7 Reasons Why You Didn’t Build the Body You Wanted this Year + What to Do About it
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Another year in the books sister, and if you are frustrated you STILL don’t have the body you want, this episode is for you. I give you a step by step guide as to why you still don’t have the body you want and what you can do about it. None of it is complicated, it’s all straight-forward things you can implement into your life RIGHT NOW.
Here are a few of those things you can do…
Count your macros. At least use macro counting until you understand serving sizes and how much your body actually needs daily.
If you struggle on the weekends, maybe you don’t need to marco count everyday, but at least prioritize it on the weekends. + Start your weekends off with some sort of movement to set the tone and encourage you to make healthier decisions.
Make an action plan for you goal. Figure out exactly what you need to do and what habits you need to adopt to reach your goal. Set yourself up for success!
Break your goal down into smaller more obtainable goals. Have a new goal each week or each month that keeps you motivated to keep pushing forward.
Focus on consistent action even if it’s done imperfectly instead of perfect inconsistent action.
Don’t over complicate it! Keep it simple: Nourish your body, move your body, hydrate, get enough sleep, and give your body love. Anything else is a quick fix solution and DO NOT FALL FOR IT!
If you loved this episode, you will also love...
Episode 86: 7 Steps to Setting and Actually Reaching Your goals
Episode 181: A Step-by-Step Guide to Building the Body You Want
TRANSCRIPT:
Hey there, beautiful human. You're listening to Embrace Your Real with me, Julie Ledbetter, a podcast where I empower you to just be you. With each episode, I dish you a dose of real talk and actionable advice for building your confidence, honoring your body, and unconditionally loving your authentic self. Stay tuned if you're ready to embrace your real. Let's get and let's go. Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Embrace Your Real podcast. Well, we are at the end of the year, and I know that the end of the year can bring up a lot of emotions for us. Some of them are good, some of them are frustrating or feel defeating because we're looking back at this year and looking at all that we accomplished and all that maybe we set out to accomplish, but we haven't yet. So if you find yourself feeling frustrated that maybe you set out to have these goals, these health and fitness goals, and you haven't achieved them yet, please know that you can still achieve them.
There might just be some small tweaks that you need to make in order for you to start getting on the path of actually implementing these things into your day-to-day routines and overall in your goal setting. So in today's episode, I wanted to dive into seven reasons why you possibly didn't build the body that you wanted this year and what to do about it. But before I dive in, I have to ask you two questions. Number one, are you subscribed to the podcast already? If not, take out your phone, which you are likely listening on, and you can type in Embrace Your Real, make sure that the plus sign in the top right corner is hit. That means that you are subscribed to the show, which means that you'll get notifications every time, new episodes release on Mondays and Thursdays.
Secondly, once you do that, if you could leave a review on the show, it truly helps out the growth of the show more than you know, and the more reviews that we have, the more Apple sees that people are listening to it and they're recommending the show and they will bump us into top charts. They'll recommend us on other podcasts and that's how we spread the word of embracing our real. So our goal is to continue to show up and encourage and empower women all over the world to embrace the real, to show up authentically to their lives, and so if you could do that for me, that would mean the absolute world to me. I love connecting with guys. So if you do, please screenshot your review and send it to me in a direct message and I will personally respond back with a voice memo. I love connecting with my listeners. Okay, so let's dive into today's episode.
Number one, you thought you were eating healthy, but you didn't actually track it. So there's actually a difference between eating healthy and eating what you're body needs. You can eat all the almond butter, grain-free bread, grass-fed meat, pasture-raised eggs, dairy-free milk, cheeses, high protein this, low carb that, you name it, but if you are eating more or less than your body needs, yes, more or less than your body needs, then you are actually going to struggle to see results. Yes, I believe in nourishing my body with high quality foods, and I always encourage people to do that, but I think that it can make you feel great because they might be quote, loaded with vitamins and minerals and fiber and all the goodness that your body needs, but at the end of the day, if you're eating too much of it, you will not see results.
The truth is, many of us think we are eating much less than we actually are. When we're eyeballing our serving sizes, we're actually likely putting two servings instead of one. If we do this at every meal that eventually is going to double or triple the carbs and fats that we need per day. This is why I am a huge advocate for learning how to properly fuel your body through the tool of macro counting. Please hear me out when I say you don't have to do it religiously for the rest of your life, but I do suggest doing it until you understand what the serving sizes actually look like and understand how much your body needs as well as what it feels like to properly nourish your body. For example, many people don't eat enough protein daily. If you track your macros, you will likely learn how deficient you are in looking at other foods that have higher end protein that can help you reach your protein intake.
But the longer that you do it, it becomes second nature and you start to look at serving sizes, you start to know what protein, carbs, and fats are in specific foods, and you know how you feel at the end of each meal, as well as the end of each day, when you do properly fuel your body. So one thing that I've seen when women start out macro counting is oftentimes, they are flabbergasted at how much protein they need to eat, simply because they've never done that before. They were eating so much of their calories from carbs and fats, which is a natural thing to do and they didn't know what it felt like to actually fuel their body with the right amount of protein, which is the most satiating of the three macronutrients. Thus, they are not having as many crazy cravings every day for those high carb, high fat foods. Please hear me out when I'm saying carbs and fats are not bad.
I eat tons of carbs and fats every single day, but learning how to properly fuel your body with the right amount of protein, the right amount of carbs, and the right amount of fat that your body needs, that can be a total game changer. I do have a program for this. It's a self-guided program that we actually calculate your macros and we send it to you. We show you how we did it, but then from there, you're on your own to learn how to properly fuel your body. This is, in my opinion, one of the most comprehensive, but simplified programs out there when it comes to learning how to count macros. So if you want to learn more, you can head over to macrocountingmadesimple.com. Again, that's macrocountingmadesimple.com. I will also go ahead and link it in the show notes, but this program can honestly change your life.If you learn how to properly fuel your body, that will be a tool that you'll have in your toolbox for the rest of your life.
Number two, you lived for the weekends. Let's say you're nourishing your body Monday through Friday. That sounds great. Let's look at that a little bit closer. You're nourishing your body from Monday through Friday morning, but then Friday night rolls around, you go out, you have five drinks, and you're having these appetizers, and then you're having a meal, and then dessert. Then Saturday rolls around, then Sunday rolls around with football. The whole weekend, you have been completely off track. This actually equals to you nourishing your body about four to 4.5 days out of seven days a week, in school, that's a 64%. You know what a 64% is? That's a D. So think about this. I think there's some reprogramming that we need to do. On the weekends, we'll truly make or break our goals. This does not mean that you can't enjoy your weekends. It just means that you have to be more mindful on your weekends.
You can eat all the foods that you want on the weekends still, it's just about eating them in moderation. So maybe you can't commit to counting your macros every single day in the week. Maybe you can learn how to count your protein and your overall calories on the weekends. I know that that's what a lot of people do if they're struggling with macro counting seven days a week is just learning to really make sure that they're prioritizing their protein and then gauging overall calories in their day. That's a more flexible way of still properly nourishing your body with the right amount of calories and then also making sure that you have the proper amount of protein, because again, if you're eating enough protein, that's the most satiating of the three macros, you're likely going to not overeat because you already feel full from your protein. Thus, you can interchange your carb and your fat macro allotments. That gives a lot more flexibility.
Another tip that I always encourage you to do is to move your body, is to implement movement on the weekends. If you're not being proactive about movement during the weekends, it's likely going to be the first thing that you're going to want to make excuses for. But instead, if you could plan activities around movement. For example, if your friend wants to go out to lunch, ask her if she wants to go on a hike first and then maybe get lunch after or get coffee after or something like that, and really plan your times with your friends and families around movement. Plus when you move your body, you're more likely to want to nourish your body properly because of how good you feel.
Number three, you knew what you wanted to accomplish, but didn't educate yourself on how out to actually do it successfully or you didn't make a plan of action on how to execute it successfully. Remember this, failing to plan equals planning to fill. I know that that's just a cliche saying, and you've probably heard it a million times, but it's true. You can't just say, "I want to do this," or, "I want to do that." Saying it out loud doesn't matter. What matters is actually figuring out how to accomplish it.
So if you have a goal, break it down and figure out what exactly needs to be done in order to reach the goal. I actually did an entire podcast episode on this. So if you fail to make a plan of action for your goal this year, I don't want you to make the same mistake in 2022. Be sure to listen to episode 86, Seven Steps to Setting and Actually Reaching Your Goals. I've linked it in the show notes so that you can easily go listen. But I literally give you a step-by-step guide that is so easy to follow. If you do follow it, you will set yourself up for success. Again, failing to plan equals planning to fail. So start planning for your goals if you haven't already.
Number four, your goals seemed way too far out of reach. Sometimes our goals seem so big and actually reaching it seems so far away that we keep pushing it off. So we keep telling ourselves we'll start again on Monday or we'll start again on the first of the month, but we never actually start. If this hits home for you, then here's what you need to do. You need to break your goal into micro, mini, actionable goals. Of course, you can still have your big overarching goal, but you have to break it down into monthly or even weekly action steps. The satisfaction that you get from reaching these mini goals will give you the confidence and motivation to keep pushing forward and eventually, all of these mini goals will add up to you reaching your overarching goal. I also discussed this in episode 86, Seven Steps to Setting and Actually Reaching Your Goals. So again, I've linked that in the show notes so that you can easily go listen after this podcast.
But just make sure that you are setting those small mini goals that you can check off because I don't know about you, but I know for me, when I'm constantly reaching even a small, small goal, it gives me the confidence. It gives me the assurance. It gives me the determination to keep going, just because it feels so good to check off that many goal. Number five, you weren't consistent enough. This is an obvious one, but it's also the most common one. If you're constantly stopping and starting, you're never going to see results, plain and simple. Results are an accumulation of daily habits done for months in a row. It's not a big grand hardcore workout that you did once or twice a month. It's not a few salads that you ate during the week. It's constant action that you take that adds up daily. You've likely heard me say this a million times and you'll hear me say it a million times again, but consistency is key. Consistency calm pounds. Most people take perfect action extremely inconsistently, but real gains happen when you take consistent action, even if it's done imperfectly.
So stop focusing on being perfect every single day. Instead, focus on what the best thing that you can do for that day, which will look different from day-to-day, but do it consistently. When you do, trust me when I say that you will see results plain and simple simply because that consistent imperfect action compounds over time. Number six, you fell for quick fix solutions. Please, please, please do not fall for any more quick fix solutions. I know it's that time of year that we are being sold on all of these quick fix solutions left and right, especially come January 1st, but please do not fall for it. Don't. Most of us are not seeing results because we are using these quick fixes. We see results super quickly, but what we're doing to see these results is not sustainable long-term. We cannot eat zero carbs forever. We cannot eat 1000 calories a day forever. We cannot work out hours a day forever. So when we finally reach our breaking point, we will return back to our old habits and gain the weight back and likely continue to repeat the pattern.
The most detrimental part of this isn't gaining the weight back, it's that we are continuously messing up and we are doing harmful damage to our metabolism, our body, and our mindset. This is the reason why you likely think your metabolism is quote, broken. It's not that you're aging or something is wrong with you. It's likely that you are stuck in this trap. If you need help getting out of this trap, please, please know that there are tools out there to help teach you. I always say it is a quick fix if someone is just telling you what to do and they're saying, "Eat this. Only go off of this meal plan. Don't derive from this meal plan. Only do this. You can only take this supplement three times a day and if you don't, you're not going to see results." What are you doing? You're relying on something. You're relying on the meal plan, you're relying on the supplement, you're relying on X, Y, and Z to give you the results. Well, that's not sustainable.
So that is, again, why I'm a huge believer in learning the tool of macro counting, simply because it's not a quick fix and it's not a cookie cutter thing. It's completely custom to you, your body, and your goals. So again, if you want to learn more about macro counting and go to macrocountingmadesimple.com. I will link it in the show notes. This program will teach you how to get out of this hole of feeling like foods are good or bad, or restricting yourself from foods. Instead, it will teach you and educate you about foods so that you can feel empowered around them instead of falling into the marketing trap of, "Don't eat this, don't eat that. Only do this, only do that to see results."
Number seven, you were too overwhelmed by what you should and shouldn't be actually doing. Building the body that you want truly is not complicated. If someone tells you that you need all these fancy supplements, these fancy foods, fancy workouts to get there, they are selling you a quick fix solution or a fad diet and do not fall for it. Building the body that you want requires a few simple things, and here they are. Number one, nourishing your body with what it needs, aka learning, how to properly fuel your body with all foods in moderation. Number two, honoring your body with movement, movement of your choice. What movement do you prefer that will allow you to stay consistent to it? Doesn't have to be a fancy workout program. Number three, hydration. Are you hydrating your body with enough water? Number four, sleep. Are you sleeping enough? Are you prioritizing your sleep each night? Number five, are you speaking kindly to yourself? It's so important that you focus on the mindset aspect of this because this truly does direct everything that you do in your journey. That is it.
That's it. Building the body that you want is not complicated. Again, I talk about this in depth in episode 191, A Step by Step Guide to Building the Body that You Want. I will go ahead and link that in the show notes below, but please don't fall into the trap that you think you need these fancy supplements or fancy foods or fancy workouts. They are selling you a quick fix, plain and simple if they're telling you that you can only do X, Y, and Z in order to get a result. Do not fall for it.
Okay so let me quickly recap what we talked about in this episode. You struggled to build the body that you want this year because you thought that you were eating healthy, but you didn't actually track it, you lived for your weekends, you knew what you wanted to accomplish, but didn't educate yourself on how to actually do it successfully, or you didn't make a plan of action on how to execute it successfully, your goal seemed way too far out of reach, you weren't consistent enough you fell for quick fixes, or you were too overwhelmed by what you should or shouldn't be actually doing.
So you might be sitting here like, "That's great. You just told me all of the things that I didn't do this year and now I feel even worse about myself." The whole point, this podcast is to number one, shine a light on these things because without us even knowing what we did or what we thought or what we fell into, it's going to be really hard to correct it. So now that we know and you have identified, we've identified seven things in this podcast, I want to go one-by-one of these seven things and give you a suggestion on what you can do about it. Number one, you thought you were eating healthy, but you didn't actually track it. So what can you do about that? Well, you guys already heard me talk about Macro Counting Made Simple Online Academy, but I truly believe learning how to properly fuel your body through the tool of macro counting, at least using macro counting to understand serving sizes and how much your body needs, can help tremendously with this.
Number two, you lived for the weekends. What to do about that? If you struggle on the weekends, start with trying to incorporate movement into your weekend plans with your friends and family. Also, if you do learn the tool of macro counting, try to prioritize your protein and overall caloric intake. That, at its bare minimum with hydration and sleeping enough, trust me when I say the weekends will no longer be a huge struggle for you if you focus on those four things. So number one, incorporating movement into your weekend and making that the first thing that you base your plans off of. Number two, actually eating enough protein. So really prioritizing your protein. Number three, try to stay within that caloric range of what your body needs. If you go over, don't stress about it, but give yourself the flexibility and get your calories from fats and carbs and don't focus on trying to meet all three macronutrients. Instead, just focus on your protein and overall calories.Number four, get enough sleep, prioritize your sleep.
Number three, you knew what you wanted to accomplish, but you didn't educate yourself on how to actually do it successfully or you didn't make a plan of action on how to execute successfully. So what to do about it? Make an action plan for your goal. Figure out exactly what you need to do and what habits you need to adopt in order to reach your goal, because that ultimately will set you up for success. Number four, your goal seemed way too far out of reach. So what to do about it? I encouraged you, we talked about breaking down your goal into smaller, more obtainable goals. So having a new goal each week or each month to keep you motivated so that you can keep pushing forward. Remember, when you check off those small goals, you feel motivated, you feel determined, you feel confident, and you will likely continue to move forward. Number five, you weren't consistent enough. So what to do about it? Focus on consistent action even if it's done imperfectly, instead of trying to be perfect, but be super inconsistent.
I know this might sound confusing, but all I'm basically saying is continue to show up, continue to try. Your workout is not going to be the best workout five days a week. That's normal. If you show up, some movement is better than no movement. If you try your best to prioritize your protein, but you're not hitting your protein goal, some protein and prioritizing your protein is better than not doing it at all. So just focus on consistent action even if it's done imperfectly. Number six, you fell for quick fix solutions. What to do about it? You have to focus on something that is going to give you results long-term. Remember, you can't eat those zero carbs forever. You can't eat 1000 calories a day. You can't work out for hours on hours on hours a day forever. You can't restrict your foods forever. So learning something that is going to be sustainable and that's going to lead to results over time. That's what's most important.
Number seven, you were too overwhelmed by what you should and shouldn't actually be doing. What to do about it? Don't over complicate it, keep it simple. Focus on these core things, nourishing your body, moving body, hydrating your body, getting enough sleep and speaking to yourself lovingly, focusing on the mindset of this journey. Remember that anything else is a quick fix solution, do not fall for it. You don't need the fancy supplements. You don't need the fancy workout plan. You don't need the fancy nutrition plan. Just focus on the core elements. So I hope that this encouraged you. I hope that this gave you something to go off of. I don't want you to get to the end of this podcast feeling shameful, feeling frustrated, feeling defeated. I hope that these solutions gave you some things to think about. I don't want you to focus on every single one of these things right now. Maybe focus on one or two of these things that you feel like really spoke to you and focus on what you can do about it moving forward.
So quarter one, 2020, what are you going to focus on in January, February, and March? Are you going to focus on nourishing your body? Are you going to focus on creating a daily or weekly routine that will allow you to feel your best? What are the things that you want to focus on that will allow you to show up as your best self in 2022? Again, I have linked both episodes that I mentioned in today's episode, episode 86, Seven Steps to Setting and actually Reaching Your Goals, and episode 181, A Step by Step Guide to Building the Body that You Want in the show notes as well as my Macro Counting Made Simple Online Academy. Again, in my opinion, this is the most simple but comprehensive program that will teach you how to properly fuel your body through the tool of macro counting so that you can get yourself out of the toxic fad dieting cycle.
I will link those in the show notes below. I hope that this message resonated with you. I hope that this encouraged you or empowered you in some way, gave you some answers to maybe some questions that you had. If you have other questions, feel free to reach out. I am always available in my DM box, or you can go ahead and email me, me@juliealedbetter.com, again that's me@juliealedbetter.com. I would say email is the absolute best way to get a hold of me if you do have a question about the Macro Counting Made Simple Online Academy or my Movement with Julie Workout Program or any question that you have, I am here for you. Thank you again for tuning in and I'll talk to you in the next episode.
All right, sister, that's all I got for you today, but I have two things that I need you to do. First thing, if you are not already following me on the gram, be sure to do so, juliealedbetter, yes, it's with an A in the middle, for that daily post workout real talk, healthy tips and tricks, and honest accountability to keep your mind and heart in check. The second thing, be sure to subscribe to Apple Podcast, to never miss an episode. Thank you so much for joining me. It means the absolute world, and I'm going to leave you with one last thought. The most beautiful women that I have met in my life are the ones who are completely confident and secure in being authentically themselves. Remember that beauty goes so much deeper than the surface. So go out there and embrace your real because you're worth it.