Diet VS Lifestyle Change: The Truth Revealed

00:00Lifestyle change is a long-term commitment to living a healthy, sustainable, realistic, balanced lifestyle. What's up, you guys? Welcome back to The WarriorBabe Show with Nikkie Stott, co-founder and brand personality of WarriorBabe, where we talk about mindset, methodologies, and tactics that will help you lose body fat, build muscle, be strong, and feel insanely confident. I am your host, Nikkie Stott, and welcome to episode number 24, all about the difference between a diet or following a diet or being on a diet versus an actual lifestyle change.

00:41So that's what I'm going to discuss with you guys today, the difference between the two, because first of all, when it comes to like health and fitness and like health and wellness and that space, you know, a lot of people often use these terms like diet and lifestyle change interchangeably. And while they like may seem similar, there are some important differences between the two. So I just want to distinguish those important differences between the two. And obviously, you guys know I'm all about the lifestyle change. I ain't about the diet phase.

01:12But just for the sake of the podcast, allowing it to, you know, be discussed in full detail, that's what we're going to do today. Okay. So firstly, like a diet is just like a temporary approach. You guys know that it's like a temporary approach to food that's usually focused on achieving a couple of things like, you know, the physical aesthetics, I want to lose 10 pounds in two months. So I go on this like low carb keto diet to lose all of this weight in X amount of time. Or like someone has like a specific health goal or like fixing a particular health issue.

01:43Like for instance, some people may adopt like a low carb diet because their doctor tells them to go on it or like a gluten free diet to manage their celiac disease. Right. So like diet, the doctors like go on this diet because it's going to get to the root problem, which will help alleviate the symptoms, which will then fix the problem. So, you know, diets can be helpful in the short term for those things. But, you know, when it comes to I want to lose X amount of weight in X amount of time, so let me cut out a whole nutritional group like that requires a lot of willpower.

02:17It can be often difficult to sustain, to maintain, right? Like, I mean, let's just, you know, let's just say what it is. Like people lose a 10 pounds and then they typically those guys usually gain it all back majority of the time. And also to diets just don't provide like the necessary nutrients that your body needs for optimal health. Because typically, like I said, you're cutting out a whole nutritional group. You think about low carb diets or keto diet.

02:49Like they're like no to this type of food. And not to mention like diets are very restrictive. It's like low carb diet. I can't eat bread. You know, keto diet. Let's just eliminate an entire food group. Like you just I remember when I was at a business event a couple years ago. I was sitting next to this woman and she had complimented me on my figure. And I was like, you know, how about you? What are you trying to do? She was overweight.

03:19And she naturally brought up that she was doing her best trying to follow the keto diet. And and I was like, oh, really? How long have you been ketosis? And this is what I mean, guys. It's just so hard to maintain. Like she was like, well, you know, I broke that last night because I ate carbs. I'm like, OK, you know, it's just I mean, like, you know, I love the people that try I want to try it. But like find something. And that's where I'm going to just talk about lifestyle change. That is just like a long term commitment to living a healthy, balanced lifestyle.

03:53That's what a lifestyle change is like this involves a holistic approach to health that, you know, encompasses a variety of areas, including not just your diet and not just what you're following and not just like I'm going to hop on this bandwagon. But it encompasses diet, exercise, stress management, proper sleep, like sleep hygiene, staying hydrated, all of the things that are just so important. So it's not just about what you eat, but also how you guys live your lives on a day to day basis.

04:25Like lifestyle changes are so much more sustainable because they involve developing new habits like I talked about in the last episode and I talked about in previous episodes. You're developing new supporting habits, new routines that are integrated into your daily life. That's a lifestyle change. That is why I love macronutrients so much. Macronutrients is not another diet, right? It's not like I'm jumping on the macronutrient train today. It's like macronutrients is a lifestyle change that will serve you for the rest of your life.

04:57It is a skill set that will serve you for the rest of your life. You are understanding food. You are understanding what is being placed on your plate. You are understanding portion sizes. You do this long enough, you're going to know what three ounces of chicken looks like, a half a cup of rice looks like. I guarantee I'm telling you this because I'm living proof eight years later. I can look at a plate of food and be like, that's a protein, that's a carb, that's a fat, probably ballpark range of this estimate of how much it is, and ounces and grams.

05:28And like, so you're developing these habits, these routines, this understanding of food that just encompasses an entire lifestyle change. Okay, like, so let me just talk about some examples of diets, like some examples, and there's so many different diets out there. And they have their own set of like rules and restrictions. So like you guys know, like a low carb diet, this result involves like reducing the amount of carbohydrates that you consume. And typically, it's like people know this diet to be eliminating bread and pasta and rice.

06:02It's like, why do you have to eliminate that? You don't have to, you just need to understand how much portion sizes you should have of this specific food group in your day, right? And keto, this is another very popular diet. It's a very low carb, high fat diet that's designed to put your body in the state of ketosis, where it burns more fat for energy instead of glucose. But like, why? Like, you can have carbohydrates, you can, you can have these fuel sources interchangeably being used throughout your day and still get you the results that you want.

06:37Like, keto guys, like, it is not sustainable. Cool if you want to do it for a couple of months, like no hate towards it in that sense. Like, if you want to do it, you can sustain it, you can maintain it, you're not going in and out of ketosis. That's just elongating you and delaying you from getting you to where you want to be and the whole point of a keto diet, then do it, whatever. But like, sustain, like for the long term, it's not like, really, let me just ask you guys, you really think you're going to eliminate carbs for the rest of your life? I mean, no. Like, I'm trying to, like, I'm thinking like somebody may say, yeah, Nikki, I totally could.

07:09Really? Okay. Like, that just may be a lie to like, either be like, I can totally do it, but like, be realistic with yourself and have some type of self awareness, common sense, that like, you are not going to be able to eliminate carbs for the rest of your life. Why would you want to do that? First of all, the carbs are great. Like, I just like hashtag make carbs great again, please. Like, carbs are great for you, especially keto diet can be make it really hard for you to gain muscle. And if that's what you're here listening to this podcast to be able to do, you need carbs in your routine, you need carbs in your everyday nutritional plan.

07:49All right. And then there's, you know, gluten free diet, too. This involves cutting out gluten, you know, like such as like wheat, barley, rye, all those things. And they're mainly recommended for people with celiac disease or gluten intolerances. Cool. That that has a purpose. But like the other two, it's like, and there's so many other diets out there. There's like, I'm totally missing like a ton of them. There's like the whole 30. There's, I mean, Beachbody. There's Shakeology where you're just eating shakes. Like, you know, there's a ton out there.

08:21They have their own rules. They have their own restrictions. And that's the thing. There's a lot of, when it comes to a quote unquote diet, you're doing something to eliminate something. And it's just like, it's just some type of temporary approach to food. Right. And so like, like I mentioned, they may be helpful for some people in achieving like health goals, but they're often not sustainable in the long term and can lead to feelings of like deprivation and restriction. Like people want to diet for two months to lose 10 pounds.

08:51And then they eliminated specific things and they felt deprived of eliminating those things. So they put in all of those things back into the routine and then they gain back those 10 pounds. Nobody wants to live that way, guys. Nobody wants to freaking live that way. Okay. And if you've been, if you've been on that train, like now it stops because I want you guys to develop lifestyle changes. Okay. So let's look at some examples of a lifestyle change. Now, these are changes that you make in your daily life that will have a positive impact on your health and most importantly, your well-being.

09:25So I mentioned that it's not just eating and what you eat. It's not just having a balanced diet. It's incorporating regular exercise because some people do go on diets, yet they don't exercise. They just eliminate specific things in their diet to lose a 10 pounds in two months. And then they're not doing any type of physical exercise. They're just slashing their calories in half, calling it a day. Right? So like a lifestyle change is not just what you eat. It's how you exercise. It's stress management. It's sleep hygiene.

09:56It's making sure you're getting enough water in your day. It's so many things that encompass an entire, it's all of the habits, all of the routines, new things that you're putting into your life that are supporting you and the outcome that you want when not just the physical attributions of yourself, but the also the well-being of your physical state of mind. Okay? Your mental well-being. So eating a balanced diet, this involves like consuming a variety. This just involves you guys having all of the, providing your body all of the necessary nutrients

10:28for your body to function properly. It's, it's about making healthy choices most of the time rather than following strict rules and strict restrictions. So it's having protein, fats, and carbs, AKA following macronutrients. Again, it's not a diet. It's a skill set that will serve you for the rest of your life. Okay? So following a balanced diet, having regular exercise into your routine, having some type of strength training into your routine, that is going to help you to formulate strong bones, build up muscle around those bones,

11:01and just be able to, muscle is a, guys, muscle is an organ of longevity. The more muscle you have, I guarantee the more life you're going to add to your, more years to your life you're going to add. So incorporating regular exercise, strength training, definitely. Going for a walk, taking a yoga class, right? Exercise is essential for maintaining good physical and mental health. Period. End of story. Now there's other things like, you know, stress management. This involves finding ways to manage it.

11:32I mean, there's, there's a plethora. This majority of this world is, is under stress. A lot of people experience stress on a day-to-day basis. Whether they're experiencing stress in their work life, they're experiencing stress with their family, they're experiencing stress with their significant others, friends, yada, yada, yada. Everybody experiences it. And with the state of the world, everybody experiences some kind of stress. Okay. But this involves you finding ways to manage and reduce that stress. Practicing deep breathing, practicing mindfulness.

12:0210 minutes, guys. 10 minutes. Like it's not this woo-woo shit. That shit is real. Like you take 10 minutes to just be centered with yourself. Even working out. It's 4% of your day. Hey, working out for one hour is 4% of your day. I don't want to hear that you don't have this time to make it for yourself. You have 10 minutes. You have an hour to make time for yourself to make sure you're managing your stress and you're reducing your stress. All right. Spending time in nature is great.

12:33I love going for hikes. I love being outside. I love being one with nature. It feels so damn good. So make doing those things, incorporating those things, you guys, you're going to develop a good stress management routine by just involving those things in your practice. It doesn't have to be every single day. But it can at least be like the weekends. Great time to get outside. Great time to practice mindfulness. Put yourself in the closet in the morning. I've had clients do this. They have a crazy household full of kids, husband.

13:03They're running around in the morning. Dude, take 10 minutes. Go put yourself in the closet. Sit down. Just be in silence. Promise you it's going to help. I've seen it help drastically with the clients I've worked with. All right. So it's stress management. And then there's sleep hygiene. Oh, man. People have... I'm going to actually dive into a podcast on this to come around sleep. But this involves you guys developing healthy sleep habits like, you know, going to bed, waking up at the same time, stop watching, you know, TV before you go to bed, bright lights

13:35before you go to bed, and getting enough quality sleep every single night. At least like seven hours. I would say seven to eight. But I know some of you guys like rock on like the five to six. But dude, if you can just try and make this a lifestyle change for yourself. And again, you don't have to try and fix all of these things, but at least fix one of them. Apply it to your life. Practice it daily, right? Two weeks. Then try and add in another one. That's how you form habits. And that's what a lifestyle change is.

14:06A lifestyle change is you developing new habits and routines that are integrated into your daily life. These are lifestyle changes that are sustainable because they involve creating new habits, routines that become a part of your daily life. I can't say it enough. That's a lifestyle change. That's a difference between what a diet is. Their lifestyle changes aren't focused on deprivation. They're not focused on restriction. They're not focused on an X amount of timeline that you have to achieve a specific goal. They're not, you know, they're not telling you to cut out specific nutrients in your routine, right?

14:42A lifestyle change is helping you to make positive choices that will benefit your health and your well-being in the long term. Period. End of story. That's what a lifestyle change is. That's the difference between what a diet is. And that's why I will say, ever, ever say, and you guys will hear me say this all the time, that macros is not a freaking diet. And the people that go into it, approaching it like a diet, y'all need to change your old patterns, your old beliefs, your old systems, and eliminate all of the things that you've tried in the past, which have been diets,

15:12and allow for a new fresh outlook on macronutrients and understanding that this is a skill set that will serve you for the rest of your life. It is a lifestyle change. You are developing new habits and routines by just learning and understanding macronutrients. I promise you. Hey, hey, real quick. If you want to learn more about macronutrients and understand that methodology on how they can help you achieve your body composition goals of changing the way your body looks, I put together a free 15-minute training where I dive into macronutrients and how you can control your body for the rest of your life with them.

15:45That link is in the description below. Click on it after listening to the show today. To sum this all up, the difference between like a diet and a lifestyle change is that a diet is a temporary approach to food. And that's usually focused on, you know, I want to achieve an X amount of aesthetic appearance, an X amount of time on drop 10 pounds in one month, two months, or they have some type of specific, you know, health goal, or they're going on a diet to do a health regime or yada, yada, yada. A lifestyle change is a long-term commitment to living a healthy, sustainable, realistic, balanced lifestyle.

16:23Okay? Diets, they may be helpful in the short term. They will definitely, if you go into the next crash diet that's out there that everyone's doing, talking about, you will lose weight. They'll work in the short term. But they will not help you to develop long-lasting, sustainable changes, lifestyle changes, habits, routines, all of the things that can be effective for you in the long term. Okay? So that's the difference between the two. Diet, lifestyle change. I hope you guys found this podcast valuable. I definitely love diving into those and just speaking to it out loud like that because it just,

16:57I hope it's drilled home to y'all that like, stop focusing on the next diet or I need to go on a diet. I need to follow a diet and focus on creating a lifestyle change for yourself. Okay, guys. Peace out. See you in the next episode. Real quick. The only ask I could ever have of you guys is to help spread the word so we can help more women lose body fat, build muscle, reach their goals, and feel insanely confident. And the only way we can do that is if you rate, review, and share this podcast. So the single thing I ask for you to do is if you could leave a review.

17:29It will take you 10 seconds and it will mean the absolute world to me and may change the world of someone else.

This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.