How to Stop Yo-Yo Dieting and Keep Your Results for Good

Nikkiey: I've maintained my results. I've gotten better results. And I've been in control of my body and the way it looks through sustainable, realistic and, most importantly, happy ways, happy measures. I'm just living my life. It's just a part of my life now.

What's up, you guys? Welcome to The WarriorBabe Show with Nikkiey Stott, co-founder and brand personality of WarriorBabe, where we talk about mindset, methodology and tactics that will help you lose body fat, build muscle, be strong and feel insanely confident.

I'm your host, Nikkiey Stott, and welcome, my friends, to episode number one, all about welcoming you to The WarriorBabe Show. We'll dive into who this podcast is for, who it's not for and what it's all about. I'm going to share my fitness background with you, the backstory of it all and the birth of WarriorBabe, and then I'll explain this podcast's release schedule and its structure.

But most importantly, I am just so excited to dive into this journey with you all, to share my experiences, my professional tips, all of the information in my brain on how to go about achieving what you personally want to accomplish with your own body, whether it's decreasing body fat, building muscle, losing some weight, whatever it is. I am excited to pull out all of my information, all the tips that I know will help make you successful, and give it to you all.

And we're going to be able to pull out the same type of information from guests who will be on this podcast too. We're going to share insane value with you all, and the hope and the goal is that you will take this information and start applying it to your life with daily actions. That's going to result in what you want to see, the changes in your body composition. So it's like Christmas morning over here. I'm just so excited to be on this journey with you and to have this podcast live.

So let's talk about who this podcast is not for. This is not for anybody who is a quick-fix seeker. If you want to hop into something that's going to get you results in 30 days and expect that those results are going to be life-changing results, this is not for you. This podcast is not going to give you quick fixes.

This podcast is also not for people who are instant-gratification goers. Like, I'm going to pop my body into a microwave, press 30 seconds and out comes a toned body. Wanting results like yesterday. This is not for you. I am not going to speak to instant-gratification tactics.

This podcast is for those who understand, or want to understand, that building muscle and changing your body composition is a long-term game. It is not something that happens overnight. Just think of that phrase right there: changing your body composition. That is a lot to unpack. It is a long-term game. I'm going off a little here, but once you accept that your journey could take you six to eight to 12 to 18 months, you're going to enjoy the journey so much more.

But anyway, this is for those who understand or want to understand that building muscle and changing your body composition is a long-term game. This is also for those who are OK with getting obsessed, or want to learn how to get obsessed, with delayed gratification, knowing that taking small strides daily will compound over time. What you do today, what you do tomorrow, what you do the next day, you may not see the result in one week. But if you do it consistently over time, it's all going to compound. So in six months or eight months, you're going to see the results you want.

This is also for those who are just so overwhelmed on what to do and how to do it, because there are so many different things out there telling you how to get to the same result. I know how overwhelming the internet is, with all these tactics you see online to get you to the same result, where there are ten different ways to do it. If that is you and you're feeling entirely overwhelmed, or any of those other things I mentioned, you are in the right place. This podcast is for you.

This may be the first time you're hearing of Nikkiey Stott and WarriorBabe. But those who do know me, and the ones who will get to know me, know that I am a very straightforward and blunt person when it comes to anything fitness related. So this podcast will have a no-bullshit, no-nonsense approach to all things fitness. I'm going to tell you the truth on what it takes to build muscle and lose body fat, and some things I share with you on this podcast may be contrary to things you've seen or tried from the internet.

I just want to bring you insane value. I want to serve you and I want to help you along your fitness journey, but I want to cut straight to the truth. That is what this podcast is going to bring light to.

In order for you to trust everything that I am saying here, knowing that I am a professional in the space, and to be able to absorb everything you're going to learn within this podcast, I want to share my backstory with you, which I feel is going to be super relatable. I have been in your shoes. Of who this is for and who this is not for, I was one of those things along my journey. Trust is really important to me. I want you to be able to trust me and trust that I can help you along your own personal journey toward the goals you want to accomplish with changing your body composition.

So I want to share my story with you. I'm going to try to make it as short as I possibly can, but there's a lot to unpack. After struggling for so many years, it took me upwards of six to eight years to finally figure out how to live this sustainably. So there's a lot to unpack in those six to eight years, and I'm going to do it in as short an amount of time as I can.

It all started back in my early 20s. I'm 32 now, going to be 33 in March. My early 20s were literally the struggle bus of my years, from 2010 to 2014. I always wanted to be fit and healthy. I was an athlete my entire life, but I didn't look like an athlete. I wanted to be healthy, I wanted to be fit, but I had no idea where to start. Double that with hating the way that I looked. I always covered up in baggy clothes and I never wore shorts because I hated the way my legs looked.

In those couple of years, I tried to get a grip on eating right. I tried a bunch of different things and hitting the gym, but I was on and off that trend for years. I could never keep anything consistent or give it enough time to produce results.

Is any of this resonating with you? I hope it is. I know that I have been in your shoes, and I hope my story hits some points you're struggling with, and you think, oh, she can do it, and I can do it too. Because it's so true.

So that was my early 20s. Then finally, in 2015, I made a New Year's resolution to myself that this was the year I transformed my body and that I was going to feel more confident in my skin. I was a New Year's resolution girl who actually followed through, because I was sick and tired of being sick and tired of how I felt, how I looked, everything. And this may sound super familiar, since New Year's was only last week. It's 2023. Maybe you have these same feelings and goals as well.

However, in those first three months of 2015, I still had no idea what I was doing. I was engulfed with so many different methods from the internet. Do this, do that, eat this. A hundred different things to get the same result. The result I wanted was always an athletic-looking figure. I wanted to be toned, I wanted to have muscle and I wanted to be strong. I knew I have a very strong personality and a very strong demeanor, and I wanted my outside to match my inside. But with all of this do this, do that, you can get the same result, it was hella confusing.

But regardless of how confused I was, I was still taking action daily in some way to support my goal, even if it didn't make sense. For example, I Googled foods that had protein in them because I'd heard protein was important to build muscle. So I started making dinners with more protein in them. I remember making stuffed peppers.

Were my days perfect with food at that time? Absolutely not. Hell no. Guys, I had an obsession with sugar, with sweets. They always got the best of me. I loved candy. And I was only making dinner, so the rest of my day was one other meal with fruit and yogurt in it. I wasn't having breakfast. Not knowing all I know now, I wasn't eating enough to support the type of goals that I had. But it was a start. So with it being the new year for you, even if it doesn't make sense, just start doing something that supports the goal.

That was the nutrition side. I was also Pinteresting workouts to do. However, at first I was so intimidated by the dudes in the weight room, and by whether I'd even be doing the weight exercises I found on Pinterest right. I was so worried about how I looked and whether I looked like I was doing it the right way. So instead of walking into the weight room for the first couple of months, I would walk right up to the treadmills and do cardio.

At the beginning of that year, I signed up for two half marathons in the spring and summer, because I thought that was a good way to get the body that I wanted. So yes, I was a cardio bunny too. I was running, I was training for it and I wasn't eating enough. This is fascinating. Needless to say, the first two months of my efforts were rocky. I did see some results, but I was looking more skinny fat, not toned. It wasn't the type of result that was in the vision in my mind.

And this is where the transition started to happen. Instagram got me. I saw these bodybuilding competitors with the bodies I wanted and started wondering, what are they doing that I'm not? I literally started dreaming of those bodies. I started dreaming of me having them. I started dreaming of being on stage. I contemplated competing at this time. I even told my family, guys, I want to do this. And I'll say this on the podcast: I didn't have support at the beginning. But I just wanted it all so bad. I wanted this body so bad. I had this insane, endless desire to achieve this for myself.

So one day, in late March or the beginning of April of 2015, I'm leaving the gym and the general manager asks me if I'm getting ready for a bikini competition. I literally froze. I was like, holy shit. I was unconsciously competent at this time, and now I know this was manifestation in true form, if you believe in that woo stuff. I believe in setting a vision for yourself, figuring out all the actions to start taking and aligning yourself with the person you want to become.

So I told him I was considering it, and he gave me a local coach's info to reach out to. And I did. I immediately went home, took action, emailed this person and scheduled a meet and greet with him within two days. When I met him, I signed up with him on the spot.

He was a professional, and I needed professional help. I had no idea what I was doing, and I was sick and tired of not knowing what I was doing and being overwhelmed. I was like, dude, let me just cut down the time by learning from this person's mistakes, get his professional input and let him help me. Within a week, he gave me both a nutrition and a workout plan to follow, with the goal to compete in my first bodybuilding competition in November 2015.

I think I got the plan from him on a Thursday or Friday. I quit everything cold turkey and started the following Monday. I mean, my sugar addiction, I just stopped. I meal prepped everything for myself that Sunday and I hit the ground running on Monday.

Guys, hiring a coach, hiring a professional, is what accelerated my results. He was a professional. He knew what he was doing. He'd probably helped hundreds of people before me. So when I hired him, my results literally accelerated.

For eight months, I put in the work. I was insanely dedicated to achieving this outcome. However, a lot of it was not easy. I'll put a plug in here: I worked out, I meal prepped and I dedicated time to this whole thing while I was finishing my nursing degree, taking care of my sick grandmother and working part time in the emergency room of a local hospital. But I'll save that and share it in another podcast.

So for eight months, I put in this work. I was insanely dedicated to this outcome. No excuses, just getting it done. Coming up to November and show day, I won. I became a pro that same day. Now, this was a very small organization, so I got to compete with the pros that same night, and I beat the pros that same night and won some money. Man, I was on fire. I was lit up. I was so excited. I was like, holy moly, I'm reaping my rewards right now.

And I wanted more. I was stoked. I became obsessed with understanding how all of this works: the body, strength training, nutrition, everything, and how it all tied together. Mind you, I was eating way more food than I ever fathomed was possible, and I was getting these insane results.

Hey, I just want to drop a huge appreciation to you for 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. Let's get back to the show.

And PS, you don't have to compete to gain results of building muscle and decreasing body fat. I've worked with a lot of women who say, I just want to look like those people on stage, and that's totally chill and totally cool. You don't have to go through the grueling prep, and I'll save all that for another show. But you don't have to compete to gain the types of results that I achieved for myself.

So let's get back to it. The high didn't last long. That high did not last long. I was a beginner to it all and super naive at this point. After the goal was achieved, I had nothing really to look forward to. I thought, oh, my body can stay like this forever. Wrong. I gained back 25 pounds in one month.

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Twenty-five pounds in one month. It was a very devastating point in my journey. After the show, I was heavier than when I started my journey. It sucked. It literally sucked. I was the lowest I've ever been. I started my journey at around 140 or 145 pounds, and I got down to 123 pounds. I was shredded. Then in one month, I gained 25 pounds back, which put me above my starting weight. I looked fatter. I was fat.

I struggled for a few months there before I told my coach I wanted to compete again, because it was all I knew to get results. So I did. I went through the grueling prep life for competition again, and I competed in early 2016, this time winning pro status with a bigger federation. I took first place in that show as well. It's the OCB, a natural federation.

You guys, I am 100 percent natural. I've been drug tested. I've been polygraphed. People tell me I'm on steroids all the time. They leave nasty comments on Instagram and Facebook. But let's just say it right here: I am completely natural, and I'll say it over and over again.

So, awesome, I won again. Cool. I was happy with my body. Then I fell into the gaining-weight yo-yo life again, and this time I was stuck in it for about two years. It seriously rocked me. There are some stories in between. This is where I got certified as a CPT and I graduated with my BSN. But I'll save those smaller stories for podcasts to come.

I want to get on to when I competed in 2018 at a pro show. Again, I was like, I've got to get these results back. I've got to get my body back. So I competed again, but as a pro at this point. It was never really my goal to do that, but I had to get my body back in order, and this was the only way I knew how to do it. I competed at the biggest pro show in the OCB federation, and I won again. I took first place against eight or nine other pros I was up on stage with.

So in 2018, I became the best women's physique athlete in the natural OCB federation, and I retired undefeated. I won all of my shows. I took first place every time. I never lost, which was a pretty cool thing.

And this was the point where I decided: no more yo-yo afterward. No more gaining all this weight back. I'm sure you can resonate. This is where people reach a goal and then don't have anything to look forward to, and then they yo-yo off and gain it all back, and they do it repeatedly over time. Some people do it for five to ten years. But this time, I was like, no more.

All the habits I learned through my years that got me my results, I started to apply in a sustainable and realistic way. This is also where I learned that a stage-day body is not realistic to keep around. Honestly, in my opinion, competitions are awesome for developing discipline and grit. The mindset shit is so there. But it's just not worth it for 15 minutes max on stage, only to be judged by judges on your body. That's my opinion.

From 2018 to today, 2023, I've maintained my results. I've gotten better results. And I've been in control of my body and the way it looks through sustainable, realistic and, most importantly, happy ways, happy measures. I'm just living my life. It's just a part of my life now. I'm so happy that I've been able to take my experiences, the pain I felt and the reflection I gained, and put them into a process that works for me and now works for 10,000-plus women inside of WarriorBabe.

So this is where WarriorBabe was born. There's another backstory to this. It was once named Alpha Female Fitness, but the trademark was taken, so we had to cease and desist. Man, was that a time.

Anyway, WarriorBabe was born because I felt that if I could do this, I knew other women could. I went into nursing because I've always just wanted to help people. It was a matter of giving women the right tools, guidance and accountability to do so, and helping them accelerate their results like I did. Most importantly, I wanted women to know the truth, instead of all the bullshit approaches online that aren't helping women just like you learn how to be in control of their bodies and how to do it sustainably and realistically for the rest of their lives.

Since then, WarriorBabe has helped over 10,000 women transform their bodies and their lives through our methodologies and our tactics, which I'll be sharing with you in episodes of this podcast to come. Women who are just like you, struggling to know what to do and how to do it to get the results: to build muscle, to lose body fat and to feel confident in themselves. Women in their 40s and 50s struggling with their hormones, going through menopause and trying to figure out how they can get these results during this phase of life. Women who are literally just like you.

We've helped all body types: small, athletic, overweight. People who are 30, 40, 50, 60, 70. We even have an 82-year-old in our VIP program. With our methodology and the tactics I'm going to be sharing with you, I hope that you will be next to become a WarriorBabe.

That was the bulk of the story of the evolution of WarriorBabe, to now helping thousands of women with what I struggled with, while making it personal to them. It's about not just giving them the tactics and the methodology and why they should be doing this. This is why I like to use the analogy of the iceberg. You've probably seen it online.

A lot of programs and a lot of coaches, and nothing against it, just focus on the tactics. Here's your workout program. Here's what you need to do nutritionally. That's the tip of the iceberg that people see: this person's following this plan, this person's doing this diet, this person's training this way.

But nobody sees the bottom of the iceberg, which is the mindset: the discipline, the willpower, overcoming obstacles, overcoming excuses, the grit, the perseverance. Showing up for yourself when you don't want to. We build upon those habits and those mindset things because we have to break the patterns you've been stuck in, the same patterns I was stuck in, which is why I yo-yoed so many times. I went back to all my old habits. So you have to break those patterns and those habits, and then you can successfully achieve what's on the tip of the iceberg, all the tactics.

Those are a couple of the things we implement inside of WarriorBabe, and I'm going to be sharing them with you on this podcast as well. I'm sure the other guests I bring onto this podcast will be shedding light on those types of topics too. So I'm super excited.

Again, that was a little bit of my backstory. I hope it resonates with you. I hope you know that not only am I a professional in this space, but I have endured what you are going through. I've been in your shoes and I've overcome all of it. That's what I'm here to share with you, and to give you insane value on this podcast, in hopes that you take everything I share with you, put it into action and apply it to your own journey. That's all I ask.

So let's dive into the release schedule for this podcast. To start, we're going to be releasing two to three episodes weekly, with the goal of adding more per week. I just want this to blow up. So if you're listening to this right now, please share it. I would love to see who's listening to the first episode we're kicking off. Share it to your Instagram, share it somewhere I'll be able to see it, and tag me at Nikkiey Stott, which is where I live on Instagram, and tag WarriorBabe.

We're going to be sharing two to three episodes weekly with the goal of adding more. So on top of sharing it, make sure you subscribe on your favorite podcast platform so you're notified as soon as new episodes become available. This podcast will also be hosted on YouTube for anyone who loves watching the visual and audio together. I just waved at the camera.

Then the structure. As I shared in the opening, the topics we're going to be talking about are mindset, methodologies and tactics that will help you lose body fat, build muscle, be strong and feel insanely confident. We're going to keep it interview style at some points as well, so we'll be inviting guests on and speaking to specific topics with them so you can learn from them too.

I will also be opening it up to audience participation, Q&A style. Maybe I'll post on my Instagram and the WarriorBabe Instagram asking you for the questions you want answered. Maybe we'll even have an email address you can send questions to. I want to welcome your participation so I can feel like I'm talking to you directly.

So that's the schedule, that's the structure, and that about wraps it up for today's podcast, episode number one. Again, I'm super stoked to be here on this journey with you all, to share all of my knowledge with you and to inspire you to take the necessary actions required to achieve the goals you want to accomplish for yourself.

If you want to check out WarriorBabe, you can go to warriorbabe.com, or follow us on socials at WarriorBabe on Instagram and at Nikkiey Stott on Instagram. We're on TikTok, we're on YouTube, we're on all of the platforms. So check us out, and I look forward to you listening in on episode number two. See you then.