The Ultimate Guide to Being Consistent in 2024
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Happy New Year!
Today marks the beginning of 2024, and I know many of you are eager to kickstart the year with a fresh start after the holiday season. In this episode of the Embrace Your Real podcast, we’ll talk about what "starting fresh" truly means. Is it about hopping on a fad diet or overcommitting to workouts?
Are you ready to build long-term habits and see lasting results? In this episode, I'm breaking down the steps to ensure that your goals for 2024 aren't just short-lived resolutions. From digging deeper into your motivations to understanding the connection between nutrition and exercise, I've got the ultimate guide to keep you consistent throughout the year.
What I discuss:
Dig deeper and find the real reason why your goals are your goals.
Be realistic.
Give yourself the entire year to reach your goals.
Start slowly so your habits actually stick.
Don’t have a goal without a flushed out plan.
Understand that nutrition and exercise go hand in hand.
Know your excuses and obstacles and make a plan for overcoming them.
Realize that there will be ups and downs, that’s apart of the game.
Don’t just know you can do it…know that you WILL do it.
If you loved this episode, be sure to tune in to…
Episode 86: 7 Steps to Setting (And Actually Reaching) Your Goals
If you want more from me, be sure to check out...
Follow me on Instagram: @juliealedbetter | @embraceyourreal | @movementwithjulie
Movement With Julie | App: https://sale.movementwithjulie.com/
Macro Counting Made Simple Online Academy: https://www.macrocountingmadesimple.com/
Website: www.juliealedbetter.com
Get my eBook: FREE Macro Counting Ebook
Amazon Storefront: Julie Ledbetter's Amazon Page
Transcript:
[00:00:00] 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 get 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 it. Let's go. Hello and welcome to the first day of 2024. I know so many of you guys are ready to start fresh after the holiday, but what does starting fresh actually look like for you? Does that mean hopping on a fad trend that you can only stick with for a month? Does it mean overcommitting to exercises and trying to work out every single day, which again, you might only be able to maintain for a week, two weeks, maybe three if you're lucky. I don't want you to continue to repeat the cycle of restricting and over exercising, punishing yourself, eating last just to fall off track, and have to try to start over a million times this year. I don't want you to do that to yourself. So what should you do? This is why I want to dive into this episode of the first episode of 2024. You know it is a Monday, which is so rare the day you start, uh, a new year on a Monday, which is amazing. And so I wanted to give you kind of the ultimate guide to being consistent in 2024 so that you can finally build those long term habits that give you those long term results. So are you ready? Before we dive in, I wanted to share this review. It comes from my dog is my BFF. Did I read that right? That's amazing. [00:01:39][98.5]
[00:01:39] Love that so, so much. She gave a five star review and said Amen, Julie. Finding Julie's workout app, podcast and social media has changed my life for the better. Not only did she reconnect my relationship with God, she's helping me become a better woman for the sake of my daughter. My daughter now has a mom who loves herself and respects herself, and I cannot wait to teach her everything I have learned from you. I'm so thankful for you. Julie P.S. username pronounced Annie says hi. Oh, okay. Well, Annie, I am so grateful for you and thank you so, so much for taking time out of your day. I also love this so much. I mean, the fact that you are choosing to become a better version of yourself for your daughter is one of the best whys, which is what I'm going to be talking about in just a minute that you could ever go into. I mean, being the best version of yourself so that you can serve others in your best capacity is something that I always talk about, right? You can't pour from an empty cup. I know that's so cliche, but it's so true. And I want your people in your life, your community or tribe to get the best version of yourself. And that's only going to happen if you choose to prioritize yourself. It is not selfish when you're prioritizing yourself, so that you can be the best version of yourself to serve others in your best capacity. So just remember that. And thank you so much, Annie, for taking time out of your day to send in that review. It really means the world. Okay, so let's dive in to the ultimate Guide to Being consistent in 2024. [00:03:04][85.1]
[00:03:06] Number one, you've got to dig deeper and find the real reason why your goals are your goals. No one reaches superficial goals or maintains long term results by just going after these superficial goals, right? Superficial goals lead to superficial results and they don't create any lasting change. You want to lose weight? Great. Okay. Why? What is the real reason why you want to lose weight? Just focusing on weight loss is not the secret to reaching your goals. I bet that you will not stick to them if you only focus on weight loss, or only focus on changing your body composition or whatever that goal may be, you have to dig deeper. You need to know your why you want to lose weight because fill in the blank. Maybe you want to have more energy, more vibrancy, so that you can live a life that you actually enjoy instead of just going through the day to day being tired and exhausted all the time. Maybe you want to lose weight because you want to show your body that you love and appreciate it, and the weight loss is a way of honoring your body and giving it the respect that it deserves so that you can live your most vibrant life. Or maybe you want to lose weight so that you can be mentally stronger so that you can show up with your life with grit, determination, perseverance, confidence, whatever it might be. I need you to dig deeper and find out your why. Because I know that when you do that, you're going to be so much more consistent because of it. Number two, I need you to be realistic. So when setting goals, you have to be realistic about what you're chasing. Keep in mind you can't change your bone structure, matter how much you want to. [00:04:42][96.8]
[00:04:43] You literally cannot change the way that God created your body. And so I want to challenge you to only chase a goal that brings you to the body that you're meant to have, not a body that you're forcing yourself to have. Right? A body that you're meant to have is what happens when you are nourishing your body with what it needs. You're properly getting enough protein, carbs, and fats, and then you're also being diligent and consistent and giving your body the movement that it deserves. You're following a program that is effective and efficient so that you're not wasting time. You're not just randomly doing workouts day in and day out, whereas a body that you're forcing yourself to have is a body that you can genuinely only obtain through drastic, restrictive. Over exercising or relying on a specific medication. And once you're off that medication, you know all heck is going to break loose. Like, I need you to know the difference. And also you need to understand what is actually healthy. Losing a pound a week healthy. Trying to lose 10 pounds in one month. Not healthy. Not going to be sustainable. Not realistic. Really understanding this is the best way to be consistent. Because when you set realistic goals and realistic standards, you set up a realistic plan for actually obtaining them. And realistic plans are things that you can stick to long term and actually be consistent. Which leads me to number three give yourself the entire year to reach your goals. I don't want you to rush yourself. Good things never happen overnight. Lasting change never happens overnight. This isn't an excuse to procrastinate or not be consistent because you have the whole year. But this is a realistic approach to creating real change, right? You need to play the long term. [00:06:25][102.1]
[00:06:25] Long term change happens when you take the long term approach, and this means that you're only developing habits that you can easily stick to for the next two, three, five, ten years. Because we aren't searching for those quick fix diets, those quick fix solutions that you can only stick to for two months, right? Yes, you see the quick result, but you go off the plan and you gain the weight back. We've all been there, we've all done that and we all know that it doesn't work. So let's not do that again. Let's do it differently this year. Let's be realistic. Let's set realistic goals and be realistic about how long it will actually take. This year, we're going to play the long game and go about reaching our goals in a maintainable way. And we're also going to be patient and we're going to trust the process. Which leads me to number four. I need you to start slowly so that your habits actually stick. I beg you, please, please, please do not give yourself a list of ten things that you need to start doing today, January 1st. You can't go from 0 to 100 overnight. Do not put that expectation on yourself. You will fail. I'm not trying to be negative, but I'm trying to be realistic here. I'm trying to set you up for success long term. If you try to change too much, too fast, you're only setting yourself up for failure. So I need you to go slow and make things a habit before you start adding more. Start with the things that are easier, gain momentum with those and then add on. Because maybe you have a list of ten things, but you just start with two, and once you feel good about those two, then you add one more and then one more. [00:08:03][97.6]
[00:08:03] And by the time you continue to add more and more, you're already up to ten things in your routine, right? And those things that you are adding by the time you're there are like second nature. You don't have to think about them because you did it in a slow, methodical way. So maybe your goal is to work out five times a week. But maybe if you're realistic with yourself, you've only been working out 0 to 1 times per week. I don't want you to just jump straight into five days per week. Start with two days once you're consistent with that for a month, yes, a month, four weeks, add a third day in, and so on. Don't place too much on your plate too fast. Slow and steady will always win the race. We are creating lifelong habits in the grand scheme of things, so taking a few months is genuinely nothing compared to your lifetime. If you do it the right way, you won't have to start over and over. Imagine how amazing that would feel. Number five don't have a goal without a fleshed out plan. This is probably the biggest mistake that I always see and it comes around every single January. People have these goals, but they have no concrete plan. You want to lose more weight and your plan is to eat better and work out more. Let me repeat that. Eat better and work out more. I'm sorry, but that is not a concrete plan. What does better mean? How are you going to eat better? What does that actually look like? What do more mean? How are you going to work out more? What does that actually look like? You can't reach a goal without a plan. And by not having a concrete plan, again, you're setting yourself up for failure. [00:09:39][95.4]
[00:09:40] A plan is what's going to keep you going when you have that hectic week. It's the thing that's going to keep you consistent. When you feel too tired. It's a thing that's going to lead you to actually reaching your goals. So I need you to get a plan. So many of you guys are like, okay, that's great, I'm ready. I know that I need to have a plan that I don't know where to start. If you're looking in terms of workouts, I have a plan for you. It's called the Movement with Julie App weekly Workouts Plan. So every single week I give you five brand new workouts. All you have to do is open the app, click the workout, and then there's video demos for every single movement. These workouts are go at your own pace, so it's not one long style workout, which is so great, especially if you're just getting back into the hang of things or if you really want to focus on that. Find a muscle connection. If you've been following me for any length of time, you guys know I'm a huge believer in go at your own pace. Just because the injury rate for people trying to do these follow along workouts is skyrocketing. And also not to mention they're not actually seeing the results because they're not putting that mind muscle connection into play because they're constantly just trying to keep up with the instructor, which is why I love this plan. So again, five brand new workouts every single week. No thinking, just doing. All you have to do is open it up. All of the number of reps the sets are programed for you. There's a 60 minute or 30 minute workout depending on your time constraints. [00:11:03][83.8]
[00:11:04] You can pick one of those and say no, you don't have to do all five workouts weekly if you're just getting started. In fact, I don't even recommend doing all five. I think that's going to set yourself up for failure just starting out. So if that's you, if you're like, hey, I'm going from zero workouts or maybe one workout a week, I want to do five, but I'm going to start with two. If that's your case, I mean, start with a lower body and an upper body workout and then build from there. Right? Just with those two workouts, like two workouts a week, consistently for a month, you'll be shocked by the results that you see, the consistency that you see, the strength, the energy that you gain from just staying consistent to an effective plan. And then if you want to go to that third workout per week, I would do lower body, upper body and full body. Secondly, if you are looking for a nutrition program, I do have that. It's called the macro counting Made Simple Online Academy. Now this is going to give you a clear plan for your nutrition. Because let's be real, eating less is in a plan. And it's also not going to lead to any sort of lasting results if you don't know what you're doing and the most important reason why you're doing that. So you need a nutrition plan to follow that is sustainable and also requires zero restrictions, which is why we are so big on utilizing and teaching you to utilize the tool of macro counting. Plus, inside this online academy, I give you a step by step guide as to how to make macro counting a lifestyle so that you can easily do it without even having to think about it. [00:12:32][88.3]
[00:12:33] The more you do it. And you know this is something when you first start, of course it's going to be new. It's going to feel like starting, you know, riding a bike. You're going to feel like this is so freaking hard. You've got the training wheels on. It takes time, it takes effort. But I'm telling you, the more that you do it, the more consistent you stick with it, the more you'll feel empowered and educated around food. And that's genuinely what our hope is for this program, is that you feel empowered for both of my nutrition and my fitness programs, that you feel empowered and educated on what to do and why you're doing it. So I will leave both of those links in the show notes. You can find them. The movement with Julie Workouts is sail. That's Sally dot movement with julie.com and then the macro be made simple. Online Academy is just macro counting made simple.com and you can go and check those out again. I will leave those in the show notes that you can easily go check those out. And that leads me to number six. Understand that nutrition and exercise go hand in hand. You will not see the results that you want if you don't focus on both, right. If you're just focusing on exercise, you're not focusing on nutrition or just focusing on nutrition and not exercising at all, you're likely not going to see the results that you want. It's going to be very hard for you to want to keep pushing forward because you feel like you're working so hard, but you don't understand why nothing is changing, which then just leads you to giving up, right? When you commit to one, you need to commit to both. [00:13:58][85.4]
[00:13:59] And this is why what's truly going into your body is so important for you to see results and ensure that you're reaching your goals. And when you commit yourself to both of these, you will start seeing results. There's no doubt about it, because there's no way that you won't see results if you are both committed to your nutrition and your fitness. And that's really what kickstarts and starts you to this long, sustainable approach, right? It's going to light a fire under you because you're going to finally feel like you are actually seeing results for the hard work that you're putting in. And it is amazing. And it is so empowering, just as a coach, to see when women finally understand that these two go hand in hand and they must go hand in hand in order for you to see the lasting results. Trust me, I've seen it with literally thousands of women over the last decade and it is so encouraging and so empowering. So just understand that as you go into this year, number seven, know your excuses, know your obstacles, and make a plan for overcoming them. This is probably one of the most important steps that you can do in trying to reach your goals. Life happens. Life will happen. Life will try to get in the way in 2024. But if you prepare, you don't have to let it. So you have to ask yourself what are your most common excuses? And then make a plan for overcoming them ahead of time so that when these excuses pop into your head, you know what? To do so that you can power through. What are your most common obstacles? Lay them out on the table and make a plan for every single obstacle. [00:15:32][93.8]
[00:15:33] Make a plan as to how you can easily overcome that. Right. Obstacles are a part of life. They aren't going anywhere. Life is never going to be perfect. So if we want to stay consistent, we have to know how to overcome these obstacles, which is a non-negotiable in the process of reaching your goals. So do not skip this step. Number eight. Realize that there will always be ups and downs, and this is a part of the game, right? The journey towards reaching your goals is not linear. It will never be linear. So don't have that expectation. If you expect things to be linear, you will give up. You will lose motivation and you will think that you're failing. So go into this knowing that there will be ups and downs. This does not mean that you're failing. It means that you're trying. It means that you're on the right path, and you just need to fight the urge to give up and keep pushing through. Accept the downs, celebrate the ups, and enjoy the process along the way. Accept that it's going to be hard, but it will be worth it. Let me repeat it. It will be hard, but it will be worth it. Yes. I'm not going to lie to you. It's going to be hard. Like it's going to be hard. The hard that you endure, though, will be worth it. So keep pushing through. Even on those days, those weeks, those months that you want to give up. Which leads me to my last point. Don't just know that you can do it. Know that you will do it. And I think that there's a big difference between knowing what you're capable of and knowing what you will do. Can and will are two totally different things. [00:17:03][89.6]
[00:17:03] I know you can. I know you are capable, but do you know that you will? You need to 100% believe that you will in order to stay consistent, especially when you get started. You need to tell yourself daily I will reach more goals. I will become that person. I will feel great in my body. I will be mentally and physically strong. I will succeed, not you. Can you? Well, you will be that person that you're dreaming of becoming one day. Tell yourself that every single day and then start acting like that person day in and day out. Okay, let me quickly recap number one. Dig deeper and find the real reason why your goals are your goals. Number two, be realistic. Number three, give yourself the entire year to reach your goals. Number four start slowly so that your habits actually stick. Number five don't have a goal without a fleshed out plan. Number six understand that nutrition and exercise go hand in hand. Number seven know your excuses and obstacles and make a plan for overcoming them. Number eight realize that there will be ups and there will be downs. That's just a part of the game. And lastly, number nine don't just know you can do it. Know that you will do it. And again, if you want to take a sustainable approach to reaching your goals with a sustainable plan, I have two things for you. Get the movement with Julie app for your weekly workouts, for consistency in your workouts, and get the macro counting made. Simple online Academy to learn how to take control of your nutrition in a sustainable way. Thousands of women have developed lifelong habits, lifelong results from these two things alone. So if you're tired of yo yo dieting, you're tired of living these years upon years in this weight loss mode. [00:18:56][112.3]
[00:18:56] Feeling frustrated, unhappy in your skin, I need you to take a look at both of these things and gain access to both of these things. You will not regret it. I repeat it, you will not regret it. I guarantee it will change your life. We've poured our heart and soul into these products, and I really believe that they can genuinely change your life. So again, those two websites sail easily with julie.com. And then the second one is macro counting made simple.com. I've linked both of those in the show notes that you can easily go check out those two products. Again, I really think that those are going to be the most beneficial for you in terms of making sure that you're on track with both your nutrition and your fitness, and not just getting a plan and following it, but actually understanding the why behind it, especially with the nutrition aspect of it. I think oftentimes we go into the new year, we find these nutrition programs and then we just buy one blindly. We don't really understand. We're following a meal plan. This is not that program. This program is going to teach you. This is what your customized macro calculation is. Your protein, carbs and fats based on where you're at and what your goals are. After you fill out the questionnaire form. And then once you do that, we will teach you why inside the course. This is why you need protein. This is why you need carbs. This is why you need fats. And not only the why behind each of the macronutrients, also why and when and how to change your nutrition as your body progresses are. Stalls. So again, tons of information in that course. Moco County made simple.com. [00:20:30][94.2]
[00:20:31] Again, both of those are linked in the show notes. And then if you want an even more practical guide to kind of setting your goals, be sure to check out episode 86 seven Steps to Setting and Actually Reaching Your Goals. I will also link that in the show notes that you can easily go tune in to that next, but that is all that I have for today's episode. Thanks so much for spending the first day of 2024 with me. I love you so much. I mean it and I'll talk to you in the next one. 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're not already following me on the gram, be sure to do so. Julie Ledbetter. 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 Podcasts 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. [00:20:31][0.0]
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