Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 1522: How to Stay Consistent With Your Diet & Workout

Episode Date: March 31, 2021

In this episode Sal, Adam & Justin discuss what it takes to have long-term success with your diet and workout.   The most important factor for fitness success. (2:22) Why consistency is just as important for the average person. (6:28) The biggest mistake people make when it comes to their current fitness level. (7:24) Why are we so drawn to motivation? (9:13) How to Stay Consistent with Your Diet & Workout. #1 - Know your honest starting point. (10:13) #2 – Build upon small goals. (14:35) #3 – Fall in love with the discipline and the results will follow. (19:00) #4 – Practice positive self-talk. (26:18) #5 – Beware of people projecting their insecurities on you. (38:09) #6 – Focus on your health. (40:32) Related Links/Products Mentioned March Specials: Get in Shape for Summer! MAPS HIIT, MAPS Spilt, and the Bikini Bundle all half off! – Promo code “SPRINGBREAK” at checkout Available for Pre-Order TODAY! – The Resistance Training Revolution – Book by Sal Di Stefano The Key to Fitness Success is Self-Love – Mind Pump Blog Mind Pump #1392: 10 Habits Of Super-Healthy People Mind Pump #1485: Ten Life Lessons From Lifting Weights Workout Because You Love Yourself Not Because You Hate Yourself – Mind Pump Blog Mind Pump Podcast – YouTube Mind Pump Free Resources People Mentioned Craig Capurso (@craigcapurso)  Instagram

If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, with your hosts. Salda Stefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. You just found the world's number one fitness health entertainment podcast. This is Mind Pump. Okay, in today's episode, we talk about consistency. The most important factor when you talk about your fitness and health goals, being consistent can actually trump almost everything else. The problem is, how do you stay consistent?

So in today's episode, we talk about the strategies that help yourself stay consistent. Trust me, you haven't heard these things before. We've trained people for over two decades. We know what really works. By the way, everything that we talk about in today's episode, you can find in the new book that we're about to release called The Resistance Training Revolution. This book will be released within a month or so, but you can pre-order it right now at theresistancetrainingrevolution.com.

One more thing, we are running a promotion on some of our workout programs. This is the final hours for this particular promotion. So we have two programs that are 50% off and a workout program bundle that's 50% off. Here they are. The first program on sale is Maps Hit. That's high intensity interval training. The next program that's on sale is Maps Split.

This is a body part split body building routine. And then the bundle that's on sale is the bikini bundle. Again, all of them 50% off. You can find them at mapsfitinistproducts.com. By entering the code, spring break, that's how you get the discount. You know what I get, I get teased for a lot is the talking about myself thing.

I get people, I think it's like a narcissistic side of me. But you know what it really is, is as a trainer, it's trainer, it's coming from more of like an empathetic place, right? I would tell my story and my failures. Because you understand. It helps you relate more to your clients. But not everybody receives it that way, you know that? Like some people like look, they think it's like, oh, there goes Adam wants to talk about himself all the time.

But it's really not that way. It was like, you learn to do that as a as a trainer with clients is to make yourself relatable. Because not like I'm talking about how awesome I am. It's like, I did this, I did that. You being awesome is just, that's, I mean, of course. That's not the point. It's just kind of how it happens. Yeah.

That just happens to be the thing, but you tell the snow. That's true. Anyways, anyways. All right, let's talk about what we're gonna talk about today. So for sure, I was just talking to somebody about competing and They were asking me like, you know, what are all what's the secret? You have the secret sauce to like you know getting in that

incredible shape and I said you know what like It's the it's the answer that nobody wants to hear, that everybody's heard a million times. And even myself, like getting into the space, like I was really excited. I thought, like, you know, I'm gonna get into the competitive world. I'm gonna be hanging out with the one percenters in the, you know, bodybuilding community, whatever, the people with the best physiques in the world.

Like, these are gonna be the smartest people when it comes to nutrition and exercise science. And like, I'm going to learn a lot. Like, I was so, I really was. I went into it with that attitude and I was really let down that that wasn't the case at all. And that's to take something from some of the very smart people that are doing that.

I'm not saying like everybody was dumb. But what I realized quickly was the one thing that they all had in common was their ability to be consistent. Their discipline and focus and ability to lock in on a goal and just completely shut everything else out and be very, very consistent. It's the most important factor for fitness success. There is no factor. There is no component, more important, no controllable

component that's more important than consistency. What's that saying you say all the time? Well, a subpar routine done consistently is always going to outperform a consistent, sorry, an inconsistent, excellent program. So your workout can be incredible. You could have the best program in the world. You could follow a maps program. But if it's inconsistent, it's not going to perform as well as one that's not as good, that's done consistently. This is 100% true for nutrition and for fitness and exercise. Consistency is the most important thing. And as trainers, this is what we really started to figure out. It was how do I get my client to learn how to be consistent. And I know that most people listening and watching right now

know what I'm talking about. If you can think back to when you were, I guess, in the best shape of your life, you were just really consistent. It's compared to when you were not in that greater shape, you were just not as consistent. That's it. So if you're gonna focus on anything at all,

and all the other factors are important, don't get me wrong. A good workout makes a big difference. You know, the types of foods you eat are also very important. So those are all very important things, but the most important thing that you should focus on is how to become doggedly consistent day in and day out. And there is a formula that will give you success with this and it's not what you think. Yeah, it's just interesting because everybody kind of knows

that it's like, oh, yeah, well, of course, but what else? And really, you want to skip right over that. And it's so simple, but yet it's not easy to actually go through that process and be disciplined. And I was thinking a lot about, you know, in bodybuilding and that being a sport. And really, like, the discipline of that sport is, you know, all the characteristics of why

it's such a difficult sport. Because it's at such an intense level that I think a lot of people just aren't willing to go through that. I know a lot of people get, like, you know, offended or riled up when people call it memory-body craig, right? Craigs competed and he up when people call it, memory of buddy Craig, right? Craig's competed and he's and he's also played sports.

It's a pageant, right? Yeah, it's a pageant, it's not a sport. I mean, I disagree. I disagree that. I disagree. I think that what makes it a sport and so competitive is that. Like, I played sports and when I played sports, there was off days and days when I could like shut down

and not even think about basketball, not play basketball, eat whatever the hell I wanted to. When you're competing at that level, not only does every day matter, but everything you eat, everything you drink. Yeah, everything you do every day is a going to be a reflection of how you look when you get on stage. Now I wanna go, I wanna apply this to the average person

because maybe the average person is listening right now and they're like, I have no desire to go that hard. Get on a stage or to get super shredded. And most people have no desire to do that. And that's actually not only is that totally fine, but I think that's better. I think that at that level, there's, although I respect it, there's also a level

of an healthiness that comes with that. So let's talk about the average person. Consistency is just as important. Now, this doesn't mean that you need to be can so consistent and structure that every single minute or every single day is planned out. No, that's not what I'm talking about. But if your goal is to have a generally fit and healthy body

with good strength, good mobility, decent muscle, a healthy body fat percentage. There's a range of what's considered healthy. It's relatively lean. If you want to have those things, then you still need to be consistent with your routine. That might mean three days a week of exercise, and it may mean for the most part, you eat pretty damn healthy. And that's all consistency.

Now, here's the biggest mistake that people make. When people hear consistency, and they think about the last time that they fell off the wagon, right? The last time that they were consistent and then they stopped, the thing that always comes to their mind was, I lost motivation. That's what it was. You know, I was so motivated before to stay consistent.

And then the motivation, I lost my motivation, and then I just, I couldn't do anymore. That's a huge mistake. Consistency, real consistency does not come from motivation. In fact, using the same example, you don't have to try to be consistent when you're motivated. That's natural. It's a very easy thing to do. When my clients were motivated, I did not have to talk to them about being consistent

with their diet. It was very natural. And I have to talk to them about doing workouts. It was very natural. The problem is when the inevitable happens and this happens to everybody. We're as humans, we don't stay in a state of mind all the time. You're not always happy. You're not always sad. You're not always motivated. That's impossible. In fact, motivation can't exist without the counter, which is the unmotivated feelings that you get. This is just being a human. The key is not focusing on motivation, but rather developing the skill of discipline.

Here's the good news about this. And I talk about this in the resistance training revolution quite a bit. This is actually a whole segment. The good news about discipline is unlike motivation, which is more of a state of mind and a bit. This is actually a whole segment. The good news about discipline is unlike motivation, which is more of a state of mind and a feeling. Discipline is a skill. And like any skill, you can develop it. Just like the skill of shooting a basketball through a hoop or riding a bike, or doing a backflip or doing a squat, you can over time with the right application and right structure. And this works for everybody.

You can dramatically improve the type of discipline that you have. And that really is what leads to consistency. I feel like you have to address, why are we, why are we so drawn to the motivation? It feels great. Yeah. No, it's the most, like I'll tell you what, it's exciting. It is.

There's nothing, in my exp for me, there's like extreme happiness and extreme motivation. They're pretty up there in terms of my favorite states of mind. Like when I'm extremely motivated, man, I'm on fire. I feel creative, I can't be stopped, I got endless energy. Nothing seems like it's daunting, everything seems like I can accomplish it. I love that state of mind.

I think that's why we get caught up on it because we think to ourselves gosh if I could only Be that way all the time if I could only feel that way all the time then Nothing would be a problem. Well, it's just it doesn't work that way It doesn't last that way in fact falling in love with feelings is what gets people in a lot of trouble Because they start to worship feelings and that can lead you down some dark paths. Again, develop the skill of discipline and there is a structure and a way to do that. And one of the first ways to do that is to, first off, know your honest starting point.

So what I mean by that is what you don't want to do is set goals that are based on your motivated state of mind. So this will happen all the time in the gym when I would see a new client. I get a new client, usually as a trainer, when a client approaches you or is about to hire you, they are in a motivated state of mind. Most people don't hire trainers when they're really unmotivated.

They don't know. They say the average person actually shops a personal trainer for over three months before they make the commitment to actually do that. Right. They've thought long and hard about it and something got them fired up for that day to get in there and actually make that's right. So you're sitting in front of this potential client. They're in this motivated state of mind. They've told themselves, all right, because personal training is not cheap, right? They're like, all right, I'm going to invest $500, $1,000 or more in hiring a professional to train me.

So they're motivated. And this is what always happens. And this is like clockwork. I'd have the person in front of me and we talk about their current fitness level. What are you doing for your workouts now? And it's usually nothing. Oh, I'm not doing anything.

I used to work out, but right now I just fell off. I haven't exercised in a long time. I have a very sedative life. This is very common. And then I would always ask them, how many days a week would you like to work out? And they would always give me some like five days a week. You know, I want to do this five days a week.

Yeah, I'm totally ready. I'm ready to do this. However many days you say, I'm going to be here. Now the early, you know, trainer, when I was new, I was excited when I'd hear that. Oh, perfect. We're going to train you five days a week, I'm gonna have you do cardio on your off days, here's your meal plan, this is gonna be awesome.

And it never succeeded, it would always result in results initially and the person eventually burnout. Always, every single time. So I had to change my approach and little did I know at this time that I was really tapping into how to develop this skill of discipline. And what I would do is I would say this, okay, that's great that you want to do five days a week right now. But let's pick an amount of time that you think you can stick to forever. I was used the word forever because when you say forever to somebody, then they have to take pause and be like,

oh, five days a week, that might not be realistic forever. Let's start with a number like two days a week because that's two more days than you're doing now. Let's start with something small. Yeah, I got in this conversation with my parents actually because my dad's about to go into surgery and wants to lose weight and also there's this urgency there to lose weight and I'm having a conversation. She's like, well, how are you gonna get him to do that?

Like, what are you gonna do? And I'm like, well, we gotta find something that he'll actually stick with for long term. Like, well, can't we just, you know, lose this weight? And then once we get to that state, we'll maintain. I'm like, that never works out. In the history of my career, you know, people that have this urgency, this motivation,

like the dire need to lose all this weight, shed down and get to this desired weight that they're going to live with from then on. They just bypass the entire process of getting down to that weight where they're comfortable with the amount of calories or eating they're comfortable with the amount of training they've been doing. Nothing is sustainable that got them there in the first place. So now to try and live at that state is damn near impossible. Yeah, the whole small goals thing too. I think what's so important about that is it helps you build momentum.

Totally. And I used to tell people that self-motivation is bullshit, self-belief is everything. And they'd be like, what do you mean by the self-belief? And I go, well, when you set these small, realistic, obtainable goals, you start to build these wins. The wins starts to build confidence in yourself. And that's where the real motivation and the consistency we'll start to come from

is because you start to pile up this like, oh, this is great. I've been going four weeks now and I've been consistent with this. Okay, now I can add this and then build upon that and then add a little bit more versus, okay, I'm so hyped right now because I'm either I hate the way I look and I don't want to be this

any way anymore or I have this goal because I got a wedding so many days out. Okay, and I want to put, I want to put everything into it right away. And the inedible happens just like you said, either either one you get burnt out and you never reached a goal Or two, maybe you actually do reach the goal But what you've built is something that's not sustainable long. Right. So what motivation looks like is this this up and down Yo-yo battle for the rest of your life

Sometimes you're doing great other times you're doing, and where you end up is nowhere, right? You end up nowhere because it's this, two steps forward, two steps back, two steps forward. Actually, sometimes, oftentimes, three steps back. Yes, the steps back, and then you see people over the years creep up, and for example, body fat because the steps back are bigger than the steps forward.

What discipline looks like is this, this kind of step ladder, that constantly and consistently, slowly creeps up, but over time accomplishes big things. I'll tell you guys a story of a client, one of my favorite stories. And this was about, I would say, I was probably 14 years into my career as a personal trainer.

So at this point, I was very confident in my approach. I had now, at this point, achieved some incredible success. And I had this doctor that I trained, wonderful woman, loved her, and she referred a patient to me. So this patient comes to me, this woman, and she had zero interest in working out, zero interest in changing nutrition, but came to me because the doctor had, she had, you know, just beat cancer cancer and the doctor basically said, look, the odds are that this will come back. You really need to take care of yourself.

So I'm going to, I work with this trainer. He's really good. I know you don't want to work out. And you said, hey, exercise. But go see him anyway and try it out so you would happen. So she sits in front of me. This is the first thing out of her mouth. She sits down and she goes, yeah,

Dr. Sone, so set me to you. I said, oh, cool, okay. So, you know, what are your goals? What do you wanna do? She goes, before we get into that, here's a deal, I hate working out. And I'm not gonna do anything on my own. Just gonna let you know straight up.

So she was like, out there with it. I don't like this, not working out on my own. No problem. What are you doing now for exercise? I really don't work out. I said, okay. I said, do you think you are you doing now for exercise? I really don't work out. I said, okay. I said, do you think you could meet with me once a week? Is that realistic for you to start with once a week?

And that's it. And she goes, well, what about on my own? What are you gonna make me try and do on my own? I said, nothing. I don't want you to do anything else. All you're gonna do is see me once a week. She goes, are you gonna try and make me change my diet? So no, you said you don't want to?

We're not gonna work on your diet at all. All you're gonna do is you're gonna come see me and just work out with me once a week and then we'll take it from there. And so she's like, very suspicious. She was very, you know, like, okay, let's see what happens. So she hires me and she comes and sees me once a week. And here's what ended up happening.

I know you guys have very similar stories. Over time, right? She's working out with me once a week, building a little bit of strength, starting to feel better. I say nothing. I apply no pressure. I wait for this consistency to build for her, because that once a week, which for her was a big commitment at first, slowly starts to become something that she enjoys,

and then it becomes something she's consistent with. And it was within a six-month period. She comes in the workout, we're training, and then I knew this was going to happen at some point I was waiting we're or or resting in between sets and she goes Hey, Sal Do you have another day available during the week? Absolutely. Let's do that. Scheduled her twice a week Said nothing else. That's all we did. We stayed two days a week for consistent. What consistently? Three months later she comes to me and says

Are there some exercises you think I should do on my own? She's like, I wanna do like two or three exercises, that's it. Absolutely. Gave her two or three exercises. Three months later, she comes to me and says, you know what, I think I'm gonna cut sugar out of my diet. Slowly over time, this woman made tremendous progress to the point where at the end of,

it was like a three year period of training this woman, she was vastly stronger, far healthier, and she had become a fitness fanatic. This was a woman who loved learning about nutrition, was reading books on fitness, but no way it would have worked out if day one I told her, you got to work out five days a week with me, you got to follow this meal plan, you got to do all the stuff, no way that would have worked. So what the small goals do is it allows you to practice, build confidence.

Once that becomes easy in a part of your life, once that whatever you decide that's realistic becomes something that is now indispensable. Yeah, I'm Thursdays and Saturdays, I do this exercise. And then it becomes like, oh yeah, every Thursday and Saturday, that's what I do. That's when you add one more level. What you want to do is challenge yourself just enough

so that it has meaning. It can be easy because otherwise it doesn't mean anything, but you can't challenge yourself so much that you're gonna guarantee yourself a failure. That's how you don't develop discipline. It needs to be something challenging, but realistic and over time you become disciplined. You know what I love about that story too,

is it highlights one of the most challenging things that you had to overcome as a trainer, which is the excuse of, I don't have time. Yes. I mean, money's number one, I don't have time is number two, because for the longest time, people have been marketed to, like, it has to be this like... You have to be all in. Yeah, five to seven days. Otherwise, it's not worth it.

Right. If you're not weight training, you're doing cardio, it's got to be like this thing that you do. And sometimes people, that's what they hear when you hear, like, it's not worth it. Right. If you're not weight training, you're doing cardio, it's gotta be like this thing that you do. And sometimes people, that's what they hear when you hear, like it's a lifestyle change. Like, everybody's heard that before, like it is a lifestyle change, but it doesn't have to be so dramatic. You don't have to take somebody like that example right there

who hates working out, has never done anything, doesn't do anything for fitness and exercise. That person, you throw them in a three to five day week program right out the gates and they're gonna get discouraged. They're gonna get burnt out. They're not gonna enjoy the process, instead meeting them where they're at,

what they're willing to commit to, and then slowly build on that. And that's how everybody, and not only that, you have to have the self-awareness. If you're not hiring a coach and you're doing this yourself, you gotta have the self-awareness as a person. And I still have to check myself.

You know, I get all hyped up, right? We've got a new goal, we've got something coming up, we've got a shoot going on, whatever it is, it's like, oh yeah, I've got to get all in. It's like, wait a second, I know better than this. I haven't been doing much whatsoever. If I just do one or two days a week of this, that'll already start to make good changes. If I just cut this one thing out of my diet, that'll already start to make changes. And I still, to this day, do that same game with myself.

And so you have to have that self-awareness of, am I high off of this motivation? Cause I just watched some YouTube that got me all hyped up. Or am I meeting myself realistically of where I'm currently at? That's right. Okay, here's the beauty of it, right? Anything more than you're doing now is progress.

Anything more. Let's say you're somebody that's just, you believe you're just so busy, you're like, I don't even have time to dedicate 60 minutes in a week. I can't even do one hour workout in a whole week. Okay, are you doing anything now? No, I'm not doing any exercise.

Can you do 10 squats during the week? Yeah, I think I can manage that. I think I can commit to that. Guess what you're doing. 10 more squats than you were doing before. Do them consistently, allow that to develop some discipline in you, and what'll naturally happen. This is the best part.

It's not even something that you need to like focus on. You will naturally reach a point where you say to yourself, I think I'm ready to do the next thing. You know what's funny about that, or what's ironic to me, is that anything else that were taught or that you go after to learn is taught that way. But for some reason, yeah, it's totally promoted like the opposite.

Right, with fitness, it's all this hype around, no days off and beast mode and all this intensity driven and sweat and push and kill you, kill yourself to get to there, to get to the goals. But when you think about learning any other skill, will there be a language or math or anything that you're trying to learn, new subject at all, though you would never cram all of it absolutely right out the gates. You would overwhelm yourself.

You wouldn't retain half the information that's unrealistic unrealistic. They're gonna stay consistent with that. So we know better and everything else, but for some reason fitness is still abused this way. I feel like we bring up a lot of examples, a lot of time of like some ladies coming in and they've been getting like misinformation about, you know, like how much they can do. But, you know, I've had a lot of examples of friends of mine

or, you know, guys that think they have this thought of like working out, where when they're in the gym, they have to crush like every single way. They have to make sure that they could do what they did in high school, they have this memory of what workout consisted of, but now they have their career, they have kids, they have all this stuff, and it's just like, well, I can't balance all of that together.

And meanwhile, I'm just like, I finally had this conversation with my brother-in-law just recently too, just setting yourself up with small goals. So having something available that's in close proximity, if you could set that up in your house where you go down and you literally just practice those lifts again and you do it with way less intensity and you start really building

momentum off of that just naturally. That's the formula for success. One of the challenges of this is that people when they think about working out, they can't help but focus on their ideal body, right? They think to themselves like, well, if I do one day a week, like I'm not going to get there fast at all, I want the body right now. Okay, here's what you gotta do. Fall in love with the discipline and the results will follow. Fall in love with the results, you're not gonna get it. I'm just gonna tell you right now, if you fall in love with the goal,

the goal of how you wanna look, and that's all you're focused on, you're either not gonna get there or you will and you'll lose it. I'm just, that's just a fact, okay? 90% of you watching or listening to this right now, that's what will happen. Now, if you fall in love with the consistency,

if you become a master of the consistency slowly, like I'm talking about, think about this way. If you're consistent with your workouts and consistent with your nutrition, what are you gonna look like? You're gonna cheat, that's the side effect of those things. Now, here's a good visual, because I think people, again, they think,

oh, I'm not getting results fast enough. Okay, so I've used this visual before, I think people, again, they think, oh, I'm not getting results fast enough. Okay, so I've used this visual before, I think it's a very powerful one, but if you took two lines that were parallel, and I moved one of them, one degree, just to another direction, one degree, you probably would not even be able to tell the difference when you're looking at the two lines.

You can't tell, but follow those lines along for one mile, two miles, three miles, and the distance between them becomes massive. The further you follow them, the bigger the distance between the two. This is what happens with your body and with your progress when you apply what we're talking about. Sure, initially, you don't see these crazy results,

but over time, the results amplify, accelerate. Not only that, but here's the best part, the results start to become permanent. And this is what we're all looking for. We're all looking for permanent change. That's what they mean by lifestyle change, is that you can accomplish permanent change, but how you approach it means everything.

Not only that, you have to understand too, how detrimental it is for you to rapidly lose and gain. Like every time you gain all that way back, we add fat cells to the body. So you only make it more difficult. Some people are like, I don't care. I'd rather just, you know, when it's summer time, I'm gonna get shredded for when I get

gonna be out of my bikini or my shorts or whatever like that. And so, and then I'm gonna enjoy winter all time. But what you don't realize is by doing that, promoting that yo-yo dieting of up and down with weight, like that, every single time you come off the wagon and you add that weight on, you add fat cells and you make it that much more difficult. Plus it gets harder every single time.

That's exactly what happens. And you know what's funny about that, Adam, is that people think discipline is monotonous, like I'm just gonna be, no, no, no, no, here's a deal. Your base is discipline. Then when you're motivated, you have fun and you push. That's right.

So what happens is when you drop, you don't drop below, fit and healthy. Now, when you're doing the motivation thing, and that's how you're focused on, then you go like, work in a lot, eat right, you know, all the time, to very unhealthy, no activity. When you're disciplined, it's, I'm doing great. And then when the motivation kicks in, because it still kicks in, you're still going to get those, those bouts of motivation. This is when you have fun. This is when you go after PRs, this is when you go after these bigger goals or whatever, and it becomes real fun.

Then when you fall down, which is normal, when you, like, oh, I'm not motivating anymore, you fall back on your discipline and your consistency. Here's another part of the mental state that makes a big difference. It's how we talk to ourselves when we're trying to accomplish these particular goals, or how we talk about the ourselves when we're trying to accomplish these particular

goals or how we talk about the things that we're trying to do. It's very natural for us to use language like we're being forced. And this is funny. Once I start saying this, people listening and watching will know exactly what I'm talking about, but it's funny that we treat ourselves like children and that we force ourselves to do certain things that we want. So if you're listening right now or watching you're thinking, what are you talking about? I'll give you an example.

Let's say you're on when you're motivated, workout and nutrition kicks. Like you're motivated as hell, you're working out, you're eating right, you're whatever. And then you go to your friend's house and they're having pizza, right? So they're watching a game or something and there's some fights and everybody's having some pizza.

And your friend says, hey, you want some of this pizza? Nah, nah man, I can't. I can't have any pizza right now. I'm trying to get lean or, you know, I'm trying to get fit or where I can't have it. Now you ever stopped to listen to yourself? What do you mean you can't? Who says you can't?

Who's forcing you to not have that slice of pizza? You are. Now you might think that that doesn't mean a lot, but it does mean a lot because over time nobody likes to be forced to do anything. In fact, that's why eventually you're a rebel. It's our nature. It is not. Look, if you're a parent, anybody who's listed the podcast, if you're a parent and you have

a child, especially a teenage child, how do they rebel, right? They rebel and they don't just not do what you tell them. They go way far in the opposite direction. What happens when you're in this state of mind of, I can't have a cookie, I can't not work out, I can't miss this workout. What happens when you finally go off? You don't just have one cookie.

You have a whole package of Oreo cookies or a whole pizza, right? Because you're rebelling against this force that you placed upon yourself. So here's something, it sounds silly, it sounds simple, but it's extremely effective. Here's the key, right here. They ask you to have that slice of pizza, switch you say, I don't want it. Somebody says to you, hey, you want to skip your workout tomorrow? Say, no, I don't want to skip that. Now, you might think that's not that big of a difference, but it's huge because it's a choice and it's a positive choice. And the truth is, it's a true choice.

The person forcing you to see, I can't have that slice of pizza is actually saying, I don't want it because I have these things I want to accomplish. Change that perspective makes all the difference in the world. Now, of all the things I think we're going to address and talk about, I do think that this is one of the ones that takes the most practice to get good at. And the reason why I say that is because I know that a bunch of people have heard you go on that rant, and they're like, well, fuck, Sal, I do want the pizza, you know, I do. And I say, I can't because I can't because I'm falling to diet and I'd be lying to myself. I said, I don't want it. And that's why this takes a little bit more practice.

And how do you get from saying, okay, I don't want it or I don't want it instead of saying I can't have it and the steps are like this. You have to start to learn to connect how your body feels when you eat certain types of foods. Okay, I don't care who you are. Okay, if you've never really paid attention to this and you start paying attention to how your body feels after you crush four or five slices of pizza,

right afterwards, and the night, that night of, and the next day, pay attention to your stool, pay attention to your hair, pay attention to your skin, pay attention to your mood, your energy, how you sleep. All these things are affected by what we consume. And then compare that to when you make a different choice, say a chicken salad, you know, or some steak and, you know, and some vegetables or, you know, compare it to something that's whole foods and natural and then compare how you feel to that.

And then you start to reframe how you look at it. So that's what makes saying, I don't want it easier is when you've learned to make that connection. Yeah, and it's also understanding that you actually don't want it. And what I mean by that is, okay, when you're making a choice, especially a challenging choice, that first off,

every choice doesn't mean that one is 100% or everything about it, I don't like, and everything about this choice I love. That would make life super easy, right? It would be a piece of cake. The truth is that some choices have aspects of them that you might actually enjoy, but that doesn't override all the other things about the other choice that you're going to make. So for example, let's say you're married, you're dedicated to your spouse. You're just, you love each other, you've been married for 25 years. This is very normal. You see an attractive person walking down the street. They wave at you, start talking with you, they're flirting with you. Now, there's maybe a party that says, hey, I want to talk to this person. I want to, I don't know, get their phone number,

whatever. But do you, if you're a good person to this person. I wanna, I don't know, get their phone number or whatever. But do you, if you're a good person, probably not, because the truth is, you don't want to. You might recognize that you like the, maybe they look, you like their attention, but the truth is, you don't want to. Just like the pizza, I acknowledge that it's gonna taste good, right?

I acknowledge that it's gonna taste really good to me. I'm gonna enjoy the way, you know, as I'm eating it. But the truth is, I don't want it because that is not more important to me than the other stuff and the stuff that Adam talked about. That's all it is, that's really all it is. It's okay to look at the other aspects. It's okay to say, you know, if I don't work out

tomorrow morning, I'm gonna enjoy sleeping in, I'm gonna enjoy being lazy in the morning. Do I want that more though than what the workout's gonna provide for me? Do I want that more than the muscle and the fat loss and the way I feel? No, so here's the truth, I don't wanna miss that workout. But yeah, that self-talk is gonna take a lot of practice

and for a lot of people and really highlighting a lot of the things that you are enjoying. So paying attention to those signs and signals, trace it back. Trace it back to new foods you introduce that are healthier in the diet, that you really enjoyed certain aspects of them besides the taste, besides the obvious things that you were seeking before that. So it's really about taking certain elements

of what you're doing that are contributing towards the success and really trying to dwell and focus on the positives of it and highlight those. And in that way, you can start having that dialogue where I know how I feel when I'm in this state and I'm doing these things correctly versus the other side where it's like, okay, well, I don't want that.

So now I can start eliminating and say, well, yeah, I don't want that. It's not that I can't have it, it's just I don't want it. Well, part of getting to this place too is understanding and knowing where your original motivation comes from or drive to change comes from. Many times it comes from a very insecure place, which makes it even more difficult

to become self-aware and look at it this way. It's, many times people are motivated by the, I don't like the way I look, or I've been teased, or I feel like I'm not attractive, you know, or I'm fat, you know, they have a lot of this self-talk that's happening. And if you want them to become self-aware about how these foods are making them feel, but they're still hung up on the wrong things to motivate them into changing their behaviors, it's going to be an uphill battle. You're right, because if you hate yourself,

right, if you hate the way you look, you hate your body, you hate your belly, well, you're this person that you don't like, well, this person doesn't deserve to have pizza. No, you can't have any pizza right now, you fat ass, you can't do that, right? It comes from that, right? Why don't we flip that?

Why don't we flip it? Rather than saying, rather than looking the mirror and saying, I hate the way I look, I hate my belly, I hate my whatever. Why don't you look in the mirror and saying, I hate the way I look, I hate my belly, I hate my whatever, why don't you look in the mirror and say, hmm, I haven't been taking care of myself physically. And I am somebody that deserves to be healthy. I'm somebody that deserves to feel what good health feels like. I'm somebody worth taking care of.

I value my body. I love myself and I'm gonna start treating myself like I love myself. Now, I don't want that or I value my body. I love myself and I'm going to start treating myself like I love myself. Now I don't want that or I do want that. Now it becomes much easier. If you take care of yourself, like someone who you care about or that is worth being taken care of, the decisions you make tend to be much better than the decisions you make when you hate yourself. In fact, when you hate yourself, workouts become a form of punishment and restricting food becomes a form of punishment. In fact, we've all done this. You have a weekend with your friends and you go off the rails and you eat and you drink or whatever.

And then you think to yourself, that's it. Monday I'm gonna go to gym, I'm gonna beat the shit out of myself. I'm gonna go in that cardio, I'm gonna hammer myself. I don't care how I feel. I'm gonna sweat it out. I'm gonna sweat it out and beat myself up. And you wake up Monday and you feel like garbage because you had a tough weekend,

but you forced yourself to go to the gym and you push yourself so hard. In fact, some people push themselves so hard that they get sick and they throw up. And then they feel like, oh, I deserve that. In fact, they feel pleasure from this, this is almost self-fledgulation. Like I deserve that punishment. Now let's compare that to somebody I, I deserved, you know, that punishment.

Now let's compare that to somebody who is treating themselves like they care about themselves. Wow, that was a, man, that weekend was crazy. I, you know, I had fun with my friends, but I went a little too hard. I need to take care of myself. My name morning comes around that wake up, oh, I don't feel good.

I feel kind of hungover. I'm gonna go to the gym and I think I'm gonna, I'm gonna go easy. Think I'm gonna do some mobility. Am I take that yoga class, maybe do a couple strengthening exercises, then I'm gonna make sure to get some good sleep so that I feel better. They're gonna make better just and here's the thing, the person who took care of themselves, actually did the better workout, by the way.

If I was training both of them and my client comes to me and say, oh my god, this weekend I drank and ate and whatever and how do you feel right now? Oh, I don't feel good. I'm not gonna hammer that person through a workout. It's actually counterproductive and will give them worse results. So self-love actually gives you better results. That's the whole irony of a whole thing.

Well, I like, you give the analogy about taking care of a kid, right? Absolutely. I mean, it's more like that where we don't think of it that way, right? You wouldn't punish your kid like that. You also wouldn't let your kid smash a whole pizza either. You know what I'm saying? It's more like that, we don't think of it that way, right? You wouldn't punish your kid like that. You also wouldn't let your kid smash a whole pizza either. You know what I'm saying?

He's not responsible. So if you take care of yourself the same way you would take care of your child, it would look a lot different. You know, it's funny, they did a study. I read about this, because I remember years ago, it really came to me. And I remember, it was me, because I did it myself. I was at a party, and one of my cousins asked me to have a beer and I said, no, and he says, come on, you can have a beer or whatever,

you know, whatever. I said, no, I can't, I can't. And I remember thinking myself like, what do you mean I can't? Of course I can. I remember saying, why am I talking to myself in this way? So I did a little bit of reading and research, and here's something that's interesting.

This is actually true. When people take their pets to the vet, and the vet gives them a prescription for the pet, and they say Give this to you know give this to buster, you know at 8 a.m. And at noon with food and then Let's say the person goes to the doctor themselves and the doctor says you need to take this medication your blood pressure side Make sure you take this at 8 a.m. and at noon Studies show that people are more consistent with giving their pets

Medicine than they are with themselves We tend to treat other people much medicine than they are with themselves. We tend to treat other people much better than we treat ourselves. Now this makes a lot of sense from this perspective. You know yourself better than anyone else. So I know me, I know all my shit, I know all my dumb decisions, I know my bad thoughts,

I know all that stuff. We tend to be very cruel with ourselves in comparison to how we treat other people. This is self-destructive and it never, never works. Flip it, treat yourself. You gave the analogy of the kid, right? I like my kids have a cookie here and there because I love them, but I don't have all the cookies

because I also love them, right? So if you come from that perspective, it's much easier to say I don't want and this really feeds into the discipline that leads to consistency. Without it, very, very tough road. much easier to say I don't want. And this really feeds into the discipline that leads to consistency. Without it, very, very tough road. You also got to be careful of other people

projecting their insecurities on you. Right, a lot of times you get in rooms where people will make you feel guilty for making good choices, for taking care of yourself and because they're not taking care of themselves. Oh, you're such a loser-sale, you're not gonna drink beer or you're lame

or you're boring or oh my god, you're such a loser-sale. You're not gonna drink beer or you're lame or you're boring or oh my god. Like you're one of those. Yeah, so you got to be careful of that too and be aware of because that's what makes this challenging for some people sometimes is like, okay, I'm loving myself. I'm gonna make these decisions. But then they fill this outside pressure from other people because other people are projecting their insecurities on them. And I heard this the other day and I thought it was like a mirror. It's what this the other day and I thought it was really...

It's like a mirror, it's what it is. Yeah, I thought this was a really cool statement. I can't remember who the lady was that was being interviewed, but she was asked like which was the best advice like her father'd ever given her. And her answer was that no is a full sentence. And I was like, oh that's really powerful. Those are the Olsen twins.

Huh? That's the article with the Olsen twins. I think I read that. Oh really? Yeah. The sister was in that show on Olsen twins. I think I read that. Oh, really? Yeah. The sister was in that show on Marvel Star Wars. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, I don't know where, I don't remember where. So, it's, I read it or heard it or whatever that, but I thought it was really interesting because I, I do remember a time in my life where I felt I had to explain myself any time I didn't want to do something versus where I'm at now in my life where I've learned to get very comfortable with that. And it served me well, not only in this arena, but in business and other things too. If someone asked me something and I don't wanna do it,

I don't have to say no because, I just say to make up some backstory. No, that's it, it's a full sense. That's not gonna do it. That's it, no. You don't have to explain yourself. You know, it's funny about that. If you say something like, like you just say no like that,

or you say, no, I don't want any. They normally will not bother you. They don't. That's right. If they say have this, you know, this pizza, like we're talking about, and you say, no, I can't, you end up getting this conversation. Why, you can't, you, it's only one.

Big deal. We just say, no, no, I don't want any. They leave you alone usually, unless you're at my grandma's house, in which case she doesn't leave you alone. Most of the time, most of the time they leave you alone, and it's actually quite easy, they respect that. It comes from a, you know why?

Because instinctively we know it's coming from a good place. It's coming from a place of confidence. The eye can't, we know instinctively, is weak, it's shaky, it's tyrannical. And so the person wants to, they want to almost pull you out of it, if not, if they care about you, or like you said, it's a mirror reflect itself

You trapped or something they're trying to save you absolutely 100% absolutely knows a full set That's right. Here's the other thing that I think is very important is when you're when you're focusing on the things that you want That you want to pay attention to in terms of your progress Rather than focusing on how you look rather than focusing on your appearance Focus on your health instead now here's why and what I mean by health is how do you feel? How are your movements? Are you have good mobility? Are you strong? Is your stamina improved? All those things versus looking in the mirror? Do I look better? Do I look sexier? Do I look more fit or whatever? Now here's why health is so much besides it's sounding nice and everybody you know health is a great thing and all that stuff and appearance is shallow and blah, blah, blah.

Here's the real reason why, or I should say the reason why most people will get what I'm talking about because if you're listening or watching right now, here's what I want you to do. I want you to close your eyes and I want you to picture your body in perfect health, right? So picture yourself healthy mentally and healthy physically. So real health, not just health like in a magazine, but in terms of total health, spiritual health, mental health and physical health. What does that body look like? That body looks amazing, right?

Body looks incredible. If you focus on health, you'll get the appearance. The reverse is not true. If you focus on health, you'll get the appearance. The reverse is not true. If you focus only on appearance, often times, the decisions that you'll make will lead to poor health, which then leads to poor appearance. Focusing on appearance leads to plastic surgery. It can lead to overtraining.

It can lead to overdieting. It can lead to drug use. It can lead to a lot of crazy things, which take away from your health, but then eventually take away from your appearance. This was most obvious to me when I got into competing. I, again, going into it was going into this idea that this has to be, you know, the best of the best

when it comes to nutrition, discipline, all that stuff like that and exercise science. And then also I thought would be some of the healthiest people I would ever meet. And what I found was I found more eating disorders and dysfunction within that community than I previously had in the 15 years of training

all these people, obese people and normal everyday people that are struggling with weight and insecurities and everything like that. I found more dysfunction in that community. And that blew my mind, but it highlights the point that you're making right now is that community is extremely good at focusing on aesthetics.

It's extremely good at the appearance thing. They have mastered that. But like you said, many times that takes you down this dark path of making choices that are unhealthy for ourselves to sacrifice to make a look. Totally. Here's a two direct, here's a two outcomes of focusing all your attention on your appearance. Either one, most people fall into this category, you don't get it.

You're not consistent. You eventually get sick of hating yourself. You end up saying something like, your friend says, hey, you still working out? I know you were working out like crazy before. Nah, man, I just want to enjoy my life. And the reason why you say something like that is because you were sick of hating yourself.

You were sick of hating your body. You were sick of focusing on how you don't look. The way you want to look, you were sick of focusing on your appearance. That's most people, right? Then you get the small percentage of people who are so utterly obsessed with appearance that they become orthorexic.

They become obsessed with food, they become obsessed with their training. These are the people you're talking about. This is like that competitive world, this is the extreme fitness world. And although these people are very consistent with their diets and training, they're very unhealthy in other aspects of the life.

They have, their relationships are gone. They don't go out or do things with friends because, nah I got it, doesn't fit my meal plan. I can't do whatever. No, I can't miss my workout. Sorry, honey, our wedding anniversary. It doesn't matter. It falls on leg day, so I got to work out, I got to do my thing or whatever. So those both are the outcomes of focusing on appearance. Both of which are hell. Both of which are not good places to be., the person who focuses on health, you know what comes from focusing on health? Balance. Natural balance. Because healthy means this. It means eating properly for my physical body, most of the time. Sometimes it means I do enjoy some pizza or a glass of wine or that cookie, because in those moments, I think I'm feeding other parts of my health. In those moments,

I think it's about the moment. Right now, I'm with my friends. I have a hangout with my friends a long time. My aunt made homemade pizza. I know it's not gonna be good for my physical body, but this is a good time we're having together. I'm having this glass of wine. We're all connecting over this food.

So I think I'm gonna have some pizza. It actually leads to natural balance, which is incredible. And it's long-term appearance. That's the side effect of all this. You're also less likely to binge on those things in those moments. So somebody who restricts really, really hard like a competitor and we see this post shows, you restrict so hard, you're so disciplined. And then after the show, you go ape shit on everything. You eat

every candy, every fast food, and you go bananas, and you put 20, 30 pounds on. Versus the person that recognizes that relationship help matters too, and that, hey, it's okay for me, occasionally to have the glass of wine with my partner for our dinner date, or, okay, I can have a slice of pizza because we're all watching, having movie night together.

But that person can go, I'll just have a slice or two. But the person who never has it, tells themselves they can't have it. And then now they can, because the show is over, or their goal they've achieved, they eat the whole fucking pizza. Oh, and there's a distinctive sort of aura and look about somebody who's actually

zoos health versus somebody who's just like, completely focused on, you know, their aesthetic type of presentation. And really, just focusing on other metrics that are important for you, this is something that's going to carry with you even further that you're just going to build on that from then on. Yeah, it's actually, real health is vibrant and it's attractive in person. Fake health might be attractive in pictures, it might be attractive in Instagram,

but you know it when you see it in person, you meet the person and either insecure or they don't have, they don't, you know, I know he's ripped, but he doesn't look healthy to me or I know she's lean, but you know, she doesn't look healthy. Real health is extremely attractive. You know, back to what you were talking about with the food atom, about the person who binges

on the pizza versus the person that has a couple slices, here's some more characteristics of what that looks like. The person who's healthy, who focuses on health, when they're having the pizza, if you watch the meat or if you've experienced this yourself, you're enjoying the pizza. I'm eating the slice, I'm biting into it, I'm enjoying the food.

Wow, this tastes really good. Ooh, this sauce is incredible. I love this piece. They into it, I'm enjoying the food. Wow, this tastes really good. Ooh, the sauce is incredible. I love this piece. They're in the moment and enjoying the pizza. The person who's binging doesn't even focus on the slice that's in their mouth. They're already focused on the next one. They're focused on the next one.

It's not about the pizza I'm eating, it's about the one that I want to grab and put in my face right afterwards. You might have experienced this yourself. You're not even focusing on the taste, it's about getting the next one. In fact, when people eat with awareness, they eat far slower than when people eat binge.

When people binge, the speed at which they eat is so fast, in fact, that they eat past the point of being full to where they feel sick to their stomach. Somebody who's healthy who's actually enjoying the food and enjoying the taste of the food is eating it in a way where it feels okay, they don't go past full and they actually have a better experience. So focusing on health will get you the appearance that you want.

And here's the other thing, I know some people are listening saying, well, what if I want to get ripped? I do want to get shredded. Well, that's okay because here's a deal. Focusing on health and being consistent and disciplined will keep you at this level. And then you get those motivated spurts, go ahead and get shredded. But guess what we're going to fall back to? Healthy. You're get those motivated spurts, go ahead and get shredded. But guess where you're gonna fall back to, healthy? You're gonna fall right back down to healthy and relatively lean.

The other way is like, I'm gonna get shredded and then where you fall back to, gain 30 pounds, look way different, feel way different, way different. In fact, these competitors you're talking about, you know, I've known female competitors gain 30 pounds in a month post show. That was very calm.

Tiny girls, 110-pound girls getting 30 pounds in a month. Like you can't tell me that that's coming from a good place. That's coming from self love. No. That absolutely isn't. Look, go to MindPumpFree.com and download all of our guides. We've got lots of great guides there that you can choose from to learn about everything from building muscle to burning body fat. Also, if you like this episode, everything that we're talking about, you can find in the

book that I wrote called the Resistance Training Revolution. In fact, you can pre-order it right now at the Resistance Training Revolution dot com. Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. If your goal is to build and shape your body, dramatically improve your health and energy, and maximize your overall performance. Check out our discounted RGB Superbundle at MindPumpMedia.com. The RGB Superbundle includes maps and a ballac, maps performance, and maps aesthetic. Nine months of phased, expert exercise programming designed by Sal, Adam, and Justin to systematically

transform the way your body looks, feels, and performs. With detailed workout blueprints in over 200 videos, the RGB Superbundle is like having Sal Adam and Justin as your own personal trainers, but at a fraction of the price. The RGB Superbundle has a full 30-day money-back guarantee, and you can get it now plus other valuable free resources at MindPumpMedia.com. If you enjoy this show, please share the love by leaving us a five-star rating and review on iTunes and by introducing MindPump to your friends and family. We thank you for your support, and until next time, this is MindPump. and until next time, this is Mindbomb.