Why Daily Habits Beat Quick Fixes for Fat Loss After 40

Nikkiey: Making a change that is 1% better or 1% worse seems insignificant in the moment, but over the span of moments that make up a lifetime, these differences determine who you are and who you could be.

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, 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 seven, all about success being in your daily habits, not in your one-off transformations.

Guys, what matters the most is how you are showing up right now, how you are showing up in your day-to-day right now. The things that you do day-to-day, they will repeat, they will compound. They are the path to your results. And like I talked about in episode number two, focusing on your systems and not so much on your goals, when you master these day-to-day strategies, these systems, these better habits, inevitably you will master your goal. You will master the results that you want to accomplish.

So I'm going to just dive right into it. What's so freaking crazy, you guys, is that you may have done this before: you convince yourselves that massive success, massive change requires massive action. Like it's January 1 and you need to nail everything required of you on January 1, or the first week of January, to have massive success in X amount of time.

With achieving a goal of fat loss, changing your body composition, building muscle and looking more toned, you put so much pressure on yourself to make this insane change and to do it so fast. Right? For example: I have a vacation in 60 days, can I achieve X amount of weight loss by then? It's this insane pressure on you to make this insane change super fast. Or if you're working with a coach: yo coach, in what time can I achieve X amount of a body fat drop?

I know you've been there. This next one, I've coached women, and our coaches in the VIP program have coached women, who have said this: my son or my daughter is getting married in two weeks, can I lose 20 pounds in this time frame? And the thing is, so many of you are focused on the end result, these one-off transformations. And yet you're not focused on, or you have never mastered, the habits needed to achieve these results in a sustainable and a realistic way. Right?

So like I talked about, so many of you guys focus on, I want to achieve this X goal in this X amount of time and have this amazing transformation. But what actually got you there? That's how you're going to be able to master it in a sustainable way and maintain the results. How did you get to that transformation? How did you get to the end result? How did you get to that goal? That's why so many people yo-yo. They focus on the end result, they get there, and all of a sudden they fall back into their old ways. They never mastered the habits that were needed to achieve those results in a sustainable and realistic way.

So my goal within this podcast today is to break beliefs around your perspective of results and to help you better focus on your day-to-day habits.

So something key to note, you guys, whether you note it mentally or, if you have a notepad while you're listening to this, you write it down: our habits are the compound interest of our self-improvement. The effects of your habits multiply as you repeat them. And the effects of these habits can be good or bad. They can be good habits or they can be bad habits, but either way, they multiply as you repeat them. The good or the bad repetition of these habits seems to make little difference on any given day, yet the impact they deliver over the months and years can be absolutely enormous.

So when you look two to five or even 10 years later is only when you can see the value of good habits and the cost of bad ones, right? For example, for bad ones, if you look back over the last year or five years or 10 years, you can think of all of the bad habits that got you to where you are today, if you have not yet achieved the results or the goals that you want to accomplish. Like I said in episode number two, your body is not the problem. The systems that got you to that body are the problem, and they're what need to be changed.

But this concept of looking out those two to five or even 10 years, and the impact your habits deliver, good or bad, is so hard for so many people to grasp. I just painted that picture for you there. You can see all of the things you've maybe done the last 10 years that have gotten you to where you are, but you're still not where you want to be. So that's the cost of all these bad ones. Even when it comes to thinking about the good ones: in a two-week span, you can make all of these changes that may support your future goals, but will you follow through past those two weeks? And will you follow through on the things that got you results, to get to where you want to be?

So people often dismiss the small changes you do day to day because they don't seem to matter so much in the moment. For example, if you go to the gym three days in a row, you're still out of shape. If you track macros for two weeks, you still may look the same. If you track macros for one month, you still may look the same, right? Three days, two weeks, one month, you guys, that is such a small timeframe in relation to the truth of how long it will take you to achieve your goal, and most importantly, to achieve it in a sustainable way.

You guys know that I'm big on speaking to the fact that changing your body composition, if you think of that phrase, is a lot to unpack. The end result is not going to happen in three months. The end result may not even happen in six months. The end result is probably going to take you years to achieve, right? So three days in, people give up. They try to make these small little changes in a short amount of time, but they're not getting to where they want to be. So they're like, fuck it, right? It's not working after one to two weeks, fuck it. It's not working after one to two months, fuck it.

And what I'm trying to express and articulate here is that very small shift in the direction of fuck it, letting all of the bad habits sink back in, can lead to a very meaningful change in your destination. So something very important to note here is that if you let all of these old habits and bad habits sink back in, a delayed or totally elongated change in the time it takes you to reach your end results can happen, right?

So maybe you're one of those instant gratification people. You want to see results in such a short amount of time and you're like, oh my God, I need to make all this massive change and have massive success. I have a vacation in two months, I need to lose 20 pounds in those two months, or I need to lose 50 pounds in those two months. Yet you're two weeks in, you're not seeing the change you want, and you're like, screw it. And all these old habits sink back in. Well, are you going to be where you want to be in that two-month timeframe? No. You're shifting the time it's going to take you to reach that destination.

A lot of what I'm sharing with you here right now is from the book Atomic Habits, and I would highly recommend that you order it on Amazon. This is where a lot of what I'm speaking to is coming from. I've had a lot of our WarriorBabes, a lot of my clients and a lot of our coaches' clients read this book because it can dramatically help you. So there's this quote I love. It says: making a change that is 1% better or 1% worse seems insignificant in the moment, but over the span of moments that make up a lifetime, these differences determine who you are and who you could be.

Hey, hey, I just want to drop a huge appreciation to you guys listening to the show. It means a lot. I hope you guys are 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 also help this podcast reach others who need to hear these messages too. Thanks so much, guys. Let's get back to the show.

So if you overindulge one time, but let that turn into two weeks or four months, that will determine who you are and what your results could be in six to 12 months. But if you stay on track, being consistent the majority of the time, that will determine who you are and what your results could be in that same timeframe of six to 12 months, right?

If you overindulge, it's that small, minute thing that isn't really felt in the moment. You go off track for one whole week, or you indulge one time in a day, and that seems insignificant in the moment. But if you turn that into two weeks or four months, that's going to determine who you are and where your results will be in that six to 12 month timeframe.

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But let's say you overindulge one time and you're like, no, no, no, I need to get back on track the next day, and you're consistent the majority of the time and you follow through. That's going to determine where you are, who you are and what your results could be in that same timeframe of six to 12 months.

So your success is the product of your daily habits. Your success is in how well you're operating your systems, not in these one-off transformations. Like I said in episode number two, so many people are attached to the goal and just want to achieve the goal. They want to lose 20 pounds in two months, right? But how did you get there? Your success is in those habits. Your success is in those moments. And if you can understand and become aware of how you became successful in reaching that goal, and you just do more of that, that's going to help you maintain it and achieve all of the goals you want to accomplish in a sustainable, realistic way, okay?

So right now, it doesn't matter how successful or unsuccessful you are. Cool, great, you hit your planned workouts this week. Or, oh well, you messed up on your macros today. What matters is whether your habits are putting you on the path of success. So cool, you hit all your workouts this week. You're going to do it next week, right? You're going to do it the week after that. You're going to do it for the next two months. That's the habit that will put you on the path of success. Oh well, you messed up on your macros today. Oh well, get back on it tomorrow. Don't beat yourself up. That's a habit that's going to put you on the path of success.

And you know what, guys? Something that could be really transformational for you is the questions you ask yourself. You have to ask yourself good questions that will get you good answers that will help you if you're struggling, right? For example, when I coach women, or when our coaches coach women, we will ask them: hey, are you consistently hitting your macros this week? Or, did you at least hit your macros six out of seven days this week? And they say yes. And I'm like, Mary, girl, why are you lying to me? You ain't lying to me. You're lying to yourself.

I will go back into their MyFitnessPal, and I will see that they didn't hit their macros for the majority of the week. They're like 500 calories under, or 50 carbs under or over, or they didn't hit their protein on the majority of the days of the week. And it's like, how is this going to help you? Right? Don't lie to yourself, you guys. You've got to ask yourself the questions that will help you realize and become aware of, oh crap, you know what? I didn't hit my macros. I'm going to do better. I didn't get my workouts all done this month. I'm going to do better. Because those habits are what's going to put you on the path to success, right? So even if you mess up with your macros one day, are you waking up and trying better the next day? You guys should be far more concerned with your current path than you are with your results.

And if you're working with a coach, that relationship is a two-way street. So if you're lying and saying that you did hit your macros, yet you didn't, guess what? You're going to still be stuck in the same position you're in a month from now, or two months from now, or three months from now, or four months from now. Because you're saying, oh, I did hit my macros, but you didn't hit your macros. So your coach is going to be changing all these things, and it's going to throw you off track and maybe not get you to where you want to be, right?

So you've got to be far more concerned with: hey, am I being honest about where I am in my journey? Am I following my macros? Am I getting my workouts in? And if you are honest, the truth will set you free. You tell your coach, and your coach is going to help you get unstuck, get out of your own way, X, Y and Z. So it's a two-way relationship, but you should be far more concerned with your path than you are with your results. Are the things you're doing, the habits you're doing, putting you on the path to success? Are you being honest with yourself? Are you hitting your macros? Are you doing your workouts? Are you getting enough sleep? Are you drinking your water? Right? Are they putting you on the path to the results you want to accomplish? Okay?

If you want to achieve fat loss and tone up, but you aren't giving your macros a fair shot, then you're on a bad path. If you want to achieve fat loss and tone up and you're consistently showing up daily, then you're on the path toward your goals. And guys, that's true even if you're moving slower than you'd like, right? Like I told you guys in episode number one, this is a no-bullshit, no-nonsense podcast. I'm bringing you guys the truth, even if this shit doesn't sound sexy. Even if you're moving slower than you'd like, if you are consistently showing up the majority of the time, you are on the path toward your goals.

This is where a lot of people get tripped up, right? They want to see results in two to three weeks, and they don't because they're moving too slow, so they stop. You've got to understand that changing your body composition, like I said previously, is a lot to unpack. So you may be moving slower than you'd like, but you're going to get to where you want to be if you're consistently showing up for six, eight, 12 months. I'm going to explain that in a second.

But understand this: you get what you repeat. The positive habits that you do today and tomorrow will compound on each other just as much as the negative ones will. And in six to 12 months, you can understand what your results will be like, depending on how positive or negative your habits are toward supporting the goals you want to accomplish. So showing up consistently will guarantee you results in six months. Showing up sporadically will guarantee you results in double that time. Right?

Is this all making sense? I truly hope this is helping you guys. I truly hope some light bulbs are going off and you're having aha moments, and truly grasping the fact that you could have some success in two weeks, but it's not going to be the end goal. You've got to understand that this takes time, and the way to do it sustainably and realistically and maintain it is: what are you doing today, tomorrow and the next day that will compound over time and get you to where you want to be? Is it supporting you or is it not supporting you? Is it costing you with bad habits, or are you moving forward with good ones?

So I want to share an analogy from the book Atomic Habits that I just spoke about. This is how progress works. Imagine that you have an ice cube sitting on the table in front of you. The room is cold and you can see your breath. Okay? It's currently 25 degrees in that room. And then, ever so slowly, the room begins to heat up. 26 degrees, 27 degrees, 28 degrees. That cube, though, is still on the table in front of you. Nothing is happening. 29 degrees, 30 degrees, 31 degrees. Still nothing is happening to that ice cube. Then the room gets to 32 degrees and the ice cube begins to melt. A one-degree shift, seemingly no different than the temperature changes before it, just unlocked a huge change.

And guys, the same thing happens with your bodies. Okay? So you're doing all of this work for two months, three months, and maybe you're not where you want to be, or you're not seeing results as fast as you want. But then all of a sudden, bam, in the fourth month you're unlocking a new level of performance. You're unleashing a major change. You're seeing all of these new changes happening within your body. New detail, new definition, more muscle, right?

Look, along all of your journeys there's always a valley of disappointment, where you expect to make progress in a linear fashion, right? Weight loss isn't linear, and it's frustrating how minimal the changes can seem during the first days, weeks and even months. How many of you guys have felt that before? Sometimes you just aren't getting anywhere. You aren't making any progress. This is literally the hallmark of any compounding process. The most powerful results are delayed. You need to get obsessed with delayed gratification, as I've talked about before, and get rid of the instant gratification idea that you can put your body into a microwave and in 30 seconds out pops a toned body.

This is why it's so hard to build habits that last. People make a few small changes, fail to see a tangible result, and so they decide to stop, right? They go to the gym a couple of times, or maybe, since we're at the end of January here, you've gone a couple of weeks doing these small changes, but you're not seeing the results you want, so you decide to stop. Don't decide to stop. This is what I hope this podcast helps you do. Do not decide to stop. Keep going. Keep showing up consistently, because if you keep doing the work for the next three months, hey, guess what? You're that ice cube sitting on the table in front of you. The room went from 25 to 31 over zero to three months, and then bam, fourth month, 32 degrees. You've unlocked this change.

People make a few small changes, they fail to see tangible results and they decide to stop, right? You think, I've been tracking my macros for four weeks, so why am I not seeing any changes in my body? Once this thinking takes over, it is so easy to let good habits fall apart, and this is what's going to cause a drastic change in your destination. But in order to make a sustainable, meaningful difference, you have to persist with your habits until you break through.

This is where, in episode number four, I talk about who you are becoming. You have to keep persisting even though you're not seeing the things you want to see or the changes you want to have. Think about the person who's already achieved the goal. Go to that person. What is she doing? What are the actions she's taking? How is she talking to herself? How is she showing up every single day? And just keep showing up like her, right? That's what I talk about in episode number four, if you haven't listened to it yet. So you have to just keep plugging away. You have to keep showing up for yourself. Persist with these good habits and know that you will reap your rewards. You will have a breakthrough.

Complaining about not achieving results despite working hard is like complaining about an ice cube not melting when you've heated it from 25 to 31 degrees. You're doing all of this work, right? I know you're doing all this work. But complaining when you've done three months of it, and that's it? Keep going. The fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth month, everything is going to compound over time.

Look, understand this: the work that you're putting in, guys, it's not wasted, nor was it ever wasted. If you're three months into the new year and you're not seeing the results you want, it's not wasted. It's just being stored, and all of the changes happen in the fourth, fifth, sixth month, at 32 degrees, right? So don't give up. Get obsessed with delayed gratification. Know that even though the things you're doing today and tomorrow may seem insignificant in the moment, man, can they make a drastic difference in the months and years to come.

So to wrap up this podcast today, guys: our habits are the compound interest of our self-improvement. Think back one year and see the habits that have gotten you here today. Our success is the product of our daily habits, not of these one-off transformations. Understand that if what you do today, tomorrow and the next day, the systems you have in place, are supporting you toward where you want to go, you will get there. It's inevitable. You will reap the work that you're putting in. But you've got to detach from the one-off transformations and these goals and just focus on getting better at these supporting daily habits, these systems. Be far more concerned with your path than you are with the results.

And you get what you repeat, good or bad. Everything compounds, good or bad. So if you're casting these votes I talked about in episode number four for your old self, you will get your old self. You will stay where you are now, with the body you may be stuck in, right? But if you cast good votes and do those supporting habits, you will get what you repeat. Everything compounds, good or bad.

And breakthrough moments are often the result of many previous actions, which build up the potential to unleash major change. So put in the work, keep putting in the work, and don't expect something to change in a two-week time span. Especially if you became overweight due to 10 years of bad habits, that shit's not going to change in a two-week time span. It's not going to happen in a two-month time span. Okay? So breakthrough moments are often the result of all of these good supporting actions, these good supporting habits, and they will build up to unleash major change. Maybe it's going to be five months for you, six months for you, eight months for you, whatever it is. Get obsessed with delayed gratification.

And the work that you're putting in, guys, the hard work that I know you're doing, it's not being wasted. Don't think, after three months, oh my God, I'm not seeing the results I want, so everything I've done these last three months is just wasted. That's not true. It's just being stored, and you're about to unlock some major changes in the months to come, as long as you keep showing up for yourself and keep being consistent.

All right, guys, I hope you enjoyed that podcast. It's one of my favorites. And side note, guys, I recorded this podcast right before this one and it didn't record. I was so upset, but I was like, no, I need to get this out there. They need to hear this. I'm not going to get mad at myself. I'm going to re-record it, and it's going to be recorded this time. So please, guys, it would mean so much to me, because that sucked having to do, but I wanted you guys to have this podcast, if you shared this. Screenshot it and tag me on Instagram in your story or wherever so I can see that you listened to it and found value. It would mean the world to me. All right, guys, I'll see you in the next podcast.

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.