Running Lean with Patrick McGilvray
If you feel like you’re doing all the right things—running consistently, trying to eat better, maybe even adding some strength work—but you’re still not seeing the results you want…this episode is …
Continue Reading about 328. How Runners Sabotage Their Own Progress (And Don’t Even Realize It) →
My name is Patrick McGilvray, and I’m an experienced marathoner, ultra runner sports nutritionist, master life coach, and weight loss coach. For runners, I’ve dedicated my life to helping runners just like you, properly fuel your body and your mind so you can get leaner, get stronger, run faster, and run longer than you ever thought. Possible. This is running Lean.
Hey there, and welcome to episode 328 of Running Lean. My name is Patrick McGilvray, the weight loss coach for runners and today, How runners sabotage their own progress and don’t even realize it. So if you feel like you’re doing All the right things. You’re running consistently, you’re trying to eat better, maybe even adding some strength work.
I recommend this, by the way, but you’re still not seeing results that you want. This episode is going to hit home for you because here’s the truth, most runners aren’t stuck because they’re not trying hard enough. They’re stuck because they unknowingly are working against themselves. And it’s kind of subtle.
Sometimes it shows up in how you train, how you recover, how you eat, and how you think about all of this stuff. You don’t need more motivation. You don’t need a new training plan. What you need is self-awareness. So in this episode, I’m gonna break it all down. I’m gonna talk about the most common ways that runners sabotage their own progress.
But most importantly, I’m gonna teach you how to stop doing that so you can finally start moving forward. Okay, let’s get right into this. So if you’re anything like most runners that I talk to, you’re probably going to feel like you’re doing a lot of the right things. You know, you’re getting your runs in, you’re sticking to your training plan, you’re trying to eat better.
Uh, maybe you’ve even started doing some strength training. And on the surface, all of this looks good. It looks like you should be making progress, but you’re really not seeing the results that you expect to see. You are not getting leaner, you’re not really building strength. Running. Still feel harder than it should, and it’s frustrating, right?
’cause you are putting in all this work, you wanna see the results. But what do most people do in this situation? They just assume that they need to do more, more intensity, more mileage, more food restriction, you know, more effort all the way across the board. But here’s what I wanna offer to you today.
What if the problem isn’t that you’re not doing enough? What if the problem is that you’re doing things that are quietly working against you? So that’s what we’re here talking about today, because self-sabotage, it doesn’t look like laziness. It doesn’t look like skipping workouts or not caring about anything.
Most of the time it looks like effort. You know, it looks like you’re trying hard, it looks like you’re doing what you think is right. Even though you’re not actually making any forward progress. So today I’m gonna walk you through the most common ways that I see runners sabotage their own progress across training, strength, nutrition, and especially your mindset.
And then most importantly, I’m gonna teach you how to start fixing that. So let’s define self-sabotage first because it’s important that you understand, um, what self-sabotage actually looks like. So self-sabotage is when your actions don’t line up with your goals. That’s it. So you might say that you want to get stronger.
But you’re never really challenging yourself. When you hit the gym, you might say you wanna lose some weight, you want to get leaner, but your eating habits are kind of all over the place. You might say that you want to become a better runner, but your training is inconsistent or unfocused, and it’s not that you don’t care, it’s that there’s a disconnect between what you say you want.
And what you’re actually doing day to day, and most of the time you’re not even aware of it. That’s the key here. That’s why it’s so subtle. It’s, it’s sneaky, but until you actually start to see some of these things, you can’t change it. So I’m gonna, I’m gonna bring some awareness into, we’re gonna shine a flashlight on self-sabotage today and how it sneaks in.
So let’s start with, um, training sabotage. Okay. So we’re gonna start with running. This is where most people feel pretty confident, and ironically, it’s where a lot of the biggest problems actually happen. One of the most common patterns I see with runners is this. They’re doing a lot of effort, but it’s a lot of the wrong kind of effort.
They’re running too hard on those days that are supposed to be easy, and they’re not intentionally running hard enough on their hard days. So everything kind of lives in that middle gray zone. Not enough, not easy enough to recover and not hard enough to create real adaptation. And over time, that just leads to stagnation.
You’re tired all the time. You’re not improving, and it just leads to burnout. Another big one from a running perspective is inconsistency. So you might have a couple of great weeks. You know, you put everything together and you feel amazing, and then you know, life gets busy. You fall off your training plan and then you try to jump back in at that same level you are at a few weeks back, but it doesn’t work.
And this cycle repeats over and over and over. That’s self-sabotage, not because you’re doing it on purpose, but because the pattern itself prevents progress. And then there’s avoidance. That’s a whole nother thing that’s avoiding discomfort, avoiding training, avoiding structure, avoiding anything that feels too hard or God forbid, too boring.
So instead of following a plan, you’re just going by feel. I hear this a lot of times from her. I just kind of run by feel. And listen, that’s okay. There’s a place for that in this world, okay? But if going by feel means you’re always choosing what feels comfortable, then you’re not training. Let’s just be honest.
You’re not training, you’re just exercising, which is great, and I love this, but these are not the same things here. Okay? So the bottom line is that. You don’t get better from random effort. You get better from intentional stress followed by recovery. That’s where your body adapts. But if your training lacks structure or progression or consistency, then your likely sabotaging your own results.
Even if it looks like effort, even it looks like you’re putting in a lot of miles. Okay. The second area that I see a lot of people self-sabotage is around strength training. This is where a lot of runners either drop the ball completely or they check the box, you know, that says I’m doing strength training without actually getting any benefits from this.
Okay, so first of all. This is very common, by the way. Some runners, they just don’t do it, right? They, they say they don’t have time, they’re too tired from running, or they say they don’t know what to do. But at the end of the day, it’s just not a priority for them. And if your goal is to get stronger and become a better runner, that’s a problem because strength training is not optional.
It’s foundational. And there are runners who do some kind of strength training, but it’s super random, right? Different exercises every time. No plan. They’re not making any progress. They just do whatever feels good that day. Th this is not how strength works, right? Your body adapts to this principle called progressive overload, meaning you have to gradually increase the demand over time, and that could mean more weight, more reps, more control.
But if you’re doing the same like dumbbell workout every week. This is fine. Again, you’re maintaining, but you’re not building. You’re not going to get any stronger doing that. And so this is big. A lot of runners stay in their comfort zone with strength training. They don’t wanna lift heavy, uh, they don’t wanna feel any soreness at all, and they don’t want strength training to interfere with their running.
So they keep everything super easy and very light, and they, they keep just doing the same things over again, again, staying in their comfort zone. But the truth is, if it’s not challenging, it’s not going to change you. And then finally, a big one that I see around strength training is that as you’re running volume increases, strength training just disappears altogether.
It becomes the first thing that you take off the table. And I have to be very honest with you, if you’re somebody that does this, I used to do this too. I see people do this all the time. That’s backwards because the more you run, the more you need to do strength training. And if your strength training is inconsistent or unstructured or if it’s too easy, you’re likely sabotaging your own running performance and you don’t even realize it.
Okay. Number three, and this is a big one for a lot of us here, um, nutrition sabotage. This is where things get really interesting because a lot of runners that I talk to will be like, yeah, I eat pretty healthy. And they’re not completely wrong. You know, they’re not eating fast food every day. They don’t drink, you know, coke and things like that.
Um, they make pretty decent choices. But here’s where the sabotage starts to happen a little bit. It’s the inconsistency. So you might be eating well during the week, and then the weekend comes around, and then everything kind of goes out the window. And you feel like you’re always starting over again on Monday, um, or you’re under fueling during the day.
You know, you’re like, oh, I’m, I’m, you know, cutting back on my calories a little bit. I’m cutting back on my intake, and then at night you just go binge and eat everything in sight. Okay, so overeating at nighttime or you’re using running as a justification? Just eat everything. This was me back in the day I ran so that I could eat everything and anything I wanted to.
But if your goal is to lose weight, this is gonna backfire on you a hundred percent, right? Uh, you’re not tracking anything. You’re not paying attention. You’re just going by feel. And again, this can kind of work, you know? But if you’re somebody that wants to train and improve your running performance and get stronger and lose some weight at the same time, you know, improve that body composition, lose body fat, improve lean muscle mass, you’ve gotta pay attention.
Fat loss, energy levels and performance all come down to consistent habits over time. You can’t fake this, right? And this isn’t about being perfect, uh, a perfectionist. It’s not being, you know, having to do everything perfect all the time. Never eating a donut, never having a piece of pizza. You can do that sometimes.
Okay? This is not about being perfect. It’s about being consistent. And if you’re nutrition is like swinging back and forth between being on track and off the rails. Then you’re not giving your body what it needs to actually adapt. Here’s a key point. You cannot out train inconsistent nutrition, right? I always say you can’t outrun a bad diet.
Uh, it doesn’t matter how many miles you run. If you’re eating habits are all over the place, they’re unpredictable, then your results will be as well. Okay, let’s get into the root cause of all of this. And we’re gonna zoom out a little bit. We’re gonna talk about, um, the root cause of, of self-sabotage when it comes to training and, and building strength and nutrition.
It’s all behavior related. And behavior comes from your identity. This is where things get a little bit deeper because a lot of runners are operating from this identity. That doesn’t support their goals. They see themselves as, I’m just a casual runner. You know, I’m really, um, not really a strength training person.
I’ve always struggled with my weight. I’ve always struggled with nutrition. So even when they try to change their default. Patterns, their identity keeps pulling them back to somebody who always struggles with nutrition, or somebody who’s really not a strength training person or somebody who’s just casual about running.
And if you wanna be that person, that is fine. But if your goal is to become stronger fitter, improve your running performance, improve your body composition, then you have to see yourself as someone who trains intentionally, someone who prioritizes strength training. And someone who eats in a way that supports your performance.
This matters a lot because your results, the results that you’re getting or not getting will always align with who you believe you are at your core. And if you see yourself as someone who is inconsistent, you will act inconsistently If you’re, if you see yourself as someone who struggles. You will keep struggling if you want different results, you have to shift that identity, right?
This is not something you do quickly. You can’t just say, okay, I’m now somebody who trains consistently and intentionally. This is not gonna happen overnight, but deliberately over time. You gotta build the the patterns that are gonna reinforce that identity. That identity of somebody who is someone who eats for running performance, somebody who, you know, trains in a way that that will improve their, their running performance, that’ll improve their strength, that wants to improve their body composition.
So you have to shift the identity. Okay, so what do we do with all of this stuff? Because awareness is great. It’s great to have this self-awareness, and that is always the first step. You have to know what’s going on in order to change it. Um, and you might listen to this episode and you’re thinking, yep, I can relate to all this stuff, Patrick, that is totally me.
You’re recognizing some of these patterns. You’re agree, agreeing with everything, but if nothing changes after this, then nothing changes. Right? So you need a way. To actually start shifting your behavior in a practical and repeatable way. And the framework I want you to use is this. It’s very simple, okay?
It’s three things. Awareness, ownership, and action. It is simple, but it’s not easy. So let me break all this down. First of all, let’s talk about awareness. This is where you have to take an honest look at what’s actually going on with you, not what you hope is happening, not what you intend. To be doing. You gotta look at what is real.
Uh, most people I talk to, they’re operating on a story. They’re like, yeah, I’m pretty consistent. I eat pretty healthy. I train pretty, pretty well. Okay, maybe, but you gotta look at the data. How many runs did you finish last week? How many did you skip? How many of your easy runs were actually easy? How many strength sessions did you complete in the last two weeks?
Um, what did your nutrition look like over the weekend? This isn’t about beating yourself up, it’s about getting clear and being honest with yourself. You cannot change what you’re not willing to see, and most of the time, the sabotage that’s hiding in those gaps between what you say you’re doing and what you’re actually doing.
So your job here is very simple. Identify one or two patterns where things are breaking down for you a little bit, not 10, not everything. Just find the biggest leaks. Okay? So start with radical self-awareness. Number two is ownership. This is the part that most people wanna skip because this does not feel comfortable.
It’s much easier to say, oh, my schedule is crazy. I don’t have time. I got so much going on right now. Or, you know, I’m just too tired. And listen, some of those things might be true, but none of that is going to change your results. It’s not gonna change who you are at the end of the day. Your results are still coming from the choices that you make every single day.
And ownership is where you take all that back. You stop explaining the situation that’s out there, like, you know, oh, my schedule is crazy. Oh, my boss is so demanding or whatever. Kids drive me crazy. And you start taking responsibility for how you’re responding to the outside world. So you’re like, yeah, my schedule is busy.
But I’m still responsible for how I train. Yeah, I might be kind of tired, but I’m still responsible for what I eat. Yeah, this is hard, but I’m still in control of what I’m going to do next. This is a huge shift, and that shift really matters because as long as the problem lives outside of you, you can’t fix it.
You know, you are at the mercy of, of the outside world, but once you own it, once you take ownership, radical responsibility, now you have leverage. Now you can actually do something about it. Okay. The third, um, part of this is action. Okay. So we’ve got awareness, ownership, and now action. This is where most people just do random things or they try to fix everything at once.
You know, they completely overhaul their training, they change their whole diet. They commit to doing five new things starting tomorrow, and it lasts maybe like three days or something like that. And then they fall off and they’re right back in that same old cycle and they’re like, look, I, this stuff never works for me, but we’re not gonna do that.
Okay. We’re gonna keep things tight and focused. You don’t need a complete reset. You need a few targeted changes that actually move the needle. So what that might look like is this, if your runs are always too hard. Your action is gonna be pretty simple. Slow down your easy runs, make your easy runs truly easy, not sometimes, but every time.
So that’s one thing that you can do that will dramatically change how you, uh, improve your running performance. If your strength training has been super inconsistent, your action is pretty simple. Schedule two sessions per week and treat them like non-negotiable appointments. Treat ’em like a doctor’s appointment.
Like you’re not gonna miss this, okay? Not, you know, when I have time, I might do it. Put these things on your calendar. All right. And then the other thing you might wanna do, um, if your nutrition is kind of falling apart in the evenings or on the weekends, your action is gonna be this create one boundary.
Maybe it’s planning your dinners ahead of time, or cutting out a late night snack that you like to do. Or maybe it’s setting a consistent eating window. Just pick one thing and do that one thing. Focus on on changing that one thing. The truth is this progress doesn’t come from doing everything. It comes from doing a few little things consistently.
Okay, we’re gonna zoom out a little bit. I want you to see what’s actually happening here. So we got awareness, ownership, and action. You, you see what’s going on, you take responsibility for it, and then you make a few intentional changes. And then this part is important. You gotta repeat this process. ’cause this isn’t a one time fix.
You have to do this every single day. This is how you’re going to operate. Moving forward, you might notice that you’re drifting a little bit, so you course correct. You get back on track, you stay engaged. This is how progress actually happens. It’s not in some big dramatic shift that you make, and then you start doing everything differently tomorrow.
It’s in these small, consistent adjustments over time, and if you can start doing that. If you can just stop working against yourself, you’re gonna be shocked at how quickly things start to improve for you. ’cause the effort, I know the effort’s already there, you’re just directing it the right way now.
Lemme give you one last thing to think about here at this point for you. For most people that I talk to, it’s probably not a problem of knowledge. You know what to do, you know, you shouldn’t be racing your easy runs. You know that strength training matters. You know, your nutrition needs to be more consistent.
Th these things are not the issue. The issue is that you keep falling back into those same old patterns over and over again. You start strong, you get a little momentum, and then you slip. Because of your schedule of motivation, whatever, and then you’re back to where you were before and then you try again, and then you slip again, and then you repeat this cycle over and over again.
And that cycle, it doesn’t break with more information, right? You don’t need more information. It breaks with structure, accountability, and a higher. Standard. This is exactly what we do inside the Leaner, stronger Runner project. This is where you stop guessing, where you stop negotiating with yourself, where you can start to show up like someone who actually follows through.
You’re gonna get a clear plan. You get coaching, you get a system that keeps you moving forward even when you don’t feel like it. ’cause that’s the difference. It’s not motivation, it’s not willpower, it’s consistency. So if you’re ready to stop repeating the same cycle and start. Stacking real progress. Go to my website running lean coaching.com/ready.
Read through the information on that page and decide if you’re done doing things the hard way. Alright, so if you take one thing away from today, I want it to be this. You’re probably not stuck because you’re not doing enough. You’re stuck because some of your habits are quietly working against you. And once you can see that, you can start to change it.
And again, you don’t need to be perfect, you just need to get out of your own way. Okay, that’s all I got for you today. Love you all. Keep on running lean, and I will talk to you soon.
Today we’re talking about something that impacts every single workout, every food choice, and every goal you set—but almost nobody trains directly: self-trust. In this episode, How to Build …
Continue Reading about 322. How to Build Unshakable Self-Trust →
My name is Patrick McGilvray, and I’m an experienced marathoner, ultra runner sports nutritionist, master life coach, and weight loss coach. For runners, I’ve dedicated my life to helping runners just like you, properly fuel your body and your mind so you can get leaner, get stronger, run faster, and run longer than you ever thought. Possible. This is running Lean.
Hey there, and welcome to episode 322 of Running Lean. My name is Patrick McGilvray, the weight loss coach for runners. And today how to build unshakeable self trust. So today we’re talking about something that impacts every single workout, every food choice, every goal you set. But almost nobody trains directly and that is self.
Trust in this episode, I’m gonna break down what self-trust actually is, what it’s not, why so many runners quietly lose it, and most importantly, how to build it back up stronger than ever because here’s the truth, you. If you don’t trust yourself, you’re gonna second guess your thinking. Sabotage your nutrition over commit, under deliver, and then you’re just gonna keep starting over and over and over.
And this isn’t about hype or affirmations. It’s about integrity. It’s about alignment. It’s about becoming someone who does what they say they’re going to do. If you wanna lose weight, if you wanna get stronger, if you want to become a better runner, you have to solve this first. But first, if you’re listening to this and you’re thinking, yeah, this is me.
I start strong, but then I fade, and then I reset, and then I get motivated, but then I start over again. Listen, it’s okay. You’re not broke, and you’re just missing structure. You’re missing accountability, and a lot of runners are stuck in the frustrating middle ground. Running feels harder than it should.
Strength training is inconsistent. Nutrition swings between I’m all in and I’ll start over on Monday. You’re putting in the effort, but you’re not getting the return that you want. This is exactly why I created my program, the Leaner, stronger Runner Project. This isn’t another random training plan. It’s a complete system.
You get structured strength training designed for runners. You get simple, clear nutrition guidelines that support fat loss without wrecking your running performance. You get mindset coaching that closes the integrity gap and builds real self trust and you get accountability. The kind that makes you follow through and makes these things non-negotiable for you.
This is about becoming someone who does what they say they’re going to do. If you’re ready to stop restarting and start building momentum, go to running lean coaching.com/ready and join us. Let’s build this the right way. Okay, so today I’m talking about something that a lot of runners don’t really think about directly, but it’s quietly running the show behind the scenes, and that is self-trust.
And I wanna set the context for why this matters so much right now. A lot of runners I talk to aren’t struggling because they lack information. They know that they should do strength training. They know they shouldn’t be snacking late at night. They know they shouldn’t skip recovery days. They know what an easy pace feels like.
They know they shouldn’t sign up for another race when they’re already burned out. They know. They know. They know the problem isn’t knowledge. The problem is they don’t trust themselves. They don’t trust themselves to stick to a plan. They don’t trust themselves around food. They don’t trust themselves not to quit.
When things get hard or uncomfortable, they don’t trust their body. They don’t trust their own decisions, and once self-trust erodes, everything else gets harder. Because you hesitate, you start to overthink, you go looking for another plan, and then you’re like, I’m gonna start over. And you keep looking outside yourself for answers that you already have.
So today I wanna break this down very clearly for you, what is self-trust? What does it not, how does it break down? And how do we build it back up in a practical and repeatable way? So let’s start with what this actually is. What is self-trust? So self-trust is the confidence that you will act in alignment with your word.
That’s it. It’s not loud emotional. This isn’t hypey stuff. It’s not. I feel unstoppable. Self-trust is quiet certainty. It’s the internal knowing. If I say I’m going to do this, I’m going to do this. And it shows up in very small moments. You know, you said you’d get up at 6:00 AM and you get up. Then you said you’d stop eating at 8:00 PM and you stop.
You said this is gonna be an easy run and you keep it easy. You said three strength workouts this week, and you did three. Self-trust isn’t built in race day heroics. You know, it’s built in ordinary Tuesdays. And here’s something important. Self-trust is specific. So you might trust yourself at work, or you might trust yourself as a parent, but you don’t trust yourself around food, or you don’t trust yourself to stay consistent with your training.
So when someone says, you know, I just don’t trust myself. That’s usually not true for everything in their life. It’s not globally true. It’s situational, and this is good news. Okay? Because specific problems have specific solutions. Now I want to clear up one thing about what self-trust is not. Self-trust is not blind optimism.
It’s not standing in front of the mirror doing affirmations. You know, it’s not quote unquote believing in yourself in some vague way. And it’s not motivation. And it’s not perfection. Okay? And it’s not about never messing up. It’s about knowing that when you mess up, because you will, that you respond intentionally instead of spiraling out of control again.
So a runner with self-trust might miss a workout and say, okay, that happened tomorrow. I’m back on track. A runner without self-trust misses a workout and thinks, see, this is why I can never make any progress. ’cause I I screw up all the time. Same event, same thing happened. Different responses based on your identity.
Self-trust protects your identity. Without it, every mistake feels like proof that you’re a screw up. With self-trust, mistakes just feel like data, like feedback, oh yeah, I messed a workout, or I or had a cheat meal. What am I gonna learn from this? It’s just data. It’s just information that you can use. But self-trust can break down.
It doesn’t just disappear overnight, you know, it breaks down slowly. Over time, it erodes. And almost always the erosion happens in one of three ways. One is over promising, and this is a big one for runners. ’cause you decide, you know, I’m gonna run five days a week. I’m gonna strength train three days a week.
I’m gonna cut out sugar, I’m gonna wake up at 5:00 AM every single day. I’m gonna stretch every single night. And that version of you exists. For like two days. Okay. Then reality hits and you miss one of these things, and then you start that narrative in your mind. See, I can’t stick to anything. No, you just tried to change everything at once.
So over promising is self-trust. Sabotage. Okay. Number two is emotional decision making. You make commitments in a motivated state. Then you try to execute them in a unmotivated state or a tired state. And these are two different brains we’re talking about here. Okay? If you don’t plan for the tired you, you’re gonna break promises to the motivated you.
Okay. And if you repeat that enough, trust drops. You know, you make decisions of, oh, I’m gonna do this. I’m gonna sign up for this ultra marathon, because you’re super motivated. You know, you just watch somebody complete an ultra marathon. You’re like, I wanna do this. But then you’re like, you know, couple months later you’re like, I, I don’t want to do this.
You know? And then the third way that we. Uh, you know, break down self-trust in herself is the all or nothing thinking. And this is a big one. This is the one that I see most runners struggle with, which is like, you miss one run or you have one like unplanned meal, or you skip one workout. And instead of adjusting and course correcting, you gotta reset the entire plan.
And every restart reinforces the identity of someone who can’t stick with it. So self-trust is consistency over time. It’s not perfection. It’s not a bunch of dramatic stops and starts. So the way most people break down self-trust is this all or nothing thinking. Alright, next I wanna talk about something that is very important.
It is the integrity gap. So self-trust lives or dies in what I call the integrity gap. The integrity gap is the space between what you say you’re gonna do and what you actually do, and the wider the gap, the lower the trust, and here’s an uncomfortable truth. Most runners don’t have a motivation problem.
They have an integrity gap problem. They set standards that they can’t possibly maintain. They make promises that they can’t possibly keep. They commit publicly, and then quietly they back out. And every time this stuff happens, your brain logs it. Your brain is always tracking your behavior. Not your intentions.
You don’t build self-trust by wanting it. You build it by evidence and you break it down every single time. You’re not acting in integrity with yourself. So I wanna get practical here for a minute and talk about how to build unshakeable self-trust. I want to give you some things that you can start doing right now, not next month, not after your next race, but today.
The first one is this, lower the bar. Okay, this sounds counterintuitive, but if your self-trust is low, you don’t need bigger goals. You need some wins, you need guaranteed wins. So instead of, you know, I’m gonna strength train three times a week, try, I will strength train one time this week, and then follow through on that.
The goal here isn’t volume. It’s proof that you can follow through. You’re building credibility with yourself, and credibility is built through consistent, aligned action, not doing everything all at once. So lower the bar for yourself, start getting some guaranteed wins. Number two, make fewer promises.
Every commitment is a contract that you’re making with yourself. So stop casually committing to things before you say yes to something, even to yourself. Take a beat, pause. Ask yourself, am I absolutely willing to do this even when I don’t feel like it? Like strength training three times a week. What if you know you don’t feel like it?
If the answer isn’t a clear yes, reduce that commitment. Self-trust increases when your words actually mean something. So make fewer promises. Remember, every one of those promises is a contract you’re making with yourself. The next, this is a big one, is decide in advance. Do not rely on in the moment discipline.
That is a terrible idea. Okay? So make decisions ahead of time. Decide in advance what days you’re gonna run. What days you’re gonna lift, um, what your food plan looks like, what time you’re gonna stop eating, what your easy pace actually is. Decision fatigue is one of those things that just breaks down self-trust and deciding in advance, creating that structure ahead of time, protects it and builds it back up.
So when you decide in advance, you’ve made the decision. Now don’t question that decision. Follow through on that decision. And every time you do that, you build up a little bit more of that self-trust. Number four is track completions, not outcomes. So most runners are tracking things like their pace, their weight, their distance, uh, prs.
Start tracking kept promises. Make a simple note each day. Did I do what I said I was going to do? Yes or no? That’s it. Self-trust grows when you see proof stacking up. An easy way of doing this is what I call the three wins exercise, and you can do this every single night. Just grab a journal notebook and write down at the end of the day.
While you’re sitting in bed, before you fall asleep, what are three wins from today? Write those things down and then next, underneath that, write down three wins that you want for tomorrow. This could be a easy pace that you wanna run, or a workout that you want to do, or your meal plan for tomorrow.
Something simple. This whole process should take you five minutes or less to do, and then tomorrow do those things. And at the end of the day, tomorrow. You are gonna write down your three wins from today, and you’re gonna look at your list and say, did I do these things or not? I said I was gonna do these things yesterday.
Did I follow through on those things? And you get to put a big gold star next to the things that you did. And then maybe a little circle or a question mark next to those things that you didn’t do. Alright? And then that’s a chance for you to kind of go inside and say. Why didn’t I accomplish that? I said I was gonna do that ahead of time.
What happened today? You know, maybe my plans got thwarted because work caught up with me, or I had to take care of the kids, or, you know, maybe I just didn’t feel like it. But this is a way that you can start tracking wins and tracking your, uh, trust in yourself, okay? You’re tracking those promises that you’re making to yourself.
This is a very simple thing to do. Um, I love this exercise. Number five, stop negotiating mid action. This is a big one here. So you wake up, your alarm goes off, and then you start negotiating with yourself. You’re like, you know, I know I said I was gonna run, uh, this morning, but maybe I’ll do it later today.
I probably need a little bit more sleep. Um, maybe today should be a rest day. No, you know, make your decisions and stick to your decisions. Don’t question those decisions. Once they’re made, decide that once something is on the schedule, once it’s written down, it’s done. Stop negotiating, negotiation, erodes trust faster than anything.
Okay, and then finally, number six, repair immediately. If you do, break a promise to yourself and you will. It doesn’t mean you’re a bad person. It doesn’t mean you’re a failure. It doesn’t mean you can’t do this. Don’t let it spiral you out of control. Repair it immediately. If you missed a lift, go do 10 pushups.
If you ate off the plan, remember to structure at the next meal. Uh, one key, uh, rule of thumb I always tell my coaching clients is we never miss two workouts in a row. We never have two bad meals in a row. In other words, next meal, you’re back on track. Next scheduled workout, you’re back on track. The speed of repair matters more than the mistake that you made.
’cause mistakes are gonna happen, but this is how self-trust becomes resilient instead of fragile. Um, here’s a good example with all this stuff. Let’s say you’re training for a half marathon. You say you’re gonna run four days a week, and week one you run all four days. Week two, you miss one. Week three, you miss two.
So your old pattern of thinking might be, you know, this isn’t working, I really suck at consistency. Throw that out the window. Okay? Your new pattern needs to be okay. Four days a week probably isn’t sustainable for me right now. I’m gonna commit to three, and then for the next month, you hit those three runs every single week.
And that runner just built more self-trust at three days per week than they ever did chasing running four days a week. So progress isn’t about maxing out your effort, it’s about maintaining your standards. So why does this matter for, you know, fat loss and, and becoming stronger? If you wanna lose weight, if you wanna get stronger, if you wanna become a better runner, you have to become someone who follows through.
’cause these things take time. Fat loss requires consistency over time. Building strength requires consistency over time. Building endurance requires consistency over time. Self-trust is the foundation of all of this. It’s the foundation of consistency. Without it, you’re just always starting over with it.
Though with self-trust, you build momentum, and momentum is powerful because that’s how you get results. So I have an assignment for you starting today. Just pick one thing, one small promise to yourself. Maybe it’s 10 minutes of strength training, no food after 8:00 PM a 20 minute walk, stretching after your run, whatever that thing is, make it small, but make that promise to yourself and then keep it, do what you say you’re gonna do, and then tomorrow, repeat this process.
Stack proof on top of proof, on top of proof, and that proof is going to help reshape who you are. You don’t become confident first and then act later. You act first and the confidence follows. Okay, I know you guys have got this. That’s all I’ve got for you today. Love you all. Keep on running lean and I will talk to you soon.
Just about all of us will eventually engage in some type of self-sabotaging behavior. Most of the time though, you don't know when you’re doing it. Self-sabotage is often confused with failure, …
Continue Reading about 254. How Do I Know If I’m Self-Sabotaging? →
My name is Patrick McGilvray, and I’m an experienced marathoner, ultra runner, sports nutritionist, Master life coach and weight loss coach for runners. I’ve dedicated my life to helping runners just like you, properly fuel your body and your mind so you can get leaner, get stronger, run faster and run longer than you ever thought possible. This is Running Lean.
Hey there, and welcome to Episode 254 of Running Lean. My name is Patrick McGilvray, the weight loss coach for runners and today, How Do I Know If I’m Self Sabotaging? So just about all of us will eventually engage in some type of self sabotaging behavior, eventually, most of the time, though, you probably don’t even know that you’re doing it. Self Sabotage is often confused with failure, with feeling stuck, or maybe even just laziness. It’s actually pretty subtle sometimes, but knowing what it looks like is an important first step in eliminating self sabotage from your life. So in this episode, I’m gonna answer this question, how do I know if I’m self sabotaging so that you can start making progress towards your goals again.
But first, if you’ve ever considered coaching, now is an amazing time to get started for most of us. This is the off season. This is the perfect time to get started with a new diet plan, with a new strength regimen with a renewed love for running and a new running plan if you’re interested in getting leaner, getting stronger, running faster, running longer. Now is a perfect time to get started with that. Coaching is going to give you all the guidance, the knowledge, the direction, the feedback, the support, the accountability that you need to reach your goals. Like I said, it’s a great time to get started, because we are in the off season. Once your training starts in January, then it’s kind of it’s not too late to get started, but you definitely want to have a good leg up on your nutrition plan and your strength plan and your running plan before we start with our marathon, half marathon training in January. So just know that this is a great time to get started. And if you’ve been putting this off, consider coaching. Now. All you got to do is go to my website, runningleancoaching.com, and then click on work with me. When you click on that link, you’re gonna fill out this short little application. She’s got a couple questions on there, and then you and I will get on a zoom call, and we’ll have a conversation. You get to talk to me live. I don’t have anybody else doing this for me. You and I will have a conversation, and we’ll talk about what it would look like, what coaching would look like for you, and how we can get you to those goals, like, what are the different areas we need to work on and what this might look like for you. It doesn’t cost anything to get on this call with me. It’s completely free. I love doing this. I do it all the time. You’re not going to waste anybody’s time. You’ll get something out of the call too. So just go to my website, runningleancoaching.com, click on work with me, and let’s get on a call. We’ll have a conversation about coaching. Cool.
Okay, so this topic is an interesting one, because I had a client recently ask me, like, how do I know if I’m self sabotaging? How do I know that it’s self sabotage, that I’m doing this to myself versus just failing at something, you know? And I thought it was a really good question, and it got me really thinking that, you know, not only could she benefit from us having this conversation, but I think everybody else can too, because I think we all, at some point in our lives, engage in some sort of self sabotaging behavior. I want to, I’m hoping by the end of this episode, that you understand what self sabotaging looks like, so that you can make better decisions and make better choices and start making progress towards your goals.
So self sabotage is one of these things that you might have a goal like to lose weight or to run faster, and you’re making some progress towards that goal. You’re trying to eat healthy, you know, you’re trying to do your speed work. You’re trying to run five days a week. And then the self sabotaging behavior is doing things for that progress. It’s doing things like eating a bunch of cake for dinner when you’re supposed to be eating chicken and broccoli. That’s called self sabotage, because you’re doing something that is not in alignment with your long term goals.
Now there’s a couple of definitions. If you look up the definition of self sabotage, and I’ll read a couple of these definitions, because I think it’s kind of interesting. Self Sabotage refers to behaviors or thought patterns that hold you back and prevent you from doing what you want to do. Self Sabotage is when you consciously or unconsciously undermine your thoughts, dreams, goals and desires. So self sabotage is essentially patterns of thoughts, patterns of behaviors that hold you back, keep you stuck or prevent you from reaching your goals.
And I’m going to kind of distill this down into this, any action that you’re taking that is not in alignment with your goals is self sabotage. Taking action that goes against a desired outcome is self sabotage. Doing things or not doing things that thwarts your progress is self sabotage. Now the difference between self sabotage and just pure failing is that failing is different.
Failing is just trying something that didn’t work. Back in the day, I used an app to track my food to try to lose weight, like I was tracking my macros, my calories, my protein, my fats, carbs, all this stuff. And I did this for like, a year, and I tried, and I did, I would. I was very diligent with this, and I tried this with my whole heart, like I put everything into it, and for a year, and I didn’t lose any weight, you know, it just, it didn’t work. So that’s a failure. You know, I wasn’t doing something that was not in alignment with my goals. I was actually doing something that I thought would help with with my goals, would help me get there.
A lot of people were telling me, oh, you need to track all your food. You need to track all your calories. That’s how you lose weight. Well, guess what? It didn’t work for me. So that’s a failure, where you try something and it doesn’t work, you know? You may have tried to run a faster marathon, like you’re trying to PR your marathon, and you did all the speed work, you did everything you wanted to do, and then the day came and you just didn’t have it, you know. And maybe there’s all kinds of reasons you can come up with, but you just fell short. That’s a failure. You tried something, you put in the work, you did everything you thought you could do, and it didn’t work for you. So that is just pure and simple, a failure.
All right, hopefully we learn from these failures. You know, I learned something from my food tracking experiment that didn’t work for me, so I tried something else. But these things are not self sabotage because they’re not going against your long term goals. You’re actually engaging in behavior that you think is going to help you, that you think is actually going to help you to achieve those things, but it doesn’t work. And this is cool, because that’s part of the process of trying something. When you change your diet and you want to lose weight, you’re going to try some things that may or may not work for you. You’re gonna eat some foods that don’t agree with you. Or you’re gonna, you know, track your food or not track your food. You’re going to, you know, try low carb or, you know, high fat or whatever it is. And some of these things work for people, and some of them don’t like there’s no such thing as the perfect diet that’s going to work for everybody.
So there’s a little bit of trial and error there. There’s a little bit of, you know, I’m going to try something and possibly fail, and it’s okay if you fail. Failure is part of the process. You know, it’s just, you’re learning things that don’t work for you. So that is not self sabotage, that is just trying something that didn’t work. Okay? So that’s what failure is.
Self Sabotage is different. Self Sabotage is when you’re doing things, you’re taking action or not taking action. So it’s either action or inaction that goes against what you really want for yourself. So it’s eating ice cream every day. When you want to lose 30 pounds, eating the ice cream is not in alignment with your goal like and I think we can all agree on that, that if you want to lose some weight, then maybe just skip the ice cream for a while, because eating the ice cream constantly is just going to keep your body storing that fat, and it’s, you’re not going to lose the weight if you keep doing that, for the most part, if you could eat ice cream and lose weight, that’s amazing. Keep doing that.
Let’s say you want to run a faster marathon, half marathon, whatever, and you’re just avoiding all the speed work because you don’t like it, because it’s uncomfortable, because it’s hard, because it sucks. Okay, that could be a form of self sabotage, because you’re not doing something that you need to do in order to accomplish this goal. So when you decide, I’m not going to do the speed work, then that’s something that is not in alignment with your goal of running your fastest half marathon, Marathon, 5k whatever it is.
So if you really want to know if what you’re doing is self sabotage, the first thing you need to ask yourself is, are these things I’m doing or not doing? Are these things in alignment with my long term goals? So how do you know if you’re self sabotaging? That’s the first way. Is just like, is this action that I’m taking moving me close? Closer to my goal or further away. If what I’m doing has the ability to move me closer to my goal, like doing the speed work, if you do the speed work, you should get faster if you’re doing it properly. So it’s an action that should move you towards your goal. Now, whether it does or not, that’s a whole ‘nother story.
But taking the action that’s supposed to move you towards that goal, if you if you do that regularly, you should see those results. So that should move you closer to that goal of running a faster half or full, if you’re taking action that moves you further away from that goal, like not doing the speed work, like I’m just going to run slow for the next four months. Okay, that’s probably not going to get you faster. I think we can all agree that that would be a form of self sabotage.
Okay, so just understand that one way of knowing whether or not what you’re doing or not doing is self sabotage, is this thing in alignment with what I really want for myself? Is this moving me further closer to my goal or further away from my goal?
Another way to know if what you’re doing is self sabotaging is think about where you are putting the blame. So a lot of people will do things or not do things, and they will not take personal responsibility for their behavior. So instead of owning everything that they do and owning all of their results, whether they are good or bad, they blame everything outside of themselves. Okay, so there’s there’s reasons, there’s excuses, there’s stories as to why they can’t get the results that they want.
You know, it’s like saying, you know, I couldn’t, you know, stick to my food plan because I was on a work trip, or, you know, I was really stressed out last week, or, you know, it’s football season, where my parents were visiting, or I was sick, or life’s just been crazy these last few months. Really, okay, that’s, I’m sorry to hear that, but these are just excuses. They’re things that are, that are a lot of times, you know, kind of out of your control. They’re outside of you. They really don’t have any bearing on the food that you put in your mouth. Okay, very, very, very, few times in our lives, do we not have a choice on what we put in our mouth? A lot of times you can just choose not to eat something, you know, but, but we don’t. We say, oh, it was the only option that I had available. Oh, I was on this trip. Oh, I was, you know, really stressed out. Or, you know, we were watching the game, and we had, you know, people over watching the football game, and all these things are just excuses as to why you didn’t stick to your plan.
And so when you start blaming anything outside of yourself for what you’re getting or not getting, then that is a form of self sabotage, because you’re not, you’re not taking personal responsibility. You’re blaming anything but yourself for your results or lack of results. Once you start taking radical responsibility, and I mean owning everything, every decision you make, every result that you get or don’t get, then you can begin to stop that self sabotaging.
So another way that we sell sabotage is just blaming other people, having excuses, stories, reasons why we can’t do what we want to do, or why we can’t stick to our plan, why we can’t do our speed work, why we can’t train for that marathon, whatever. So just be mindful of this, that once you start saying, you know, I couldn’t do this because of XYZ, what are those reasons? And are they outside of you? And if they are outside of you, you’re probably engaging in some sort of self sabotaging behavior another way, and this one is kind of subtle.
But another way that a lot of people self sabotage is they put things off. They don’t start something. They procrastinate. Because when you put something off, when you procrastinate, you’re basically taking the easy way out. You know, because when you have to start something like, let’s say, you want to lose weight, and in order to lose weight, you know you have to change your diet. So eating a healthy diet, or maybe, like training for a marathon, this stuff is hard, it is uncomfortable. So instead of actually starting that hard, uncomfortable thing, what you’re doing is saying, You know what, I’m going to start tomorrow, or I’m going to start next month, or I’m going to wait till after the holidays, and all of that is just you avoiding the discomfort of change.
If you constantly put something off until later, you never have to change your behavior. You never have to get out of your comfort zone. You never have to learn new habits or break old ones, and you never have to worry about failing, because failing is hard. It feels terrible, so if you never start, you never have to worry about failing.
So most self sabotaging behavior, and even the stuff I’ve been talking about so far, is just your brain trying to stay safe and comfortable. Your brain is programmed to seek pleasure and avoid pain, seek comfort and avoid discomfort, do what’s familiar and avoid anything unfamiliar. You’re programmed to stay in your comfort zone. When you self sabotage, it’s just your brain trying to avoid anything unsafe, anything unfamiliar, anything uncomfortable.
But when you stay in your comfort zone. What happens? Do you grow? No, do you change? No? Do you level up? No? Do you evolve? Do you become more; do you accomplish all those things that you want? No, because growth happens outside of your comfort zone. That means that if you want to grow, if you want to change, if you want to run faster, if you want to lose weight, if you want to be become the most badass version of yourself, it is going to require you to get uncomfortable, and if you constantly avoid discomfort, that is a classic form of self sabotaging, almost all self sabotaging behavior is you avoiding the uncomfortable.
So when you’re doing things that aren’t alignment with your long term goals, what you’re doing is you’re just staying comfortable because doing those things are hard, when you blame other people, or, yeah, blame other people, or other things, situations outside of yourself, for not getting the results that you want. This is easier. It’s comfortable because you can’t do anything about it. You’re just a victim here. So you can stay small and you can stay comfortable. You can stay in your comfort zone, putting things off until later. Oh, I’m not going to do that now. I’ll wait till later. Then you never have to start anything. You never have to embrace the discomfort. You can stay in your cozy little blanket called your comfort zone.
When you do that, though, you don’t level up. I’m just telling you if there’s things that you want for yourself, if you want to lose weight, if you want to run faster, if you want to train for and run a marathon. This is not something that is easy to do. Is going to require a few months of discomfort. You know, there’s going to be a few months of like, long runs, running in the cold, especially when we train in the winter, running in the snow, running in the rain, whatever, you’re going to have to level yourself up. You’re going to have to go outside and run when you don’t feel like it. You’re going to have to stick to a running plan, even though you don’t feel like it, even though it’s hard, even though it’s uncomfortable. What’s the reward? The reward is you ran a marathon. You did something that seemed impossible for you, you evolved. You became more. You know that’s what you want to be focusing on. So stop staying comfortable. Stop seeking comfort.
Here’s your homework for this week, so to speak. I want you to take a look at these different areas of your life, especially when it comes to your health and fitness. What are you doing or not doing? And are these things you’re doing or not doing? Are they in alignment with your goals. If they’re not, how are you seeking comfort in these situations, or how are you avoiding discomfort? So start really thinking about that with everything that you do, how you approach your your strength training, how you approach running, how you approach your diet. Is it something that is in alignment with your goals or not? If you find yourself constantly doing things that sabotage your own success, you may want to look at how you are avoiding discomfort in these different areas.
Okay, then ask yourself, how can I start embracing the discomfort. How can I start leaning into the discomfort so that I can stop this self sabotaging behavior and actually make progress towards those goals?
Okay, that’s your homework for this week. Look at what you’re doing. See where you’re avoiding discomfort and just trying to stay safe and comfortable. And then I want to encourage you to get out of your comfort zone. That’s the only way you’re going to become more and level up. Cool.
All right, that’s all I got for you today. Love you all. Keep on Running Lean and I will talk to you soon.
If you are having a hard time sticking with a health and fitness routine, then you might want to have a look at your locus of control. Locus of control refers to where you believe your control lies …
Continue Reading about 189. Shifting Your Locus of Control →
My name is Patrick McGilvray, and I’m an experienced marathoner, ultra runner, sports nutritionist, Master life coach, and weight loss coach for runners. I’ve dedicated my life to helping runners just like you properly fuel your body and your mind, so you can get leaner, get stronger, run faster and run longer than you ever thought possible. This is Running Lean.
Hey there, and welcome to episode 189 of Running Lean. My name is Patrick McGilvray, The Weight Loss Coach for Runners and today, Shifting Your Locus of Control. So if you’re having a hard time sticking with a health and fitness routine, sticking with a healthy food plan, then you might want to have a look at your locus of control. And I’ll explain all this in the podcast here.
But your locus of control refers to where you believe your control lies either outside of you or within you. So people who have a strong external locus of control tend to have a pretty hard time sticking to a plan and accomplishing really anything.
On the other hand, people who have a strong internal locus of control have an easier time sticking to a plan and are generally more successful in all areas of their lives. So today, I’m going to explain what locus of control is, and how you can begin shifting your locus of control so you can get better results and really just live a healthier, happier life.
But first, I know I talk a lot about the amazing transformations you can experience when you join my program and get coaching from me how you can commit to becoming your healthiest self, but instead of me yammering more about it, I’m going to share some of my clients personal stories with you.
So Elisa said, “Since working with Patrick, I don’t beat myself up anymore. I believe in myself. I’m finally in control of my eating habits. I’m steadily losing weight.” Flora said, “I’ve learned how to become a fat adapted runner. And the feeling of running with a clear head and so much energy is just amazing.” Eric said, “I’ve learned how to create good habits to replace the bad ones. I’m down 18 pounds so far, and I feel really good about myself for the first time in a long time.”
Mick said, “Accountability and education were key to my success with Patrick. I’ve had so many positive changes. I know I’m not going to slip back into old habits.” Leticia said, “I no longer have sugar cravings, I’ve taken control of my eating habits once and for all.”
Michelle said, “I’ve lost 25 pounds, I’ve gained immeasurable confidence. I am totally in control now. And I’m fully capable of doing everything I set out to do.” And Amy said, “I’m thinking so much more clearly, I have more energy, I’m sleeping better, running is easier. So far, I’m down 30 pounds and several dress sizes.”
Listen, you can add your name to this list, you can be one of these people with an amazing transformational story to share. All you gotta do is get some coaching. Join the Running Lean Coaching Project. This is my unique weight loss coaching program for runners just go to runningleancoaching.com/join to learn more. Book an interview with me and you and I’ll have a conversation, we’ll see if coaching is a good fit for you.
And if you want a little bit of help, just getting started with all this stuff, I’ve created a great training program that you can check out. It’s about an hour long video training, you can watch it at your own pace. It’s called Five Simple Steps To Becoming A Leaner Stronger Runner. You can get that by going to my website Running Lean coaching.com and click on the Free Training link to get started. Cool.
Okay, so let’s talk about shifting your locus of control. So I talked to a lot of people who struggle to accomplish what they want for themselves, they struggle to reach their goals. So this could be a weight loss goal. This could be a strength goal, it could be a running related goal. Maybe they want to run their first marathon, qualify for Boston, or maybe they just want to run their first 5k.
But when it comes down to when you kind of boil it all down when it comes down to why it is they can’t seem to accomplish whatever goal they’re trying to accomplish. They start telling me all about the external factors affecting their life.
You know, I was doing great at sticking with this running plan. I was going to run my first marathon but then things got crazy at work. Or you know we traveled or went on vacation or the kids out of school so you know how that is or jeez, it just got hot out or it got cold out. Whatever.
So they look at their life as having all these external forces, external being things that are outside of themselves, that are affecting their ability to reach their goals or not to stick to their plan or not. That thing that seems so important to them, not that long ago has been pushed to the side because of all these external factors. Okay.
And the problem with this is that when you allow outside forces to affect your weight loss goals, your health and fitness goals, your running goals, then you’re going to have a very hard time accomplishing anything for yourself, you will always find reasons why you can’t do it.
You’ll have reasons and stories and excuses, you’ll always have somebody or something else to blame for why you can’t lose weight, why you can’t stick to this healthy eating plan, why you can’t train for that marathon or whatever.
The problem is that you’re going to really just stay stuck where you are. You won’t be able to accomplish these big goals that you want for yourself or small goals that you want for yourself, you won’t be able to accomplish much, you will always feel like you’re going to struggle, because it’s out of your hands.
It’s all these outside forces, all these external situations, these external circumstances that are to blame. You don’t have control over your own life. So this is known as having an external locus of control. So locus is just a Latin word, and it means place or location. So locus of control really relates to where your sense of control is located. Is it internally? Or is it externally? Is it within you? Or is it outside of you?
And locus of control is a term that’s used in psychology, and refers to a belief that the control of your life is either within you or outside of you. Okay, some people have a very strong internal locus of control. And some people have a very strong external locus of control.
And they’ve looked at all these people, and they’ve seen that people who have a mostly external locus of control tend to be not as successful, they tend to be not as happy, they tend to be maybe not as healthy.
And the people with a strong internal locus of control tend to be happier and healthier and tend to accomplish more in their lives. Okay. So somebody believes somebody with an external locus of control believes that outside forces control their destiny, I am not in control, I’m profoundly affected by external forces in my life.
People with a strong external locus of control, tend to be more passive, because things just happen to them. They tend to blame others for their situation, they tend not to accomplish goals. They believe that there’s really nothing they can do about their situation, because hey, it just is what it is. Right? Whatever happens, happens, why bother even trying?
They feel like they are unlucky, but like nothing good ever happens to them, because they’re just, it’s just not meant to be. Must be nice for those other people. But never, nothing ever works out for me. And what’s interesting is these people tend to be at greater risk for illness, they’re typically unhappy and unhealthy. They have a hard time sticking to a plan.
If you have a mostly external locus of control, it’s going to be harder for you to stick to a fitness routine, to train for a marathon to stick to a healthy eating plan. If you want to lose weight, you got to stick to a healthy eating plan. You have to be consistent with that plan. But if you’re constantly, you know, blaming everything around you for why you can’t stick to that plan, you’re gonna have a really hard time sticking with that plan. Okay.
So that is what external locus of control looks like. Can you relate to any of this? Does any of this sound like you? Because we’ve all had bits and pieces of this and I’ll tell you a little bit about my story in a minute here. But we’ve all had maybe times in our life when we had more of an external locus of control more of an internal.
So people with an internal locus of control tend to be more active, they’re actively engaging in changing their life. They’re actively engaged in improving their situation. Because they believe that they make things happen. You know, I did this, I made this happen, you know, my determination and my hard work, created my future, I’m not relying on outside circumstances, outside circumstances be damned, I’m going to make this happen.
They tend to accomplish goals regularly, consistently. They feel like they are in control of the events of their lives, they are in control of their own destiny. They don’t look to lock or fate, you know, to determine what they can accomplish or what they can accomplish, they take responsibility for their situation, whether that’s a good situation or a bad situation, they take responsibility, they tend to be healthier, they tend to have a reduced risk of illness.
And honestly, they just tend to stick with a plan. And it’s easier for them. All right. So wherever you feel like your locus of control is now just understand that it is not fixed. It is not something that is predetermined. And it is not something that you don’t have control over, you can actually change it.
It’s about what you believe to be true, not about what you think is true or not, what you believe to be true, will be true for you. If you believe you have no control over your life, and that it’s all about external circumstances, then that will be true for you. If you believe that you’re in control, that will be true for you.
Your locus of control is not something you are born with, it’s not something that is, you know, genetically imprinted in you or anything like that, it’s not a fact. It’s where you put it, it’s where you decide it’s going to be. So your goal then, is to shift your locus of control inward.
If you find yourself blaming external circumstances for where you are, why you can’t lose weight, why you can’t stick to that marathon training plan, why you can’t go to the gym and lift heavy weights. If you find yourself blaming external circumstances, for all that, then it’s time to make a shift, you need to shift your locus of control inward.
So shifting your locus of control can be as easy as making the decision that you’re going to do it, it can be as easy as taking 100% responsibility for everything in your life, for every result you’re getting or not getting in your life, it can be as easy as making that decision. So right now, decide “I’m going to stop blaming others, I’m going to stop blaming outside circumstances. I’m going to stop using stories and excuses and reasons why I can’t and start making it happen. I control my destiny. And it starts with me, and it starts right now.”
Right, that can be a very powerful way of taking control making that decision that you are in control. Because honestly, you are another way of beginning to shift your locus of control is to start reframing situations. So instead of just believing that here’s the way it is, not everything is just the way it is. And that’s the way it is because that right there is just a belief.
You need to start questioning what you believe to be true in every situation. So you can do this by reframing. And that is just like looking at a situation from a different angle. It’s like putting a different frame on the situation. Okay, instead of, “Man, it’s just so hard to stick to my food plan because my wife keeps bringing home junk food for dinner, you know, and burgers and french fries and pizza. Like she just keeps bringing this fun stuff home for dinner for the kids. And I can’t stick to my food plan because there’s pizza on the table.”
So that’s having an external locus of control when you believe that. So shifting inward, you can reframe that situation. And you can ask yourself, like, how can I stick to my plan, even though there’s pizza sitting here on the table right now and it smells amazing, but what am I going to do right now? Right here, in this moment, to stick to my plan. I made this promise to myself that I’m not eating pizza this month or whatever, this week. What am I going to do about that in this moment right now?
How can I control my eating in this moment, right now? Because there is an answer, but you have to look inward. And you have to start asking yourself, What can I do about this? Because the external circumstances are always going to be whatever they are, you have no control over that. You don’t have control over that.
You do have control of what you do about it, though. So reframe these situations. Don’t look outward, look inward. It’s never ever about what’s going on out there. It’s always about what’s going on inside. What can I do about this? How can I make this work? What action? What action am I going to take right now in this moment, that is in alignment with my long term goals?
So I first heard about locus of control in one of my coaching programs, this was many years ago, and I can’t even remember the class I was attending. But it was a live class. I was out in LA, I was there for about a month taking all these different coaching classes and live coaching classes before COVID and all that.
And we were in this class, and the instructor was talking, it had something to do with like the business side of coaching. And at the time, I was struggling to figure out a business plan. I had tried a few things in the past that didn’t really work. I loved coaching, but the business side of things, it just wasn’t clicking for me, you know.
And, and I felt like, I tried some things, and I kept failing. And so after the class, I went up to the instructor, and I was like, okay, I get what you’re saying here. But you have to understand, I don’t think this is going to work for me, because I’ve tried this and it failed. And I’ve tried this, and it failed. And none of this stuff ever works for me.
And I said something like, you know, I don’t think this is my fault. It’s like the economy, it’s the competition out there. You know, I don’t understand the technology, whatever, like I started, you know, kind of rattling off some of these excuses, right? And I’ll never forget this, he just looked at me and said, “Well, it’s definitely not going to work with that attitude.”
And I thought to myself, how dare you. This is not in my control. It just doesn’t work for me. It’s the economy. It’s the technology, it’s the competition or whatever. And I’ve tried these different things. And there’s nothing I can do about it. I just, I’m a failure, you know, and I was really feeling sorry for myself.
And I really had this external locus of control. I didn’t realize it at the time. But I had this aha moment where I had to accept this reality that I had a very external locus of control. And what he was saying to me, wasn’t about, you know, whether I could do it or not it was about or whether the outside circumstances had anything to do with it or not. But it was about my attitude about it. It was about my state of mind about it. It was about what I decided I was going to believe.
And if I wanted to be a successful coach and have a thriving coaching practice, then it was going to be up to me to make it happen. And yes, I’ve tried things that failed. And I tried other things that failed. And I kept trying until I figured out what really worked for me, and what felt good for me, and what was in alignment with my values and my beliefs. But it was always up to me.
It had nothing to do with anything else outside of me, it was me and my attitude. I had to stop blaming circumstances, and take ownership of my situation. And as soon as I did this, as soon as I decided that I was going to make it happen, everything shifted for me.
Now, it wasn’t like turning on a light switch. It took time to get there. But it only took a moment. It was a brief moment where I made that decision that I was never going to blame anyone else ever again. I wasn’t going to look outside of myself for reasons and excuses and be a blamer and a complainer. Like if it is to be it is up to me. If it’s going to happen, I’m gonna make it happen. That’s the only way It’s gonna work. But I made that decision and I took a moment to make that decision. Okay?
So here’s what I want you to do this week, I want you to make that decision. You can do this by taking an inventory of where you are right now. So maybe get out a piece of paper or journal, something like that, and do a little bit of writing on this, like, write down all the things that are happening in your life, what’s going well, what’s not going so well.
What are you getting? Where are you getting good results in your life? Where are you not getting good results in your life? What activities are you engaging in that you’re proud of? That are in alignment with your goals, what activities are you engaging in that are not necessarily in alignment with your goals, maybe you’re not so proud of?
Where are you in regards to your goals? Are you on track? Are you not on track? Are you feeling stuck? Like just kind of take an honest inventory and look at each of these situations with yourself in your life? And honestly, ask yourself, you know, is this something that is in my control or not? Are you in control of each of these areas of your life or not?
Because if you keep thinking, I’m not in control, this has to do with, you know, my boss at work, or my wife is not, you know, being supportive. If you keep looking outside of yourself, for answers to these situations, or reasons why you’re not making progress in these situations, you’re gonna have a really hard time changing any of that.
If you’re feeling stuck in any area of your life, you’re gonna have a hard time getting unstuck, if you continually blame others. Take control. Reframe each of those situations, what can I do about this? What can I alone do about this? How can I take control of this particular situation right now? What is my part in this? Because there’s always an answer. You are always in control. Even though it doesn’t feel like it, you are, you just have to make that decision that you are going to be in control.
Being out of control is an illusion. You know, unless somebody has you chained to a water heater in their basement, you are in control of your life. And if you’re chained to a water heater, in somebody’s basement right now, then please reach out. We’ll help you, we’ll help you get out of that situation.
But listen, you have control, you just have to make that decision that you are going to take control of your own life, that you’re going to shift that locus of Control inward. And start being 100% responsible for everything in your life. You do that and I promise you things will begin to shift for you.
Okay, it takes some time to get there. It takes some time to accomplish those things you want for yourself, but it starts with that decision. Make the decision, you’re going to shift your locus of control inward, make that decision that you’re going to start being 100% responsible for every result in your life, good or bad.
Okay, this is a game changer right here. That’s all I got for you guys today. I love you all. Keep on Running Lean, and I’ll talk to you soon.
Your mindset is one of the most powerful tools you have at your disposal. But most people do not spend any time at all working on improving their mindset. This is crazy to me because without the …
Continue Reading about 179. Weight Loss Principles Every Runner Needs to Know Part 3: Mindset →
My name is Patrick McGilvray, and I’m an experienced marathoner, ultra runner, Sports Nutritionist, Master Life Coach, and weight loss coach for runners. I’ve dedicated my life to helping runners just like you properly fuel your body and your mind. So you can get leaner, get stronger, run faster, and run longer than you ever thought possible. This is Running Lean.
Hey there, and welcome to episode 179 of Running Lean. My name is Patrick McGilvray, The Weight Loss Coach for Runners and today: Weight Loss Principles Every Runner Needs To Know, Part Three: Mindset.
Your mindset is one of the most powerful tools you have at your disposal. But most people do not spend any time at all working on improving their mindset. This is crazy to me because without the right mindset, doing things like losing weight and keeping it off becomes nearly impossible.
However, armed with the right mindset, losing weight becomes easy, and effortless and your success is basically inevitable. Everything you want for yourself but don’t already have requires a shift in your mindset in order to get it. Change happens from the inside out, okay?
This inner work, this mindset work, is the most important and most powerful work you can do for yourself. So today, I’m going to lay out a whole bunch of mindset principles that you absolutely need to know if you want to lose weight and keep it off.
And again, this is part three of my three part series called Weight Loss Principles Every Runner Needs To Know. Part One focused on nutrition principles. Part Two was all about the exercise principles you need to focus on in order to lose weight, get stronger and become the most badass version of yourself. Cool.
Alright, but first, if you have ever struggled to lose weight and keep it off, I want you to know that there is nothing wrong with you. You are not alone, you’ve probably just been given the wrong advice, or you’re just not following any kind of plan. Alright, and it’s okay. I get it. I’ve been there, we’ve all been there.
But if you’re ready to actually do something different to actually do something to change, and follow a plan that was custom built for you and have someone there supporting you every step of the way, then I’ve got you covered. I created The Coaching Project with you in mind.
The Coaching Project is my lifetime access weight loss coaching program designed specifically for runners. You and I will work closely together to put together a custom nutrition and exercise plan to get you to your goals.
Then we meet regularly to see what’s working and what’s not and then course correct if needed. One thing you need to understand about coaching is that it’s not a one size fits all approach. There just isn’t one diet or one exercise plan that works for everyone. There just isn’t.
You are an individual, you have your own goals, needs and your own lifestyle. And I want to meet you where you are. What works for others may not work for you. So why try to force yourself into some cookie cutter program that isn’t made for you and probably won’t work for you?
So if you’re ready to stop struggling and start getting results, check out the coaching project just go to runningleancoaching.com/join to learn more. I would love to see you in The Coaching Project.
Okay, let’s get into this, the most important mindset principles runners need to know in order to lose weight and keep it off. This is like my favorite topic. As a coach I’ve worked with a lot of runners and helped them develop the mindset that allows them to to become their most badass selves to lose weight, get stronger, run faster, and become their best selves.
And the mindset work is probably the most important work that you have to do if you want to lose weight and keep it off. If you want to live a happy, healthy lifestyle easily and effortlessly, this all requires a big shift in your mindset.
Your mindset is the foundation of everything that you do. Everything that you do is built upon this foundation. With the wrong mindset though you are doomed to failure. But with the right mindset, you’d become basically unstoppable. There’s nothing you can’t do.
So I’m gonna go over a few mindset principles that runners need to know in order to lose weight and keep it off. Okay, there’s more than a few. This is very challenging for me to narrow down this list. But I don’t know, I have like 18 or 19 principles I want to share with you today. I just couldn’t I couldn’t choose just a few.
So I hope you’ll enjoy, but let’s start with the first one, and these are in no particular order, by the way. But the first one is this: your environment is everything. So when we talk about changing your environment in order to promote healthy changes in your life, like if you want to create new healthy habits, you got to change your environment.
This means changing things like what foods you keep in the kitchen and the fridge and the pantry. What’s in that snack cupboard? Do you even have a snack cupboard? You probably don’t need one. But your environment is more than just your kitchen.
Your environment is the books you read, the movies you watch, the podcasts you listen to, the audio books you listen to, the TV shows you watch. All of these things have an influence on you as a person and what you choose to do and not do and how you live your life.
We are very influenced by all these outside influences that come into us. What about the people you spend time with? You know, they say you’re the sum of the five people you spend the most time with?
Who do you follow on social media? What friends do you spend time with? What family members do you spend time with? You may have some toxic family members that you probably shouldn’t spend as much time with. I know sometimes that’s out of our control.
But sometimes you need to just say like I’m not gonna go over to Aunt Janet’s because she’s a little cuckoo, you know, or whatever you need to do. But these people have an influence on you, even the people you follow on social media, right?
So make sure that the people in your life are supporting you, they have your back. There are positive influences on your life, okay? They say you’re the sum of the five people you spend the most time with.
If you spend time with five marathon runners, you’ll probably be the sixth. If you spend time with five lean, strong human beings, five faster runners, five people who are into self improvement, you’ll probably be the sixth.
Conversely, if you spend time with five couch potatoes, five junk food junkies, you’ll probably be the sixth. Okay, so your environment is everything. It really is everything, okay?
Next one, your feelings are not in charge. Okay? And you are not your feelings. So don’t allow your feelings to drive your actions. Your brain is a powerful thing, that we don’t use it, we allow ourselves to be driven by our feelings a lot of the time.
So for example, if you’re having a stressful day, you’re feeling very stressed out about what you want to do, you just want to go drink a bunch of alcohol or eat some junk food. But listen to your mind, your mind is smarter than your feelings, your mind knows what’s good for you.
Your mind should be driving the bus, your feelings can come along for the ride, but they’re a passenger, they’re sitting in a passenger seat, they’re not allowed to drive. And we think we have to do things a certain way. Because we feel a certain way. This is just not true.
You don’t have to do anything, you can just have a feeling. So instead of being driven by your feelings, use that intuitive voice that you have inside you. Your intuition knows what’s right, or what’s wrong in any particular moment.
So let’s say you had a stressful day and you just want to eat cake for dinner. This is a feeling that’s dictating a behavior. But in that moment, there’s a part of you that’s like, this is not right. I shouldn’t be eating cake for dinner. That’s not who I want to be. That’s your intuitive voice. That’s your intuition. Listen to that voice.
Okay, your feelings are not in charge. Listen to that voice of reason. Let that drive your actions. Don’t let your feelings drive the bus. Okay? If you get good at this, this is a game changer for every aspect of your life.
All right, the next principle is this: you have to know the difference between knowledge and know how. So knowledge is knowing about something. Know how is knowing how to do that thing.
So for example, if you read books on how to swim, and you listen to, you know, podcasts about how to swim, and you read all these books, are you a swimmer? No, of course not because you’ve never been in the water. You’ve never practiced.
You’ve never, like gotten from one end of the pool to the other without having to stop and be like, oh my god, this is super hard. I did this when I was learning how to swim because I decided I was going to do my first triathlon some years ago and I signed up for a half Ironman. Who does that? Right?
I’ve never done a triathlon in my life and I’m like, I’m gonna sign up for half Ironman, how hard could it be? It’s a half, it’s a half thing, you know, so it can’t be that hard. But I really didn’t know how to swim I kind of assumed, but I wasn’t good at swimming at all. I couldn’t make it across the pool without having to stop and like catch my breath or whatever.
So I got on YouTube, and I read some books and I learned the principles of swimming but It wasn’t until I got into the pool and I practiced that, that I actually knew how to do it, it took me a long time to get good at the right form, because you have to be able to breathe on both sides.
And you have to be able to look up out of the water and sight where you’re going and keep yourself going in a straight line. Because when you’re swimming in open water, there’s no black line at the bottom of the lake or whatever to keep you on track. So you have to be able to look and so you’ve got to practice all this stuff, knowing how to do it is completely different than actually doing it. Okay.
So you got to know the difference between knowledge and know how. And when I coach people, I always kind of tell them, like, coaching is like 20% knowledge, yeah, I’m going to show you what to do to show you how to do it. But it’s like 80% application, it’s 80%, practicing these principles, it’s 80% doing the thing.
That’s how you become good at something. That’s how you develop good habits. That’s how you become a good swimmer. You know, you’ve got to practice that good form over and over and over again. But reading a book on it does not give you what you need, you’ve got to do the thing, and you’ve got to spend time doing it. Okay, so this applies.
Specifically, we’re talking about weight loss here. So we’re talking about sticking to the food plan, what works for you, what doesn’t work for you? How do you work in all this running that you want to do? How do you train for this event? And stick to your food plan and lose weight, if that’s what you want for yourself?
So it’s 20% knowledge and like, 80% application, okay, but the know how is in the doing. It’s in the practicing. It’s in the repetition. Okay.
That leads me to my next principle, which is this: You crave what you repeatedly do. So the things that are easy for you, and that you enjoy doing are probably the things you do regularly. So if you’re somebody who goes to the gym regularly, like I go to the gym most days, right?
So right now I’m in this phase where I’m going to the gym like five days a week, and I love it. I love it. There was a time in my life where going to the gym one day a week would have sucked. And I would have been like, this is stupid, I can’t believe I would have to force myself to go because I didn’t love it, because I wasn’t doing it regularly.
But those things that we continually do. We get good at, they start to fill us with joy, and we crave those things. All right. So maybe you’re somebody who runs marathons regularly, you begin to crave the training and the feeling of crossing that finish line.
Let’s look at the other side of this though. If you repeatedly eat junk food, you’re going to keep craving it more and more and more. Instead, if you start eating healthy food repeatedly, guess what? That begins to be what you crave.
I will tell you right now I crave certain foods that seem crazy to me. That like few years ago, I would have been like, who is this person, you know, like a good salad with some crispy vegetables on there. And a big steak like that is something that sounds amazing to me.
Now, if you’re not somebody that likes to eat salad, and likes to eat steak, whatever do, you do you it’s fine. But this healthy, simple food right now, I crave it, you know? So as human beings, the reason why this kind of works for us is that we perceive anything familiar as good.
So anything that seems familiar to us that we do repeatedly, we see that as good, anything unfamiliar, we see as bad. Even if that thing is not actually good for us like eating junk food as an example, right? We do this repeatedly and our brain’s just like this is good, because we do it all the time.
But we know it’s not good for us. But your brain doesn’t care. It just sees that as good because it’s something you do repeatedly. Okay. So the more you do something, the more familiar it becomes, and the more your brain perceives it as good so you begin to crave it, you crave what you repeatedly do. So choose those things wisely. Okay.
Next principle, I’ve talked about this once or twice before, embrace the suck. Listen, change is uncomfortable. Change is hard. And change, it just plain sucks sometimes. And in the ultra running community, we talk about this a lot.
There’s this concept called ‘embrace the suck’ because the suck is that point that will happen at some point during your race where you’re going to feel terrible. I don’t know when it’s going to happen. Let’s say you’re doing a 50 miler. It could happen at mile 30 or 45 or minus eight, I don’t know, but at some point, it’s going to suck. And it’s better to know this in advance to accept it. To embrace it, don’t wish it didn’t suck, don’t don’t wish it was easier because it isn’t going to be.
So accept it and embrace it. That’s the only way you’re gonna get through it. What we do here, when we’re trying to change our diet, lose weight, create better habits, become healthier, get stronger, this stuff is not easy. If it was easy, I wouldn’t have a job, I wouldn’t do what I do.
This is hard work. But it’s in the hard work that we grow, it’s in the hard work that we evolve, and we become our best selves. So don’t try to avoid the suck, don’t try to make it easier, don’t wish it was easier. You know, embrace the suck, because it will always be a part of the process. Okay?
Next principle, you have to commit to the process of change. If you want to lose weight, let’s say you wanna lose 40 pounds, and all your energy is focused on 40 pounds, I gotta get to this goal weight by this date, I’m just, you know, kind of got to hit that 40 pounds, I got 40 pounds lose.
If you just focused all of your energy on this one long term goal, you’re just going to feel kind of miserable all the time. I’m just telling you right now from experience of helping people through this kind of thing and seeing people with these weight loss goals.
And I’m just telling you that it is a miserable place to be if all you’re focused on is hitting that goal. Because your weight changes, it fluctuates, it goes up and down. And it’s just sometimes the the date that we have for a goal isn’t realistic, you know, it’s like I’m gonna lose 40 pounds in the next 60 days. I don’t think that’s realistic. I mean, it might happen. But what if it doesn’t, then you’re just disappointed. So let’s just scrap all that out.
I want you to instead commit to the process of change. What does that mean? That means doing the stuff you need to do today, and just focus on that, focus on the process of change, focus on your plan, the steps that you’re taking.
What are you doing today to move yourself towards that goal? Are you skipping dessert? Are you eating more protein, doing a HIIT workout, lifting heavy weights, saying no to fried food and sugary treats? Yeah, do those things just focus on that be in the moment, focus on the process of change instead of the end result.
Because I’ll tell you what, you’re going to enjoy that process way, way more if you just focus on the process of change, okay. And when you do this, your goal becomes inevitable, it may take a little bit longer than you want, or it may not take as long as you think it just takes what it takes, we’re all different, but you’re going to enjoy the process so much more.
So just commit to that process of change and not focused all your energy on the end result. Which leads me to my next principle, which is the gap versus the gain, you’ve got to be focused on the gain, not the gap. So the gap, what is the gap? The gap is when you’re focused on where you’re not. So let’s say you want to lose those 40 pounds.
The gap is, you know that you have 40 pounds to lose, you have 40 pounds, that 40 pounds is the gap from where you are today to where you want to be in the future. And when all of our attention and energy is focused on what we don’t have, what we haven’t accomplished, how far we have to go, that is not a good place to be.
Because you’re going to get down on yourself, you’re going to feel frustrated, it’s going to feel like this is a never ending journey. And you’re just focused on the wrong thing. Instead, I want you to focus on the gain, what’s the gain?
The gain is every little success that you have along the way. When you focus on your little successes, and these could be oh, I lost a half a pound this week. Or it could be that my pants fit a little bit better. Or, oh, I can get into those shorts that I wore last, that I couldn’t wear last summer, you know, or I just feel like I have a lot of energy today. That’s a good thing.
When we focus on the positives on the gains that we’ve made along the way, we feel more motivated to keep going. We feel more confident that this is working. We’re no longer focused on what isn’t working. We’re focused on what is and it’s like just shifting into this whole new positive mindset instead of this negative one. So stop focusing on the gap, the gap doesn’t matter.
Focus on the gain, focus on those little things you do every single day that feel good and that move you inch by inch closer to that goal. You’re going to be much happier and enjoy the process much more if you do this, okay?
Okay, next principle, it’s okay to be the weirdo at the table. I love this one. Because we are so worried about trying to fit in, and please other people, and go along, just get along with everyone just do what everybody else is doing. Stop doing that. Okay?
If you’re somebody who is like working on their weight and trying to improve their health, and you’re not just not eating junk food, but you’re going out with some friends, and they’re all want to order a bunch of junk for dinner or something like that, or a bunch of alcohol or something, you do not have to go along with that.
If you choose in that moment, though, that everybody else is getting, you know, garbage food, you know, but you’re choosing to eat a salad or, or not have the drink when everybody else is drinking, you’re going to feel like you’re a little left out like you’re the outsider, like you don’t fit in.
They may even say something to you like, Hey, why aren’t you drinking? Hey, why aren’t you eating pizza like everybody else? You know, what’s wrong with you? Come on, just live a little, you get a little peer pressure going on there.
But they may just think you’re the weirdo at the table. And I want to encourage you to just be the weirdo at the table. It’s okay. Listen, you don’t want to be like everyone else. 88% of Americans suffer from some sort of metabolic dysfunction.
We’re talking overweight, heart disease, high blood pressure, obesity, high cholesterol, all that stuff. These are all lifestyle diseases. And they call it metabolic dysfunction, or metabolic disease. You want to be in the 12%. The different the, the outlier, the weirdo, that is not like everybody else, okay? Just own it. Just own it.
Like be okay being the weirdo at the table. All right. Don’t be like everybody else. And we can’t please other people by our actions, you know, like, it doesn’t matter. Like, you could be the perfect person. And somebody’s not gonna like you. So it doesn’t matter, like, stop trying to please other people. It just doesn’t work. I wish it did. But it doesn’t.
Okay, next principle is this: the 90/10 rule. I love this one. I hope you do too. So we don’t have to do everything 100% perfectly. Nobody does, not even me, honestly. Instead, you’ve got to take a day off every now and then from your workouts or have a piece of cake or a piece of pizza every now and then.
Otherwise, you know, you might feel discouraged and miserable, we don’t want to be discouraged and miserable. So when I’m working with clients, I try to encourage them to follow the 90/10 rule when it comes to diet and even exercise, primarily diet.
That means that 90% or 90% of the time you are like on the money, you’re not eating sugar, you’re not eating a bunch of processed junk food, no fried food, no vegetable oil, nothing like that, right.
But then there’s that 10% of the time where you can have the cake, or a sugary treat, or some pizza or a beer or a doughnut or whatever, do what makes you happy. Right? If you can do this the right way, and this is very important, you have to be able to do this right where you can allow yourself to binge out on junk food because you have one donut gotta be able to practice restraint, right, there’s a right way and a wrong way to do cheat meals.
But if you can do this the right way, and you have a plan that you know is working for you 90% of the time, then this is something that might be sustainable for you. Right. So if we talk about 10% of your meals can be a little bit of a cheat meal kind of a thing. That means that we’re talking about one meal per week. That’s it.
So this isn’t a cheat day, this isn’t a cheat week or a cheat month. This is a cheat meal, like once a week. So I’ll tell you like and I don’t do this once a week, but probably once or twice a month I get like tacos, that’s my thing. I just love tacos full of chips and salsa and guacamole and, and I get tacos.
And so that is what I consider my cheat meal. I do that once every other week or something like that. And it makes it so enjoyable to live this way. You know because the other 90% of the tim my diet is on point. Right?
But then I get to you know, enjoy something that is hyper palatable food that’s Uber delicious. I know it’s not super good for me. But at the same time it’s so small the amount of tortilla chips that I eat versus you know how much good clean food I’m eating that it doesn’t have a big effect on me. Okay.
Which leads me to my next principle: Whatever you do, it has to be sustainable for you. That means that it has to be enjoyable for you, or else you won’t want to do it. And if you don’t want to do it, and it’s a miserable process, and you feel like you’re deprived all the time, you’re not going to stick with it.
Sustainability means that you have a plan that you follow for life, like this is not short term. This is for good, right? not temporary. This is just how you do things from here on out. Okay. So this has to do with the foods you eat, how you exercise, all that stuff.
So if you’re trying to follow some plan that says you can never have sugar again, in any form the rest of your life, and you have to run every single day. Like, to me that sounds terrible. Because there’s going to be a moment where I’m going to be like, oh, it’s like Christmas, I really want to have this Christmas cookie that my kids made for me or something.
Or, you know, I’m kind of tired. And I feel like I need to take a day off, but I can’t because I’m on this plan. Like that’s not sustainable. Right? So whatever you have to do, you have to enjoy it. And it has to be sustainable.
That’s why when I work with new people, we come up with a plan and we always have the discussion about what foods do you love. Let’s talk about that. Let’s talk about putting together a plan that includes a lot of those foods that you love, so that you’re more likely to stick with it.
Which leads me into my next principle, which is consistency beats perfection. Do not focus on perfection. Nobody does this perfectly. Instead, focus on consistent consistency. Over time, that’s what’s gonna get you there. That’s what’s gonna make a huge difference for you. Okay?
When you focus on perfection, you beat yourself up every time you go off the plan. And this leads to self doubt, and a lack of motivation and giving up on yourself. Instead, practice consistency, you make a plan, and then you stick to the plan even when you don’t feel like it. It’s that simple.
You don’t go ballistic on yourself if you mess up because you are going to mess up and it’s okay. Here’s a good rule of thumb to follow: never have two cheat meals in a row. Never miss two workouts in a row.
That means if you do have that one cheat meal that next meal, you are right back on plan again. That means if you missed that workout, the next scheduled workout you make that workout no matter what.
You know, maybe you didn’t feel like running because you were super tired. It’s not a big deal. But you got to hit that next workout no matter what. Same with the food plan, right next meal, you’re back on track. Consistency over time is what’s going to get you there because nobody does it perfectly. So don’t think you have to do it perfectly. And don’t think that anybody does it perfectly, because nobody does.
Alright, next principle is this, you have to take radical responsibility. So this means that you cannot be a blamer or a complainer. Most people have a very hard time sticking with some kind of a diet or exercise plan. And they will have all kinds of stories and reasons and excuses. And they will blame everything and everyone else for why they can’t stick to their plan.
I had a job change, or my hours changed at work, or my kids are home for the summer or my husband doesn’t eat the same foods as me or is too cold outside, or it’s too hot outside, or Mercury’s in retrograde or whatever. These are all just excuses. And I could go on and on. I’ve heard every excuse in the world, you know.
And I want to tell you to just stop it with the stories. Stop it with the reasons stop it with the excuses, stop blaming everybody else. Start taking radical responsibility for your own results or lack of results. If you want to lose weight, and you want to maybe run faster, and you really want this for yourself, then take the responsibility of doing the work to get those things. No excuses.
No more blaming anyone or anything that’s outside of you. If it’s to be it’s up to me. Have you heard that quote before? I don’t know who said that. But I love it. If it’s to be it’s up to me that means you got to do it. It’s your fault. If it works, it’s your fault. If it doesn’t work, it’s your fault. Just take responsibility, good or bad.
If you’re getting good results take responsibility. If you’re not, take responsibility. Don’t blame anybody else. So here’s the thing: when you start doing this, when you start taking radical responsibility for every result you’re getting or not getting in your life, it becomes a game changer.
This is like total freedom for you because you’re no longer allowing anything outside of you to control what you’re doing or not doing or stop you from becoming who you truly want to be. This is a very beautiful empowering place to be, okay? People who take radical responsibility, get results, period. Okay?
Next principle, coaching is only for people who can’t do it on their own. So this is actually a myth. This is not something that I want you to follow. But I want you to just hear me on this. I hear people talk about coaching. And they think that coaching means that it is only for people who have no willpower, no discipline, and who just can’t do stuff on their own.
And I just have to tell you, this is not true at all. I was always somebody who’s very disciplined, I trained for an Ironman Ironman on my own. I trained for a 50 mile race on my own, 100 mile race on my own, countless marathons, countless ultra marathons, all on my own. And I was fine with all that I did great with all that.
Now, there was a blind spot that I had, when it came to nutrition, I did not have a plan that was working for me, I didn’t know what to do. And I didn’t have anybody helping me. And I thought I could figure it out myself. And I just couldn’t, I tried everything. And I really couldn’t.
Nothing really clicked for me until I got some coaching. Once I got some coaching, I had a custom plan that was designed for me, I had a lot of say in how I wanted to make this work. And I began doing the mindset work I needed to do to make this a lifestyle. And that was never going to happen on my own.
I learned a lot of the mindset principles I’m sharing with you today from various coaches that I’ve worked with. And doing this inner work has been the game changer for me. And the other thing I have to tell you is that the best coaches have coaches.
I work with a lot of coaches, there’s a lot of people that are clients of mine who coach other people. Some of them coach them on health and nutrition and diet and running and exercise. Some of them are life coaches and things like that. The point is, though, the best coaches have coaches.
So coaching isn’t just for people who can’t do it on their own, coaching is for anybody that wants to improve, and that wants the help and the guidance and the support to basically make those results inevitable. Okay.
Which leads me to my next principle, which is this change happens from the inside out, right? It’s this inner work, these mindset principles I’m sharing with you today, for example, this is the inner work that you have to do, you cannot expect to change by simply like, Oh, I’m just going to run more miles or I’m going to eat, you know, these 10 foods.
Yeah, you’ll change temporarily, like some of that you might be able to lose some weight, if you change your diet a little bit. But permanent change, it’s a whole different thing, a whole different thing. You have to fix your mindset. If you want long lasting change to happen, you have to do the inner work.
That’s why so much of my coaching program is focused on this inner work, on the mindset work. Because change happens from the inside out, it doesn’t happen the other way around. It doesn’t happen from the outside in. It’s not like oh, I’m going to make all these changes and I’m going to lose this weight. And I’m going to run faster, I’m gonna get stronger. And then I’ll have this great mindset.
Nope, it happens the other way around. You improve your mindset. First, you adopt a powerful, successful mindset. And then you become powerful and successful because of that. Okay, so just remember that change happens from the inside out, not the other way around.
Alright, next principle is this: you need to become an emotional badass. So human beings, we are emotional beings. It’s normal and natural for us to experience a wide variety of emotions and we have emotions that we call negative and some that we call positive.
We love the positive emotions you know love joy, happiness, ecstasy, calmness, peacefulness. These are all what we would consider positive emotions. But we hate the negative ones, fear stress, anxiety, guilt, shame.
All these are what we would call negative emotions. And we love feeling the positive emotions but we try to repress the negative ones. We try to push them down. We numb ourselves out to those negative emotions. We don’t want to feel those things, emotions and feelings same things right. So we numb ourselves to those feelings.
And how do we do that? We use food, we use alcohol, we use shopping, sex, gambling, drugs, and on and on and on. There’s so many things, scrolling through social media as a way of numbing ourselves. The two most common ones, and the ones that I help people with a lot, are the food and alcohol.
Those are like the two kind of most common ways that we numb ourselves. So if you’re trying to lose weight, and you’re eating, to make yourself feel better, you got to learn how to stop doing that you got to learn how to stop soothing yourself, or numbing yourself with food, or alcohol.
Because you’ve probably been using food as an emotional management tool for way too long and has to stop. If you want to become healthier, leaner, stronger, you got to change your whole relationship with food. So the real work actually begins when you stop using food as an emotional management tool, when you stop using food to numb yourself when you stop using food to feel better.
Now, you got to feel all these emotions, hmm, that does not feel good. That is the stuff that we actually have to deal with. So when I talk about becoming an emotional badass, that means that you have to get good at having those emotions and experiencing the feelings, that you have all of them without doing anything to make them go away without eating over them. And it sounds easy enough, right?
Okay, you stop emotional eating, you’ve got some emotions you’ve got to deal with, you just deal with those, and then you’re good to go. Sounds easy. But this is the work. This is the hard work and some of the hardest work that we do in the coaching project.
You know, I guarantee that most coaches out there and most programs out there are not going to help you in this area. Especially people that are helping runners and stuff like that, like it’s just not on their radar to help people in this way.
Most coaches don’t know how to help you stop the emotional eating and what to do instead, right. They, most coaches, are just like eat this, don’t eat that. Run this many miles, whatever. I do things a little bit differently, just so you know. So we have feelings. And we have to feel those feelings, we have to be able to feel them, we have to be able to process them, we have to be able to learn from them without eating because of that without drinking because of them.
And honestly, this is probably one of the most important life skills that you can and should learn. Because when you become an emotional badass, you’re no longer afraid to experience any emotion, positive, negative, whatever, like you’re, you’re just like grinding it all on, you become unstoppable. There’s nothing that you can’t do. There’s nothing that you can’t accomplish.
Most people don’t want to try to lose weight because they’re afraid they’re going to fail. And then they’re going to feel bad about themselves. That’s why they don’t do it. They’re afraid they’re going to fail. And they’re going to feel bad about themselves. They’re afraid of a feeling they’re afraid of feeling that feeling.
But what if you weren’t afraid to feel the feeling? There’s just like, nothing you wouldn’t be willing to try. So you got to become an emotional badass, just know that. Okay. Next on my list of principles that every runner needs to know, is the idea of a fixed versus a growth mindset. A fixed mindset.
So this is where your brain and your mindset is basically fixed. This is who I am. This is how I’ve always done things. This is how I will continue to do things I cannot change. And end of story. And I’m being sort of funny about this, but so many people think that their mindset is fixed. That’s just, this is the way I do things.
Oh, I’ve got a sweet tooth. I’m an emotional eater. You know, I’m a stress eater, whatever. But you don’t have to be that way. You can change. But if you’re stuck in that fixed mindset, it is going to stifle your growth, it’s going to cause a lot of stress in your life. It does kind of let you off the hook though.
Because you don’t really have to do anything, or stick with anything because you’re never going to like get better or improve anyway. So you don’t really need to bother with any of that stuff. It basically keeps you stuck and small. The fixed mindset is not where you want to be. You want to adopt a growth mindset.
A growth mindset is like I’m always learning, I’m always growing. I’m always improving. I’m always becoming more. I’m always capable of growth. I’m always open to change and learning and growing. This opens you up to amazing new experiences and opportunities. It helps you to try new things even though you might fail. But you know that you can try because you might also succeed. And so why not just try?
So the growth mindset is one that you have to adopt, if you want to change. If there’s anything you want to improve in your life, you can’t do it with a fixed mindset, you have to have that growth mindset, okay? So you have to adopt that. And you will be able to accomplish great things in your life, right? But with that fixed mindset, you’re going to just kind of stay where you are, you don’t want that.
Alright, next principle is this. Taking aligned action is the key. So this means that you have to take consistent aligned action, if you want to create progress, what is consistent aligned action. So aligned action is actions that are in alignment with your long term goals.
So if you want to lose weight, one of your actions that would be in alignment with that goal is like, I’m just not going to eat ice cream for dessert every night, boom, okay, doing that action. In this case, it’s not doing something that is in alignment with who you want to be. And when you take consistent aligned action, you make progress, you’ll start to see the weight coming off of you. Cool.
Well, making progress helps you to build confidence, you’re like, Oh, I’m doing this, I can actually do this. And that confidence creates motivation to keep going and take more aligned action. And this is the cycle of motivation. This is the cycle that you want to stay in.
All right, taking consistent aligned action, making progress, building confidence, being motivated to continue to take more aligned action, that’s the cycle you want to be in. There is another cycle that most people kind of find themselves in, by the way, and this is the cycle of demotivation, where you take misaligned action, so action that is not in alignment with your long term goals.
I want to lose weight, but you know what, I’m going to eat twice as much ice cream every night for dessert. That would be called misaligned action. Misaligned action causes misaligned results or lack of progress. So you start gaining weight, you want to lose weight, but you’re gaining weight. And that lack of progress causes doubt and worry and uncertainty and a loss of confidence. And that lack of confidence causes you to be demotivated.
So you’re no longer motivated to keep going. So you just quit. Have you ever experienced that? And I know I have. But I want to tell you something. Just don’t do that. Take consistent aligned action. If you’re not taking consistent aligned action, ask yourself why?
Why am I not doing the right thing in this moment? Maybe go back to that intuitive, asking yourself intuitively, like what is right in this moment, okay, because you know, you know what’s right.
Next principle is this: never, ever, ever, ever give up. People who are successful at losing weight, know that it takes some time to get the results that they want. So they don’t quit when they have a weight loss stall or a plateau. They keep going day in and day out. They keep doing the work, they keep showing up for themselves. And they never give up no matter what. They’ve committed to the process of change, and they keep going no matter how long it takes.
What if you adopted this mindset around one key area of your life like weight loss? What could you accomplish? How much weight could you lose? If you just never quit? What if you applied this principle to every area of your life, you could transform yourself into a whole new person no joke.
So commit to becoming the healthiest and most badass version of yourself. And then never, ever, ever give up. You don’t quit when it gets hard. You don’t quit when you get tired. You only quit when you’re done. Okay.
Which leads me to my last principle, which is this there is no finish line, you’re never done. I hope this doesn’t bum you out. Really, I hope it doesn’t. But there is no finish line. This is a lifestyle. You know, weight loss, getting healthy, becoming our best selves isn’t a destination we’re trying to get to, there isn’t a finish line, you’re going to cross and then you’re going to be like, oh, cool, I can rest and relax now and eat whatever I want.
No, it doesn’t work that way. We commit to these principles. We commit to this lifestyle. And it is a lifestyle. It’s the lifestyle that we live our life from here on out. So there is no “done”. There is no finish line. We just keep going. We keep showing up for ourselves because it’s the right thing to do.
We keep improving and growing and evolving and becoming more because it’s the right thing to do. Because we want to constantly transform ourselves. We don’t want to stay where we are. We don’t want to be the same person in 10 years that we are today.
I don’t know about you, but I’m always growing and evolving and I couldn’t look back where I was two three years ago and go, gosh, I’m like a different person today. And it’s because I kept showing up for myself every single day. A day in and day out, week after week, month after month, year after year.
When you have this principle, there is no finish line that this is just the work we do and it continues. This is a game changer because this just becomes a part of your identity. Being healthy, exercising, eating right, it just becomes a part of your identity becomes part of who you are and what you do. It’s not a struggle. It’s not hard. You’re not missing out on anything. It’s just what you do. It’s who you are.
Okay, just remember, there is no finish line, this work continues. Okay. I hope you’ve enjoyed this three part series called Weight Loss Principles Every Runner Needs To Know. You can really listen these three episodes anytime you need a little refresher course on what to do to kind of get yourself back on track.
Next week on the podcast, I’m going to be recapping my recent 12 hour ultra marathon, how I trained for it, my nutrition plan during the event, what went well, what didn’t go so well. lessons I learned and lots more. So that should be a fun one. And be sure to subscribe to the podcast and whatever podcast app you use so you never miss a future episode, okay.
And then if you’re a runner and you’re ready to lose the weight for good, then I have something that you need to check out, I put together a brand new free training program called Five Simple Steps To Becoming A Leaner, Stronger Runner.
I’ll teach you how to lose weight the right way and keep it off for good without the suffering and the deprivation or running a million miles a week. And just like you know, this is about more than just losing weight. It’s about not doing the same things over and over expecting different results.
It’s about changing your whole relationship with diets and nutrition and exercise. It’s about becoming the healthiest version of yourself from the inside out. And it’s about changing your mindset and creating new habits that last for life.
So if you’re ready to get leaner and stronger, if you’re ready to run faster, run longer and become the healthiest version of yourself yet. Check out this free training, just go to runningleancoaching.com and click on Free Training. There’s never going to be a better time than right now to get started, that’s runningleancoaching.com and click on Free Training. That’s all I got for you today. Love you all, keep on Running Lean and I’ll talk to you soon.
There is a health crisis going on right now in the US. Metabolic diseases like obesity, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease are at an all-time high. Our collective health has been steadily …
Continue Reading about 130. Taking Your Health Into Your Own Hands →
My name is Patrick McGilvray, and I’m an experienced marathoner, ultra runner, Sports Nutritionist, Master Life Coach, and weight loss coach for runners. I’ve dedicated my life to helping runners just like you properly fuel your body and your mind. So you can get leaner, get stronger, run faster, and run longer than you ever thought possible. This is Running Lean.
Hey there, and welcome to episode 130 of Running Lean. My name is Patrick McGilvray, the weight loss coach for runners and today taking your health into your own hands. There is a health crisis going on right now in the United States.
Metabolic diseases like obesity, type two diabetes and heart disease are at an all time high and our collective health has been steadily declining over the last 40 years. And it doesn’t appear to be reversing any time soon. And if you think that our healthcare system or the food industry or the government are here to help you to help reverse this, you are sadly mistaken.
So if you want to avoid being another statistic, and if you want to start becoming the healthiest and most badass version of yourself, then this episode is for you. In this episode, I’m going to share some surprising reasons why we might be experiencing this current health crisis here in this country.
And I also want to explain the simple solution not relying on the powers that be quote unquote, but instead taking your health into your own hands. What does that look like? What does it mean for you? What can you do today to start taking your health into your own hands?
First, I just want to talk a little bit about my coaching program, which is called the Running Lean coaching project. So every month I pick a different topic. And in our program, we kind of take a deep dive into that topic and June, this month of June, is all about mastering your mindset.
Your mindset is the foundation of everything that you do in your life, everything that you want to accomplish in your life, whether it’s you know, health and fitness related, even business related relationship related, all requires you to have the right mindset. And a lot of times we don’t even understand what that means. What is mindset? What does it even mean to have the right kind of mindset?
So we’re taking a deep dive into this all month long. And if you want to join us, it’s not too late. Not only can you continue to join in the conversations we’re having about this, but you can also have access to all of the past coaching calls that I’ve done.
There’s kind of a couple of different components to this coaching program. There’s group coaching, and then there’s also one on one coaching with me, I designed this program to give you all of the support that you need to accomplish your goals, whether you want to lose weight, improve your running performance, become stronger, just become the most badass version of yourself whatever that looks like for you.
I’ve created this program to provide you with the knowledge, the support, the accountability, the inspiration, the motivation to help get you there, I want to help you stay on track, help you change your mindset, if that’s what needs to happen, develop good habits, so that we can create a healthier version of you that lasts.
This is about permanent lifestyle changes. This isn’t about short term fixes or, you know, lose weight quickly kind of thing. This is about long term health and fitness. So if you’re interested in that, if you’re interested in not the short game, but the long game, and about changing your mindset and changing the way you think and feel about health and fitness and diet and nutrition permanently, then I think this might be a great program for you.
But we have to have a conversation about it, we’ll jump on a call and we’ll kind of talk about the program. I want to give you more details. I’m going to talk about your individual goals because this this program is designed for you as an individual, it’s not about just you know, doing some certain diet, you know, this is about me, and you’re working together to figure out what’s the best plan of action for you as an individual, because we’re all different.
We all have different metabolisms, different goals, different likes and dislikes, different food preferences, and we want to put together a plan that works specifically for you. So if you’re interested, go to runningleancoaching.com/apply, fill out a short application, book a call with me, and we’ll talk about it, cool. I would love to have you in the Running Lean coaching project.
And then just really quickly, I want to put out a little bit of a disclaimer about this particular episode. So I’m going to be talking about some things today that that you might want to change in your diet and I usually don’t talk about like, say I don’t usually suggest things has to do, because we don’t have a client coach relationship, me and you, you know, for the most part, right? So I can’t really offer nutritional advice here on the podcast.
But what I can do is suggest some things that you may consider changing. Of course, you know, get your doctor’s approval before you change anything in your diet before you start making any kinds of changes to your exercise regimen or anything like that, okay, I’m not a doctor, I can’t offer medical advice, I can’t really offer advice unless we have a relationship.
So nothing that I ever say here should ever be construed as medical advice. And just know that the things I’m going to be talking about today are just general sort of guidelines that I think we can all follow and maybe improve our health a little bit. But again, you got to talk to your doctor about making any kinds of changes. Cool. All right. So let’s get into this a little bit.
I have to say that I’m a little fired up about this topic. And I have been for a while. And I hope by the end of this episode, you get a little bit fired up too. Because there’s a big problem here in this country, with our health and with the health of the population of the people in the United States.
Now, this extends beyond the borders of the United States as this goes into most of the world at this point. But I’m just kind of focusing on what’s happening here, because I know more about what’s happening here in the US than I do about other countries. And I really can’t speak to that.
But we’re in the midst of a kind of a devastating health crisis here. We really are. Like I said at the beginning, you know, over the last 40 years, our health has been steadily declining, and hasn’t been getting better. You know, right now, obesity rates are at an all time high. In 2020 42% of the US population was considered obese. 42%. That’s up from 30% in the year 2000.
So just 22 years ago, that has changed dramatically. And then severe obesity, some people call it morbid obesity, but severe obesity is up from 4.7%, back in 2000, to 9.2% today in 2022. And the annual medical cost just of this one chronic condition, this the annual medical cost of obesity here in the United States is nearly $173 billion.
That’s billion with a B obesity related medical conditions include things like heart disease, stroke, type two diabetes, and certain types of cancer. These are some of the leading causes of premature death in this country. And they’re all absolutely preventable. So they call these things lifestyle diseases, because they are associated with the way you live your life, the way the choices that you make, you know, around nutrition, around exercise, around alcohol and drug intake, those kinds of things are associated with these problems.
And it’s a big, huge problem in this country. Here’s something that I saw recently, and this just this makes me very sad. Okay, and this has to do with children. Right now, one in eight children have asthma. One in five children in this country have allergic eczema. One in twelve children have food allergies, one in five children have obesity, one in five children have obesity, one in six children have a mental health disorder. And one in 54 children have autism, children with chronic conditions, has increased by over 400% since the 1970s.
And people look at these kinds of stats. And they say, well, it’s genetics, it’s genetics. Our genes haven’t changed since the 1970s. It takes 10s of 1000s of years for genes to change like that, for genetics to play a big role like that. It’s not about genetics, our environment has changed.
At the start of the 1970s we were told, you know by our government by, you know, these dietary guidelines they put out there that we should start eating what they called the food pyramid at the time. And this pushed refined carbohydrates as the basis of our diet. That should be the majority of the food we’re eating. Up to 65% of our diet should be coming in the form of refined carbohydrates.
And at the same time we started doing that chronic diseases increased in both adults and children. There’s an obesity epidemic among toddlers in this country. What the hell? That is crazy. That is just crazy. Toddlers were not obese. Prior to the 1970s, it was a very, very, very, very rare thing. But now we look at kids today, one in five children are obese. This is crazy.
Since we started following these food guidelines, we’ve gotten fatter, and we’ve gotten sicker, chronic diseases are up, and we are not getting better. And there’s no sign of this changing, it’s only getting worse.
And what I want to talk about today, is that there’s something we can do about this. But what I want to talk about today, and I’ll get to that is not just bad news, okay. But there’s a lot of bad news. Unfortunately, this is what gets me fired up, though. Okay.
But today, when we look at the policies our government has in play, we look at our health care system, as a whole. We look at Big Pharma, big pharmaceutical companies, we look at all the big food companies in this country. And we think we have this idea, this beautiful idea that all of these systems are in place to help us to keep us healthy, to improve our health.
And the reality of it is, is that they’re not there to help us. They’re not there to improve our health and to help us to live long, healthy lives, they’re there, they’re around to make money. And there’s a lot of profit in keeping people sick. I know this may seem a little bit like conspiracy theory, but it’s really not.
This is something I’ve been noodling over for a long time for years, actually. And I just feel like we need to just call it what it is, you know. And so I’m gonna break down a little bit of why I feel this way. And it’s not just me, this is not just something I just thought of the other day, and I’m like, oh, you know, I think I’m just gonna start talking about how all this stuff is working against us now.
This has been going on for decades. And there’s millions of people talking about this. Okay, so I’m just another voice out there that’s talking about this, but I think it’s really, really important that we talk about this. Okay, so, here’s an example. Look at the big food companies that are out there. Okay.
So, when you look at the biggest food companies in this country, the majority of food produced in this country is created by these companies, Kraft Foods, Coca Cola, Nestle, Procter and Gamble, Johnson and Johnson, Unilever, PepsiCo, General Mills, Kellogg’s, and Mars. Okay, so what you’re noticing in this list is that there’s a lot, a lot of sugar. Right?
There’s a lot of, a lot of processed food, it’s a lot of sugar. And it’s a lot of refined grains. You know, we look at stuff like Kellogg’s and General Mills is just nothing but sugar, refined grains, and vegetable oil. That’s like the main three ingredients of all junk food, right? Stay away from those three things, by the way, and your health is going to start to change for the better.
But Coca Cola, Nestle, PepsiCo, Mars, these are all, you know, these are sugar, sugar, water and candy companies. And these are the biggest food companies in this country. And they’re the most profitable and they have deep, deep pockets and money in this country, money equals power. And these big companies, they have the power to change laws to create policies to promote more of their own products.
You know, an example would be the sugar industry actually came up with a study to prove quote, unquote, prove that salt was bad for us. Salt is bad for us. Alright, so they wanted to divert the attention away from sugar as being a problem. And most people don’t know this, but the salt, the sugar industry actually funded studies to prove you know that that showed that salt was a problem. It was causing hypertension, high blood pressure, and all these other things.
And the truth of the matter is, salt is something we have to have in our diet. Like if we don’t eat salt, we will die. Like we have to have sodium in our diet. And in the end, the sugar industry doesn’t want you to limit the amount of sugar you’re eating. So they are kind of saying well, oh, high blood pressure, heart disease, all these other things. It’s the salt in your diet.
And so they have these deep pockets and they can fund these kinds of studies. That’s just one example. This happens every single day in this country. These big food companies are funding studies that promote their viewpoint, right?
And a lot of the science, you know, the people that are actually conducting the science, they’re being funded by these food companies. So we have to understand that there’s a lot of skewed science out there and that we have to just take things into our own hands, we have to look at what’s going on out there.
And just don’t believe everything you read, for sure, don’t even believe everything I’m telling you, like, do your own research, if you want to go and look this stuff up, I’m not sharing anything that I haven’t researched thoroughly. And I’m at this point in my life where I just have to, I have to say what’s on my mind, and I get fired up about this particular topic.
Here’s another thing to kind of consider from the big food companies, sugar and refined grains, they are not nutritious. Alright, there’s nothing really good about eating this stuff. It doesn’t, there’s no health benefits from eating this stuff, okay. And the other thing you have to realize is that sugar and refined grains will turn off sensors in your body that will actually make you feel full.
So like, when you eat something like a piece of chicken, or, you know, some some vegetables with some butter, you know, like you eat some real, you know, good sources of protein and fat, you’re going to feel full, and then you’ll stop eating, how much chicken can you sit down and eat at one at one sitting? Not a lot. I’ve tried it before.
I’m like, I’m gonna eat a pound of chicken and then I’m 12 ounces into it. I’m like, I’m done, right? You just can’t eat anymore. But how many, you know, Twinkies can you eat at one sitting like dozens, right? Like, you could just keep going, you never stop. So eating these kinds of refined foods, especially with the sugar and refined grains, they turn off sensors of fullness and satiety. And so we can overeat that very easily.
And they increase our hunger signals. So when you’re eating these kinds of foods, you’re more hungry all the time. And this is by design, the food companies understand this, if we never feel full, if we’re always hungry. And we’re eating this non nutritious, you know, empty calorie, carbohydrate laden foods, we’re gonna buy more of that stuff, because it tastes amazing, right?
We’re gonna keep buying more and more, so it increases their profits. So what they’re doing is working for them. It’s working to build more and more profits for the big food companies. But it’s making us fat, or it’s making us sick or, and they don’t care about that. They just want to, they want you to eat more, they want you to stay hungry, they don’t want you to crave their stuff, eat more of their processed garbage food, so that you just continue to buy, buy, buy buy from them, they use the cheapest ingredients available, and they make these hyper palatable foods.
You’ve probably heard about the bliss point, they have scientists that are working on the actual science of craving and how, what ingredients can they use, and it’s usually sugar, flour and vegetable oil to produce the most, the most blissful feeling in our brains. And they’ve shown that sugar is actually preferable to certain drugs like cocaine, like they’ve done these tests on rats, poor rats, they always get tested on these weird things, right?
But they did this test on rats where they gave them cocaine or sugar. And over time, the sugar was preferable. The rats just stopped doing the cocaine, stopped drinking the cocaine and stopped and started drinking their sugar water because it gave them a better high. It gave them a better high. And if you don’t think sugar is bad for you, you don’t think sugar is addictive? Just look at that study right there. Rats will prefer it over cocaine. Okay.
So they’re getting us hooked on their product. They know what they’re doing. They know exactly what they’re doing. And they’re giving us this garbage food and we’re just buying into it. We’re buying into it. We’re buying the stuff by the pallet full, just go into Costco and see what’s sitting out there on all these giant pallets of food, right?
And then, of course, there’s this idea of like, they have all this influence and power, you know, they squash any attempts to say that their food is unhealthy. You know, Coca Cola put out this whole campaign about how sugar wasn’t the problem, and you just needed to move more just like exercise more. And I forget the name of the campaign, it was something like you know, move more or something like that, but it’s basically like, oh, yeah, Coca Cola is fine. Just keep drinking Coke. That’s not the problem with you, the problem is you’re lazy. And you need to be moving more.
That’s just bananas to think about, right? What, when in human existence, have we ever needed to like, do a bunch of cardio? This has never been a thing for us. Why, since the incorporation of these guidelines in 19 in the late 1970s. Why all of a sudden do we have to do a bunch of cardio just to stay in shape and not get all fat and obese? But it’s crazy. It’s crazy. The diet is wrong.
And they’re pushing their junk on us. And we have to just stand up and say, no, thank you. No, thank you, I’m not going to buy into this anymore. Okay. And remember that, you know, he’s talking about salt being an essential nutrient salt is essential. If we don’t eat salt, we will die. Sugar, on the other hand is a non-essential nutrient, we don’t have to eat sugar in our diet, our bodies will produce the glucose that we need, our brain needs a certain amount of glucose to function, but your liver produces that just fine.
I’ve gone through stints where I’ve basically done no sugar, no carbs, basically, like just kind of a carnivore type of diet. And I gotta tell you, I’ve never felt better. I felt amazing when I eat that way. And, and I go back and forth, it’s not something I do all the time. I’m always kind of experimenting with things because I want to go to share different, you know, different diets and things with you guys and share different strategies to kind of help you.
So I’m always experimenting on myself. So I never do anything for too long. But honestly, I go back to that sort of carnivore way of eating, where it’s just basically meat and eggs for periods of time. And I’ve done it for 30, 60, 90 days, and I just feel amazing, and my body functions perfectly fine, I get all the glucose I need, my brain is functioning better than ever.
So just so you understand, I’m not telling you, you need to do that. I’m not telling you, you need to like stop eating vegetables or fruit or anything like that. Eat that stuff. It’s good. You know, fruit, veg, meat, eggs, dairy, some of that stuff. If you can handle dairy, like all good for you. But stay away from all that junk food, okay? And if the big food companies are telling you to eat something, do the opposite. Okay?
And then we’ve got this issue with the government. So our government here is there’s a lot of self interest going on here. There’s lawmakers, there’s lobbyists, and they’re tied in to the big food companies, you know, the big food companies put a lot of money into the government to help create policies, and even on the board of, and I’m gonna get this wrong, but it’s like the USDA, or the FDA can’t remember which one it is that actually funds that actually does the food guidelines. There’s a lot of people on that board that are being funded by the big food companies like Coca Cola and PepsiCo and Mars, it’s bananas like, this is not, this is not the way it should be.
The government does not really have our best interest in mind. When we look at the government, we’re talking about people who are being, you know, funded by big food companies, right. And it’s profitable, everybody’s making money off of this, you know, but it doesn’t mean it’s healthier doesn’t mean it’s the way we should be doing things. And there’s, there’s these big incentives to grow mono crops like corn, wheat, and soy. So these are the three three ingredients that dominate the food industry, right. And these three crops are subsidized heavily by the federal government, farmers received between 1995 and 2020, farmers received 424 billion with a B dollars in substitute subsidies.
And 50% of that were for just those three crops corn, wheat and soybeans. And corn was by far the largest at $116 billion in subsidy subsidies going to corn production, which accounts for about 20-27% of the total mono crop.
Mono-culture crops contribute to a large portion of soil erosion, they increase fertilizer and pesticide use. And Cornell did this study and found that pesticide use in the United States causes $520 million in crop loss, and over a billion dollars in health costs for us as humans. So buy organic by all means, okay. And we want to stay away from those mono crop foods, you know, corn, wheat and soybeans is a problem.
This is a problem these things are, are not necessarily they’re not good for us, you know, they cause all kinds of problems, right. And then just keep in mind that, you know, the government puts out these guidelines. And, you know, they basically put out these guidelines back in late 1970s or 1980 that says, you know, 65, up to 65% of your diet should be coming from refined carbohydrates. And the food guidelines are there not to make us healthy.
They’re not for health and well being, but they’re there to support a profitable food industry because the more you tell people you need to eat these, you know, these refined grains, the more money that you know, is being pumped into producing these grains, the more subsidies people are getting, and the whole system is kind of just messed up. It’s a messed up system.
And so we just have to understand what’s going on and try to take some, some control ourselves, okay. And listen, the food guidelines that are being followed. I know a lot of people say like, well, people aren’t just following, if they would just follow them, everything would be fine. But they’re not being followed. They are being followed.
I mean, and we are really good at following advice that is put out there. Like when they say, Hey, you know, smoking is bad, cigarettes are bad that causes all these problems. We follow suit, you know, all the side effects and diseases caused by smoking have gone down dramatically since we started these anti smoking campaigns right? Dramatically.
I don’t even know many people that smoke anymore. I don’t know. I don’t know maybe one person that I know of smoking, everybody I knew used to smoke, right? Maybe I’m hanging around different people these days. But these guidelines are being followed. And they’re not working. The guidelines are not working. The government is putting out these food guidelines that are not designed with our health and well being in mind. And it’s just not working.
The science that produces the guidelines is bad, the sciences never really proven. They’ve come up with so many new studies that show that, you know, saturated fats are not the enemy, the fat is not the enemy, that carbs are bad, the sugar is bad, and vegetable oil is bad. And listen, these guidelines are driving a lot of policy and a lot of food that goes out to like our kids.
So public school lunch programs, they use the guidelines to follow, to put together the school lunch programs for our kids, the military follows these guidelines, hospitals, nursing homes, VA hospitals, that kind of stuff. All follow the guidelines, they use the guidelines as the basis of how to structure and nutrition programs. And these things are just not working. They’re keeping us sick, they’re keeping us overweight, obese, they’re causing all kinds of problems with our health. So we need to take things into our own hands. Okay.
And, you know, here’s something interesting, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. So and this is the organization that where if you’re a registered dietitian, this is where you get registered through or whatever, right. So they’re having a conference coming up here in a few months. And it’s touted as the world’s largest meeting of food and nutrition experts. Oh, that sounds good. Right. So this conference is coming up. And you know, it’s supposed to be all these experts coming together. Well, here’s who’s sponsoring this, this conference, PepsiCo, the sugar Foundation, Nestle, General Mills, the canola oil Council, just to name a few.
So this is indicative of the kinds of relationships that exist between food companies, healthcare systems, the government, you know, the governing agencies that are governing all these registered dieticians, our nutrition is being dictated by the sugar industry, essentially.
So there’s all these conflicts of interest, right? And conflicts of interest come about when, you know, there’s big corporations marketing, potentially harmful products, and they have these financial relationships with research institutions, or individual researchers, or public health organizations.
And as obesity is becoming just more and more rampant in this country, these kinds of relationships are jeopardizing the integrity of scientific research. So if you want to know if what you’re reading is, you know, legit or not, see who’s funding the research. You have to do your homework on this stuff. Okay? I hate that it even has to be this way.
But there’s these big companies, you know, like Pepsi Cola, sugar Foundation, General Mills, Coca Cola, whatever, they flood the literature out there with science that they funded to make it very difficult for you to actually find legit science that’s not been funded by the food industry. It’s a problem. It’s a real problem. Okay. And then I talk about the healthcare industry as you know, it’s really not about our health or care.
It’s like another for profit business in this country, our health care system in this country is messed up. And, you know, we could go into that. And maybe I will go into a whole episode about how just the healthcare industry is messed up. But I need to say this, though, health care workers are amazing. And there’s a lot of great doctors out there. And there’s a lot of great health care workers out there.
That’s not what I’m talking about here. The health care workers are amazing people. And I have a couple of doctors that I go to, and I love, they’re amazing. And they spent a long time with me, right? There’s a lot of amazing people in the healthcare industry, I have a lot of friends who work in the healthcare industry. And these people are amazing people, it’s not about the people, this is about the industry as a whole, the big health care system is broken. Right?
What doctors can and can’t do largely is dictated by the insurance companies, you know, in their hands are tied, a lot of times they want to be able to help and they can’t, right, and they have to work within these strict guidelines, often without the patient’s best interest in mind. And they’re told to push drugs. They’re not trying to solve the problem. They’re just writing prescriptions. And if you go to your doctor and say, oh, you know, I’m overweight, and I have type two diabetes, these are lifestyle diseases, right?
And you go, yes, doc, I’ve got these lifestyle diseases, you would think the doctor would say, Well, what you need to do is fix your lifestyle. Instead, they say, oh, my gosh, here’s a drug you should take. Here’s something to lower your cholesterol, or here’s something to help you with your type two diabetes, to keep insulin levels low, whatever, they’re just treating symptoms, right.
And I just watched a video from a doctor, MD Paul Saladino, who said, that not one time, not one time, during his entire med school, or his residency, was he ever challenged to actually find the root cause of any illness, he was never challenged, as a medical student to ever, like, go find what’s really causing the problems and solve the problem at its root, he was always told to just treat the symptoms. And that’s, that’s what most of our doctors are told.
Now, there’s some good doctors out there. And I want to make it very clear that there are some very good doctors out there. And you just need to find the right one, right. But a lot of these doctors, they’re just writing prescriptions, right? The big pharmaceutical companies are making huge profits off of us, and they don’t want us to get healthy. They don’t want us to solve the problem, they don’t want us to solve the root problem, they want to keep, they want us to keep taking their pills. That’s it, because money equals power, right? So they drive policies that keep doctors writing prescriptions. Because listen, a cured patient is no longer a paying customer.
Think about that, you are a customer of these big insurance companies or big pharmaceutical companies. And if you get healthy, you don’t make them money. Okay? So a few things that I’m going to suggest you do here, number one, like find a good doctor, there are amazing doctors out there. And, for example, I go to a doctor who doesn’t really take insurance.
There, I pay a monthly fee to sort of be a part of their practices called concierge health care. And so I pay a monthly fee to be a part of their practice. They’re not pressured by, you know, pharmaceutical companies to write prescriptions. And like, my doctor spends time with me, like she spends, like 30 minutes with me every time I go to see her, and we talk about what the root problem is, and we try to solve things. So this is like old school, right? It’s the way doctors should do things, right? I think you can find a doctor like this.
But you’ve got to do a little bit of work and do a little digging, but find somebody that’s on your side that has your best interests in mind. And that isn’t going to just write prescriptions, right. And on the prescription thing, you know, I try to avoid taking medications. And I suggest that you do too.
Obviously, you know, there’s some medications that are very important that you have to take, you know, and that’s awesome. And I totally am down with that, right? But instead of taking a pill like to mask symptoms, like let’s do our best to change our lifestyle so that we can get off the medications. And a lot of my clients actually end up greatly reducing or even getting off medications altogether, with their doctor’s approval, of course, right.
But here’s what I’m trying to say: a pill is not always the answer. Like sometimes it is but you know, for some of these lifestyle issues I’m talking about here. Yeah, you want to continue taking your medication but wouldn’t it be awesome if you changed things and improved your health from the inside out without having to take medications anymore? Like maybe you can reduce or eventually get off those things right.
Another thing that I want to suggest here is that those dietary guidelines from the government just don’t work, they don’t work, like they do the opposite. If they’re telling you to stay away from fat, eat more fat, if they’re saying meat and eggs is gonna kill you, like eat more of that stuff. If they say eat a ton of grains don’t do that. If they say sugar is fine, don’t eat sugar, eliminate it from your diet and see how good you feel.
You know, they say, oh, keep salt really low, like just use salt, you need salt will die if you don’t need salt, right. And they say, you know, healthy fats like vegetable oil, stay away from that stuff, they’re dead wrong about that, that stuff is toxic, avoid it altogether, okay. And then that food industry, food industry is there to make money, they make money off of us.
So like, avoid food that comes with a marketing message. Avoid foods that don’t look like food. Avoid foods, or at least most foods that come in packages. And if you do buy food that comes in a package, read the label and understand what you’re reading, understand how to read the label, because the labels can be very deceiving. You know, there’s like 96 different words they use for sugar, because they want to confuse you and hide that stuff, right. So make sure you understand what you’re reading.
And then just eat real food, eat food that looks like food, eat food that you buy around the perimeter of the grocery store, you know, meat, eggs, fruit, vegetables, right? Eat food that our ancestors would recognize, oh, beef, chicken, banana, avocado, like, stick with stuff like that, you know, if the food you’re eating is making you feel hungry all the time, this is not the right kind of food. Right? There’s, you got to change that, right? Eat the opposite,
Okay. So I get fired up about this, because I have this mission. And this mission that I have is to help you to become the healthiest and most badass version of yourself. And in order to do that, I have to call BS on a lot of stuff that’s going on in this country, the current health situation in this country is dire, it’s dire. And we have to fix it.
And I share all this stuff with you because there’s this problem out there that’s bigger than me, it’s bigger than you and we need to take things into our own hands. Right? I’m compelled to help make this world a healthier place. And it happens like one person at a time, it’s me doing what I can to become the best and most badass version of myself. So it’s me being an example of what’s possible, and then hopefully inspiring you to do the same.
And then hopefully, you inspire other people to do the same. And I see this happen all the time. And I don’t have millions of people listening to this podcast, I don’t have millions of people following me. But I do have a lot and I have a voice. And I’m passionate about helping you. I’m passionate about helping you get healthy and stay healthy and stay fit.
So I want to create this ripple effect, this ripple effect of positivity and good health in this world, I want to make an impact. And when I share topics like this, I can help to make an impact, right. And I’ve worked with hundreds of runners who have gotten leaner and gotten stronger and taken back control of their health. And I’m gonna help you too. But it’s up to you to do things differently.
Stop following the dietary advice from the government, stop buying into the marketing messages from the food industry. Stop thinking that you know, our healthcare system and the government and the big food companies have your best interest in mind because they don’t. Right, take things into your own hands. You get to do this any way that you want, and you get to do whatever you want to do. You don’t have to follow the normal things that people are doing out there.
And when I say normal, I use like finger quotes like normal, because normal isn’t good. Normal is those stats I told you at the beginning of this podcast normal is like becoming obese. Normal is becoming having type two diabetes normals having this list of chronic lifestyle diseases, don’t be normal. Take things into your own hands, take a stand, make a different start today. It’s not hard. It takes a little bit of time.
I’m here to help you if you ever want help, but just listen, you can do this. I know that you can do this. But if we’re going to change things, it’s going to be up to me and you to do this as individuals and then hopefully inspire other people to do the same cool. Love you all, keep on Running Lean and I’ll talk to you soon.
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