How Do I Stay Consistent With Fitness Goals After 40?

Nikkiey: 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. That link is in the description below. Click on it after listening to the show today.

I'm somebody that if I say I'm going to do something, it pains me inside if I don't follow through on it. And so given how busy I was in that time frame, again, taking care of my grandmother, working in the emergency room and going to nursing school full time, I still showed up to go to the gym. I still showed up to meal prep. I still showed up to track, to eating all of my meals throughout the entire day, getting ready to compete in my first bodybuilding show that year later on in November. And I still got it done. Why is this your excuse? Why are you saying lack of time? What always boils down to the reason to me is...

What is going on, you guys? Welcome back 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 back to episode 127.

What's up, you guys? I am so excited to be back with y'all. I know you guys have been experiencing many episodes throughout December and January. That was us really gearing up for what we're going to call season two of The WarriorBabe Show. So we've officially closed out season one and we are now introducing season two, and I am so excited. Season one was a freaking blast. We kicked off and launched The WarriorBabe Show back in January of 2023. Its birthday was January 9th, so in 2024, it's now a year old. And season one was so much fun. We had some epic guests on. We had Sal Di Stefano. We had Dr. Cabral. We had many of my friends on at the beginning and just amazing guests and insights and education and knowledge coming from them.

And then just having a blast with y'all and the episodes that have been produced. We produced over 120 in season one. So let's freaking go, guys. I'm super excited to be back here with you and to kick off season two. We have some pretty cool guests in the lineup to come this season, and we're also diving back into creating these real, raw, honest, no-bullshit episodes with you guys. By the time this episode goes live, it'll be the second month of the new year.

So, first of all, guys, I hope you had amazing holidays. I hope that you've all endured the pretty chaotic snowstorms that have been going on throughout the U.S. As I'm filming this episode right now, we have about three or four inches of snow here in PA. I hope you guys stayed safe through the winter. Maybe even more are going to be coming. But as it's going live, it's the second month of the new year. February 5th is the date this episode is dropping.

What I want to talk to you guys about today is the new year, right? The resolutions that you set. Speaking to stats on resolution retention, speaking to some common challenges or setbacks that you may be experiencing, especially leading into the second month of the new year. You probably set some goals, and maybe you're rocking them out of the gate. Maybe you're crushing it. You are sticking to your resolutions. You're showing up for yourself. Pat yourself on the back for that. Maybe you've had a couple of days where you kind of fumbled, stumbled, and then you picked it right back up. Pat yourself on the back for that. And then maybe some of you are experiencing the fact that what you said you would commit to, you're no longer committing to right now. And I want to be able to speak to you guys too.

So I want to celebrate the ones that are doing their thing and showing up. And then I want to speak to you guys that may be struggling and feel like you just can't trust yourself, or you feel like you're, quote unquote, a failure because you said you were going to do this and now you're not doing it. Maybe you feel like you're going down the same rabbit hole you went down in 2023. And I want you to know, before I even dive into the episode, that you have so much more time in this entire new year. Being unrealistic with yourself is one of the most common pitfalls a lot of people fall into. You expect yourself to be 100% out of the gate.

And you've got to be real and honest with yourself that you are human, and humans make mistakes. You're not perfect. You're imperfectly perfect. So if you've stumbled, just recognize this as your opportunity to pick right back up and start immediately after this episode, or start tomorrow. Recognize, okay, you had a couple of days where you weren't sticking to it, or maybe a week or two weeks. But that is such a small amount of time in the 52 weeks of the entire year.

Okay, so first what I want to talk about is recapping these common New Year's fitness goals that maybe you have. And I want you to be reminded that when I first started my fitness journey, I was a New Year's resolution baby. So this is near and dear to my heart. Back in 2015, I was like, I'm going to do this. I'm going to show up for myself this new year. And I know that at the beginning of my journey, there was tons of tripping over my own two feet, as an analogy.

So if this is you, know that I got you. Know that you're going to feel good coming out of this podcast, and I hope that this podcast helps you. But let's recap. The most common New Year's goal that people set is losing weight. A lot of people set this type of goal to shed a number of pounds, usually driven by the desire of, oh, summer's kind of around the corner, or I want to look better, I want to feel better in my appearance, I want to feel more confident in my skin. Which is all great stuff.

Another one is gaining more muscle. This goal focuses on building more muscle mass through proper strength training and proper nutrition. A lot of you that I speak to want to be more toned, right? And an aspect of being more toned is just gaining more lean muscle on your body. In order to do that, you need to be incorporating strength training exercises the majority of the time, and you need to be hella consistent with eating enough of the right nutrition, aka macros: protein, fats and carbs, to keep up with getting to that goal.

So maybe some of your New Year's resolutions were: I'm going to get better with my macros. I'm going to learn macros. I'm going to track my macros. I'm going to eat more protein. I'm going to do strength training over all of these fitness classes I've been involved with. Whatever it may be, that's your goal. That's mainly what the women I speak to are going for. And maybe you're falling off. We'll get to that in a second. Maybe you've set a goal of running a certain distance. Maybe you've set targets to run a 5K or 10K, or you have a marathon in your sights this year.

Those are goals that people do set. Maybe it was just to be more active. Maybe it was to get in more steps, more metrics that lead to a more active lifestyle. You're going to take the stairs rather than the elevator. You're going to park further away from your target so that you can walk more. All of these things are more incorporated into your daily routines. And what I want to share with you really quick is something that I'm specifically doing with my new year, so maybe you can take it and run with it. Even me, nine years into my journey.

Man, that's crazy. Pretty cool to think about, though. Nine years into my journey, I'm still focusing on implementing daily routines, aka daily habits, that I can get better at, be more honest with and be more consistent with. For me, the first two to three weeks of this new year, I am solely focusing on keeping the promise to myself to get 10K steps a day.

And I have been able to keep a 15 or 16 day streak going, and I couldn't be more proud of myself for that small goal. In 2023, I did not focus on this goal whatsoever and had so many more days than I wanted under 10K steps. And no matter what, you should make it a goal for yourself to hit 10K steps a day. So what I'm doing is focusing on that small goal, a small habit really. And then what I'm going to do is called habit stacking.

A great book is Atomic Habits by James Clear. I've read that book over and over and over again, and he mentions this concept of habit stacking. Once I've nailed down 10K steps, I'm comfortable with it, I know that I can commit to it, I'm following through on it, I'm three weeks into it, it's down pat, it's becoming a habit. Then I'm going to habit stack another thing, and that's going to be water. I know that I can do way better with drinking more water throughout the day. I preach it to clients. I preach it to myself.

I'm like, hey guys, get at least over 100 ounces of water a day, or upwards of 128 ounces of water a day. That is prime for what your body needs, for all the cellular activity, the muscle structure you're building. Your body needs that amount of water. Not ounce per pound, whatever. No, you need upwards of 100 or over 100. And you're probably like, oh my god, I can't drink that much water. Yes, you can. Start early, so that way you're not peeing throughout the night.

I know. I've heard that so many times. And you can do it. You just have to commit to it. So I know I'm going to habit stack water once I can commit and stay committed to the walking. So what you can do is figure out the habits that you really want to work on, that you really want to embed in yourself. Maybe it's the tracking macros aspect. I have nailed that down. It's so easy for me. I can do it with my eyes closed. I can log my entire day inside of MyFitnessPal in a matter of three minutes. That's not really something I personally need to work on.

Maybe that's something you do need to work on, though. You can start implementing that, and two weeks in, you're consistent with it, you're following through with it. Then you can habit stack something else, like water. And then you can habit stack your steps. It's not about... and I'm going to get to this in a second. Actually, I'm going to save it, because it's something a lot of people do. So stay with me. But all of those things I just shared with you, I'm habit stacking. Those are my resolution goals that I'm focusing on. Along with that, I broke it down on YouTube.

You can check it out on the WarriorBabe channel. I broke down how I'm going about my whole new year in different phases. I talked through the first quarter of the new year, from January to March. Then I broke down April to June, then July to September, and then the rest of the year. It's just a ballpark of what I'm trying to do for the year, but it would give you even more insight if you want to go check it out: how I think about breaking it down, how I need to focus on my nutrition, my workouts, and if I'm going to try to run a little bit more. All of those things are in that video, and I dive way deeper there on what my personal resolution, or plan, is for 2024 with my body composition.

But commonly speaking, what I just said is what you're normally focusing on: losing more weight, getting more toned, building more muscle, more active goals like getting more steps, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, parking further away. These are just a ballpark idea of what your resolution could be.

In a second, I'm going to talk about common challenges that you may be experiencing right now. But what I wanted to share first, which I found pretty interesting, were the statistics on New Year's resolutions and the retention of people who actually keep their promises, who actually keep the resolutions they set. It was super interesting.

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. It also helps this podcast reach others who need to hear these messages too.

This is the latest update, from April of 2023. There was a study from the University of Scranton that suggests only about 19% of individuals actually stick to their New Year's resolutions each year. 19%. So think about it. If you actually follow through with your New Year's resolutions, even if you fumble, which I'm going to talk about in a second, even if you've tripped over your own two feet, even if you, quote unquote, failed for a week, you can still pick back up and still say by the end of 2024 that you were one of the 19% of individuals who actually stuck to their New Year's resolutions. So focus on being in that 19%. You still have so much time to be in that 19%.

Another survey, which was crazy to read, falls right into when this episode is going live, so see if you can relate to it. Approximately 80% of New Year's resolutions fail by the second week of February. What? 80%. That is a big number of people who set resolutions and then fail, 80% by the second week of February. And what was even crazier to read is that this research indicated that gym attendance typically surges, right? We all know this. We go into January 1st wanting to go to the gym, hitting the gym more often, getting our memberships, yada, yada, yada. It typically surges 30% to 50% in January. But take a guess where you think it actually starts to return to normal. I kind of just gave away the statistic in what I just said. Mid-February to March is where gyms see typical attendance return to normal.

So it surges at the beginning of January and then returns to normal by mid-February into March. That's crazy, right? And I can dive a little deeper into what I found regarding age, ladies, since the majority of the women I speak to and who are probably listening to this podcast are older. Let me say it this way: people in their 20s are more likely to achieve their resolutions than those over 50 years old, with a success rate of about 38% for the younger age group compared to about 16% for the older age group. When I was reading these, I was like, wow, why does that happen? And I'm going to segue into the common challenges and setbacks that I feel like people experience.

I was comparing it to myself in my 20s. I was thinking about the clients I work with in their 50s, and about what our coaches say when new clients come on board, especially in this new year time frame, which is what we're experiencing a lot right now, and I'm sure we'll keep experiencing it as we go into February and March. The one thing that came to my mind when I asked why the older demographic, the 16%, is so significantly different from the younger group when it comes to keeping up with their resolutions, was not seeing immediate results.

You're probably like, damn, yeah, fuck, maybe that's me right now. I'm a month in. I thought I would be seeing some type of changes. Maybe you are, but you're not seeing them as fast as you want to. And this is, personally, what I think is one of the main reasons people give up: they don't see quick enough results. So I want to take this space right now, my friends listening to this, to send you a friendly reminder. No matter where you're at in your fitness journey, where you are right now, or where you were when you started your journey, it didn't take you one month to get there.

Meaning, if you put on a lot of weight, if you put on 10 pounds or 20 pounds, it didn't take you a month to put on those 20 pounds. It's probably been years. It's probably been five or 10 years that you've been struggling with this thing, struggling to get to your goal, trying so many different methods. So I want to remind you of that with these goals you're striving for out of the gate in the new year. You set these resolutions, maybe you're committed, you're showing up for yourself, like the people I was talking to at the beginning of the podcast giving yourself a pat on the back, and you're like, why am I not seeing the immediate results I want?

Or you're in the other category of women listening to this podcast. Maybe you were only 50% on board. You were on pace the first two weeks and you fell off the last two weeks. Then think about it like this: if you're giving 50%, you're going to get 50% of the results you could be getting. And maybe you are further along in the process and you are committed.

But you have to remind yourself that where you were when you started the journey, that body composition, didn't come in that short amount of time. Feeling uncomfortable in your skin didn't happen in one month. It happened over a long progression of time. You know what I'm going to say, but I need to remind you that the biggest thing you can implement for yourself on the journey you're on right now is patience and consistency.

I love to remind you guys to accept that your journey is going to take upwards of nine months, upwards of a year. The WarriorBabes who join our community come in with a commitment, understanding that it's going to take a year. They sign up for 12 months. No more of this BS three months, six months. We tell you out of the gate, you've got 12 months. The first couple of months, you're just trying to get used to this new routine, this new lifestyle, and readjusting things so you can stay committed.

You're going to fumble here and there at the beginning. Then you get into the groove around month three or month four, and you're in that groove, steady, 90 days committed. We have a 10-80-10 principle at WarriorBabe. The top 10% knock it right out of the gate.

They're committed. They're fully showing up. They're doing the workouts. They have some type of history in fitness. They have some understanding of macronutrients. They've done strength training workouts. So they come in and they're like, dude, I'm here. I just need the accountability. I need the coach. I need the plan, and I'm going to execute. Those women get results almost immediately, within two to three weeks, more so in energy, increased mood, sleeping better, and maybe some physical changes. Then we've got the 80% who come in committed and ready to go, but they're experiencing that first one to three months of, okay, I'm in this online space. I'm working with an online coach. I'm getting used to all of the systems. I'm committing to changing some of my routine. I have to understand meal prep. I have to learn macronutrients.

So for 80% of those babes, it usually takes a couple of months to get their feet wet and then stand firmly on the ground. From month three on is where they experience amazing changes. We usually say 90 to 120 days. And then we have the rest, the 10% that never leave the starting line. They literally commit to the program and don't show up for themselves. And some of them blame the program. And we're like, it ain't the program, because we've had 16,000 women come through this program having incredible results. So it's you, and you have to accept that. You have to be honest with yourself there. Because trust me, programs work. It's your level of commitment, your level of showing up to it. I told you this is a no-bullshit podcast, so I'm bringing it real, raw and honest to you guys.

So the last 10% never leave the starting line. That's our 10-80-10 principle. The majority of people can be patient and consistent, especially the ones who don't know macros and are coming in while we teach it to them and help them understand it. They can accept the fact that maybe by month three, it's like, okay, I'm ready to go. And the other ones come in like, I know this stuff, I'm ready to show up, patience and consistency, I got it, no problem. Guys, that is how you accept that this is just a part of your journey, and that immediate results out of the gate, unless you're a little bit seasoned, are not going to happen.

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Point blank. Okay. Another common challenge or setback a lot of people experience is lack of time. Finding the time to commit, finding time to do the exercises, especially for those with busy work schedules and family commitments. But I want to debunk that with you right now. Lack of time. When I first started my journey back in 2015, as I shared with you, I was a New Year's resolution baby, and my life couldn't have been more hectic.

Way more hectic than it is right now, running a company, owning a company, running a team of 40 coaches, showing up for content, creating content, taking care of my dog, Maverick. My life is busy, but it is nowhere near as busy as it was when I committed to my fitness journey. At that time in my life, and you can listen back to this in episode number one of season one of the podcast, I was in nursing school full time.

I was taking care of my sick grandmother at the time. I lived with her. I would take care of her in the morning. I would get her up. I would get her dressed. I would help her with her makeup. I would do her hair. Some days I would shower her in the morning. Then I would take her downstairs and cook for her. I'm going to start tearing up, because she passed away a couple of years ago. Just thinking about it makes you really grateful for the time you spent with her. But I still showed up. I would cook her breakfast.

Then I would get her comfortable in her chair so that I could go to school. On some days, my grandfather would help with those morning activities. And I would be working in the emergency room for eight to 12 hours a day. So the time I had for myself, I had to make it and I had to commit to it. After an eight-hour day in the ER when I didn't have classes, I would be at the gym right after.

If I had classes all day, I would be at the gym right after. If I worked a 12-hour shift, I would be at the gym right after. And on some days I would take care of my grandmother at night too, when my grandfather and I would flip. I would do the majority of it, because my grandfather was 80, 85 years old at the time. He didn't know how to cook. I remember the first time he cracked an egg and cooked an egg. My grandmother did everything. So I took care of her at night. Got her ready for bed, put her in bed, put the TV on, made her comfortable, all the things.

And then we still had to meal prep and cook. My life was busy. Okay, you get it. And I still committed to doing the things I said I was going to do at the beginning of the year. Trust me, sometimes I was, and this is the second thing I'm going to talk about, not motivated. I did not want to work out. There were times when I was so tired, sitting on the leg extension, crying because I was so tired.

But I was like, I have to get this done. I'm somebody that if I say I'm going to do something, it pains me inside if I don't follow through on it. And so given how busy I was in that time frame, again, taking care of my grandmother, working in the emergency room and going to nursing school full time, I still showed up to go to the gym. I still showed up to meal prep. I still showed up to eat all of my meals throughout the entire day, getting ready to compete in my first bodybuilding show later that year in November.

And I still got it done. So when people use this excuse, I'm always like, why? Why is this your excuse? Why are you saying lack of time? What it always boils down to, for me, is they don't want it that bad. I wanted it so bad. I wanted to prove to myself that I could do this. It was something completely new. I didn't know any of the things I had to embark on that year. Everything was totally fresh.

So when I hear this excuse, I always ask, how bad do you want it? Because I can really resonate with that. If you want it that bad, you will make it happen. You will show up. You will do the work. People are always telling me, I want to lose weight, I want to gain muscle. And I ask, why do you want to do that? I try to get a little bit deeper with the individual, because the why is what's going to carry them through. There were so many reasons why I wanted to start my fitness journey.

Why I wanted to be more confident in my own skin. I shared this in episode one of the podcast. You can go back and listen to it. I had deep reasons that carried me through to showing up regularly on a daily basis. And I wanted it. I really wanted it. So this lack of time, quote unquote, is an excuse. This I'm busy. Guys, if there's anything I can tell you right now, it's that learning how to commit to something in the busiest seasons of your life is what makes it easiest when you're not as busy.

So think about that, and think about how you can reword that narrative of busy work schedule, lack of time, I don't have enough time. It means you don't want it that bad. Now, lack of motivation. I experienced this a ton. It wanes. You're so ready to rock and roll out of the gate on January 1st. You're like, yes, I'm motivated. I'm so excited to get to the gym. I got my gym membership. I signed up for the program. I got a coach.

And then two weeks in, you're like, I am not motivated whatsoever. I do not want to do this anymore. I'd rather sleep than wake up and go work out. The biggest thing you can do for yourself right now is learn how to develop your self-discipline muscle. When you experience the feeling of not wanting to do any of the things and you have the emotional desire to just sleep, the emotional desire to skip the workout, fuck the emotions. Fuck the emotions. Show up for yourself. When you can be disciplined, you will show up regardless of any type of temptation that makes you resist the activity you know you need to do. Okay.

The last thing I want to touch on is people who set unrealistic goals out of the gate. Meaning, my friends, you set 10 different things you need to change in the new year, and you try to tackle all 10 of those in the first month. You need to drink water. You need to get your steps in. You need to follow this workout program and get your workouts in. You need to focus on getting enough sleep.

You need to shut off your phone an hour before bed so you have more efficient sleep. You need to meal prep. That's seven, right? I could keep going. If you try to do all of that out of the gate, it is entirely unrealistic. You just heard me say earlier that I am focusing on habit stacking, and I'm taking one habit at a time. So if you're setting an unrealistic, ambitious, not really well-planned-out number of goals at the beginning of the year, you will not follow through.

It will lead to disappointment. It will lead to total and complete abandonment of your New Year's resolutions. Take one or two and focus on them. And I need to speak to this too: you are going to fail. You are going to trip over your own two feet. You're going to mess up. There are going to be days where you over-track. There are going to be days where you can't get to the gym. That doesn't mean you give up. One missed workout in a week doesn't mean you don't go to the gym for the next three or four weeks, or the rest of the year.

One messed-up day of tracking macros or following through with your plan doesn't mean you give up the next day. It means you get right back on. Talk to yourself here: What can I learn from this setback? What opportunity is right in front of me so that I can do better tomorrow? Maybe it's the time thing. Maybe so many things popped up last minute and you had to prioritize those rather than getting to the gym. Cool. So you move one of your workouts to the next day.

You ain't working out seven days a week. The majority of you are probably working out four to five days a week. That gives you two or three other days to move around in your schedule for the week. So if one day other things take priority, move your workout to the next day. If you didn't track or you fell off plan, get right back to it tomorrow. It's literally as simple as that. You just have to follow through on it. You have to make the decision to say, okay, I'm learning from this day.

I know I can do better, so I'm going to do better tomorrow. And then do better. All right, my friends. I just wanted to elaborate on all of this with you. Man, I'm so excited to be back. I'm so excited to be recording these podcasts, to be sharing all this stuff with you, to hang out with you and to be pouring into you. With all the podcasts I do, I just want you to know you can do this. Whatever you want to do with your goals, you can do it. Maybe you need extra accountability.

Maybe you need the coach. But it all comes down to you, and you can do it. Trust me, I know you can. So borrow my belief and go crush it. I'll see you in the next podcast.

Hey, guys, real quick. If you're interested in taking your body to the next level, losing body fat, building more muscle and feeling more confident, do it alongside one of our 30-plus professional coaches. Work one-on-one with her to eliminate all of the guesswork you may have, and all you need to do is the work she tells you to do to get to those goals of yours. To learn more, click the link below this podcast and apply to our VIP program right now.