#42. The biggest mistakes you make on your health and fitness journey.
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What is up? Everybody? Welcome back to the In-situ|Collective podcast. My name is Jack, and I'm a Mack. And on today's episode, we will go over the biggest mistakes we see people making on their health and fitness journey. And this isn't just people starting. People have been exercising for a while and maybe have hit a plateau and want to start getting better results. So there is something in this episode for everybody, so make sure you got your pen and paper there, ready to rock and roll. And let's get into the episode.
So Mac and I wanted to do this episode because, obviously, it's the start of the year. Everybody is getting into it or getting back into it, and just we feel like these things aren't just your run of the mill, like do five reps instead of 10 reps. We're going to dive a little bit deeper into things we see people making mistakes with, and we're going to have different ones as in health. Food for Max one. Nutrition, nutrition, and getting that day and exercise from like my point of view. What people make mistakes in doing with exercise and all that sort of stuff. But where I really want to start was with goal setting or having the right mindset before people dive into it. 'cause I feel like we both see this a lot, especially with new clients coming in. They've got these goals of I want to lose this 10 kilos by this date, but when you dive into it their goals are completely different, so I just wanted to start the show off by. Make sure that. Yeah, going into this episode with the right mindset and going into your future goals with the mind right mindset, I feel like a lot of people will set goals and not really think too deeply about it. Yeah, especially this time of year, I feel like. The word resolution is more. What people are focusing on rather than. Their own achievable goals, I guess, especially because a lot of other people that they see post their goals and resolutions and their and outcome-based goal or like a visual-based goal. So I feel like a lot of people, especially starting out in health and fitness, assume that that is what your goal has to be focused around. Yeah, like a visual outcome-based goal. Yeah, and that's definitely not the Case No, and I definitely recommend you sit down and actually write it out, but I really want you to try and think about the health. Based benefits before the. I want to lose 10 kilos or that sort of stuff, or I want to lift this much or wanna run this fast because we've said this in previous shows. You focus on the health, and results follow. And it's just a little bit of different things in between.
To you have to tweak to get your goals, but focusing on health and your Wellness and your well being is going to get you longer-lasting results and faster than. Just going and trying to lose 10 kilos and drop those the numbers on the scales. Yeah, for sure, one strategy that I use that I feel like works well as in is you're gonna go down the road of writing your goal down is? I ask clients the question, why five times? So say their goal is I want to lose 10 kilos, and I say why and they'll say because I wanna look good or be confident I'll be like why do you wanna be confident and then they'll say because I feel like I'll be able to do more things or. I'll start this new hobby that I've been wanting to do and I'll be like, well, why do you want to start that hobby in there? Be like because it'll make me happy. So ultimately what they're looking for is happiness, I suppose. So if you can ask yourself. Why five times and then ask yourself why to your response? Then you'll get down to what is actually. More important than the wait, I suppose so. That's a really good strategy to start with. I can't recommend that enough and do five wires. Don't just go all 1/2 the second. Why is you starting to dive deeper into your emotions? And that'll do. Yeah, dive right into your emotions and sort of talk about it with yourself and write it out. Yeah, I think that's a great strategy to start with, and again, that's sort of why I wanted to sort of start with that because a lot of people don't even do that. They just like 10 kilos. That's what my goal is. I'm doing that, and then they just off buying all this fruit and veg and going to the gym five times a week and then next week all the fruit and veg is in the bottom of the fridge, and they're not going to the gym anymore. Yeah, and losing like having a number as a goal say is not as motivating as having like a deep reason like I need to be healthy for my family or for happy for myself or whatever. So it's also it's gonna help a lot with motivation. Yeah, when you feel don't feel like eating the right things or doing the right things.
That motivation comes in very. Handy, yeah, sure. I feel like this. The biggest mistake that I see other than finding the real why is people getting rid of everything that they love essentially so like if they love? I don't know Netflix and chilling on the weekends. They can no longer do that because they're a healthy person and they have to hike now. If they love chocolate after dinner, get rid of that because it's gonna make you fat like. I feel like that is the worst way for you too. Rebound like really hard if you just decide from the 1st of February. I'm cutting out all of my favorite foods. Anything with sugar in it. Anything that comes in a packet. I mean, in an ideal world, that would be great, but no one humans can't do that. Not unless it's your job or your career. Depends on it I suppose. Restricting yourself it's not fun. You make a bad relationship with whatever food or hobbies you are taking away from yourself.
And food is meant to be enjoyable, not like good and bad I suppose. And I feel like having the foods that you think are bad. You should like. You shouldn't get rid of them, but you need to work on the relationship with them rather than just saying they're bad. I can never eat them again. Or is there should be just sometimes foods?
It's funny how that's just become what you have to do to get results, especially like in the kitchen you you'd get, you know, you hear people cleaning out their fridge in the cupboards. They thrown out all the bad food they go to shop. Spoil this food. They never eat. Yeah. So what would you see would be a good fit for that? I would say to start. By filling your trolley or basket with the like fruits and vegetables and meats and the healthiest stuff first, like I'm so I'm starting at the very start, say starting at the supermarket. Avoid going down the aisles, but get something that you know you're going to enjoy, like after dinner, so when you do get like that sweet craving that you know you're going to get because we all get it, you still have something in the house. Just maybe a better option. So if you usually like, I don't know topdeck chocolate. Just get plain dark chocolate. Or a smaller block of it. So then you are more inclined to have a like less of a serving size when you do have it, but you're not getting rid of it. You can still enjoy it. So instead of having ice cream cookies crush on top, ice magic, just go for maybe cookies, just cookies, just one just and I feel like if you get rid of it then you're just going to be like OK.
Who wants to? Mac is running get a Sunday? You know completely or the next time you go to shops you're like oh man, I miss chocolate so much and you buy six blocks and. Whereas if you just have it allow yourself to have it, but control how much you have, then you're never really going to get that.
Deprived feeling like being healthy isn't worth it because I can't have the foods that I like. Yeah, you can have like one cookie every day, yeah. And then when it gets the weekend you might still have just one a day. Where if you deprive yourself for one or two weeks, you're going to get to that weekend and have five packets for two days straight? Yeah, yeah, definitely. It's funny how people cut out so much in the kitchen. But then, like when they're starting out and or, you know, trying to get better results on that sort of stuff. They cut out all this stuff in the kitchen, but then they add. All this stuff into the gym. As in, they go all-in on the gym and all out on the food. Yeah, 100% and I feel like that. That is probably the biggest mistake I see people making when they just jump straight into everything, and they add. Everything impossible, and they're they're already starving 'cause they're not eating much, and then they're over-exercising, so they're going to be even hungrier. Which means you're going to end up.
Not getting the results that you want, yeah. And being unhappy and end up just falling off the wagon and you know not wanting to do it right away, yeah. So yeah, like Max said, do all the things that she said just make better options for food, and then when it comes into exercise, don't go crazy. You don't have to do. Five days a week when you're first starting out. If you're going from nothing to something, one or two days a week is enough. Huge really. Yeah, and if you're doing five days a week and you're not getting results, cut back to two or three days a week and see what happens. Like mix it up a bit. You don't have to be doing five days a week. Results you can be doing minimal and again that comes into the program and all that sort of stuff that you're doing. We're not getting into that in this episode, but. What you think of it this way, if you start off and you add everything impossible and your body adapts to it, you get the results. You're gonna plateau because that's what your body does. It adapts to the stress you're putting in, but if you've thrown everything possible at it, you can't add anymore to it. So where do you go from there? Yeah, so it's only the beginning and you've already hit a wall, yeah so if you add in the minimal required amount to get results and your body adapts to that, then you can add a little bit more than you have somewhere to go so you can keep progressing. And keep getting results and better and better results rather than getting older results and then having nowhere else to go because your body will adapt and start putting weight back on or body fat back on. It's funny how. People go so hard at the start with exercise. And generally I feel like simultaneously. For some reason, our very inclined to cut out cops. It's like let's start exercising five days a week. I don't know how many times I've heard carbs are bad. Why are bad? But I can't. I'm just gonna yeah, I'm going to exercise every day this weekend. I'm not going to have any carbs. Yeah? And it's just like.
Especially if they're starting with high-intensity exercise, which I feel like a lot of people do, right? Yeah, it's like the most important fuel source that your body needs at that time, even weightlifting. Unique. But it's just like it's just carbs are good and they affect your. Obviously the energy, the amount of effort you're going to be able to put into your exercises and work, and cooking and everything, and also your mood. So if you're not eating enough carbs and you're exercising five days a week, you're going to get ******. Yeah, and then if your ****** and you have no energy and you're tired, then you're going to make even worse food choices really. So it's just like it all just piles up together. I feel like. You gotta sort of say all carbs aren't created equal because generally when people think of carbohydrates, they're thinking of. Chips yeah, true. Bad stuff where there's a lot of good carbohydrates you can be eating to help you get results. Like Max said to you it's going to put you in a good mood. It's going to give you enough energy. You're going to have more energy for your workouts, which means you're going to get better results. Yeah, so yeah, I find it strange that people just demonize carbs but demonize the wrong—the wrong kind. Literally, there is some cobs. You can eat all the time—some of the time and not often like it's like a spectrum. You can't just say they're all bad or all good because no food is all bad or all good. Yeah, and like it says as it comes back to the first one you brought up, just you know, making a bit better carb choices. Yeah, I still have those bad ones in there occasionally, but not often. And I feel like that does sort of lead us straight into training so people will cut out carbs and then do high-intensity interval training.
Yeah, and that is all carb-based. So pretty much to a certain extent and put in a very generalization on it, but everybody is different in this sort of circumstance, but generally, when you're doing that sort of stuff, you need carbohydrates for fuel you for the workout, and if you haven't got those calves there, then your workouts are kind of useless and you're not really. You're working hard. You're putting yourself through all these punishments for no reason. And the biggest mistake I see is people doing cardio or high-intensity interval training before they actually do resistance training and building a base. I've said this several times, and I'm going to say it again. Resistance training is the foundation you should be doing before you do anything else that includes running as well. People who tend to just go out and start running and doing cardio resistance training just helps your muscles get stronger, which means your joints are going to be stronger. Ligaments are going to be stronger, so you're not going to get injured. You're going to feel better when you do the exercises, and your body can't adapt to it as quickly as running. So, for example, our bodies are designed to. Adapt to running and moving all day. That's what we've been doing for thousands of years. So if you go from not doing much and then going to running, your body can adapt to it pretty quick. And again, it's going to stop getting results. You're going to a plateau where if you have resistance training there, what do you do? Keep adding weight? Yeah, keep changing it and keep changing your program. Your body can't adapt, so you're going to get those results, and your body is going to change to get results, so make sure resistance is probably the biggest part of your training, not the smallest part. Yeah, which a lot of people do because they think it's going to bulk them up. All that sort of stuff, but as you know, if you've been listening to this show, you're not going to bulk up lifting weights unless you're in a calorie surplus and it is hard work to bulk up for women. I can't stress this enough. Women hard. It's very hard for women to put on muscle mass even in a calorie surplus. Doing all the right things and perfect program. It's still very hard for women to put on muscle mass men. It's a lot easier. But still takes a lot of work and a lot of dedication to put on muscle mass for guys.
So yeah, don't be scared of resistance training. Think of it more like your insurance for your health and Wellness. So if the more resistance training you do, the more other exercises and sports and longer you can do all this stuff. For essentially, I feel like. A lot of people, when they do start exercising and they do start doing resistance training, neglect their protein intake like I feel like they might start drinking protein shakes and stuff because that's just what you do when you start going to the gym. Do you know what protein? Shakedown it, yeah, but they don't consider the animal sources of protein. I guess 1st and if you are trying to build muscle or just strength even like it is very, very important that you focus on your protein. I would say if you don't necessarily want to count your calories or anything like that, just focusing on getting more protein in your diet is just gonna make a difference because one it'll help you build muscle, recover faster from your workout so you feel good to give it your all in the next workout. It will give you more energy. It will keep you fuller for longer if you fill your plate with protein. As we've said many times before. Also, there's less room for other things that maybe aren't as. Nutritious like potato gems or whatever cookies. I don't know if you have them with meat, but yeah, sure. Yeah, so I feel like one thing that people do forget about is concentrating on protein like it's one simple thing you can start within your nutrition and it will. It just automatically has like a domino effect on everything around it because it is so filling and satiating, so you don't need like dessert and stuff. Generally, after a meal, if you're having more protein because it's gonna make you feel full and for awhile and studies are lots of studies have shown that when people enter a. Weight loss journey.
When you lose a kilo, half of that usually comes from muscle mass. Unless you are focusing on protein and conserving muscle and you really want to conserve that muscle because during the day when you're moving around, your muscle actually uses fat as fuel, and that's when you're going to start losing the body fat and looking a bit better feeling a bit better—not getting as sick because you're not carrying as much visceral fat and all that sort of stuff because your muscles need that as fuel. And the more muscle mass you have, and I'm not talking about bulking up, you could have the same size muscle, but it could have cells in it, or it could have 10,000, so 10,000 cells are obviously going to use a lot more fuel, which is fat, which is means you're just going to be healthier all round, so you really want to focus on conserving muscle mass when you're losing weight. And to do that you need to focus on your protein. Simple.
I still got one or two more points, so I sort of wanted to bring up and the main one is. I feel like it goes back to the first one we're talking about, like weight, goal setting and all that sort of stuff, and it's just comparing your results to others. I feel like we've spoken about this quite a lot, and this is our whole thing, especially what we do for our clients. Everybody's journey is individual. You can't do well this work for somebody else. I'm going to do keto because it worked for them. Your body might not use ketones like their body used it. Yeah, and you might be more. You might need more carbohydrates than they do, and you just never know, but I feel like the. What do you call them? Tips that we? Mistakes we've just gone over. Everybody can pretty much implement those in a certain way and start getting better results. But when it comes to. You know, comparing yourself to others, just focus on your own journey and your own results from what you've already set at the start when you thought about your wise and that sort of stuff. Yeah, and I feel like it's much more motivating and inspirational and everything like that to focus on your own results. Then other people. Even I go through phases where I like, see other people in the gym. I'm like. How are they so much stronger than me like we do the same thing and blah blah blah. But then like I look back at three months or six months ago and how much I've changed? Physically, mentally strength-wise in the gym, like everything, it's just I feel like a lot of us forget to reflect when we start like we do all this stuff to try and be a better person and we forget to recognize how much we've already changed since the beginning. Yeah, and how much of a better person we have already become. And there's just like there's always gonna be room for improvement. You're always going to want something else that you don't have. Someone else body is always going to look better. Someone else is always going to be stronger.
So I guess. Enjoy the process. Yeah, there's no matter how much weight you lose or how much muscle you build, you're never gonna be finished. No one ever finishes. Yeah, ever. And if you fall in love with the process of eating the right foods, cooking the right foods, preparing it, nourishing your body, go into the gym, actually enjoying the workout you're doing, and fall in love with all that you're not going to want to stop doing it, and it's what you need to continue doing it. And if you're constantly focused on. The external factors of what everybody else is doing. You're not going to really enjoy it as much, so it's a lot harder to keep going as well. Then yeah, because you get disheartened by everybody else around you, and sometimes those results might come from. Enhancing themselves in some way for through pharmaceuticals and that sort of stuff so you just never know as well. You just never know my last point that I wanted to bring up is. I guess ditching the all or nothing mindset, so I feel like that goes pretty closely with what we're just comparing about others. Like if I can't have their body, then I don't want to exercise, or I don't want to strive for that at all. Sort of thing I guess. I feel like a lot of people. I feel like this sums up the whole thing we've been talking about, but they do just go exercise five days a week from zero. They get rid of all of their food favorite foods and eat just vegetables and then they burn out. And I just can't stress enough that it's so much more beneficial for you to be giving 20% effort or thought or change into your health and fitness. All the time. Rather than giving 100% five days a week and then zero for the next seven days, you know. So it's it's definitely more beneficial and you're definitely going to get even the smallest results from just consistently giving like 20 or over a longer period of time than giving 100%.
On and off like hot and cold. Yep, for sure. Yeah, I couldn't agree with that more I every time I see somebody jumping straight in where there are seeing like a friend on social media and they're posting all about it all in person. And they've jumped all in changing everything, going to the gym. I'm like, OK. It's only a matter of time before they crash and burn, but then you said other people that just start adding in little things. It might just be going and playing a sport with some other friends and that's all the change. So two nights a week and they go do that and then all of a sudden they want to do a bit more 'cause they're starting to see some results 'cause they feel good. Yeah and just slowly adding it in and finding it. What they enjoy along the way instead of thinking they know what they gonna enjoy. Thinking that that's going to get results I want, and I feel like adding it in like bit by bit allows it to integrate into your life and you feel a lot more comfortable with changing 'cause it is hard to change and the people around you I feel are a lot more supportive because it's not like you just woke up one day and I have a health freak now everybody. Yeah yeah, it just feels more natural that way. 100% awesome. Thank you all for tuning in. If you've lasted this song, obviously you've enjoyed it. So what I want you to do is help. Asset and make sure you hit subscribe or follow wherever you're listening and take a screenshot. Share it on social media. Tag us. You'll tag me @jack_insitu and I'm @mack_insitu and we'll give you some love back and share it around. It helps us reach more people. It helps this podcast grow, which is what we're trying to do so we can help more people on their health and fitness journey. And if you're looking for something for free or you want some more resources or just. Want to have a chat so you can either download something at our face? Or our website www.in-situcollective.com/free and if you want to chat with us, head over to the Discovery page and fill out your details, and we'll get in contact and have a chat and see how we can help you on your health and fitness journey. Yeah, talk to you then. Awesome, see you.