are taking the time off when you are inactive. So, rest and recovery are required for this overload principle for this adaptive training principle to actually take place okay?

So if you’re not giving yourself the time off that you need, you’re just going to be constantly in that breaking down mode, right, you’re just breaking yourself down. And you’re never really giving yourself a chance to repair and adapt and get stronger. Okay. So that’s one of the biggest reasons why you have to prioritize rest and recovery.

The third thing to think about is this: when you are going hard all the time, you are putting your body under a lot of stress. And chronic stress will keep your cortisol levels very high, all the time. Cortisol is a stress hormone. And when cortisol is high, you actually get this like increase of blood sugar, you get this insulin response because of the cortisol. And you kind of keep your body in this fight or flight mode, you keep your body in this fat storage mode, you keep your body in this place where it makes it very hard to burn fat. It makes it very hard to become fat-adapted, which makes it very hard to get the most out of your training. Because you’re just overstressing your body, you’re chronically stressed out.

Chronic stress is not a good thing, right? I think we can all agree on this, right? And this idea of running hard or medium hard all the time is going to keep your body in that chronically stressed state. Okay, so too much stress on your body, constant stress on your body is going to have a definite negative impact on all the good things you’re trying to do for yourself here. Okay?

What we’re really talking about here is overtraining. Overtraining means you’re just not giving yourself the rest and recovery time that you need. Okay. Overtraining can lead to not just chronic stress, not just like breaking yourself down. But also you can be chronically fatigued. So you can just feel tired all the time. And if you’ve ever experienced this, believe me, I have.

I have done some training cycles where I was running like six days a week. And on those off, off days, quote, unquote, off days, I was like doing something else really active. And I was never getting a good night’s sleep, I was never giving my body a chance to recover. And I was like, I would get sick, I would be tired all the time. couldn’t keep my eyes open, like I was crashing and burning every afternoon like just, this is not a good place to be in right, this is not good for your, for your overall health and fitness much, much less for your training program.

If you’re training for an ultra marathon or you’re training for a marathon or half marathon or whatever it is, you cannot perform your best if you’re chronically fatigued if you’re just tired all the time. And sleep is another component of this, which I’m not going to get into today.

But I just want you to know that getting a good night’s sleep is a key component of rest and recovery. I want to do a whole other episode just on the importance of sleep because there are so many studies that have been done. And so much evidence out there that says that first of all, we are chronically under, we’re not getting enough sleep like we are a nation of people who are chronic under sleepers like we’re not getting enough sleep.

We need something like 7-9 hours of sleep a night and if you’re training hard, especially at the peak of your training cycle, you need more you might need 9 or 10 hours of sleep. But most people a lot of runners I talk to most will say they don’t get enough sleep and most will say they’re getting somewhere between like 5, 6, 7 hours of sleep which I don’t think is enough.

But if you’re experiencing this chronic fatigue, if you’re experiencing being chronically stressed out sleep could be a big part of this, okay? Another thing is that when you are chronically overtraining when you’re not getting enough rest and recovery, your running, performance will suffer. You will see your workouts really start to suffer, okay. Your workouts are going to start to feel harder than they are. So that rate of perceived exertion the RPE you know, when you go out there and run and you’re like this feels pretty easy. Or whoa, this workout feels really hard for the same effort.

Those workouts are gonna feel much harder if you’re not prioritizing rest and recovery properly. So just know that if your workouts if you’re out there running, you’re like, ‘I don’t know why running feels so hard right now’, it could be that you’re just not getting enough rest. It could be that you’re just in that chronic cardio chronically stressed out, chronically overtrained state. All right, like prioritize rest and recovery days here.

Another thing is that not only will your workouts feel harder, but your endurance starts to tank like you won’t be able to run as long, you won’t be able to go as far. And it’s gonna be, it’s gonna really create this negative impact on your endurance.

So if you’re somebody who’s out there trying to run, you know, you’re training for a marathon and you’re trying to get, you know, you got your 18-20 mile runs coming up, and you just feel like you just can’t do it, you’ve got no gas in the tank. It could be that you’re just not taking the time off that you need, you know, your endurance will suffer the more overtrained that you are.

And it sounds so counterintuitive, doesn’t it? It’s like, ‘Well, shouldn’t you just keep going longer and longer and harder and harder?’ And the answer is no, you have to like, push hard, and then you have to back off. You have to go longer, and then you have to go, you know, shorter. You have to run longer distances, and then you have to back it off, you have to have hard days, you have to have super easy days, and you have to have rest days. Right.

Another key aspect of this that most people don’t really realize is that chronically overtraining and not getting enough rest and recovery can have a negative impact on your mental state. Your mindset is so important. And I talk about this all the time mindset is like 80% of the equation.

If you’re trying to lose weight, if you’re trying to change habits, if you’re trying to like create a better relationship with food, if you’re trying to improve your running, if you want to run your first marathon or PR – 80% of your results are going to be because you have the right mindset. 20% is going to be based on what you’re doing what you know, what you don’t know, things like that.

But 80% of this is mindset. And if your mindset is negatively impacted, because you’re overtraining, you’re not going to be as clear headed, you’re not going to be able to focus as much, your head’s not going to be in the game.

You know, you’re gonna be moody, you know, you’re not in a good mood, you’re like a grumpy person. Are you a grumpy person? Maybe you’re overtraining. And all this can lead to this dip in motivation to you can really start to feel like, ‘Oh, I just don’t want to run, I don’t feel like it. I’m in a bad mood. I can’t think clearly.’ And then doubt starts to creep in. And just don’t feel like running and you just like, want to give it up, you just want to like just lay on the couch watching Netflix, right.

And all of this can just be a result of not giving yourself the rest that you need. Okay. And then obviously, all of this can affect your race day performance. If you’re somebody that’s out there training for a race, and you know, you’ve got a marathon coming up. And you’ve been training for, you know, six months, or even if it’s just like three or four months of a training program, you’re putting a lot of effort, you’re putting a lot of energy, you’re putting your heart and soul into training for this race, and everything needs to be perfect on race day, right?

Everything needs to be in perfect working order. And overtraining can just have you showing up on race day, and ready for like disappointment, feeling like crap, poor performance. You know, you’re gonna feel like you’ve wasted all this time training when really all you did was you just overtrained, right? You just overtrain, you didn’t give yourself the rest and recovery that you needed so that you could show up on race day properly.

I was just talking to somebody last night about tapering, right. So you know, somebody who’s one of my clients, you know, they’ve got a marathon coming up this weekend, and they’re in this taper mode, and they’re just like, Ah, it’s driving me crazy. I hate tapering. I just want to be active, I want to be moving.

But the important thing to understand, here’s that tapering is there for a reason, right? You have to show up on race day fully rested and recovered and ready to go. If you’re just like going hard, hard, hard, all the way up to race day. You are not optimizing your body in your mind for that race. You’re going to be you’re going to show up overtrained and you’re going to show up tired and you’re going to show up stressed out and you’re not going to have a good day out there. Okay.

When you start making rest and recovery days a priority. You give your body a chance to rebuild, to repair. And to recover from all those hard workouts, we want to do the hard workouts, you want to be able to go hard on your hard days and make your easy days super easy, right?

When you are properly rested, and you can recover, and you’re repairing from these hard workouts, I’m going to tell you something, those hard days, you’re actually going to be able to go harder, you’re going to be able to run faster, you’re going to be able to run harder, you’re going to be able to run longer, which means that if you do it the right way, you should improve your fitness exponentially.

Because you’re giving your body a chance to adapt to your training load. Right, you’re improving the systems, you’re improving your cardiovascular system, you’re improving your your body’s ability to oxygenate your muscles, you’re improving your ability to get stronger, like you’re building stronger muscles, you have to give your body a chance to adapt. And that’s what happens during the rest recovery phase, okay.

You’ll be able to increase the intensity and the duration of your workout. So you can go longer without feeling fatigued. But it requires rest and your workouts will actually feel easier. So not only will you be able to go harder and things like that, but you know, your rate of perceived exertion actually goes down.

So that same run that you did when you were chronically stressed out, that same workout is gonna feel so much easier because you’re properly rested. And then there’s all these positive mental benefits to like you’re you feel more clear headed, you’re more focused, you can concentrate, you have improved cognition, you’re going to feel happier, you’re not going to be all moody and grumpy and negative, you’re going to be more positive.

And this goes a long, long way to your running performance, you know, you’re going to wake up feeling motivated, ready to go get out there and get at it. And then, you know, obviously showing up on race day, you’re going to be giving your body everything that it needs, you’re going to be setting yourself up for success. You’ve given your body the exact formula that it needs for adaptation, go hard, rest and recover, go hard rest and recover.

So that on race day, you show up at that starting line and you’re just firing on all cylinders, you’ll be operating at peak performance, you’ll be stronger, faster, and ready to go. That’s what we want. That’s what we want out of our training plans. Okay.

So rest recovery means just that just means like, you gotta like, take some time off, okay? The ideal way to do this is to just take a day off, take a day or two off every week. This is ideal. And I know that for a lot of people, they’re like, ‘I just need to do something.’ It’s like, okay, fine. You can have active recovery days, but they have to be a very minimal activity, like taking a walk.

And a lot of people are like, ‘I walk my dogs every day. I’ll go walk the dogs or I’ll go for a bike ride with the kids, you know, we’re just like on the bike’s just like really easy. Or maybe I’m going to do some stretching and foam rolling, or some gentle yoga.’

Those kinds of things are fine as recovery days, you know, those kind of active recovery days, but there’s nothing wrong with just taking a day off, you’re not gonna lose fitness if you do nothing for a day or two every week, right?

The idea is that you’re feeling fresh. The idea is that you’re repairing and you’re adapting and you’re becoming stronger so that you can go harder at your next workout. So I want you to start prioritizing rest and recovery days, put them on your training schedule. Schedule, rest and recovery days into your weekly training regimen. Right.

And rest days are not just for the early stages of your training cycle. In fact, it’s even more important that the harder you’re working out, the more intense and the longer duration of your training, the more important rest days become. Right as you get closer to your race, your intensity and your duration of running are going to increase right?

So those are the times when you need to prioritize rest days even more. And the cycle looks like this. It’s like you go harder, you rest, adapt, you get stronger, you go hard, you rest and adapt, and you get stronger, and then just kind of repeats throughout your training program.

And then there are other times where you might consider taking rest days, or you might be forced to take rest days, and I’m going to encourage you to just like, lean into this a little bit. It’s kind of like what I’m doing right now, like, I had surgery. And it’s gonna be, it’s not just a day or two, for me, this is like weeks and months of time off, and I’m okay with that. I’m okay with that.

For me, I know I am losing some fitness, I’ve lost some weight, I’m losing some muscle during this process, I’ll get it all back, and it’ll come back. Fast, it’ll come back, you know faster than it went off. I’m going to take the time and make this work, I’m going to become the strongest, most badass version of myself. This year, this is my goal, right?

So I’ve got to give myself a chance to recover. This is some pretty brutal stuff I’ve gone through here, I’m going to give myself a chance to recover. If you get sick, a lot of people are sick with COVID and stuff, you know, you need to take some time off, just embrace it and really give your body a chance to recover.

Because if you’re sick, and you’re like, I’m just gonna keep pushing through this, I’m going to keep pushing through this, you’re probably going to prolong the time it takes you to recover, I’m going to want to do that right. Or maybe you have an injury that you need to take a little bit of time off from, take the time off, it’s gonna be okay. And then like, take time off after a race, obviously, you know, anytime you have like a super intense workout or race, you got to take some time off from that, okay?

If you’re the kind of person who lays it all out there on race day, then you have got to take some time off. After that, prioritize rest and recovery, put it into your training schedule. And I promise you, you’re going to feel better your runnings going to improve, you’re going to be able to go harder and longer and faster. And you’re just going to become the healthiest version of yourself.

Okay, so make sure you’re making rest and recovery days a priority. All right. Cool. Well, I hope you guys got something out of this today. Love you all. Keep on Running Lean, and I will 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.

Bonus Episode: January 8 Pounds Down Challenge

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I’ve received a lot of questions about the Running Lean Coaching Group’s January 8 Pounds Down Challenge so I decided to address all of your questions in this bonus podcast episode! Starting on …

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Podcast Transcript

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 this special bonus episode of Running Lean. My name is Patrick McGilvray, the weight loss coach for runners. And today I’m going to be talking about the coaching group’s January eight pounds down challenge.

I’ve received a lot of questions about this challenge and about what we’re going to be doing over in the coaching group. And I wanted to make sure that I addressed all of your questions. And I was going to do this in this week’s Facebook Live. But there are some mitigating circumstances where I cannot go live on Facebook right now. I’ll talk more about that in a minute.

But I just want you to know that starting on Tuesday, January 4, we’re going to be focusing on getting fat-adapted as a group, we’re going to be doing this in the coaching group, we’re going to be getting fat-adapted and dropping some weight.

And the goal is to try to lose eight pounds by January 31. So if you think about it, it’s roughly two pounds a week, maybe a little less than two pounds a week. Very doable. Can I guarantee everybody’s gonna drop at least exactly eight pounds? No, but you know what, we’re going to set ourselves up for success, okay.

Some people might might lose a bit more, some people might lose a bit less. It’s all good. So if you’re interested in stepping up your game and joining us for this fun and transformative challenge, be sure to listen to this episode, because I’m just gonna be talking about what we’re going to be doing over there. I’ll give you all the details, and then join us in the group, it’d be fun to have you in the group. Okay.

So normally, I would be talking about this on my Facebook Live that I do every week in the Facebook group. And because of some glitchy thing that I did a couple of years ago, apparently, the Facebook algorithm found some old posts that I shared some meme or something like that, that apparently went against the community guidelines for Facebook.

And I’m basically restricted from going live for 30 days. No big deal. Whatever I posted was innocent enough, there was something sarcastic, which I’ve been known to do every now and then. And looking back on it, I can see how it was maybe just in poor taste or whatever. Okay, so, lesson learned. I’m kind of restricted from going live on Facebook right now.

So for this month, I’m going to maybe do a couple of bonus episodes of the podcast, is that cool with you guys? Cool. So it’s all good. Lesson learned. You’ve got to be careful what you post on Facebook, I’m telling you right now they take stuff very seriously, you know, even if you’re joking around. So just be careful with that kind of stuff.

You guys, you know what? I always try to keep things positive, you’re probably listening to this going, like, I can’t believe you would post something like, what did you post I know, it was just something dumb that I shared that somebody else created, you know, some meme, you know.
But apparently, it went against their guidelines, so lesson learned.

Okay, so here’s what I’m gonna talk about today – I want to talk about this challenge that we’re doing over the Facebook group. So this is all about getting fat-adapted and doing our best to lose eight pounds by January 31.

Okay, so why are we doing this? Well, first of all, this is a great time of the year to do this not because it’s January 1, and we’re all like setting resolutions and all this stuff. No. It’s a good time to do it because we are just getting started with marathon training.

Or maybe your half marathon training hasn’t started yet. So this is the offseason and this is a good time to kind of get started with any kind of nutrition changes, any kind of dietary changes.

You don’t want to wait six weeks until your marathon to start something like this. Okay? So, most spring marathons are going to be in, you know, April, May June, kind of in that timeframe. So we’ve got plenty of time to get fat adapted, okay.

I want to help you create some momentum as well to start this new year. I want to help you develop some new eating habits and some new relationships with food really, and with exercise and I want you to understand what it takes to become a fat adapted runner.

I want you to see the benefits of becoming a fat-adapted runner, and I want to create some momentum. I want you to create the momentum to help you just project yourself into the rest of the year like really give you some momentum to just keep things going and really create some good positive habits.

You know, when we talk about losing weight, we talk about getting fat-adapted, we talk about getting healthier, we talk about getting more fit, improving our health, improving our fitness, whatever it is, it’s all about changing your habits. It’s all about what you do, every single day.

And most people, what they do is they, you know, they get to a day like January 1, and they’re like, I’m gonna lose weight, you know, and then they just kind of arbitrarily kind of half-ass a plan and sort of, you know, try to eat better, whatever that means.

And they don’t really succeed at that, right. I mean, this is why the gyms are full in January, and then by March, they’re empty again, right. So most people try to do this in a way that just doesn’t work. Okay.

And so, a couple of other things that kind of don’t work is trying to do it on your own. Right? It’s hard to do this on your own. Without guidance, it can be challenging, okay. Without accountability, it can be very challenging. Without direction, or somebody to help you get through the tough stuff, it’s going to be almost impossible for you.

So what we’re going to do as a group is we are going to learn together, exactly how to get fat adapted. So you’ll be able to do this with a group, you’re going to get expert guidance and direction from me and from other people in the group.

I’ve got people in my coaching group who have been in my membership program for many months. And some people, I would consider them to be experts at this as well, they’ve got a lot of experience doing this.

So you’re going to hear from me and from other people that have had a great experience doing this, okay, but I’m going to be your coach, I’m going to be coaching you through the tough stuff, okay. You’ll have a clear and proven plan, you’re going to have a plan that has worked for countless other runners.

And we are going to kind of figure out our plans together. And you’ll have a chance to ask questions. Every week, you’re going to get encouragement, you’re going to get that accountability, where you have to sort of check-in, you’ll get to talk about what’s going well, what’s not, you’re going to stay motivated, you’re going to stay on track when you do this as a group. Okay?

That whole accountability thing. Somebody asked me this recently, like, what does accountability look like? It looks like this. It looks like every week, we’re going to say hey, this is what your job is for this week. Here’s the work you need to do. Maybe you got some homework assignments you have to do this week. Here’s what we’re going to do as a group together, yeah, let’s do it.

So we all say, yes, we’re committed, we’re going to do this thing. And then every week, you’ve got to show up and say, did you do it or not? That’s what accountability looks like. Okay, because you don’t want to show up to the group and say, I didn’t do it. I didn’t stick to my plan. You know, I just gave up. You don’t want to do that. Right?

So you’re going to stay on track, you’re going to do what you said you’re going to do, because you got to check in with us and tell us you did, or you didn’t do it. That’s what accountability looks like. Okay.

And I also need to say this, I need to say that when we do this when we go through this process in this group together as a group, we are going to have fun doing it. Okay. It doesn’t have to stop at losing weight, getting healthy and becoming fitter can be fun. Is that crazy to say, does that totally blow your mind? Because it can be fun.

Most people think you have to suffer. Most people think it has to be super terrible. And you have to live in this world of like, dust deprivation and white-knuckling it. And, you know, just being hungry all the time. And feeling like crap. Like we’re gonna try to minimize that kind of stuff. Right? We’re gonna have some fun doing this.

Okay, um, I always say like losing weight doesn’t have to be a suffer-fest. Like we can do it in a way that feels good. That’s actually kind of fun. Okay. So how does all this work? So, what you’ll want to do is you’ll want to join the Running Lean coaching group and do this before Tuesday. Okay, Tuesday, the fourth.

So Tuesday, the fourth at 8:30 pm is our first group coaching call for January. And those are the only that’s the only time each week that we do this call. Okay, right now, I only have one call time each week.

As this group grows and we get more interest, you know, I could change that time or add more times, but for now, we just have the one call time and I try to accommodate, you know, as many people’s schedules that can there’s no way I could possibly pick a time that would work for everybody, but this time seems to work for a lot of people.

But don’t worry, if you can’t make the live calls, you can still get a lot out of the program by listening to the replays. So I post all the replays, all the video replays, from our group zoom meetings on a private website that you’ll have access to, I also have a private podcast feed that you can listen to.

So you can actually just listen to the coaching calls as you’re out running or whatever, which is a great way to kind of, you know, replay and get that information if you can’t make the lives but I do encourage you to make the live calls.

The people that make the live calls get a lot more out of the program, I’m just gonna tell you right now. Okay. So as soon as you sign up for the program, you’re going to get immediate access to all of my online training materials.

So my big flagship program is called the Weight Loss Training Course for Runners. And this is a big, multi-module program, it’s got, I don’t know, 40 videos, 45 videos, something like that, of training on a variety of topics about fat-adaptation, about the mindset required to lose weight and keep it off.

Strength training, explosive workouts for runners, there’s just so much information in there, okay, you get my course called Achieving the Impossible. This is all about setting big, huge impossible goals and then making them happen, you’ll get access to my course called Getting It All Done, which is a productivity course and helps you with planning.

A lot of what we do in the program is about planning, we plan our meals ahead of time, we plan our workouts, and then we stick to our plan. So I show you exactly how to plan your whole week, using different calendar tools and a very effective way of getting everything done.

And then you’ll have access to all the previous group coaching calls to all the recorded stuff, like I said in the private podcast, so in addition to all of that you get access to my private Facebook group where we kind of do a little bit of Q&A in there, sometimes you get to ask questions and get answers. So I would encourage you to get signed up before Tuesday. And we will all get started together on Tuesday, January 4. Cool.

So each week, you’re going to have you know, some different work to do, you’ll have some different sort of assignments, you’ll have different layers of like, what it looks like to get fat adapted, and how we change our diet, and how we, you know what you’re supposed to eat, what you shouldn’t eat, things to avoid, things you should definitely add in how to schedule your workouts around all this. How to make sure you’re getting the most out of the out of your running workouts, how to get through this tough fat-adaptation phase because the first few weeks is a little bit challenging.

And so you know, got some tips and tricks for getting through that quickly. You’ll get to ask questions and check in every week in the program. Cool. So that’s what the program looks like, I just want to encourage you, if you’re the kind of person who is like interested in doing this, you’re interested in starting your year off, by getting yourself fat-adapted, like this is something you’ve been thinking about for a long time, and you’re ready to take action, just I’m just gonna encourage you to take action. Okay?

Go over to runningleanpodcast.com/join and you can read all about it. And then you can just get yourself signed up. And as soon as you get yourself signed up, you’ll have access to all the online training materials, and then you can join in the live call on Tuesday.

You know, if you’re the kind of person who keeps gaining and losing the same 10 or 20 pounds over and over again, and you want a different way to do things, you want a different way that’s going to maybe work permanently for change, this is a good program for you.

If you’ve been running a ton of miles like trying to lose weight and it’s just not working for you anymore, this is definitely the program for you. Okay, if you want running to feel easier, you want to become virtually bonk-proof so you can run without hitting the wall and have this like steady energy for running also just for like getting through your day and not having these energy spikes and crashes all day long – definitely the program for you.

Okay, take control of your nutrition game. Let’s get you fat-adapted once and for all. We’re gonna do it together and experience all the fun and all the benefits and all the health benefits, especially of getting yourself fat adapted and losing some weight in January. Cool.

I know you guys are gonna have questions you can post questions in the Facebook group about this. I’m excited to be on this journey with you. I’m excited to take a group of people through this together. I think we’re gonna have a lot of fun doing this. If I haven’t mentioned that already, I’ll say alright, we’re gonna have fun.

And then together we’re going to have an awesome January and set you up for success for everything that you have scheduled for the rest of the year. All of your spring marathon and half marathon goals, and just all of your overall health and fitness goals. Cool. All right, you got this my friends love you all keep on Running Lean. Reach out if you have any questions 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.

105. Lessons Learned in 2021 and Looking Forward to 2022

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2021 is coming to a close and I don’t know about you, but I always get introspective this time of year. I love this time because I can reflect on what I've learned this past year, how I’ve changed, …

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Podcast Transcript

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 105 of Running Lean. My name is Patrick McGilvray, the weight loss coach for runners. And today I’m talking about lessons I’ve learned in 2021. And looking forward to 2022.

So 2021 is coming to a close. And if you’re listening to this episode on the day that it comes out, it comes out on December 31. So literally, this is the last day of the year. And I don’t know about you, but I always get kind of introspective this time of the year.

I love this time of the year because I can reflect on what I’ve learned this past year, how I’ve changed how much I’ve grown. And I can take a good look at the progress I’ve made.

I think it’s important for all of us to have a look at the lessons we learn as we go along. So that we can continue to grow and evolve and become the badass that we ultimately want to be. So in this podcast, I’m going to share a few of the biggest lessons that I learned in 2021.

And also share what I’m looking forward to in 2022. And I want to encourage you to do the same, I want to encourage you to take some time before we get too far into this new year to reflect on some of the important lessons that you’ve learned this past year and how they’ve shaped who you are today.

And then I want you to think about where you’re going, who do you want to be by this time next year? Because this is a choice that you get to make, cool? So if you like this podcast, you have to come check out the Running Lean podcast Community on Facebook, you get weekly coaching and training from me. And you can also get support and encouragement from a group of runners just like you to help you crush your goals in 2022.

Just search for Running Lean Community on Facebook and join in the fun. And then remember the Running Lean Coaching group starting in January, we want to start the new year with some massive momentum, I want to help you develop the habits you need to lose weight for good.

And we have this big challenge going on in the group in January. The goal is to lose 8 pounds by January 31. And don’t worry if you don’t know how you’re going to do that, we’re going to show you exactly how to do it step by step and you’re going to get the support of me and the support and encouragement of everybody else in the group to help you crush that goal.

We’re gonna do it together. Okay. And January is an awesome time to get started with this not because of New Year’s resolutions, but because marathon training is just getting underway. So it’s like the perfect time for you to become fat-adapted.

So you can crush your spring races and it doesn’t have to be a marathon, it could be half marathon, 5k, 10k. It can just be a good time for you to just make this change for yourself. Okay, so I want to help you to learn exactly how to transform yourself into a lean fat-burning running machine so you can run without bonking, lose weight without losing your mind and develop the habits that you need to make it last a lifetime.

If you’re interested in joining the group, we’d love to have you just go to runningleanpodcast.com/join. And then the most powerful way to hit all of your health and fitness goals, really, is to have someone there guiding you every step of the way, helping you overcome all of your personal struggles, showing you things about yourself that you just don’t see someone that’s holding you accountable, and somebody that’s there to keep you on the right track.

And this is what I do as your coach. And I’d love to work with you in the new year and help you absolutely crush all of your health and fitness goals in 2022. And I want to encourage you to make an investment into yourself in 2022 to make this the year that you finally become the lean, strong, badass runner that you’ve always wanted to be. You can apply for coaching over at runningleanpodcast.com/apply.

Alright, let’s get into this today. So lessons I’ve learned in 2021 and looking forward to what’s coming in the new year. So like I said before, I get kind of introspective this time of the year right. It’s a great time for me in a way to look back to see what I’ve learned, what’s worked, what hasn’t worked, and what I want more of in the new year. Also maybe some things that I want to leave behind. Okay.

So I think it’s important that we are always evaluating where we are, how far we’ve come. And where do we want to go next right? Am I heading in the right direction? Am I making progress towards my goals? Am I staying true to myself throughout this whole process? Am I fulfilling the promises that I’ve made to myself? Am I be becoming the person that I set out to become?

Or am I kind of off track with all that? Right? This is a good time of the year to start reflecting on some of these questions. And I think you should just kind of do this on a regular basis. And, and I do this with my coaching clients, we’re always checking in and we’re just always kind of seeing where we are with things, right. It’s such a great time, the end of the year to see what you’ve accomplished this past year.

And to start thinking ahead, like, who do I want to be this time next year, like this is a perfect time to start kind of reflecting on where you are today and where you want to go? Okay.

So some of the lessons I’ve learned in 2021. And by no means is this a list of everything I’ve learned this past year because I mean, I could not possibly do that in one podcast episode. But there are some big lessons that I learned.

And these are like the most important ones, these are the ones that kind of stand out for me. And I hope you get something out of this because I think these are lessons that we can all learn.

So number one, the number one lesson I’ve learned, these are not in any particular order. But the first lesson I learned that I wanted to talk about today that I learned in 2021. Carbs are overrated. So I did some experimenting with carbohydrates and marathon training. And I did two different podcasts about these experiences, right.

Episode 71, I talked about zero-carb marathon training. And then Episode 98, I talked about how I use strategic carbs, to try to enhance my marathon training. And all throughout this past year, I’ve gone through periods of higher carb intake to see how it affected me. How did I feel? How was my overall health and fitness? How was my energy? How was my running? How was I sleeping, all those things, okay?

And the bottom line for me is that I just feel better when I’m not eating much in the way of carbs, right, I have more energy, my sleeping is better, my running performance is better. My endurance is better, I feel lighter, it helps me to stay leaner. And I’m just really like kind of sold on this idea that carbs are kind of overrated.

And we think that we have to have carbs all the time, in order to be like healthy. And you hear these messages all the time from people, especially like the food guidelines that are pushing like a 65% carbohydrate diet, you know, they’re just not essential. They’re not essential nutrients, right?

I’m not saying carbs can’t play a role in your health and fitness. I’m not saying carbs can’t play a role in your running performance, because they absolutely can. But for me, and for a lot of other people, they are just kind of overrated. They don’t do much for us. Okay.

The challenge with carbs is that you got to do it in such a way that supports your health and fitness that supports your weight loss goals that support your running goals. And that doesn’t cause you to backtrack, right? This is the tricky part about it.

Because a lot of the carbs that we kind of tends to focus on are the concentrated forms of carbs are the ones that cause us to overeat. They set us up for cravings, more and more carbs, and then, and then we’re in that cycle of excessive weight gain.

We’re not burning fat efficiently anymore. And for me, I don’t like that feeling. And so for me, I’ve decided that carbs are not essential. They’re overrated, I can do pretty well in fact better if I’m just keeping them super low. And, and I feel better about myself. Okay, so this was just a lesson I played around with this year because I really wanted to get a feel for how this would affect my running performance, especially more than anything else.

But I just learned some lessons about how I felt and my overall health and fitness and energy levels, just I feel so much better when I’m just keeping the carbs low. Okay. So that was like one of the big ‘aha’ moments for me this past year, is that you know, I did some experimenting with carbs and they just kind of, you know, it’s okay. Kind of overrated, right?

The next big lesson I learned this past year was that resistance training is probably the best, absolutely best thing that you can do for your overall health and fitness. And I talked about this all the time, especially with my clients, we get into strength training right away, like this is such an important part of your overall health and fitness goal and strategy for whatever it is you’re trying to do for yourself. You want to feel better? Start lifting weights. You want to lose some weight? Start lifting weights. You want to be more efficient at burning fat and start lifting weights, you want to sleep better, you want to like the way you look naked, all that stuff.

I started lifting weights. I dramatically changed my body composition this past year. I started out the year. Back in February, I did some measurements, and I was 165 pounds 15.1% body fat 140.1 pounds of lean body mass and 24.9 pounds of fat mass. Okay.

By August of last year, so just about six months later exactly, I had gained 10 pounds. So I was 175 pounds, my body fat percentage went down 2.2% to 12.9%. So back in August, I was at 12.9% body fat, my lean body mass, my muscle mass had gone up 12.3 pounds. So I had gained 12.3 pounds of muscle in the course of six months.

So I went up to 152.4 pounds of lean body mass and my fat mass went down a little bit to 22.6 pounds of fat mass. So I lost like 2.3 pounds of fat during that process, okay. This alone had a profound impact on me, this past year, I felt so amazing, I felt much leaner and stronger.

I was sleeping so much better, have effectively increased my metabolism because the more muscle you’re carrying around, the faster your metabolism is, I burn fat more efficiently.

So I have all this all-day energy, my clothes fit better. I like the way I look naked, you know, I’m more confident I have higher self-esteem, I’m feeling better about myself, I’m just happier in general. And I’ve been able to maintain this with hardly any effort, right?

I do a resistance training program that I put together. And I’ve chosen with all my clients and it’s just it’s two days a week. And it’s only about a 20-30-minute workout twice a week. And that’s all it really requires you to gain muscle. And to get stronger.

You don’t have to become a gym rat, you don’t have to spend all your time at the gym, you don’t have to go six days a week and spend 90 minutes a time each time you’re there, you can do this in a way that supports your running goals that support your weight loss goals, supports your health and fitness goals and doesn’t take forever. Okay.

The important thing about this, though, is that resistance training takes some time, you know, it took me six months to make these changes, you know, and I was extremely disciplined about doing it right.

And I was logging all my workouts. And my goal was to change my body composition and I absolutely did that. And I’m going to get into kind of what my goal is going to be for this next year. Because I’ve taken a little bit of a step back, I’ve taken a little bit of a backtrack from this, a little bit of a setback with my rotator cuff surgery because I haven’t been able to lift weights or do any kind of resistance exercises upper body anyway, for the last five weeks or so.

And it’s going to be a while before I can get back into the gym and start lifting weights again, this is a long painful process this shoulder surgery I’m gonna talk about that in a minute here.

But just know that I’ve got some big goals for myself and I’m gonna make up all this, you know, this difference in my body composition that I maybe have lost over the last few weeks here. Definitely going to change that in the new year.

Okay, but resistance training, is probably the best thing you can do for your overall health and fitness. That’s a huge, huge lesson that I learned this past year.

Another big lesson I learned in this kind of ties into what I was just talking about is that discipline beats motivation every single time. The real key to accomplishing anything worthwhile is not motivation. It’s not like feeling motivated to do it but practicing discipline.

So motivation is is a feeling, it’s an emotion, okay? Discipline is a practice, it’s a behavior, it’s an action, it’s something you do. So I don’t always feel like doing something I don’t feel like working out, sometimes I don’t feel like paying my bills.

I don’t feel like running, if it’s raining outside, you may not feel like getting up early to go for your run in the dark, or you may not feel like you know, going to the gym. These are all feelings. This is you know, you may not have the motivation that feeling to do these things, right.

But instead of waiting to have a feeling, I want to encourage you to take action. And this is what I have done this past year, there’s a big difference between the motivation feeling, and discipline, the practice of taking action.

Motivation is great if you’re feeling it, right. But if you’re not, and I promise you, there will be times when you just don’t feel it. What do you do? Do you just not do the thing, because that’s what a lot of people do. They’re like, well, I just wasn’t motivated. So I didn’t do it.

But this is where the practicing of discipline has to come into play, okay. You have to do the thing. Despite how you feel about it. Your alarm goes off in the morning, and you don’t want to get up because you’re tired. You just want to sleep more you want to hit snooze, right.

So instead of doing that, you’re not motivated to get up. Instead of waiting for motivation to hit you, you’ve got to turn off your alarm, you’ve got to get your feet on the floor, you’ve got to practice the discipline of hitting the floor and getting up when your alarm goes off.

You know, if you don’t like paying your bills, like I don’t like paying my bills, you got to just like get into the practice of like opening up your computer, bouncing your bank account paying those bills, even though you’d rather do just about anything else. Right?

You got to practice the discipline of sticking to your food plan, even though you know, there’s like free doughnuts in the break room. Right? That requires discipline. Because I guarantee you, you’re not going to feel motivated to eat your salad when you’ve got doughnuts sitting over there.

You’re going to want to eat the doughnuts, right? You might feel motivated to eat doughnuts. So what do you do in that situation? Right? That’s where the practice of discipline has to come into play.

You may not feel like doing these things. But when you get good at practicing being disciplined, you’re going to have this internal drive, you’re going to develop this internal fire to do what you need to do, despite how you feel in the moment.

Okay, so discipline is going to beat motivation. Every single time. And this is a lesson that I learned this past year. It was what got me to dramatically change my body composition over the year, I wasn’t motivated to go to the gym every single day, I gotta tell you, there were a few months at the beginning there where it just there wasn’t a whole lot of change happening.

Change is very slow, and when you’re lifting weights, change happens slowly over time. But I promise you, if you stick with it, if you practice that discipline, you’re going to see big, big changes.

Another lesson I learned this past year was that self-care is essential to being a healthy and happy human being. So this surgery has really kicked my butt and I’ve been forced to take time off, I can’t run. I can’t work out. And I looked at when I was looking ahead towards having the surgery. And I knew I was going to have to take this time off here.

It didn’t come as a surprise to me. But it’s been much harder than I thought it was going to be, to be honest with you. And the only way that I can get through this is by taking care of myself, right? I have to slow down. I have to rest, I have to just sometimes. I have to just not do anything.

Oh, that is hard to do. Can you relate? Can you imagine just sitting around not doing anything? Oh my gosh, it’s very hard, right? Like, the goal for me was like during, you know, when I was thinking about how I was going to get through this downtime. I was like, Oh, I’m gonna do all this work.

I’m gonna be working on my book I’m gonna be so I’m so excited about all these things. And the reality is there are some days where I’m just glad if I make it through the day doing the bare minimum, honestly, and I’ve just had to accept this right?

I’ve had to practice some radical acceptance and leaning into this whole situation that I’m in right now. You know, I’m trying not to, like wish things were different. I’m trying not to fight against reality here and fight against what is. And I’m trying to practice self-care in this moment, it’s going to take a while, it’s going to take a while for me to heal and recover.

Apparently, this rotator cuff surgery is like one of the longest recovery periods for surgery, and it’s one of the most painful, and I’m experiencing that. I’m definitely experiencing that right now. Okay.

So, self-care is essential. And we have to practice this, sometimes I want you to get in the habit of practicing self-care, take some time off, take some downtime, embrace that, we get so into this idea that we have to be moving all the time. And we have to be active all the time.

And what if you just calm down? What if you just took a day off? What if you just didn’t do anything and enjoy yourself. And that’s where I’m at right now. I’m trying to enjoy this time off, I’m not fighting against it. I’m trying to practice this, this self-care and really feeling good about taking the time off hard to do. But what I’m working on is a big, big lesson for me.

And then one other lesson that I’m kind of in the middle of right now, that’s kind of tied into this. And it’s not something I’m ready to say that I’ve completely learned. But I’m in the middle of this right now, which is that I’m stronger than I give myself credit for sometimes, I’m stronger than I think.

Because this surgery has got me all messed up. Like I’m not sleeping well. I’m in pain pretty much all the time. This is week number five, still in a lot of pain, I can’t work out, can’t run. I’m more stressed out right now. Because of the lack of sleep and lack of exercise. You know, I’m taking some walks, that feels good. That’s about all I can do.

Right now I’m doing some starting to go back to the gym and doing some lower body workouts, which is cool, you know. And I know I’m going to get through it, but I’m not there yet. So this is a lesson that I’m sort of in the middle of, right, I know I’m going to come out of this stronger, but it’s going to take a while.

And I’m going to share the lessons that I learned from this experience with you later. I just want you to know that I’m kind of in the middle of this right now. But I’m using this as a reminder of how tough I am.

I am physically mentally emotionally tough. And eventually, I know I’m going to get through this and that I’m going to be much stronger because of it. Right? I’m just not there right now. It’s tough, but I’m getting through it. Okay. And I’m okay with that. I’m okay with it being hard. I’m okay with it being challenging.

You know, I talk a lot about how the challenges change us. Absolutely. This challenge. This has been one of the hardest things I have ever been through in my life. I’m just going to be honest with you. It’s one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to go through. But I’m getting through it. And I’ve got a few more months of this, but you know what, I’m hanging in there. I’m persevering. I’m doing what it takes to take care of myself.

And then the last kind of lesson that I’ve learned in 2021 – this is more of like a phrase that I heard that really hit me hard. Okay. This phrase that I heard and less than I learned around this is the phrase passive action.

And it seems like kind of an oxymoron, right? Passive action. But passive action is when you’re doing a bunch of stuff that feels like you’re taking action toward a goal. But you’re really not taking action towards that goal.

Passive action is doing things like reading books and listening to podcasts, taking courses and watching YouTube videos and learning a bunch of stuff, learning information, which is great, but not actually doing anything with that information.

It’s the learning of the knowledge, which is great gaining knowledge, awesome, but you’re not applying the knowledge. And for me, I read a lot of books on business strategy and leadership. I listened to a lot of podcasts I learned of from other coaches in the industry.

I’m always honing my craft as a coach, as a mentor, as a leader. I’m always reading books and listening to podcasts and taking courses and certifications on beat becoming a well-rounded coach and leader. And I’m reading books on growing my business and you know, I’m learning a lot of stuff right, but I had to be honest with myself that I really wasn’t getting into action. Right and it’s like I said, it’s fine to learn new stuff. It’s fine to have the knowledge.

But I had to look at myself like, am I changing anything here is anything changing for me, nothing changes if nothing changes, right? So I had to be real, honest with myself and had to like sort of concede that I was taking a lot of passive action, right?

I’ve been doing this passive action thing where I’ve been learning without applying, I want to be a better coach, you know, I want to grow my impact, I want to have a bigger impact on the world. And I’ve been, you know, learning about it. And like toying with this idea, but I’ve never, I haven’t really done anything about it yet. Okay.

Maybe you’ve been doing the passive action thing, maybe you’ve been listening to this podcast for a while, but never really implemented any stuff I talked about here, right? Maybe you understand the relationship you have with food in general or the relationship you have with sugar in particular, you realize that these things have to change, but you haven’t done anything differently yet.

The way you change is to take action, you’ve got to stop eating junk food, you’ve got to stop eating sugar, you’ve got to stop eating processed food, you’ve got to start eating real food. You got to quit with the excuses, and the stories and the reasons and just take action today. Start now.

I am absolutely taking big action towards my goals in 2022. I’m done with this like passive action thing, right, I’m ready to get into actual action, like actually doing things differently. And I want that for you, too.

So, this kind of segues me into what I’m looking forward to next year in 2022. And some things that I want for myself next year. And the first is that I want to create a bigger impact. You know, my goal is to make a bigger impact on this world.

You know, my mission is to be an example of what’s possible and to inspire those around me to do the same. I want to inspire you to be an example of what’s possible. And I want you to inspire the people around you to do the same.

And I want them to be an example of what’s possible and to inspire people around them to see the kind of ripple effect that we can have. I want this impact to be greater. So one of the things that I’ve done for myself, and this is like a big, huge, scary thing that I committed to doing in 2022 is that I’ve hired a high-end coach to help me make this bigger impact.

I’m super stoked, I’ve got this amazing person that I totally admire and look up to and respect and I’ve got this mentor and this coach, that’s going to help me to become an example of what’s possible.

You know, I’ve committed to this year-long program. You know it’s not just a coach, it’s a whole community of other coaches. It’s kind of a mastermind group. And we’re all going to be working on making these huge changes in our businesses in our lives over the next 12 months.

The best coaches have coaches, right? And I’m making this huge investment into myself in 2022. I’m going to scale and grow the Running Lean brand like I never have before. And we’re gonna make big waves in 2022. And I’m so freaking excited about it, I really am.

So for me, this is about what I’m doing to actually get into action. So I’ve stopped like sitting on the fence, and kind of looking into things from the outside in. I’m diving right in and taking huge action to create a much bigger impact. And to make the Running Lean brand something truly amazing.

And you stand to benefit from this in big, big ways. Tons of fun stuff coming in 2022 from that point of view, cool. And then my next goal for next year for 2022 is to become even stronger and more fit than I was pre-surgery. Right. And I have to be honest with you, this seems like a lifetime away from where I am right now. Right?

I’m not active right now. I’m just not doing much of anything I’m doing but I can you know, but it’s gonna take a long time for me to get back on track and get back to being my badass self. And that’s okay, I’m committed to this process. I know it’s gonna take a while. I’m going to do it anyway, no matter how long it takes, right? I’m 100% committed to changing and to getting back to being even fitter and stronger than I was before. Right?

I’m gonna improve my health and fitness in several areas. So I want to increase my muscle mass, even more than I did last year. I want to decrease the kind of pain and injuries that I’ve experienced not just in my shoulder. But you know, I’ve got some knee issues and hip flexor pains every now and then stuff like that, I’m going to fix that, right?

I want to increase my functional fitness, I want to be able to move with a greater range of motion, I want to be more flexible, I want to be able to do more explosive movements, more sprinting, things like that.

So I want to increase my health from a number of different angles here, okay. And to become like the strongest fittest version of myself, right, I have this vision of who I’m going to be. And when I can look back over this time next year, I’m going to be like, damn, I did a lot of hard work, I practice the discipline, and I got there. So I know I’m going to get there in 2022.

And then another thing I’m looking forward to next year is to really to continue to just learn and grow and become more. This is what I want for myself. And that’s what I want for you too, obviously. And I want to pass on everything that I learned some always learning, I’m always trying things.

I’m always experimenting with things, you know, and I’m always going to share that stuff with you guys, right? Sometimes things work well, sometimes they don’t. And I tend to share it all with you, okay.

But I want to encourage you to do the same. I want to encourage you to learn and grow and become more and share it. Okay, we are all an experiment of one. Everything that I do here on the podcast, everything that I talk about in the Running Lean Facebook group, in my coaching practice; it’s all a fun experiment, right? And we get to see what works and what doesn’t.

And when we find things that work well, we want to do more of that stuff. When we find things that don’t work. Okay, cool. I tried that it didn’t work. Let’s try something else. We don’t quit. All right, we keep going forward, relentless forward progress, we don’t ever give up. Right, we always continue to learn and grow and become more. So that’s just a huge, huge part of what I want for myself for next year.

And this is going to keep me constantly becoming that amazing, badass version of myself that I want to become. And then I want to ask you this question. What is it that you want for yourself in 2022? Who is it that you want to become when you look back over the year, a year from now?

So when we get to this point, next year in 2022, what do you want to have accomplished? Like who do you want to be a year from now? Think about it. And how did you get there? So do you have a plan in place today for getting there? If not, that’s okay, we can work on that plan together if you want. If you want a little guidance, a little help, and a little accountability, reach out to me, I can absolutely help you with that, right.

I want to help you stay on track and reach your goals no matter what it is that you want for yourself, okay. Lots of ways that you can do that. You can join the coaching group starting in January, we’re gonna start the year with like creating massive momentum. Developing habits, to lose weight for good, to get fat-adapted.

And then if you’re willing to really push yourself, we’re gonna we got this challenge to lose eight pounds by January 31, which will be super fun. And then there’s always you know, hiring me as your coach, I would love to help you reach all of your goals next year, put together a plan, and help you reach those goals, okay?

But think about this, you know, whether you hire me as your coach or join my programs, it doesn’t matter to me, what I want for you, is to think about who it is you want to be a year from now. And then I want you to put together a plan for getting there. Okay?

You know, hiring a coach is like hitting the easy button, right? It’s just like, boom like they got the experience and the expertise they’ve already got, they have what you want. So they have what you want, and they can just show you the way, this is why it’s so important that I hired a coach, I totally believe in the power of coaching.

So I have several coaches. So that’s a great way to do it. But if you’re the kind of person that’s like, Oh, I just want to DIY this thing, I’m gonna do it myself, like totally fine. But put together a plan, make sure you have a plan for getting there. Okay.

And then you’ve got to be disciplined and work that plan. All right. So I look forward to what’s coming in the new year. I’ve had an amazing year, despite a few setbacks like with this shoulder surgery and stuff like that, but you know what, it’s all good.

You know, it’s the challenges that change us and we only grow from going through the tough stuff. Okay. I hate that it works that way. But that’s the way it works. So join me. And let’s become badasses in 2022. Cool, you guys with me on that? Awesome. Well, that’s all I got for you today. Happy New Year everybody, love you all, keep on Running Lean and we’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.

104. Why New Year’s Resolutions Don’t Work

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It’s that time of the year again when many people set big goals for themselves. They decide that starting January 1st, they are going to lose weight, get in shape, quit drinking, start that …

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Podcast Transcript

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 104, of Running Lean. My name is Patrick McGilvray, the weight loss coach for runners and today, why New Year’s resolutions just don’t work. It’s that time of the year again, when many people set out to change their lives for the better.

They set out to make these big goals and they set New Year’s resolutions. And they decide that starting on January 1, they’re going to lose weight or get in shape or quit drinking start that business or start working on whatever big goal they’ve been putting off for way too long.

The problem is that almost 90% of people who set new year’s resolutions will fail at keeping them by around mid-February. This is why the gyms are full in January and then empty again in March. Right.

So why is it that most people can only stick to a goal for around six weeks or so? Well, in this episode of the podcast, I’m going to go over exactly why New Year’s resolutions just don’t work and offer up some ideas for what to do instead.

But first, if you like this podcast, definitely come check out the Running Lean podcast community on Facebook. And we are still in the midst of our running through the holidays challenge. The challenge is to run a mile every day between Thanksgiving Day and New Year’s Day. And so far, it’s been super awesome. People are having a lot of fun, posting pictures and being accountable and getting inspired, and feeling encouraged and supported. So definitely come check us out. It’s not too late to join us. You can join us at any time just search for Running Lean community on Facebook and come have fun with us.

Nextly people ask how they can work with me. And I’ve got to tell you about two things. The first one is one on one coaching. So I’m a coach, this is what I do. I help people to dial in their nutrition to become the most badass, healthiest versions of themselves. I help with losing weight and becoming stronger becoming a more powerful runner.

And I do it all with one on one personalized approach. It’s a one on one approach. It’s the guidance, the support, encouragement, the accountability that you need to make it work for you. And if you’ve never had a coach before, I can tell you it’s a very, very powerful way of achieving results and reaching your goals.

So you know, this is kind of what we’re talking about in this podcast, these goals. And if you have a big goal for yourself, hiring a coach might be just the thing that you need. So just go to runningleanpodcast.com/apply. And you can learn more about my coaching and apply you and I can jump on a conversation and see if this is a good fit for you.

And then I wanted to mention that the Running Lean coaching group is doing something cool in January. So we’ve got this big challenge we’re going to be doing together as a group in January, which is to lose eight pounds by January 31. Okay, and don’t worry, I’ll show you exactly how to do it, you’re going to get the support of me and everybody else in the group and show you how to do this and help you and encourage you and give you the motivation that you need to help you reach that goal.

January is a good time to get started with this and I know that it’s that that New Year’s resolution season or whatever, but it’s just a good time to get started. Because this is when you’re just getting into marathon training, and becoming a fat-adapted runner takes a few weeks. So this is going to be perfect to help you crush those spring races.

Okay, I want to help you transform yourself into that lean fat-burning machine. And we will help you through that exact process and help you develop the mindset that you need to and the habits that you need to make this last it’s not just a temporary thing we’re looking for here.

What we’re trying to do together is develop the permanent changes to your mental state to your emotional state so that you can just do this easily and effortlessly for the rest of your life. We’re interested in lifestyle changes, not short-term gains here okay. So if you’re interested in joining the coaching group, just go to runningleanpodcast.com/join and I hope we see you in the coaching group in January.

Okay, so speaking of January and speaking of New Year’s resolutions, let’s talk about why these don’t work typically. So yeah, this is the time of the year where everybody’s like, Okay, starting in the new year, I’m going to make some big changes in my life.

And I’ve been talking to quite a few people recently, who have told me that they are ready, they’re ready to make some changes in their life. And they’re ready to get healthy, and they’re ready to lose the weight for good this time. And they’re ready to finally do something about how they feel about themselves. And they’re ready, they’re ready, they’re ready.

And then they end up just saying, like, well, I’m just going to wait until after the holidays, I’m just going to wait until after the new year. And I’m like if you’re ready, now, you need to take action. Now. If you’re ready to make some kind of change in your life today, then you need to do something about it today.

And this is like the first thing that I want to talk about why New Year’s resolutions don’t work is because you’re picking some arbitrary date to start. And most people are just not ready on January 1 to like, make a change. If you’re not ready today, why do you think you’re going to be all of a sudden be ready on January first?

What’s gonna happen between now and then, you know, so I just want to encourage you that, you know, if you’re ready to make a big change in your life, if you’re ready to lose weight, or become a stronger runner, get into some strength training, if you’re ready to, like, become the healthiest version of yourself, and you’re ready to do that like you’re ready to commit to that just start today.

You know, don’t just do it because you think you should on the first of January, for whatever reason. So many people do this. So many people wait. So they may not be ready today, and they think they’re gonna magically become ready on the first or maybe they are ready today.

But they don’t do anything about it. And so then the first comes and they’re like, and now I’m fine. You know, you sort of lose some of that momentum that you built up some of that motivation that you had. But thinking you’re just going to be ready on the first is what’s called a false first step.

You know, we were taking the step that isn’t it isn’t true. It isn’t solid, it isn’t grounded in anything. It’s like a false step. Right? It’s like, you’re just doing it because it’s this date. That’s all right, you’ve got to be ready to make that commitment to yourself.

And like I said, if you’re ready to make that change, I suggest you just start doing something about it today, the best time to start, the best time to start improving your health was yesterday or a year ago. Right? But the next best time to start is right now.

But listen to this. Imagine, imagine if you had started on your weight loss journey this time last year, where would you be today? Imagine if you stuck to it for the last 12 months? Where would you be today? I’m going to tell you right now you would be a different person today.

I don’t want you to get to this point in 2022. I don’t want you to get to this time of the year next year, and be asking yourself that same question. Well, what if I had started? What if I had done something about this, you know, a year ago, no. Do something today, now you’ve got to be ready, you’ve got to be ready to make that commitment to yourself, you’ve got to be ready to go all-in on yourself.

You’ve got to be ready and willing to do what it takes to make those changes for yourself. Okay. But I’m just going to tell you like do not use the date of you know, January 1, as any kind of excuse or, or any sort of an arbitrary start date for you if you’re ready to go. Start now.

So that’s the first reason why New Year’s resolutions really don’t work. The next thing here is that typically when people make New Year’s resolutions, they’re very vague. They’re very vague, they’re like, I want to lose weight, I want to get healthy, I want to get back in shape again, whatever that means.

They’re just very unspecific, right? They’re not measurable, you don’t know when you’re going to get there. You know, instead of saying like, Oh, I want to lose 40 pounds by you know, April 30, or whatever,

You’re just like, I just want to lose weight, like, get healthy get in shape. And I think the reason most people use these kinds of New Year’s resolutions is because they don’t want to have to commit to anything. Because if you say to yourself and say to the world or whatever, hey, I’m going to lose 30 pounds by you know, May 1 – if you say that and then you fail you’re gonna feel like a failure. You’re gonna feel like you know, what if I let people down or what If I let myself down, I’m gonna feel like a failure.

And like, who cares? Honestly, my thing is like, if you’re just saying something vague, like lose weight or get healthy or get in shape, that doesn’t mean anything. And so you really don’t have to commit to anything.

You don’t have to actually take any action around a goal like that. Because how do you know if you even get there. In other words, there’s no risk involved, because there’s no specific like endpoint, there’s no outcome you’re actually going for.

So people will say this all the time, and I go, I’m gonna finally get healthy, I’m gonna finally lose the weight, I’m gonna finally get in shape, but then they don’t have any sort of like, measurable goal that they’re looking for.

So what I’m going to encourage you to do instead is make us make a SMART goal, you know, specific, measurable, achievable, relevant time-bound. So instead of losing weight, you know, I’m going to lose 40 pounds by May 1, or instead of getting in shape, I want to be able to do 20 unassisted pull-ups by June or something like that, like these are very specific.

Or if you want to, you know, improve your running, or be able to run longer, you can say, I’m gonna run a half marathon on May 2, you know, these are specific, measurable goals, and they’re time-bound, and they’re achievable, right?

So instead of being vague, and not committing to anything, get super freakin specific with your goals. Just say what you really want. And you know what, in the process of going after this goal that you have for yourself, you will change. You will become the kind of person that can accomplish that goal. I’ll talk about that in just a second a little bit more too.

Okay. Yeah, so the other thing I want to encourage you to do is to make your goals bigger. So this is another reason why New Year’s resolutions don’t work as people make these really small goals. They’re too small, they’re like, I want to lose three pounds in six months or something like that.

And so you don’t have to get out of your comfort zone, you don’t have to, like, do anything that’s challenging, you don’t have to do anything that’s gonna push you to become more. So you know, kind of what I was talking about as making these specific goals, I want you to also make them big, set big, scary, uncomfortable, impossible goals.

Because in the process of going after a big impossible goal, you have to transform yourself into a new person, you become a different person than you are today. So if you’re somebody who has never run a marathon before in your life, and you have a goal to run a full marathon in 2022, you got some work to do, you’re going to have to put the training in that’s required to get you not just to the starting line, but to get you across the finish line of that race.

But the work involved, if you put in the time and you do the work, then by the time you get to the starting line of that race, you will have become a marathon runner. Now you just have to finish it up by completing the actual race itself, right.

But think about it, think about the transformation involved from where you are today, to where you need to be in order to run a marathon. There’s a lot of work involved there. Most people are just not willing to put in the work there. They don’t want to get uncomfortable. They don’t want to do what it takes to become that kind of person. It’s scary. It’s hard. What if you fail, blah, blah, blah, who cares?

Do the impossible, set out to do something big next year, I’ve got some big goals for next year. And I’m not talking about them right now. Because they’re kind of personal. And some things that I’ve just not really shared with only my coach, honestly. And I think I just want to keep it close to my chest for now. I’ll talk about them later.

But um, you know, my goals are big and scary. Maybe that’s why I don’t want to share. I’m like, I don’t know. But my goals are big and scary and they make me uncomfortable. They’re outside of my comfort zone.

Listen, everything you have already is in your comfort zone. If you don’t have it, it’s out of your comfort zone. That’s the stuff you want to be going after. Not the easy little stuff, right? We don’t want the low-hanging fruit, we want the high-hanging fruit. We want the opposite of low-hanging fruit.

So what we want is the fruit at the top of the tree. We want the good stuff. We want the stuff that is not easily accessible. We want the stuff that causes us to grow, that challenges us that causes us to become more, right?

So most resolutions are just way too small. And I think we need to be instead of playing small I think we need to be playing big. I think we need to be going out to the big stuff, okay?

The other reason why most resolutions fail is that there’s no real commitment. There’s no, I’m all in on this, and I’m gonna do whatever it takes to make this happen. This is more of ah, oh, it’s New Year’s all I guess I should pick something to do.

And then it’s kind of like, oh yeah, maybe get healthy, maybe run a half marathon. It’s kind of a half-assed commitment, right. And we know we don’t have this thing, we full ass things here, right.

So there’s no real commitment with these New Year’s resolutions, right. And they’re just like, you feel like you have to do something, or else you’re not part of it, you know, who cares? Like just when you’re ready, and you’re in, you’re going to make that commitment to yourself, go all in on that commitment to yourself, you’re going to do whatever it takes to succeed with that sort of an attitude, you cannot fail.

Because as long as you’re making progress, you’re going to succeed, eventually, the only time you really fail is when you just throw up your hands and quit, and say, screw it, I’m not doing this anymore. I give up, I quit.

And I want to encourage you to never ever do that. Never ever do that. Always be making progress, relentless, forward progress, not backward progress, forward progress. You need to learn how to make that commitment to yourself, and then honor that commitment to yourself.

You make your promises to yourself, and then you keep those promises to yourself, right? You commit to working on becoming a better person and you do it, you work, you know, you commit to losing weight, or you commit to running faster, you commit to getting stronger, and you do the work it takes to get there.

The progress might be slow, it may seem like it’s not working, it may seem like it’s taking too long. Like if you want to get stronger, and you want to build bigger muscles, you know, and you start working out at the gym. I’m going to tell you right now, it takes a while before you’re going to start to see changes, you know, there’s there, it’s slow, steady progress, is what we’re looking for here, okay.

But the only way you get there is you got to commit to the process, you’ve got to commit to going out and lifting those weights a few times a week. You’ve got to commit to doing the hard work to like, you know, work until exhaustion to like, you know, really lifting until your muscles hurt.

And there’s a period of time where they do hurt, you know, and then it gets better. But it takes a while. Okay, so you’ve got to do the hard work at the gym, if you want to get the bigger muscles. And without a real commitment, at some point, you’re probably just going to throw in the towel, because it’s going to be hard.

So I want to encourage you to not do what most people do, which is just be vague, not really commit, I want to encourage you to commit to whatever it is you want to do. And then honor that commitment to yourself every day by showing up for yourself and doing what it takes to move forward. Okay.

Another reason why New Year’s resolutions just don’t work as you’re not really focusing on that habits. So many people try to do something new in the new year so they have that new year new me, I’m going to go ahead and workout more.

I’m going to change my diet, okay. And they start doing something different, they start changing their behavior, but they’re not working on these habits and, you know, thought, feeling, action patterns that they’ve developed over the last 30 years or so. They’re just trying to change their behavior, which is the least effective way to change a habit is to just change the behavior, you’ve got to work on the mindset.

That has to be the foundation, your thoughts and feelings are driving your actions and you have to work on that mental and emotional part of your habit or you’re not going to see these changes actually happen, you’re not going to be creating the new habits.

It takes a while to build up to these new habits. You know, it takes a while it takes like you know, I’ve heard some experts say around 90 days to change habits to break old habits and to establish new ones. And that means 90 days of doing the same things over and over again.

And again this goes to that commitment level to like are you committed to changing your habits because if you are you’re gonna have to go through a period of discomfort. There’s discomfort involved with let’s say you want to like not snack during the day you just want to like eliminate snacking.

The way to do it is to just stop snacking, and be uncomfortable because it’s going to be uncomfortable, right? I tell people this all the time, and they just look at me, like, you know, with one eyebrow raised, like, are you serious, I’m like, yeah, you just got to stop snacking. And then and then sit there and be uncomfortable.

Embrace the discomfort of not eating the snack, even though you want it. That’s how you break a habit like that. It’s hard to do I get it, it’s really hard to do. But the important thing here is that you understand that it’s a simple process, stop doing this one thing, and, you know, sit with the discomfort of not doing it and then do something else instead.

You know, if you’re, if you’re used to, you know, if you want to get into the habit of running every morning, then you gotta set your alarm earlier and get up to go for your run. You know, if you don’t do that, if you just keep saying to yourself, like, you know what, I’m just gonna, today I’m just gonna stay in bed.

And then you do that every other day, it’s like, you’re not really building a new habit, you’re just kind of reinforcing that old habit that you have of sleeping in. And if what you want for yourself is to run every morning, then you got to set your alarm and you’ve got to, you know, that alarm goes off, those feet have to hit the ground, and you’ve got to get out there and, and run even when you don’t feel like it.

Even when it’s hard, even when it’s cold, even when it’s raining, even when you’re just like I just want five more minutes of sleep, you’ve got to just get up and do it if you want to change that habit. So most people don’t focus on the habit change, they just want to like they just focus on the behavior.

You know, they just focus on oh, I’ve just got to like, get up early every day. But you’ve got to work on the mindset behind that you got to work on the foundation, which is your thoughts and feelings about it.

You know, you got to do that thought work that’s involved with changing how you think and feel about getting up in the morning, how you think and feel about running how you think and feel about yourself. And what is this going to mean for you?

And when you work on that stuff, getting up in the morning is kind of a no-brainer, but you’ve got to work on the mental-emotional stuff first, okay. So most people there just don’t work on the habits, they’re just trying to change behaviors. And that just doesn’t work.

Another reason why New Year’s resolutions don’t work is too often we’re focused on perfection. You know, like say you want to lose some weight, you want to lose like 40 pounds. So you change your diet, and you’re sticking your plan for the most part, but then you blow it and you cheat here and there.

And then, you know, you’re just, you just feel like you keep falling short. And if you can’t do it perfectly, why do it at all? And so you just quit. And I want to encourage you to not do this. Perfection, doing things perfectly is just not possible. It’s not possible for any of us, right? I don’t do things perfectly. I know you don’t either. And it’s okay.

Instead of focusing on perfection, I want you to focus on progress. Are you making forward progress? Yes or no? It’s pretty easy to tell, is what you’re doing moving you closer to your goals or further away from your goals? Is you know, eating this donut on the plan for you or not?

Pretty simple, pretty simple to know. Is this going to help me to make progress or not? And if you’re not, then you got to switch your focus a little bit, you need to focus on the things that are gonna move you forward.

It doesn’t mean you’re going to do it perfectly, does not mean you’re going to do it perfectly. You know, think again about where you want to be at the end of next year. You know, this time next year? How did you get there? Did you do it perfectly? Probably not.

You probably missed a workout here or there. You probably snuck in a donut here. You probably drank more than you wanted to here or there. Right? It’s okay. You can do it. What I want to encourage you to do is not skip two workouts in a row not have two bad meals in a row.

In other words, if you have a cheat meal or whatever, get back on track with your next meal. If you miss a workout, don’t miss your next workout. Never miss two workouts in a row, never two cheat meals in a row. Slow and steady. Progress wins the race every single time.

That’s what we want to focus on not perfection, you will never do this perfectly. And if you’re striving for perfection then you’re going to fall short and you’re going to get disappointed and you’re going to feel discouraged. So I want you to focus on doing it to the best of your ability and making slow and steady progress instead. Okay.

And then the last thing I have the last reason why most New Year’s resolutions don’t work for people is that you’re not holding yourself accountable, there’s no accountability and there’s no support system in place.

Right what you’re doing, especially when we talk about changing habits, changing our health and fitness – becoming leaner, becoming stronger, becoming a faster, more powerful runner, whatever it is that you want for yourself – I’m going to tell you right now, it will get hard, it will become challenging at some point.

And if you don’t have a support system in place, and you don’t have somebody that’s there to hold you accountable, your chances of quitting, your chances of giving up are going to be much higher, right.

You’re going to get down, things aren’t going to work out, you’re going to get bummed out, you’re going to be hard on yourself. And you’re going to have no one there to help you get out of that. And most people just quit way too easily in these situations. Okay.

Accountability is huge, you know, get an accountability partner, if you have somebody. Let’s talk about running. Like if you want to run more regularly, you want to get up earlier to run, have somebody that you run with – get a running partner.

That way you guys have to, like show up for each other. You know, I encourage people to join a running group, I love my running group, they’ve helped me to stay accountable for running. I’m not going to get up on a cold Saturday morning to run by myself. I mean, I do.

But I’m much more likely and more excited and more motivated to do that when I know that my running group is out there, you know, all they’re all going to be running with me. Plus we have tons of fun. So that’s super fun.

But this is a big part of what I do as a coach, right? I show you things that you know, maybe you don’t see about yourself, I hold you accountable. I help you to overcome the things you struggle with, you know, the self-sabotage.

I encourage you to do things you don’t want to do I help you stay on track, always moving towards your goals. You know, I offer the support and encouragement, and motivation that you need to keep going.

But then there’s this accountability piece, which is so huge. People tell me all the time, they’re like, yeah, I was going to eat this like cake, but I knew I was going to have my call with you today. So I just decided not to do it. I didn’t want to have to tell you I did this.

Or I have people telling me they just love the fact that they get to check in with me every week. And they can be like, oh my gosh, I just love the accountability, because this is what’s helping me to stay on track. Okay.

So make sure that whatever you’re doing for yourself, that you have either an accountability partner, group, a coach, something like that, and remember that our coaching group starting in January, it can be your accountability partner, you know, we’re going to be creating a lot of momentum in January by learning exactly how to become fat-adapted, and how to lose those eight pounds by January 31. That’s our goal.

That’s our challenge – to help each other and hold each other accountable. And to offer the support and encouragement and motivation for each other to hit this goal by the end of January.

So if you’d like to join us, I’d love to have you in there. I think it would be super fun. And we can all do New Year’s resolutions the right way we can all do. Goal setting the right way. So if you’re interested in joining us for January, we’d love to have you just go to runningleanpodcast.com/join.

Alright, that’s all I got for you guys today. Hope you have a wonderful holiday season here. 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.