How Gratitude Can Help Your Fitness and Fat Loss Journey

Nikkiey: 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 you to do is leave a review. It will take you 10 seconds, and it will mean the absolute world to me and may change the world of someone else.

If you can right now experience and be grateful for the fact that your body has the opportunity to work out, will you not find the motivation to go work out?

What's going on, you guys? Welcome back to The WarriorBabe Show with Nikkiey Stott. Or if this is one of your first episodes, welcome to the show. 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 106, where we are going to sit in the weight of gratitude, since Thanksgiving was yesterday.

I hope every single one of you listening to this show had an absolutely amazing Thanksgiving. And if you're listening to this weeks or months past Thanksgiving, I hope you still had an amazing Thanksgiving. All right? For today's podcast, what I'm going to talk about has to do with the nature of Thanksgiving, and that is gratitude. And it's going to tie into fitness, okay?

So stay with me here. I think this is a very important topic for you to understand, because there's so much science connecting gratitude to health. I'm going to dive into gratitude and fitness and your well-being. I'm going to share some daily practices you can take away from this podcast today and implement into your routine that will help you focus on gratitude. But there has been so much recent research on this specific topic that I want you to know about.

And I want you to be educated on it. Because if you can allow yourself to experience the feeling of gratitude, not just once, not just twice, not just throughout this podcast today, not just because Thanksgiving was yesterday and you probably had immense gratitude, but on a continual, regular basis, it does a lot for you. Let's get down to it and dive into the science of gratitude and health.

I'm only going to touch on certain things that are correlated to your health, your well-being and fitness. There's a plethora of studies out there about this word, this feeling and this experience. I'm only going to touch on maybe 5% of them, but know that there's so much out there about this. So let's dive into it.

If you can allow yourself to consistently be in a state of gratitude, it will reduce your stress. It will improve your sleep quality. It will help you enhance happiness in your life. It will build resilience in aspects of your life and in your fitness journey. It will improve your relationships. And it will create long-term health within your body, your state of mind and your longevity.

I want to break down each of those. First, how gratitude can reduce stress. Numerous studies have indicated that gratitude exercises, which I'm going to share with you at the end of the podcast, can lead to a significant reduction in stress. When you specifically focus on what you are thankful for, think back to yesterday. So many things to be thankful for. The food you had, the memories you created, the people you were around, the laughs you had. If you actively focus on that from yesterday right now,

you engage in a positive cognitive process that helps shift your attention away from outside stressors, things that happened before Thanksgiving, and negative thoughts, right? You can do that right now, and you can do it every single day with daily practices that focus on gratitude. When you're able to engage in a thought that you're thankful and grateful for, you create this positive cognitive process, and it shifts your

attention away from 'I'm stressed' and all of those negative thoughts into something more positive, because you're experiencing gratitude. And when you do this consistently and consecutively over time, not just one or two times, like I said, this shift can lead to lower levels of the stress hormone, cortisol. To tie that quickly to fitness, your health, your well-being and the results you want to see in your body: if you can lower the levels of

cortisol in your body... cortisol is a fat-storing hormone. The more your cortisol is elevated, the more your body is going to hold on to fat. If it's lower, the easier it will be to lose body fat, without even having to dive into nutrition or exercise. You could just focus on gratitude to lose body fat. Just kidding. But it will drastically aid the process of your fat loss journey

if you can lower the stressors in your life, and you can do that by practicing daily gratitude. I'm going to share a couple of examples too, when I dive deeper into the physical and well-being side. I'll share how I've seen this play out in my life and in the lives of the WarriorBabes who are part of our community and our program. If you don't know what WarriorBabe is, go check out warriorbabe.com to learn more about it. So that's one way research and studies show practicing gratitude

improves your life: reducing stress. Another one is improving sleep quality. Research has also shown that gratitude can improve sleep quality. By simply keeping a gratitude journal, or reflecting on a positive aspect of your life before you go to bed on a regular basis, you can help quiet your mind and ease into sleep, right? Think about how many times you just finished watching a TV show,

and then, bam, you go lie down in bed and expect to fall asleep right away. That ain't gonna happen. Your mind is probably racing all over the place. Or maybe you don't watch Netflix, you just go lie down at one at night, and your brain is thinking about the day, rewinding the day, thinking about the things you have to do tomorrow. It's causing a little bit of stress, because maybe you're behind on a project or you forgot to do one thing. So you have a hard time falling asleep. But if you can do this specific exercise of writing in your journal at night,

before you go to bed, or writing on a notepad. It doesn't have to be a journal, it can be a notepad. I was going to say it could be your phone, but I don't want it to be your phone, because you don't want to be looking at that light before you go to bed. Side note, that can make falling asleep even harder. But just reflecting on a positive aspect of the day you just had, or a positive aspect of your life, and experiencing gratitude for that one thing before you go to bed, will help eliminate all of the stressors that are ruminating in your mind.

Focusing on this one positive thing creates that cognitive process that helps you move away from negative stressors and negative thoughts toward quieting your mind and easing into sleep. This works because gratitude reduces negative feelings and worrying thoughts, which often lead to the inability to sleep and to insomnia, right? Like I mentioned, with all your thoughts all over the place

when you go to bed at night, which is the case for the majority of the population, you probably have a hard time falling asleep and staying asleep. So if you can focus on one thing, or a few things, you're grateful for before going to bed, it will put you in a positive state of mind, help quiet your mind and allow you to ease into sleep. That's another way it's been scientifically shown that gratitude can improve your life, by improving your sleep quality. And both of these are directly correlated to a fitness journey as well.

If you can reduce stress, it's going to be a little easier to see results. If you can improve sleep quality, it's going to be a little easier and quicker to see results. The third one: gratitude not only reduces stress, it also helps psychological resilience, enabling you to better handle future stress and adversity, which overall enhances your happiness.

Hey, I 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 would also help this podcast reach others who need to hear these messages too.

So gratitude has been shown to lower the things we just talked about, and you build resilience around specific stressors. That enables you to better handle future stress. And that leads into the other aspect I talked about earlier, building resilience.

When you build this psychological resilience, you cope with stress and adversity better, and practicing gratitude is also linked to lower rates of stress-related disorders. Enhancing happiness and building resilience are correlated, because the more you build your psychological resilience, the more you reduce stress, and the more you focus on gratitude, the better you're able to handle future stresses and adversities,

and the lower the chance of stress-related disorders popping up in your life. Gratitude is a powerful freaking thing, you guys. Another thing the science of gratitude and health has shown is improved relationships. By experiencing and focusing on things you're grateful for, you strengthen your relationships, enhance your mental health and deepen your social bonds.

So if you and your husband, your partner or your friends focus on something you're grateful for, for what the friendship brings you, what the marriage brings you, or something you've done together in the marriage, focusing on those things deepens your bond, right? That's a huge, important aspect of mental well-being. And when you have improved relationships and you're on a fitness journey, you're able to create these bonds within a community of women or people

who are also into fitness, which strengthens your ability to get results as well. And then long-term health. A grateful mindset can lead to a healthier heart, an improved immune system and overall longevity. So if you practice gratitude, not just once, not just twice, but on a regular basis, consistently and consecutively over time, it can create

a ripple effect into long-term health for yourself. It helps improve every aspect of your life, your body, your mind and the longevity you want to create for yourself: your heart, your immune system, your longevity, everything down to your mental well-being. So those are a few things to unpack on the science side of how gratitude connects to your health. Now I want to dive a little deeper into gratitude in fitness,

right? I touched on a couple of pieces correlated to fitness on the science side, and all of those aspects tie in some way to you getting results. But when you focus on gratitude in fitness and physical well-being, it boosts motivation for you to actually do the things you want to do and should do to get the results you want, like working out and eating right. It fosters a positive outlook on the physical challenges you may encounter along your journey.

Actually, not that you may, that you will. Not every fitness journey is smooth sailing. And another one is that it encourages healthy choices: getting your workout in, choosing better food options, and the mindset of your journey. So first, let's talk about how gratitude can significantly enhance your motivation to do your workouts.

This is a great example for you to experience gratitude in this moment. Think with me on this. If you can be grateful for your body's capability and for being given the opportunity to exercise, this will often lead to greater intrinsic motivation to go work out. If you can right now experience and be grateful for the fact that your body has the opportunity to work out, will you not find the motivation to go work out?

Your body is a powerhouse. It is a machine. You have the capability and the opportunity. If you have all four limbs and you're here on this earth, you have the ability to go work out. You just have to make the choice. Practicing gratitude for that capability within your body should give you some motivation to go get it done. This is your one body, the one time you have on this earth. You should treat it the way it wants to be treated, by being healthy.

You have the opportunity to do that. Your body has the opportunity to exercise. The mindset shift here transforms exercise from a burden, some task you have to do, into an activity of appreciation for what your body can achieve. Making that switch is huge. Did you follow me there? If you can make that switch in your own mind, rather than looking at it as a burden,

'Oh my God, I have to go do this,' to 'I get to go do this,' that's huge. And that comes from being grateful for the body you have. In the act of that thought, you are experiencing gratitude. Perfect example: where I got that tagline, 'I don't have to work out, I get to work out,' came from our WarriorBabe ambassador, a WarriorBabe in our community, Jessica, who came back from a tragic accident

that left her doctors basically saying she was going to have a hard time walking, or I think it was that she may not even be able to walk again.

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And she came back from that. She proved them all wrong. She started to get stronger and do strength training exercises. Since she went through that tragic experience and overcame it, she's so grateful. She's so grateful for what her body can do and what her mind can do. And now she looks at it as, I don't have to work out.

I get to work out. She has a greater appreciation for what her body is capable of doing. That's a perfect example. My example is that I try to practice gratitude every single morning. When I think about my body and my health and the long-term picture, I know that being grateful for the body I have now and taking care of it now is so important for years and years into the future.

So I'm grateful for what my body can do. I know it has the opportunity and the capability to achieve amazing things. So I don't look at it like, oh God, I have to go work out today. I look at it like, I get to go work out today, right? That mindset shift drastically transforms the way you perceive your body and the perspective of gratitude you have for it. Another one is that when you focus on gratitude, you have a positive attitude toward any challenge that comes with your journey.

It encourages you to focus on progress and the benefits of the workouts you're doing and how you're eating right, rather than the discomfort or hardship it might involve, right? Some people look at macronutrients as something so hard to have to do. But again, you don't have to do it, you get to do it. It's merely a choice. When you focus on maintaining a positive attitude, no matter what hardships you encounter along your fitness journey, and that comes from being grateful that you have this experience and this opportunity,

it will help you experience plateaus or setbacks differently. Having a grateful perspective will help you foster more resilience and problem solving in ways you might not have been able to if you weren't in a positive outlook toward your fitness journey, right? Being grateful fosters that positive outlook on the challenges you will encounter along your journey.

Again, you don't have to do macronutrients, you get to do macronutrients, which is going to keep you focused on making progress along your journey. And all of this, when you have a grateful mindset, leads to a healthier lifestyle, which leads to healthier choices, which leads to greater positive outcomes with the results you want to see for yourself, right?

When you're grateful, you're more likely to choose good nutrition options for your body. You're more likely to drink more water. You're more likely to get adequate sleep. You're more likely to choose all of these things that are critical for optimal performance in your workouts, your day-to-day and your recovery. Being grateful is huge, mainly for the positive attitude it gives you toward your journey.

Everyone looks at fitness as so hard and daunting, and if it was easy, everybody would be doing it. So of course there's a level of it being hard, but that level is only defined by you. Only defined by you. It's really: do I have a negative outlook on this right now, or a positive outlook? You can answer that. If you focus on gratitude, it's going to lead to a more positive attitude. And the way you can do that is by focusing on, I don't have to do this, I get to do this.

Some other ways you can practice gratitude day to day: obviously, keep a journal, right? Simply write down three things in the morning or the evening, like I mentioned earlier, focusing on what was good that day and what you're grateful for. It's important to write these things down, you guys, because the act of writing them down solidifies them in your mind and makes the feeling of gratitude more tangible.

It's not just sitting and thinking about what you're grateful for. Physically writing it down does something to your brain that lets you feel gratitude more. Okay? So start practicing with a gratitude journal, or practice mindful connections to gratitude. For me, for example, I meditate every single morning, and following meditation I'll write down things I'm grateful for. I meditate and do breathwork for 15 minutes.

In that breathwork, I am mentally engaging in experiences of gratitude. And it's not that you just have to be grateful for your health, your relationships or your experiences, like I'm talking about in this podcast. You can even be grateful for the crunchy things in life. You can be grateful for the tests that are given to you on a daily basis by God or the universe. You can be grateful for being sick, because maybe you need to slow down in life, right?

You can be grateful for the crunchy things. You can be grateful for so many things in your life, the challenging and the positive. The challenging, because it may create a perspective shift, a positive way to look at that challenging situation. You can practice that in a mindful meditation, and then go write it down in your journal. And a big one, and I think this is the last one to wrap up this podcast: how many of you struggle so hard to receive a compliment?

I know this is probably the majority of you, because I've coached clients through this as part of their fitness journey, right? I used to joke that whenever I gave a compliment to a client, like 'Your hair looks nice,' they would say, 'Oh, yeah, it's full of dry shampoo today,' or, 'I didn't even brush it today.' Instead of just saying thank you. Saying thank you is a way of expressing gratitude. If somebody says something nice to you as a compliment,

you don't need to go off on a tangent about something negative. Just say thank you. That is a small act of kindness and a small act of being grateful for something. That's a daily practice you can do, expressing gratitude to others. So next time you get a compliment, I challenge you to say thank you. You're going to feel such a nice sense of gratitude. It's not the number one way, but it's a great, tangible way to feel gratitude, just saying

thank you for a compliment you got. Okay, you guys. So go keep a journal. Go practice mindful exercises with gratitude. Say thank you the next time you get a compliment. I hope this podcast helped you understand that, while we just experienced gratefulness yesterday with Thanksgiving, these are ways you can experience gratefulness and gratitude every single day, 365 days a year, every single year. And if you've never done it before, you obviously don't want to start out trying to do it every

single day. Take it in stride. It's just like a habit. You're building the habit of gratitude. So if you've never done it before, try it tomorrow, try it the next day, and then stack the days you do it each week. Then you'll see you're experiencing it consistently and constantly, and you'll see the ripple effects from it. I promise you. But you have to put it into play. You have to take the action to experience this feeling.

Allow yourself to experience gratitude. Okay. I appreciate you guys. I love you guys. If this podcast resonated with you, share it with somebody else it will also resonate with. And I will see you in the next podcast. Peace out.

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 you to do is leave a review. It will take you 10 seconds, and it will mean the absolute world to me and may change the world of someone else. I will see you next time.