73. How Shifting This ONE Belief Can Change Your Life

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All right, let's get into the episode. Welcome to the Mind and My Wellness Podcast. Your podcast for all things macros, movement, mindset and everything in between. I'm your host, Dani Merenberg, an ex yo yo dieting cardio junkie turned sustainable nutrition coach and who's helped over 1000 women feel confident in their skin by learning how to eat for their goals without sacrificing a life well lived. I created the Mind in my Wellness Podcast to give you simple, effective and manageable tips you can take away from each episode and implement in your daily life to look and feel like the best version of you. Each week, my guests and I teach you the secrets to mastering your health.

And owning your power.

Nutrition, mindset, movement and women's health are all topics you'll find here. Think of our time together as your productive little health break from the day. So grab your headphones, fill up your water, and let's dive into today's episode.

Hello, welcome back to another episode of the Mind of My Wellness Podcast. This is your host, Dani. And in today's episode I was thinking about this and I was like, it's gonna be a short episode and it'll be a bite sized episode. And every time I say that I feel like they're never actually that short because I feel like I have so much to say. But today I have been in the depths of postpartum. A couple weeks back was cleared to work out again. So I have been documenting and sharing a bit about my journey. Just getting back into my nutrition and macros and movement and working out and just a little bit of a background. I did have a C section. And so movement was really important, but obviously recovery was as well. But part of that recovery was getting in very short walks. And so I was walking from the early phases of postpartum. But it wasn't until about week five that I started kind of introducing a little bit more movement just in terms of rehab. And then week six is when I got cleared by my OB to start working out again. I'm easing back into things, if you will, with a postpartum program, and definitely not where I was throughout pregnancy or even, you know, pre pregnancy with my strength training, but we're working back to it. And the idea of this episode stemmed from this thought that I kept running into as I was getting back into strength training, postpartum, and just working out in general. And so we. Not only was I eight months pregnant, but we moved into a new house. We really wanted to build out a garage gym and prioritizing. We were remodeling so many other things that we were also, you know, having a baby. So there were a lot of things that took precedent over just building out this home gym. And it's still not built out at the time that I'm recording this. We have a bunch of just, like, closet doors and like, random things in our closet. It is not ideal whatsoever to work out in. And. And this is really what stemmed this idea that kept coming up in my head or this belief that kept coming up in my head that was like, okay, well, I'll start working out when we have the garage gym set up. I'll start, you know, diving into strength training again and start this program, this postpartum, you know, rehab program. Once the gym's built out, once the garage is clean, that's when I'll start. And very quickly, I caught myself with this thought. I had a business coach, and she shared with me this extremely powerful mindset shift that has honestly stuck with me to this day, which is why I thought about it in this moment, and I caught myself when I was in this belief pattern. And I've shared it with so many women that I've worked with since then, and it's helped them as well overcome that belief that they had that was holding them back from achieving their goal. And. And this one mindset shift is letting go of the idea that once I have X, then I can have Y, or once I do X, then I can do Y, or once I am fill in the blank, then I can do behalf whatever it is that goal is of yours. And that is something that gets in the Way. So often it is that belief that in order to get to where you want to be, to have what you want to have, to be the person that you want to be, you have to first accomplish something or have something, or be something, or do something before you can get there. And 9.9 times out of 10, that is just an excuse getting in your way. And once I was able to fully realize this, it now sticks with me. And I hope that hearing this, you'll always think back to this episode and it'll stick with you as well. But I want you to take a moment and I want you to think about what that is for you. What's that first thing that comes to mind? For me, again, it was, once I have my home gym built out, then I can start working out postpartum. Once I have my home gym work built out, that's when I can really start working on my body recomposition goals postpartum. So my question for you is, what is that for you, what is that one thing that first comes to mind that's getting in the way of whatever it is that you want, whatever that outcome is. And now my question for you is, why do you have to wait to have to do that thing before you can accomplish whatever that outcome is for me? When I caught myself having this belief a few weeks ago, I quickly asked myself, why can't I just start now? What is really getting in the way? Do I need that fancy gym setup or can I just get by with what I have, which was adjustable dumbbell set, some resistance bands and a mat? And for me, I kept getting stuck at, well, I'll wait till the gym's built out and then I'll start. And that's when I realized I don't need to wait. I have everything I need. And even if I didn't have any of that equipment, I could start with body weight, which, believe it or not, that's ended up what I did start with because of postpartum. So it was only me getting in the way of myself from starting. And it's so easy to want to wait for those perfect conditions. It's just what feels natural, I think, to most of us. But there are a few problems with waiting on perfect conditions. Number one, perfect conditions rarely exist. Life is always going to be busy. There are always going to be challenges that arise, and you're never going to find those perfectly aligned conditions where A follows B or B follows A, which C follows B. It's never going to be that perfect. Perfect. Rarely, ever. And if it is. Wow, that's amazing. The second is oftentimes when we get stuck in this belief pattern and we wait and we wait and we wait. That equals lost time and missed opportunities. By waiting, we are losing that precious time that could be spent working towards our goals. And every week we delay starting a new habit is a week we could have been progressing to that habit. That is something, too, that I think about to this day when I have women that I work with that say, oh, you know, you don't think I'll get to these results for 16 weeks? That's forever. Well, you're going to spend those 16 weeks of your life doing something. You might as well spend it working towards your goal and just putting your head down and taking steps every single day to work towards it. That time is going to pass regardless. And the last thing that I want to mention is that there's this myth of readiness, right? This feeling of being ready often never actually comes. People don't suddenly feel ready to make changes. They become ready through the actions and the gradual process and progress that they're taking. I mean, I think about me and getting pregnant. I never actually felt a hundred percent ready to have a baby and start a family. I wanted that, but there were so many other things in life, you know, traveling and my business and helping the women that I work with that I was fearful of throwing that into the mix. And I was never quite a hundred percent ready. But the truth is, most of the time, 99 again, percent of the time when I talk to women, regardless of if it has anything to do with health, wellness, any aspect of their life, more often than not, you never actually feel ready to start something new, to get something going, because it's outside of our norm. So these are the three things that I really have been thinking about and I wanted to share with you, is number one. Again, just to recap, perfect conditions rarely ever exist. Every week, every day that you are waiting, it's a missed opportunity. You're losing that time that you could be spending progressing towards that outcome that you so desperately want. And the last one that I just mentioned is that myth of readiness, that feeling of needing to be ready, but you never feel quite ready. It's all about just ripping that band aid off and starting. Which leads me to this idea of starting messy. And this is what I held strong with throughout that first week postpartum with working out. I think it was my sixth week. I was really focused on just reminding myself, it doesn't matter, just start messy. It's not the ideal situation. It's not your ideal gym setup, but hey, you're starting and you're progressing and that's all that matters. And you're going to look back on this time and be so thankful that you took messy action. So what does this look like? This to me, looks like embracing imperfect action. And again, I'm calling this messy action. So instead of waiting for all of these pieces to fall into place, which again, either takes time or never actually comes to fruition, instead of waiting for all these pieces to fall into place, start where you are with what you have. So for me, I started with the adjustable dumbbells, a resistance band, and a yoga mat in my garage that was extremely messy, needed to be sweeped, and I made it happen. I started messy. It was not the perfect condition, but I started regardless.

I hope you're loving today's episode. I wanted to quickly interrupt to share with you something that I only wish I knew. Years ago, on my health journey that changed everything for me. I was the girl who had tried every diet under the sun, worked out seven days a week, yet was constantly left feeling disappointed that all my hard work and time wasn't paying off. Can you relate? If the answer is yes, then my free training three steps to transform your body with macros is just for you. In this training, I share the secrets to leveraging your metabolism to lose fat without restriction, eliminating the foods you love, or sacrificing a life well lived. So if you're ready to say so long to yo yo dieting and kick low calorie diets to the curb, you're not going to want to miss this free training. Head on over to mindedmymacros.com free training to register today or you can head on over to my show notes to find the link. I hope to see you there. All right, now back to the episode.

Next is start small. Big results come from small, consistent steps. And even if you only have five minutes, you can start with a quick workout. You can monitor your nutrition. You can start by tracking just one meal or adding in more protein throughout the day. You don't have to overhaul everything. You start with one small thing. And so for me, week six, postpartum, it was okay. This week I'm going to focus on getting in three workouts that week. I'm gonna start small, I'm gonna start messy, and we're just gonna do it. And I knew I had limited time. I was doing these workouts during the morning nap time, which could be five minutes, it could be an hour And a half, but we never know. So I was squeezing these in with whatever time I had. Again, just starting small, doing what I could with what I had and taking that messy action. And the last thing that I was thinking about is when you take messy action, you learn by doing. Taking messy action is a great teacher. We learn really fast by actually trying things out, making mistakes and adapting, rather than just staying staying in planning mode, which I am fully guilty of myself as well. I am such a planner, I can plan for days. I mean, within my business, within my personal life, I can plan, plan, plan. But planning is so different than taking action. Sure, having a plan is great, but if you don't actually take action on that plan, what was the point of planning, right? So taking that messy action allows you to learn quickly. It allows you to make mistakes and adapt to better suit your path to achieving that outcome that you want. So now that you've listened to me talk about messy action and this belief that you don't have to have, you know, fill in the blank or be or do fill in the blank to have whatever that outcome is that you want, how can you start taking messy action today to start working towards that outcome that you want? So I have a couple ideas for you if you're feeling a little stuck, which don't worry, I was there too. So these are just the ideas that I've had that have really helped me get started taking that messy action. So again, set small actionable goals. Break down your goals into manageable steps. So let's say your goal is to lose 20 pounds. Great. Well, instead of going from zero to a hundred, which is not at all what I recommend and what I actually teach against in my coaching programs, instead of going from that zero to a hundred, what are some small steps that we can break down from that overarching goal? So amazing. If you wanna lose 20 pounds, what is one thing that you can start doing this week that can help you get to that? Instead of feeling like you have 10 things added to your plate, because oftentimes that leads to overwhelm, that leads to burnout, and then we never actually get to our goal. So if you are looking to, let's say, tighten up your nutrition as your number one goal to help you lose that £20, maybe start by swapping one meal out a week for a simple home cooked meal. And instead of deciding, okay, I'm not gonna order out at all this week, maybe break it down even smaller, okay, it's just gonna be that one meal that I'm swapping from ordering out to home, cook and build from there. So it doesn't have to be. It could be this week, you know, we're not ordering out at all. We're gonna cook all of our meals. That's great if that works for you. But for some, that might even be too big of a first step. I'm noticing that we're ordering out, you know, three to four times a week. This week we're going to reduce it by one. We're just going to order out, you know, two times this week, and the rest we're going to eat at home. That is an amazing, small, actionable goal that's going to help you get your ultimate outcome. Now, if, for example, you want to start working out and you're like, okay, all of these workout apps and programs, you're saying, I need to be working out, you know, five, six days a week, that might not be necessarily true for you. Maybe starting out with two days a week is what feels right and what is going to be sustainable long term. Setting that small achievable goal that you can then build upon, which is going to really help you achieve that overall outcome that you're trying to achieve much more seamlessly because you're building it into your lifestyle in a way that's enjoyable, in a way that's sustainable, rather than, again, going from zero to a hundred. And last but not least, take what I did and leverage what you have right now. Like me, you don't have to have the fancy home gym. You can start with what you have, which for me was that mat, the dumbbells and a resistance band. And guess what? I have now three weeks into my strength training again, and I am so proud of myself for starting and taking that messy action. And quite literally, I'm taking messy action. Cause it's quite literally a messy gym or a messy garage. But really, you don't have to have anything outside of what you already have. You may think you need something more, but again, that's just us playing back into that idea that you need to have be, do, et cetera, something in order to achieve the outcome that you want or be or do that thing. So leverage what you have right now. So to kind of recap what I just said in terms of getting started with taking messy action, number one, set those small, actionable goals. Break down your overarching goal into much more manageable, smaller goals. This is going to be a great place to start, and then you build from there. Again, what we talked about earlier was that time is going to pass regardless. So think about what is realistic for you. If you have tried so many diets or programs in the past that have you going from zero to a hundred and you're really motivated at the beginning, but by week two, three, four, you're falling off track because quite honestly, it's not something that you can keep up with. It's not something that is sustainable. It's not going to work for you long term. So identify that, realize that how can we break it down so that it can be sustainable long term so you can actually achieve those lifelong outcomes that you want. And oftentimes it's in a much more enjoyable way because you're building them into your lifestyle and in a slower fashion that allows you to identify what's working, what's not working. So set those small actionable goals and leverage what you have right now. Remember, you don't have to have anything more than you have right now to at least get started and take steps towards that outcome, towards that action that you want to happen. So to kind of recap everything that I shared today, I wanted to break this down because this is something that comes up in my own personal life so, so often and this idea or acknowledgement of this belief has helped me time and time again throughout so many aspects of my life. I know I'm talking about it as it pertains to your health and wellness here, but it really can pertain to any area of your life. If you just think, oh gosh, I'm catching myself thinking about, well, I can't start, I can't take a step in the direction I want to until this happens or I have this or I am this. Catch yourself and ask yourself, challenge yourself, why do I think that and is that true? So often the only thing standing in the way of our goals is ourselves and this idea that we need ideal conditions to start. So today I urge you to start small, even if it feels very messy. And I promise you that you're going to thank yourself later for it. I did because I know we're in the thick of the holiday season. In the spirit of starting, starting messy and taking action towards your goals, I do have a free training for you with free resources that are really going to help you through the end of this year. Take that action, stay on course and really feel confident going into January so you don't feel like you have to start all over again come January 1st with your health goals. So I'll post the link for that down in the show notes, but I would also love to hear from you. What messy action are you taking? I shared with you how I'm taking that messy action in my gym, and it's honestly such a mindset shift once you get over the idea of having these perfect conditions to get started. So I want to hear from you. What messy action are you taking? Or what belief is getting in the way for you in order for you to actually take action on your goals? Send me a DM over on Instagram at Mind in my Macros or at the Mind of My Wellness Podcast. I would love to hear from you and chat with you about this because again, it's something that has helped me tremendously in so many areas and aspects of my life and has helped so many of my clients too. So I hope you can take this away. And if this episode really resonated with you, it would mean the world if you shared it with a friend or a family member who you think could also benefit from it. All right, my friends, until next week, keep minding your wellness.

Thanks so much for tuning in to today's episode. I love hearing from you, so shoot me a DM over on Instagram mindandmymacros to keep the convo going. If you've learned anything from this episode or any of my past episodes, I'd.

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