Do Summer Shred Challenges Work for Women Over 40?

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How can these people who are promoting this shit lay their head down at night and go to bed?

What is going on, my friends? Welcome to The WarriorBabe Show with Nikkiey Stott, co-founder of WarriorBabe. On this podcast, 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, Nikkiey Stott, and welcome to episode number 62, where I should add to that opening: this is also a no bullshit, no nonsense, straight to the truth type of podcast. I did say that in episode one, but that was a long time ago.

So I'm just bringing that reminder back to the forefront of our minds, because the podcast I'm going to dive into today is exactly that approach. No bullshit, no nonsense, and calling out some truth right now.

So, summer. Summer is around the corner. We just got through Memorial Day weekend, which means June, July, August are right around the bend. What I'm going to talk about today is helping you understand that there is no such thing as summer shredding when you're two to three weeks out from summertime, okay?

Because I've been seeing this shit pop up all over social media: summer shred challenges, summer shredding, summer shreds, hashtag summer shreds. If you don't follow me, you totally should follow me at @NikkieyStott on Instagram. It's where I hang out the most. I go on stories and I go on rants and I talk about this no bullshit approach. I don't play these games. I posted this rant on my story about a week and a half ago, and then I had to make it a forever post, so I posted it as a reel to the page and it just popped off.

You guys were DMing me, like, speak the truth, yada, yada, yada. Basically what that reel encompassed, if you haven't seen it, is me bashing summer shreds. If you're considering hopping on this summer shreds train, you are late to the freaking game. It is not realistic to jump in two or three weeks out and expect to see this entire body transformation that you've been hoping to see for the last five years of your journey.

And for those last five years, you've been inconsistent, not following a program the right way as you should. But you're expecting, two to three weeks out, to drop 20 pounds or 30 pounds and to get super toned and to feel confident in your skin when you're on the beach with your family. It's not going to happen. I'm just calling it point blank, just erasing that kind of feedback loop from your brain. Because if you're expecting that all of a sudden, two weeks to go, beginning of May, you're like, man, I've got to start taking things seriously. I've got to get on board with a program.

I've got to focus on my nutrition. I've got to start working out. You are late to the game. Now, I don't want to entirely discourage you. Can you start making some type of progress? Sure. But don't expect the type of progress where you're shredded, summer shreds, you're seeing lean definition, you're building muscle, because that actually doesn't happen in two to three weeks. All the things you'd hope to see, dropping 10 pounds, dropping 20 pounds. Dude, again, I'm going to say it.

You're late to the game. This is a thing, you guys. I'm going to dive into how these things run on unrealistic timeframes, unsustainable practices, and a one-size-fits-all approach. And then, most importantly, the mental and emotional impact that shit has on you is so insane, and it's insane in such a bad way. I can't believe people still promote this shit. I'm like, how is this still happening? How are we here in 2023?

We know all of this stuff is not good, yet people still fall into this trap. So look, if that is you and you are here, I love you. I say all of this with love, but this is a wake-up call. You're late to the game. I've already said that.

If you're jumping on this train, like I said, I'm going to talk about unrealistic practices. You're diving into things where you're just going to be on this hamster wheel trying to get these results. Because sure, maybe you take on these unrealistic practices and apply them for two to three weeks, and at the end of those two or three weeks, maybe you see some temporary results. But you're not going to be able to keep up with that shit, because most likely you're doing some type of extreme measures. You're doing crash dieting. You're doing excessive cardio. You're doing severe calorie deficits.

Like I said, they may give you temporary results, but they're unsustainable in the long run. Therefore, you are going to forever be on the hamster wheel of trying to keep the results you want, but you're doing it in an unrealistic way with unsustainable practices. So come the end of summer, when summer's over, you're going to start back on the same habits. Let me pin that word: habits. You're going to start back on the same habits you had prior to summer, and this is going to be your forever loop.

Okay, so let me bring that word back to your mind. Habits. Look, if you want to have a summer body, it's not made in the springtime. It is made in the wintertime. November, December, January, February. That timeframe is when you can start having sustainable practices, learning sustainable measures, having a realistic timeframe.

And most importantly, build the habits that you will forever be able to keep, realistic and sustainable for you, during the summertime. So look, if you're on this train right now, cool. Ride it. But remember you're late to the game. Don't expect unrealistic things. Just think of it this way: right now, you're working on your summer 2024 body.

Do your best through the end of the summertime to make sure it's realistic, that these practices are sustainable, and that you're not doing extreme measures. Then ride the fall, ride the winter, building habits that will make it realistic and sustainable for you for next summer. Okay. But as I've already shed light on, these things claim to give you summer shreds.

This crash dieting and all this shit that I still cannot believe is out there, but it is, claims to help people achieve a lean physique and a shredded type of body just in time for summer. And look, I get it. That shit's enticing, right? That shit's promising. But there are so many reasons why this shit is so misleading, on top of the points I already made.

I need this to be drilled into your brain. These things promote unrealistic timeframes. Summer shredding means achieving a shredded look. You guys, if you know my journey, achieving a shredded look in a sustainable way took years. Achieving that type of physique requires significant dedication, discipline, patience, and T-I-M-E. Time.

Hey, just want to drop a huge appreciation to you guys listening to the show. It means a lot. I hope you're enjoying it, and there's so much more to come. If you are enjoying it, hit the subscribe button. I'd appreciate that tons, and it would help this podcast reach others who need to hear these messages too. Thanks so much, guys. Let's get back to the show.

It is entirely unrealistic to expect drastic changes in a short period of time. While this marketing shit and summer shreds may sound enticing and promising, it is entirely unrealistic. Not only that, like I already spoke to, these types of things usually rely on extreme measures, aka unsustainable practices. So if you are somebody who jumped on the train two to three weeks ago, beginning of May, looking to be shredded by June and lose 30 pounds, the extreme measures these things are putting you on to get you there are crash dieting and a severe caloric deficit.

I have seen so many women eating less than a thousand calories because they are on a summer shred challenge. And I'm just like, holy Jesus, mother freaking Lord. How can these people who are promoting this shit lay their head down at night and go to bed, knowing that they're literally putting people in severe calorie deficits that affect so many other things than just your physical appearance? Your metabolism, your hormones, your sleep, your mood, your energy. Why do these people still exist?

Not to mention, with most of these things, and this is why people have deemed cardio to be good, these people are doing excessive freaking cardio. Again, like I mentioned, these things may yield temporary results, but they are insanely unrealistic and unsustainable for the long term.

You're not going to continue to crash diet for months on end. You are not going to continue to do excessive cardio for months on end. You cannot live for a long period of time in a severe calorie deficit, because all of your insides are just going to start shutting down on you. Not kidding. Okay. They're unsustainable in the long term. And usually, like I mentioned, once these things end, you rebound and go back to all the habits you had prior to the program, mainly because you have severely limited and restricted yourself from the nutrients your mind and body need.

So you regain all of the weight that was lost. And this is where you potentially develop an unhealthy yo-yo dieting cycle. Because shit like this entices and promises you things, yet what they're making you do is entirely unrealistic and unsustainable. So when it's done, you don't know any better.

They promised you this. You got there. But did they tell you all the things you would have to do after that? Your metabolism is probably shot now. Now you need to reverse diet, and that takes time, to bring your calories up to a realistic maintenance level for you so that you can somewhat maintain those results. But no, people don't know that shit. They just start eating because they were severely restricted from nutrients.

Now, on top of the unrealistic timeframes and the unsustainable practices these things promote, these programs are marketed as a universal solution for everyone. They are marketed as a one-size-fits-all approach, meaning they completely disregard your individual differences. Karen's body composition versus your body composition.

Cheryl's metabolism versus your metabolism. Mary's genetics versus your genetics. Mrs. Jones' overall health versus your overall health. These things are just one program. One thing you buy, like a fucking PDF or something like that, I don't know. Or you buy into a Facebook community and it's, here's your diet plan, here's your meal plan. That shit is a universal solution for every single person inside that challenge.

Each person's body, you guys, responds entirely differently to various fitness and nutrition approaches, making it unlikely that a single freaking program will work equally well for everyone. Okay? So again, enticing and promising. Yet please make sure you understand: unrealistic timeframe, unsustainable practices, one-size-fits-all approach. And then to wrap this up:

The mental and emotional impact this shit has on you. The intense focus on achieving a specific physique within a short timeframe can have insane negative mental and emotional effects on you as a human being. It can lead to so many things, but mainly obsessive thoughts about food. Because now you're like, oh, I cannot have this cookie. I cannot have this. I can't go out to drink with my friends. I can't have a glass of wine.

I can't have that pizza. I can't have burgers and beer and have some fun, like I said in the previous podcast. Right? You have these obsessive thoughts about food. Then from there, those obsessive thoughts create body image issues for you. Like, you can't eat this carb because it makes you blow up. So if you had carbs and you look at yourself in the mirror the next day, all of a sudden you have these body image issues, and you hate the way your body looks because now you blew up from having carbohydrates.

And then it's a distorted perception of your self-worth. You are so much better than fucking quick fixes, because you deserve to give your body the timeframe it needs to create results. You deserve way better than a crash diet for two weeks. Way better than a crash diet for three weeks. Think about it. It's like a bad fucking relationship. If you want to bring it to a relationship analogy, you don't create an amazing transformation in three weeks with somebody you just met.

It takes time. It takes patience. It takes showing up to the relationship. Right? And that takes months, years for some people, to create a solid foundation. The same thing applies to your body. You deserve better than that. You deserve something that is individualized for you. You deserve a realistic timeframe for you. Whatever you need. Whatever your metabolism needs. Whatever your lifestyle needs.

You deserve practices that are going to promote sustainability for you. You deserve all of that. That is your self-worth. But this shit gives a distorted perception of your self-worth. Okay? So with that being said, you know how I feel now about these stupid, enticing, promising, unrealistic summer shred shits.

Summer shred shits. S-S-S. I don't know. I thought I was going to find something creative there, but it didn't happen.

If you want to do this the right way, commit to following something during the fall and the wintertime, with the outcome of having that type of result come summertime. Start learning. Fitness can be so fucking surface level. I was thinking about that when I was making my breakfast this morning.

And wow, this is just the perfect time for it to come up. It's so surface level. It's so much about body image. But if you can understand on a deeper level why you have the relationship with food that you have, why you feel insecure going into the weight room, or maybe you're just ignorant to this world, which I already mentioned I was in previous podcasts.

And then I became obsessed with learning more. If you can understand at a deeper level why you tick the way you tick in your relationship with working out and exercise, and where your bad relationships are, and then create a supportive narrative in your mind, supportive habits, and supportive actions. Dude, this is what I mean about your self-worth.

It takes months. That's why you start in the fall. You unpack all of this stuff about you. You work with a professional to help you speed up the process a little bit. And what I mean by faster is still working with someone in the fall and wintertime to have the outcome you want by summer. That is tenfold, a hundredfold more worth it to you and your journey than jumping on a two, three, four week train that is just going to crash at the end.

Seriously. All right, you guys. If you are like-minded at all, I totally agree with you. I hate this shit. But maybe there's a friend of yours, a family member, or a co-worker who is literally trying all of these fucking challenges. She's signed up and talking in your workspace about how she's on this summer shred challenge, and you see the way she's eating. Share this podcast with her.

Share this podcast with somebody who needs to hear it. Because that is how we're going to impact way more women to be on our side of things and not these false promises and fake marketing schemes. Okay? So that's all I ask of you, on top of leaving a review for this podcast. I don't run any ads on this thing, which you know and, I think, respect. And I've gotten feedback that I need to get straight to the point. So the only way the show grows is if you leave a review.

Please, it will only take you two minutes. Not even. Work your thumb muscles, find the review area, and leave me a review. Give me a star rating, four, five stars, whatever you think. I would appreciate that so much, because we want to keep impacting women, and you help do that. All right? Appreciate you guys. Hope you enjoyed this podcast, and I'll see you in the next one.

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