Motivation is Overrated: How to Crush Your Goals Without It

Welcome to the Heal, Nourish, Grow podcast. I'm Cheryl McColgan, founder of Heal, Nourish, Grow. The website, this show, and our newsletter all focus on making the science of advanced nutrition and greater overall health accessible to everyone. Buckle up for our latest episode to get ideas, tools, and practical knowledge you can use to improve your health and move towards your perfect version of ultimate wellness. The Heal, Nourish, Grow podcast Cheryl McColgan shares interviews with nutrition experts, health researchers, and everyday people that have changed their lifestyle and nutrition to support greater health. You'll learn how to implement lasting change and create new habits that support greater wellness and a happier, healthier life. Please visit healnourishgrowpodcast.com for full show notes and links to our guests.

Hello everyone, welcome to the Heal, Nourish, Grow podcast, uh, and also happy 2025. I don't think I've gotten to officially say that even though there has been an episode out this Um, but anyway, today I just wanted to chat with you about how to stay on track with your 2025 goals. A lot of people set New Year's resolutions, or even if you don't set a strict resolution, there might be some things that you are trying to work on in the new year. And this is one of my favorite topics because I feel like, you know, everybody thinks they wanna wait until they get motivated to do something. And, you know, motivation waxes and wanes. And I, I speak to this 100% from experience. Because over the years, uh, my motivation in the area of health and wellness has been lacking. Uh, and, but that doesn't prevent me from doing the things I know I need to do and that I should do. And that's because I think motivation is really overrated. It's more about creating your habits and then having just, um, consistency and commitment. Overmotivation. And that's really what will help get you to your goals. And one of the things that I find, and you know, I haven't been doing much coaching lately. I'm actually thinking about opening that up again. So if that's something that you're interested in, please get in touch and let me know. You can just email me at info@healnourishgrow.com. But, um, one of the things that I've noticed in the past, and I've heard many, many other coaches and people in the wellness space say this, is that The thing that people kind of get hung up on the most, particularly with New Year's resolutions, is that they try to bite off way more than they can chew. And so what happens is for maybe the first couple weeks of the year, you stick with whatever your new routine is. I'm gonna eat right. I'm gonna exercise 4 times a week. I'm going to drink more water, all of this. And so you might stay with it for a couple weeks, but it all becomes very overwhelming. And so instead of moving forward, you just feel overwhelmed and you kind of quit altogether and not taking any of those habits. Where if you do some things like habit stacking— and I'll talk more about what that is shortly— habit stacking, uh, starting really small, making small manageable goals, taking one goal at a time. So instead of exercise, eat different, drink water, maybe it's just pick one of those to start with, if not all at the same time. Because time, time goes on. You have weeks, you know, if we're all lucky, we have weeks and weeks and months and months and years and years of time to create these new habits. And what happens is getting the first one solidified, or getting one in your routine where you're committed and you're, you know, doing that one again, and it becomes just a routine to you, you don't even think about it, like brushing your teeth— those are the best habits because then that goes on autopilot. And then that's the perfect time to then start another small habit that you can do over time. So if you're commitment and your goals have already waned, I'd like to invite you right now. You know, the, the New Year's a great time, of course, cuz it's just kind of what's traditional and what people are used to. But really any day, not a Monday, it can be a Tuesday, it can be a Wednesday, it can be a Thursday, any day, any week, any month is a time to start something new. And so if you're already starting to wane on some of your New Year's resolutions and you hadn't given this much thought before, maybe evaluate, did you take on too much at once? Maybe that's really what's preventing you from being consistent in these new habits. Or did you set a goal that's just very unrealistic? That's a thing too. I mean, starting to go from a diet where, say, you're eating the standard American diet, you're eating out a lot, you're eating a lot of fast food, and then your goal for the new year is, well, I'm just going to eat all whole foods. Well, that's a very, that's a very daunting task. They're very different from one another. So it might be best to just start with, okay, Um, most days I'm going to make better choices. And you do want it to be measurable. So for example, maybe it's if you're eating a lot of fast food, you might set your goal to, I'm only going to eat fast food 4 days a week if you're at 5 days a week now. So starting small like that, and then do that for a week or 2, and then, you know, take it down even more and make this transition more gradual over time. Cause especially with food too, if, if food or a different way of eating is one of your goals, If you've eaten a lot of highly palatable processed food, you know, the food scientists are smart. They design the food, they engineer the food to make you want more and crave more of it. And there's this perfect, you know, combination of salt and sugar and fat and things that make it just so stimulating to your brain. It's a big dopamine hit. And so if you go from having that every single day of the week, going to what's going to seem in your mind maybe bland food if you're eating whole foods, and, you know, maybe you're not the best Or maybe you're not used to making things at home. And so the, the taste difference is going to be so significantly different that not only are you going to, you're gonna lose out on some of those hits. So that's gonna make you feel not as good in making these good choices. And it's also just going to be such a difference in taste that initially that it might be— slowly over time, you'll have a lot more success hitting that goal. And then also keep in mind kind of the 80/20 rule. So in many things, um, maybe it's your diet, maybe 80% of the time is whole foods, maybe 20% you get some treats or have some things that are more processed. Um, 80/20 in that way. Also 80/20 in your consistency. None of this can be perfect 100% of the time, every day of the week. And so give yourself some grace if you make a little mistake or something didn't go as you planned on one day or even in one hour, the next hour, the next day, the next week is a chance to do it. The only thing I would say about that is don't wait. Just recognize that, oh, okay, that wasn't the best choice I made for lunch there. I had fast food. I said I wasn't going to do that, but now for dinner, I'm going to make a better choice. I'm going to eat more healthy food for tonight, and then tomorrow I'll honor my commitment to whatever that goal was for that day. So don't let it get away from you just because one meal, one time, one week, one day, one hour you messed up. That doesn't give you license to just ditch it all, right? So it's okay. Just give yourself grace and then reset your intention to, you know, make it better in the next choice and the next choice. And so in that way, if you can make those good choices about 80% of the time or better, you're going to be so much better off than where you are now. So let go of perfection, let good enough be good enough, and just move forward with your goals that way. So I think that's one way to really start thinking that will allow you some breathing room so that you can create one new habit at a time. You know, you can work on more than one thing at once. You've just You've gotta know yourself and you've gotta know your level of overwhelm and you've gotta know how difficult the thing is that you are changing. So for example, if you're rehauling your diet overall, um, that's a pretty big goal that might take a lot of your decision-making capacity and willpower and things like that. So that might mean that other goals need to be put on hold. Um, as an alternative, if one of your main goals is you're already working out 3 days a week and you've committed to do 4 days a week now, that's, that's not as big of a jump. That's probably gonna be a relatively easy goal in terms of, you know, keeping your commitment and actually being successful with that. So taking on another goal on top of that one might not be as taxing. So not only do you want to create balance within each individual goal, you wanna try to create balance within your overall goals and your life goals, and also matching it to, you know, what's realistic in your life. Maybe the reason you've been successful and consistent with working out 3 days a week is because that's really what your schedule allows and what your time allows based on your other commitments. That going to that 4th day a week, it could be a case where your lifestyle or your time commitments just literally don't allow for that. Um, so in that case, you might be setting yourself up for failure. So it's also interesting to note those things too. Like, yes, maybe we'd all like to work out 4 or 5 days a week in an, in a, you know, perfect world where we have help with the kids and our house is clean and we don't have to cook and, um, our job is, is not stressful and we don't have to be there very much, you know, so that would be the perfect scenario where yes, you probably could take on that goal to exercise more days a week. But if you are like most people and you have a full-time job and you have kids at home and you manage your own house and you have to clean your house and cook and, um, shovel the driveway, like if you can see the reason the lighting in here is kind of funny today, if you are watching this on video, is, um, I'm in the Midwest in Ohio, if you don't know that already. And, um, we had a huge amount of snow it's been about a week and a half ago now, and it's been the most snow that we've had like since the '70s. It was kind of crazy, but there's still— and it's been so cold, so there's still tons of snow outside. So while it is very dreary today and cloudy, whatever light there is out there is kind of bouncing around and it's making the contrast here in the recording area not look like it normally does. So anyway, that was a bit of a tangent, but Uh, to, to get back to the goal setting and the things that you're doing with your diet and with your exercise, um, you know, if you're, if your life is already full of a lot of commitments and a lot of time commitments, then adding more time commitment on top of that is probably not gonna be as successful. So maybe in that sense, you look at that goal and maybe you turn it into being more effective with the time that you do have to work out. So maybe you, uh, plan better. So that you can, you know, take less time in between tasks in the gym. Or you can do what I recently did, and we invested in a home gym, in part because I was going to the gym consistently and I didn't mind that much. But the commute is no joke. It definitely takes more time. So it was taking me probably a total of— and I, and I upped my day, I did up my days to 4 days a week. So every time I would go to the gym, it was taking me 20 to 25 minutes to drive there in each direction. And then, you know, just time whatever, um, you know, you're probably taking an hour out of your day that's just wasted. Now, I never— I tend not to waste my time in the car. I always listen to podcasts. So, um, that's another good tip is to kind of, you know, there's certain things you can multitask, and that is my time whenever I am in the car to keep up to speed with the thought leaders in the health and wellness space and to listen to podcasts. And then, you know, my time, uh, when I'm do— working on my recovery and I'm in the sauna, uh, I have the model and if you haven't checked this out before, if that's something you've ever thought of doing, I mean, it is literally one of the best investments we've made in our health. And I, you know, one of the reasons that we wanted to do that was, um, if you are a regular listener of the podcast, you might remember an update from December of, what is this? So this is 25. Let me think about this. December 23. Yeah, December 23.

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Again, that link is healnourishgrow.com/bia, where my husband had open heart surgery and 3 blockages replaced. And, um, so part of the thing with sauna is it is very good for heart conditions, heart patients. It kind of mimics exercise. And not to say he is also obviously exercising too, but it wasn't just like one of those things that we could like, hey, if we can do this, it would be great to have in the house because not only is it assist with recovery, but it is really good for health purposes for him, and he has a very high-stress job. So anything that we can do to get him to relax is well worth it. Um, but anyway, if you haven't checked that out, the one that I ended up with, it's non-toxic. We have another podcast episode about it here. I'll put that in the show notes where we, um, I interviewed the founder of Sunlighten. And so the link is healnourishgrow.com/sunlighten. And if you go to that, you can read more about their saunas and why they're better than others on the market and more about the benefits of that and why you may wanna consider it. But anyway, so, so doing those things that can add time and sometimes it's an exchange of time for money, right? So like I was starting to say before, we did invest in the home gym because it was becoming very apparent with my husband's work schedule that it was just going to be very, very difficult for him to create a schedule where he could be consistent and, um, get in the exercise they needed to build some muscle back up after the surgery and that kind of thing. And our both our kids play high school and college sports at a very high level. And so whenever they are back home during the summer, they're always training and they had actually wanted this, you know, something like this before. So it really made sense for our whole family. And again, you're trading time for money, right, if you can afford to do that. So we put in a home gym in the basement and I've been absolutely loving it. It has given me like I said, 4 hours back to my week, uh, where I can do other things and focus on other work. So that's been wonderful. And Peter's been going down there. He has started using it. So that's all incredible, incredible, and just really fortunate that we were able to do that. So if that's a possibility in your life, trying to save that time wherever you can so that you can put in more effort to your wellness goals, whether it's exercise, whether it's cooking, whether it's meditation and relaxed time and recovery time, because that is so underrated and so important. You know, even if it's just getting— and I say just, but even if it's just getting back your sleep, you know, getting up that extra hour early in the morning to drive to the gym or something like that, you might be losing out on sleep that you really, really need, not only for recovery, but just for your overall health and well-being. Like, sleep, you've heard me say it before, is literally one of the most important pillars of health. And so you know, doing anything that you can to protect those things, protect your time wherever you can, it's going to help you reach your goals more easily too. Another thing with exercise and being more effective is to again multitask. So you could do things like listen to, um, maybe take a call for work while you're on a walking pad, or have— having the stand-up desk like I used to have, and I could write and slowly walk at the same time. So pairing those things up as much as you can. And then within the gym, you know, number 1, finding a gym if it's possible that's not super busy because when machines are taken up, that definitely slows you down. Also doing things like supersets. So for example, working 2 opposing muscle groups, whether it's working an upper body and a lower body muscle, or maybe it's opposing like your biceps and triceps are opposing. So you could work your biceps and then go right into triceps and you're working a different muscle. So you're not wasting time resting in between. I say wasting time. It's not wasted, but Um, if you're looking for the most time-effective kind of workout, supersetting is a great way to do that. And there's been some research recently that's really showing that supersets don't impact, uh, muscle strength and, um, muscle hypertrophy gains. So you can do separate supersets as long as you're not getting too winded or anything like that. And, uh, you'll still get the same benefits. So that's, that's just some thoughts. I mean, I've, I've done one of these episodes or written an articles about this over the years. About creating new habits anytime. It's not just about, it's about anytime you create, think about it, kind of tricks to get you into things. Um, another trick, if you're so motivated, again, it's, it's not about, for me, it's not about motivation because I'm quite often not motivated, especially lifting weights. You know, I've talked about this. It's like, I know I need to do it. I know it's very important, but I've just never loved it. I'm enjoying it more, to be honest, now. Um, but it's just never been a thing where I'm going to be highly motivated to go lift weights. Now it's just become something that I do because it's a habit. It's kind of a non-negotiable, so I don't even think about it as much anymore. Even when I don't want to, I just go. And my biggest trick around that, whether it's, uh, any kind of workout— and this over the years, this goes back to the many, many years when I was a runner. I did that for 17 years, like 25 to 30 miles a week, which is why my knees are awful now and I can't run anymore. Um, man, if I could get those years back, I would just lift instead. I've talked about that before too. But, um, anyway, my trick for that is, is always just, you know, put on your workout clothes. Or if you were going to a gym, say you're so exhausted, whatever, you're like, I only have to go, go there. I only have to go for 5 minutes. And if I'm super, if I'm still super tired, I can't, I can just leave. They just, it's like, you got to trick yourself. And as dumb as that is, it works every time. Or I'm just going to put on my running clothes and I'll go outside and I'll walk for 5 minutes. And if I still feel terrible, I'm just gonna come in. Why? I literally, in 17 years of tricking myself like that, never came in. As long as I could get out the door, then it was on. It was fine. Um, so just using those little mental tricks. Uh, another thing that people like to use and that is effective for some people is to give yourself intermittent rewards for your goals and for habit changes. So for example, say you, you know, your new thing is you're gonna work out 3 times a week and for 3 weeks in a row you hit those 3 days a week. Well then maybe it's time for a treat and that could be, you know, it's different things for different people. And also again, based on money, your treat could be just a long bath. Your treat could— and have make your partner watch the children or something like that so you can do it. Or maybe it's a Starbucks drink, uh, that you don't normally get that's really fancy and just makes you feel indulgent. Um, so just giving yourself some kind of intermittent reward. Um, and say your goal is something like, I'm gonna lose 100 pounds. Well, that's a big daunting goal, right? So what you may want to do with that is to make intermittent smaller goals to reward yourself. So say you hit the first 10 pounds, maybe it's a new workout outfit or a new pair of pants, or After you hit 15 pounds, it's a nice dinner out or something that just, you know, whatever it is that's meaningful to you and that's a reward for you. It can be monetary, it can be non-monetary, it could be food related, it could be non-food related. It could be a vacation. It could be something simple, like just giving yourself an hour to read in peace. So it doesn't have to be this grand or expensive thing, but it's just setting yourself in the mindset that you're going to get this reward and it's something that you crave and look forward to. Useful also in just giving yourself that little dopamine hit, that little reward for actually sticking to your commitments and for, you know, doing this good for yourself, for creating a new habit. So that's kind of all of the, I mean, there's a million other things that we could talk about in relationship to this. And, you know, if there, you have specific questions around anything I said or want some elaboration or some other examples. Feel free to leave a comment below and I'll get back to you on that or, or address it in a future episode. But there's just so many things that you can do to set yourself up for success. And that's what's really important in the beginning, cuz the creating of the habit is the most challenging part. Once you've created it, like brushing your teeth every morning and every night, it's that you do it without thinking. And that's the beauty of habits. It doesn't require motivation. It doesn't require thought. It doesn't require anything basically, but it just being in your routine. So for a lot of people, another little hint is for these things, uh, whether it's drinking water or, uh, working out, those kind of things, put it on your calendar. Make yourself a reminder to— that pops up on your phone or whatever on your computer screen. If you have meetings, for example, or make it like every 4:30 is my time to work out, whatever it is, just make it kind of the easiest you can. So that it just is, it's almost harder to skip than it is to just do the thing and get it off your mind and get it off your to-do list, right? So that's kind of all the things about setting goals. Again, if there's more clarification or other topics that you'd like to hear about in this, let me know because, you know, one of the things with the podcast, I've been doing it lately, it used to be every single week and it's just become over time And to be quite honest, it's kind of just, it's depressing when you're putting things out there and you don't, you know, if you don't hear from people, um, of course everybody's busy and not everybody has time to comment or things like that. But, you know, honestly, the biggest thing that you can do to support this content, this podcast, if you've been enjoying the content, if you enjoy what I do, the easiest way to support it is so simple. And it's really to just share this, like send a link to your friend that you think that might enjoy this. Send an email or a text or whatever it is, just be like, hey, I was thinking you might like this, this show or this content. And whether they do or not, whether they ever listen, it's like that really is just helping get that energy out in the world.

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And then also leaving a review. If you can go to iTunes and leave a review, it just helps more people find it. The more podcasts have reviews, the more pod— the people are talking about it or sharing it or listening to it. Um, it helps the algorithm ranks. Everything's about the algorithm now. It doesn't matter how good of content you have. If it's not getting seen, then it becomes just— it's out there in the ether and nobody knows about it and nobody's benefiting from it. So it makes a lot more challenging. It makes it more more challenging to get really good guests, uh, as well. So if it's, you know, if you're not a super popular podcast, you might not get the guests that you're interested in interviewing and then passing on that, uh, knowledge to you. So that's really the way that you can help me, and I would so much appreciate it if you would do any of those little items. Um, and yeah, so then I'll just give you a quick, uh, life update. For some reason, those episodes seem to do really well when they're totally focused on that, and it's been a while since I've done this. Um, so, and it does relate to habits and goals and staying consistent because I, you know, I've talked about this with how to stay on track when you go on vacation, for example. So I just got back from a week, well, about 9 days in Europe, uh, snowboarding. And it's really exciting because it was the first snowboarding of the year for me. You know, since we don't live in Utah anymore, I can't just walk out my back door and go snowboarding. Um, so we went for this, and this was a vacation. It'll be a little different upcoming here because I am going to go spend some time in Utah over the winter, and we're just living and working there for a couple months. And so that will be like life as usual, but this was definitely more of a vacation. And of course, you know, being in Europe, it was around all the good cheese and all the good wine and all the good different foods that we don't normally have. And, um, so we visited Italy, Switzerland, and Austria, uh, 3 of my favorite places over there to snowboard. And one unfortunate thing did happen though, and this is not related to health and wellness other than the fact that it definitely affected my mental state, was that we were in Cincinnati and we for the first time put AirTags in our bags so we could kind of know where our boards were and stuff. And because I've been reading a lot that there's more, um, more theft of snowboards and stuff on the mountain now and, and skis, which is really unfortunate cuz you just usually go into the lodge, you don't even think about it. You take off your board, you leave it outside and it's like always there when you come back, thankfully. And you don't have to think about that. But apparently just the times that we're living in, it's becoming more common for these things to get stolen. So I decided to put AirTags on the boards and it's also great for when we travel with them so that we can know where they are. And whether this is karma or whether this was just good that I did it this time so that we had this benefit, we're in the plane on Cincinnati, our bags were loaded, it said it on the Delta app that the bags were on the plane. And then when we were getting on the plane, it was interesting because it was a small commuter plane to go to JFK. And they were saying, we don't have any more room for bags. We got to figure this out, blah, blah, blah. When we were walking onto the jetway and the person taking the the gate-tagged bags was talking about this. So they were definitely having baggage capacity issues. Now, I used to travel a ton for work, and we still travel a fair amount now. So I have good status with Delta, and I have priority tag on my bag, which is just not— I don't know if they actually pay attention to this. I'm going to say no after this experience, because what they did was our bags, our snowboard bags, were on the plane, and You think about this, you, you wait all year for this. You, you look forward to it. You save for vacation. You think about it. It's very exciting. And you know, the snowboards for us is a big component of our vacation. So they were on the plane and then they weren't because of that scenario with the baggage. For whatever reason, they decided to take those off the plane and then quote unquote expedited them. So instead of going Cincinnati to JFK, JFK to Zurich. All right. Sorry, I had to think about where we flew into. Um, we just one layover and we always avoid Charles de Gaulle for that reason with snowboards because baggage goes missing there quite easily. I don't know what it is. It's like the black hole of the universe for baggage. But so then they took the bags off our plane and quote unquote expedited them going to Detroit and then to Amsterdam and then to Zurich. Well, lo and behold, uh, they did not arrive. In Zurich with us. Theoretically, they would have arrived half an hour after we got there on this other flight. Well, somehow the bags— I think they— what was it? They got stuck in Detroit for a little while, and— or they never got on the plane in Detroit. We had the bag tags, so we could like watch this the whole time. It was quite— it was entertaining if you could get over the fact of them not being there. And, uh, so yeah, so anyway, 4 days later We finally get our snowboards and, uh, that was the trip. But anyway, so that, that's totally an aside from what I wanted to talk about with the food and the diet and those kind of things over there. And I did already, we just finally got back. So then on the way back, or we had another problem where the flight, we missed a connection and we had to spend overnight in JFK. So that was really fun too. Got back a day later than we anticipated. But, um, so I did already weigh myself since I got back. I'm not totally back to, you know, travel is a lot of things. Is like bloating. It's probably extra salt from things you're not used to. Um, but I got on the scale the very first morning back and I was the same as when I left. And that has been a pretty consistent thing for me over the years on vacations. And I think for a couple of reasons. Uh, first reason is probably because we take very active vacations. So we generally are hiking or snowboarding or, um, walking around the city all day. We, we never— I mean, this is for good or for bad. I'm not really sure which, but we never really take a relaxing vacation. Like we don't have beach vacations where we just sit around and drink margaritas and, and go to the spa or anything like that. Uh, it's always a very active vacation. So I think that helps. And then the second thing is I do indulge on vacation. So for example, we had plenty of wine. Of course, you're in Italy, that's going to be a thing. And, uh, at least for, I haven't totally given up drinking yet, so, uh, that's still on the menu for me. I, you know, I do go debate back and forth about that cuz is, you know, it's definitely not good for you. For the most part, it's a neurotoxin, it's carcinogenic. There's a million negatives of alcohol for sure. But then there are the slight positives, the social aspect, the relaxation aspect. And they haven't quite figured out, like for example, how in some countries they have this consumption of these things and they don't seem to have the same incidence of issues with it that we do. So anyway, all that being said, we did have— so we had wine. I ate a lot of cheese. Switzerland is amazing for cheese, and so is Italy. Uh, we ate pizza in Italy one of the times, which you— if you know this, over the years it's definitely morphed. And I've always been a whole foods diet-based person, but, um, strictly in ketosis these days. Not every single day in ketosis. Um, I've definitely added a few more carbs to experiment with that in relation to lifting. And I haven't noticed a huge difference, to be honest, like putting more carbs before the lifts and stuff. I haven't been able to totally correlate that. And there's plenty of, um, lifters and people in the keto space that stay keto, don't use extra carbs around their workouts, and, and that's totally fine. But it's just something I've decided to experiment with, um, just because my metabolic health is very good. I don't, you know, have the same concerns as when I started keto back in the day, which is 2017. 2015, so quite a while back now. Um, and also I just think even people I've coached, they're getting into keto or getting started with keto, you do— I think there's a good amount of time to be strict in the beginning so you can truly get into ketosis, so that you can adjust your body to learn how to burn fat. Because most of us have not had that experience as a fat burner, we're just constant carbs, and so your body just knows how to burn carbs and not fat. And then the opposite can happen too over time. If you've been, you know, if you'd been doing keto for a long time and in ketosis for a long time, your body can kind of lose the ability to efficiently burn carbs as well. So it's kind of good to maybe go in and out of that a little bit to some degree. Um, but after you've had that first, you know, 4 months or so where you're strict, you're definitely in ketosis, your body is fat adapted. Then after that, I— you should occasionally, if you want to, if you don't have a gluten, uh, a severe gluten intolerance or you're not celiac disease, things like that, you know, if you want to have a good bread on occasion, keto substitutes for bread— and I can tell you this because, you know, I'm a recipe developer too. I mean, I've made keto soup substitutes for a lot of things, but I can tell you the two things that there are no good substitute for, and that is pasta and bread. The keto versions of those, you're just— it's never going to taste the same. It's not going to taste 90% as good. It's not going to taste 80% as good. And so again, back to this 80/20 thing in the moderation. I think if there's a particular food that you're craving and it's just amazing— for example, pizza in Italy.

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Pizza in Italy is like, I don't eat pizza any other time, quite honestly, cuz here to me it just like makes me feel horrible and tastes gross and it's just not very good. Oh, but man, having it in Italy and having a, a really Well-prepared pizza. Oh my goodness. So all that's to say, you know, I definitely had a lot of things that I typically wouldn't eat. I definitely found days where I was not meeting my protein goals. It's just, you can, you can do it there. But you know, part of it's being on the mountain. Part of it is the planning. Part of it is the fact that we were moving around a lot. And so we were eating out every single meal. We didn't have a place to prepare meals. So that definitely makes getting meeting the protein goals that we have for, you know, optimizing health a little more challenging. I did bring protein bars and some protein drinks with me, but then also that's the other thing when you're on the mountains, like, well, do I want to add— I don't want to add these in and then feel bad or bloated or worse by adding these things in. So it's just, it's a balancing act and eating, eating out over there. Part of the reason it's more expensive, for example, in Switzerland is they actually pay their servers and waitstaff salaries and healthcare and things like that. So it's more expensive. Um, and yeah, so to get like, say you wanted to get like a meat dish, it can, it would definitely be more expensive because typically, especially on the mountain too, the cheap things are the pizza and the pasta. If you want to actually get one of the few meat dishes that they have, they're probably twice as much in cost. So it was just, you know, it was a balancing act of all of those things. But the thing is being consistent. That's the whole point of this. So I don't eat every meal like a complete crazy person when I go on vacation. I, for the most part, I eat the way I normally eat here with the slight deviations of the things I mentioned, more cheese than I would normally eat because the cheese is amazing. And all the breakfast buffet for the most part, when you have the hotel room there, The breakfast is included and it's not a breakfast like when you go to the Fairfield Inn or something that's got cereal and bagels and pancakes or something like that. They have generally a meat tray, a cheese tray. They'll almost always have scrambled eggs. They do the cute thing where they have the eggs. They have the like 8 little containers for whole eggs and you put it in and you set your timer and you get the little cute thing that holds the egg and you tap the top and you open it up and you have your little, you know, your one little boiled egg or whatever that That's very typical for that to be on that breakfast buffet as well. Um, and then of course some croissants. They're, they're big into their sweets for breakfast, always like little cakes out there, croissants, that kind of thing. Um, but so for the most part, I would have breakfast. I'd have what I would normally have. I'd have some eggs, I'd have some of the meat, I'd have the good cheese. And I'm not counting anything or like, or really worried about it, anything like that. Just eating so that I'm satiated enough to make it to my nice meal on the mountain. Because that's the other thing that they have that's amazing there, all these restaurants on the mountain. It is nothing like the experience of skiing in the US, um, and the like things that we have on the mountain to eat typically here. At the top of the mountain, the very top, there'll be kind of a cafeteria-style restaurant. Um, and that's generally what you'll find. If there is a halfway one on the mountains, it'll be something like that. Uh, but over there, there's like legitimate fine dining restaurants on the mountain and they're just unbelievably amazing. And it's, it's hard to wanna miss out on those. So, eating a breakfast that would just, you know, last long enough, nothing super big, and then go have this amazing lunch on the mountain is kind of like, you know, the other thing that might add to that is that you're eating your probably biggest meal in the middle of the day, um, and then having a lighter dinner, which is kind of something we always, you know, say to do here, but in the American culture, it's not really what happens. Dinner is usually our biggest meal. Uh, so I think that's kind of flip-flopping that around there too might have something to do with it. Um, but mainly just being consistent 80% of the time, eating the same things I normally eat, the other 20% eating maybe some things that are treats or that I wouldn't normally have. Like we had tiramisu, which is amazing. Um, yeah, so just like that. So just finding that balance. Um, but anyway, that the whole point of that is, again, like I said, I did get on the scale. I did not gain anything. And, you know, I have the Hume Health scale now, so it's healnourishgrow.com/hume. They still have it on sale and it's this, and I'm doing, I did a before and after like 3 months of testing the scale. It's really the best at-home body fat scale I've ever used. And I've been using them now for probably 20 years. Um, almost as long as that technology has existed, I've had a bathroom scale that does that. And for the most part, they're just awful. They're not very accurate at all. They don't really track, um, beyond broad trends. This one has been very spot on, very close to what I got the Dexa at the beginning and the end. It was like literally tracked that pretty much perfectly. So I've been super happy with it, and it didn't show any significant, you know, muscle loss or fat gain or anything like that. Just kind of the same weight, kind of the same stats as when I left. Um, so to me, that just speaks to being consistent, staying active, And that's about it. It sounds simple, but it's, you know, it depends on where you are and kind of what you're used to doing on vacation. But for me, it's very simple and it's, and it just balances out. Just like, don't overeat. Don't, don't do excess every single meal. You know, have one meal a day where you have some things you wouldn't normally have or insert, you know, once a day when you wouldn't normally do it. And it should all theoretically balance out. At least it usually does. Um, for me, so I would say try that if you haven't tried that in the past, you know, definitely be active while you're on vacation. Give yourself the treats, but balance that out with being reasonable. Like, like I gave you the example breakfast, I kind of just ate like I normally do and maybe slightly less just so I have room for that good lunch. Um, and then that's it. So that's kind of life update on top of that. Um, still strength training. I've been fighting a couple of injuries right before I left, I've been following, uh, Mike Isertel. I think I mentioned him on a previous video that I talked about lifting, and I was trying an exercise that was new to me, uh, the week before we were leaving. Stupidly, probably when you're going on a snowboard trip, it's not the time to try a new exercise, but I was really excited to try it because I thought, okay, I think I'm finally strong enough to do this. Because what it is, it's a, um, a Smith bar, kind of like a Bulgarian split squat, but you're kind of, um your— let me think about this— front foot elevated, front foot elevated, and then you're really like just only using your front leg, like not even really using the back foot for stability. I was bringing my back leg up at the same time, so really just making that step with one leg and the weight bar, which my Smith machine is not counterweighted, so it's like without any weights on it, it's 35 or 40 pounds to do that. And this is on one leg, and I'd gotten up to 50 pounds on my Bulgarian split squats. And so I was thinking, okay, I think I'm strong enough to do this now. No problem. Cause I watched them train some people, women with this exercise and none of them had any weights on the Smith bars. So, um, and these are all people that are pretty serious lifters. And so anyway, I was talking to you, my right leg was definitely easier. It's a little stronger, although muscle-wise it appears they're about the same now. I like the one I had the injury on the left one a couple years ago and it was behind. But I've caught up my strength, and definitely my muscle mass is the same on my left leg, but I think the strength is still a little behind. And so when I went to my left side to do it, I can't remember if I did a couple first, but about, you know, somewhere in between, I went to step up on the next one. I was like, oh, so that hamstring attachment, you know, right at the top of your hamstring, right where your— it meets your glutes. And it was— thankfully it was just a little pull, and as soon as I felt it. It was like, oof, yeah, it still hurts once I stopped doing the movement. Um, so I knew to just like chill out with that. So that pretty much, um, I did do my 2 lower body workouts the following— the week before we were leaving, I did the 2 lower, but I had to modify a lot. And, um, didn't do that one again for sure, but modified a lot. And so it still was painful for the but it was, we took a big hike one day because the board bags were gone up a mountain, probably 45 minutes, trail. Um, and you know, it was definitely sore more than usual the next day, but you know, it wasn't enough to stop me from doing anything, thankfully. So I caught it in time and lesson learned about that. Um, cuz the other thing that I learned was that I've been pressing since, really since our last trip in September. From September to end of December, I hadn't taken any rest weeks. I hadn't deloaded. And my body was definitely feeling like towards the end of December, beginning of January, I was like, I knew I needed a break, that my body needed a break. I was like, oh, I'm just going to press through the trip because then I'm going to have 10 whole days off and I'll be, you know, off quote unquote when I'm hiking snowboarding, but like different, like, like not weight training. And so I was just like trying to make it through. And I think also contributed to this injury that I really needed to listen to my body. I mean, gosh, 51, you would think that I would finally get that through my thick skull. I'm much better at it now, but I still have these little lapses. So lesson learned, uh, you know, when you're feeling your body needs a deload, just do it. Like take a little break. You need it. It's going to give you more strength going forward. It's like a good thing for me to push through that. So the other thing that I've been fighting is I've had tendonitis in my right elbow now for— started this summer. It got a lot worse. September, October enough. I went to the doctor. I got PT. I got dry needling. I did soft tissue on it. It got a lot better. But again, I'm still doing my upper body stuff with modifications until my trip because then I'll have, you know, days off for it to heal. So, um, that— it's a little sore today because I did do upper body yesterday. Oh, I did upper and lower yesterday, um, because this week was kind of funky. The trick. I'm going to do it again tomorrow, and then next week I should be back to my regular schedule. But, um, it's a little sore, but overall I think it is getting better. It's not preventing me too much from doing, um, a lot of stuff, especially now that I'm using the VersaGrips. This easing motion, you know, that you do when you're holding weights and pulling and pushing and all that stuff, it does kind of crank up that area of tendonitis, of tennis elbow. And so, so having the VersaGrip so that I can kind of like just barely like grips actually hold it on. I don't have to squeeze the bars. And so that's definitely been helping. In addition, I kind of ditched all focused bicep work for right now while that's flared up, because you're still getting bicep work from a lot of other things. So, but anyway, Um, I did have my right knee act up. So this is, and these are all, the tendonitis has been a long time since that. So when I used to golf all the time, I had that, but that's been probably 15 years since I've had a flare of my tennis elbow. And then the knees are just on and off constantly. They've been, I mean, honestly, they've been wonderful for probably 18 months now that I haven't really had a problem with either one until just this time where I think I, like I said, I press it too much. And then I think probably the factor with the right one, the conditions were not great. There was not, you know, not a lot of snow and, um, you know, I'm kind of fighting that injury in the front leg. And so, and also my back leg is the one that I push with. My right leg is, you know, the one you skate with when you're, uh, foot's not in the binding. So there's a number of factors there. I think I just tweaked it a little bit. It feels a lot better today. I again did work lower body yesterday too, just modified that a bit, wore my knee sleeves, and, um, you know, did everything that didn't hurt. And actually, I felt like it kind of almost loosened it up a little bit yesterday. But man, I was in bed last night, both things were hurting pretty bad, but got up this morning and that's all feeling better. And I'm hoping, you know, good night's sleep, rest day today. I'm hoping I wake up tomorrow and that like both are significantly better. Um, but yeah, so just managing that, you know, in the past what I probably would have done, especially if I hadn't been already lifting now for— I don't know what it's been, it's been at least a year and 6 months, something like that. It's by far the longest, most consistent I've ever been with that. But in the past when I'd have these things crop up, I'd have an injury flare up or something, I would just stop completely. Like, what if it's a lower body injury? I wouldn't do upper body, I wouldn't do— I just wouldn't do anything. I just stop. I'd go on my walk like that, but I would quit lifting. And so what's been different for me in this whole process is just really being committed to doing it for a long-term thing. Because now I think I finally got into the age where I can't ignore it anymore. And if I want to be healthy and strong in later years, I know this is what I need to do. So that's really driving me. And so now it's— I think before I always just thought I had time, you know, time to get more muscle at some other point. But now I realize, okay, I'm kind of out of time for that. That process. And so I'm just modifying and, you know, noticing things as they crop up. Uh, you know, again, taking more rest days if I need to, that's totally fine. Um, but also just like balancing that with honoring this commitment. So when you have injuries and stuff, you do need to listen to your body. And again, I just messed that up pretty bad. I didn't really— I just want to to where I was, uh, but keeping in mind that I've got the next 2 months that I want to snowboard. So, uh, if I do need to reduce my training to let this injury heal, I'm totally fine to do that. I've got it in my brain. That's me right now. My priority is to have strong days outside on the mountain and safe days because my injury is not acting up. And if, if Lifting is exacerbating that, and then I'm gonna just chill out. So that's the plan. And you know, if you find all that interesting or not, um, I do think it's interesting to hear with how other people deal with that stuff, because I think athletes in particular, especially at a very high level, they, they have access to all this technology and these things that can really help them get better more quickly. Not all of us have access to that. And then in addition, And that is their, that's their life, right? So they're dedicated, their recovery is dedicated. Everything they do is dedicated to healing that thing. And that's how so many of them get back to what they're doing more quickly. Um, cuz they do have access to all this, they're focused on their recovery. They don't have anything else to focus on. Whereas if you're kind of a quote unquote normal person who has an injury and you don't have the time to do, you know, all those extra things or the money or the access to technologies like PRP or injections, or like I said, I did do the dry needling. That was very helpful in this scenario for this injury. So, you know, find ways to balance that. We can't compare ourselves to athletes where that is their sole job and they're 30 years younger or 20 years younger than us, that kind of thing. You know, it just takes older bodies longer to repair. It takes older bodies longer to gain muscle. I mean, that's just where we are now, unfortunately. And even though I'm still like 20 in my head, And I think this is where this gets me in trouble sometimes, as far as wanting to amp things up and just really going for physical goals or, or this like lifting stuff and getting more into it. So I just have to really remind myself of, of where I actually am and how while my brain might still be 20, my body is definitely not. And I've gotta be a little bit more careful with those things. So, um, so as you're going into your goals, this is another very good reason to take it slow and to just give yourself some time to adjust. Up and to change without going overboard with it. So anyway, hope some of that was useful to you. If there's content that you wanna hear more about or that you'd like to hear about, definitely shoot me an email, put it in the comments below, or do comments and like sharing. And, uh, does goes a long way to help the podcast do better in the ratings. So until next time, I hope you have a wonderful rest of your week, rest of your day, wherever you are, whatever you're doing, and, uh, stay in touch. I'll talk to you again next time.

This has been the Heal, Nourish, Grow podcast. Again, I'm Cheryl McColgan, founder of Heal, Nourish, Grow. You can find show notes for this episode at healnourishgrowpodcast.com. If you have feedback on today's episode or questions about the content, please email us at podcast@healnourishgrow.com. Healnourishgrow.com. We'd love to hear from you. Be sure to sign up for our email list at healnourishgrow.com and subscribe to the show with your favorite podcast player so you never miss an episode. Join us next time for more information that helps you live your best and healthiest life. Thanks for listening. Content on the Heal, Nourish, Grow podcast does not constitute medical advice. Content contained in the Heal, Nourish, Grow podcast is not intended as medical diagnosis or treatment. Neither the company nor its owner, Heal Nourish Grow LLC, nor any of the company's employees, agents, or guest speakers provide medical advice. The content provided on Heal Nourish Grow podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. Please consult your medical provider with any questions about what health practices are right for you.