Not Seeing Results with Your Health Goals? This Could Be Why!

Hi friends! It’s the end of February and a lot of us are feeling 1 of 2 ways with our new year’s health goals - either confident and excited to keep going or frustrated and ready to call it quits. In this episode, I’m sharing some of the most common reasons that we tend to hit a wall this time of year and stop seeing the results that we think we should be seeing in our health - whether that’s weight loss or another health factor we are wanting to improve. I think this is going to be super practical and helpful for you, so let’s get into it! 

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While there are a lot of factors that can go into why we may feel that way, I have found that when people are feeling stuck or frustrated with a lack of results, there are usually some common culprits. So before you call it quits, evaluate how you’re doing in these 5 areas. 

Not enough quality sleep

Most of us don’t get enough sleep. We prioritize productivity over rest and we’re damaging our health. The recommendation is 7-9 hours of sleep and 2 hours of deep sleep (most of this happens before midnight). So really get intentional about your sleep - track it (Apple watch / Oura ring, Garmin smartwatch), set some hard boundaries, etc. (more ideas for optimizing sleep in episodes 29 and 69). 

Inadequate calorie/protein intake

Often when we think about weight loss or health goals, we think about eating less (which occasionally may be warranted) but I’ve found the opposite to be true more often than not. So many times when someone is experiencing difficulty losing weight or regulating blood sugar, healing their hormones, etc. - it’s because they aren’t eating enough. Not enough calories, or not often enough throughout the day, or even both! It’s also very common for women to not eat enough protein. 

I’m not a proponent of counting calories because I think we set ourselves up for an unhealthy obsession with our bodies and an unhealthy relationship with food by doing that; however, having said that sometimes it can be helpful to track for a couple of days (ONLY) just to gauge how much food we’re getting. Somewhere along the way, we’ve adopted this mindset that we should only be eating 1200 calories a day or something ridiculous, and for 99% of us, that is way under what our bodies need to actually function. Now, this is different for everyone, and I don’t want you to mishear what I’m saying and think that I’m saying that weight loss is the most important goal or that it’s as simple as kcals in/out because if you know me or have been around here for a while, you know that I don’t teach that at all. BUT I do believe that understanding the science behind how our bodies use food as energy is helpful. Your body needs a certain amount of calories to just basically function - you can find out this amount by using a BMR calculator. It will show you the number of kcals you need to just sit still and breathe. s the algorithm explains, this energy will be used only to maintain vital organs, which include the heart, lungs, kidneys, nervous system, intestines, liver, lungs, sex organs, muscles, and skin. For most people, upwards of 70% of the total energy burned each day is used for upkeep.

If you want energy to move or do anything at all you will need more and the calculator will base that on how active you are, if you’re pregnant, nursing, etc. Again, this isn’t as simple as this math equation, but it does provide a basic frame of understanding and supports the idea that major calorie restriction is not a good idea.

It’s also super common to not have enough intake of protein and have too high of an intake of either simple carbs or fats. A really simple rule of thumb here is to make sure that you’re not having any meal or snack that is just a carb (or just a protein, for that matter). The inclusion of all three macronutrients is important for stable blood sugar and metabolism. Somewhere around 25-30g protein per meal is a good goal and using the palm of your hand as a guide is a super easy, sustainable way to track this.

Too much or too little exercise

Another common issue I see often when someone isn’t seeing the progress that they want is an imbalance in their physical activity - either too much/too intense exercise or too little exercise. 

Regularly moving our bodies for somewhere between 15-45 minutes daily supports the function of our bodies in so many ways! It helps our bodies manage stress levels, helps promote deep sleep, aids in digestion and good gut motility, reduces chronic inflammation levels, increases oxygen, and therefore healing, to the body, helps with cognitive ability, supports stable hormones, and so much more. It’s a vital component of a healthy lifestyle! 

On the flip side, overtraining or doing too intense of a workout, or even too long of an intense workout can have some of the opposite effects leaving us feeling more exhausted and depleted; it can also raise inflammation levels, have a draining effect on our adrenal health and therefore hormone health, lead to digestive issues including bloating and constipation, add to insomnia, and when paired with a too restrictive way of eating, leave our bodies starving for energy. 

As with most things, there is a sweet spot for exercise, especially for women. 

Misaligned Mindset and Goals

I’ve talked about this a lot because this is one of the most common issues that I see and one that most of us simply overlook. I actually have a guest interview episode all about this that comes out in a couple of weeks, so I’m not going to go super deep into this, but I do want to give you a couple of things to think about. 

When we are setting goals from a place of negative feelings or feelings of shame about our bodies, we are likely keeping ourselves stuck right where we are. Those feelings may motivate you for a day or two, but most of the time they are going to lead you to feel like giving up or crashing on the couch instead of taking proactive steps to improve your health. 

However, if we can switch our mindset to setting goals tied to something we love or a dream we have for the future, we are much more likely to feel motivated to take those action steps. 

Behavior is driven by our mindset, not the other way around. 

There’s so much more to be said on this topic and as I said, I actually have an entire guest interview about this coming up in the next episode, so make sure you are subscribed and keep a lookout for that. 

I also have a youtube video dedicated to a healthy mindset and goal setting that you can watch. I’ll link that in the show notes so that you can get to it easily. It’s actually a clip from my Move Forward, Feel Better course and dives much more in-depth into how we can align our mindsets with the truth of who God made us to be. I truly believe that this is the missing piece for so many women who find themselves stuck in a cycle of dieting and frustration with their bodies. 

Have any of these common issues resonated with you? If so, I hope that you have found this episode helpful and it has given you some ideas to think through. The good news is that in each of these examples, we can easily make changes to address what’s going on. I encourage you to spend some time evaluating these areas of your lifestyle and brainstorming 2-3 very achievable steps that you can take to move forward. You’re doing a great job, friend! Just by taking the time to listen to this episode and give intentional thought to your health, you are moving forward, even if it doesn’t feel like it! 

"Balancing" A Healthy Lifestyle

Hi friends! Today we are jumping into the topic of “balancing” a healthy lifestyle and how I believe this idea of “balance” is leading a lot of us to burn out and or leaving us feeling stuck. Let’s get into it! 

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I think we’ve gotten too attached to the idea of balance, especially when it comes to living a healthy lifestyle or maintaining healthy habits. So often when I ask people what they’re most frustrated with or what they’re struggling with in regards to their health, I get a lot of responses about frustration with inconsistency with working out or how they’re eating as well as a lot of frustration with not being able to balance it all. The question - “how do I do all of this” comes up a lot. Sometimes a “healthy lifestyle” can feel like a whole lot of boxes to check, which really feels like a whole lot of work! Right? 

I mean, that’s why so many of the fad diets become so popular, even though they often aren’t actually good for your health long-term, but they promise a result without all the work. 

I think we have made the ideal “healthy lifestyle” into something that is actually not realistically attainable. In reality, who can get 8 hours of sleep (2 of those being deep sleep, at the optimal time of night) every night, wake before the sun, drink 32 oz of perfectly filtered, lemon water, eat a nutritious large breakfast with the optimal amounts of carbohydrates, protein, and fat within an hour of waking + 15 different vitamins/supplements; practice complete mindfulness while getting completely ready for the day; spend time outside; space perfectly portioned and balanced meals out all throughout the day the day; stand for 10 minutes every hour; get 10k+ steps; get an hour workout in; be totally present and accessible for your family; feed your kids a beautiful, nutritious dinner; avoid too much caffeine or screen time; keep your home completely clean and laundry caught up; get everyone to bed at the ideal time of evening…. And then turn around and do it all the next day! Oh and did you notice I didn’t even mention anything about actually working a job or having any obligations or responsibilities… 

You hear me say all of this and think it sounds ridiculous - and it does! But how often do we subconsciously hold ourselves to this kind of standard and then feel like we just can’t “balance” it all when we don’t measure up. I have 100% felt this way and tried so hard attain this kind of “balance”. 

So what do we do? If we aren’t looking for balance, what are we looking for? 

I think that living a healthy lifestyle, and maintaining healthy behaviors/habits, looks a lot like a balanced scale and a lot more like juggling. 

Do we want to build a solid foundation for our health? Yes. Do we need to focus on all the different areas of a healthy lifestyle - sleep, stress, exercise, nourishment, relationships… yes - but not all at the same time. And I think that shift in mindset is what makes the difference between someone who is able to settle into participating in healthy behaviors, steadily making progress in their health, and someone who sets a goal, is all “into it” for about two weeks or a month, and then burns out. 

Think of someone who is juggling 5 bowling pins -  is he aware that all 5 are there? Yes. Is he focusing on all 5 of them at the same time? No! Just the ones in his hand at that moment and then his focus shifts as it needs to in order to keep all of the pins in the air. 

It’s just not possible for us to focus on all aspects of our health at the same time. I kind of wish that it were! My personality’s bend toward perfectionism wishes that I could master all of these areas of health and check off every box, but the thing is that I’ve tried it and it just doesn’t work! 

When we allow ourselves to focus on 1-2 areas of our health or 1-2 healthy habits at a time, it prevents us from becoming overwhelmed and burnt out so quickly. Then when we feel confident in one area, we can move onto another. This allows us to actually feel successful and to make real forward progress - it may be slower than we want to go, but it greatly increases the odds of us actually achieving our goals.  

So think about the most pressing or needed change that you need to make for your health. Is it sleep? Is it hydration? Is it eating more plants and veggies? Maybe it’s cutting out processed, chemical-full foods? 

I asked you guys on Instagram earlier in the week to give me an example of just one thing you feel like you need to focus on for your health and I would walk through what this practically looks like in the episode. Several of you said exercising consistently or being more active - something like that.

That’s a great one and super common. So let’s talk through some ideas of what that may look like practically:

• Make an appropriate goal - to move your body 5 days a week (not to work out every single day and lose 10 lbs.). The goal is simply to move your body. 

• Make it work for you:

  • Figure out what activity/exercise you actually enjoy

  • Decide if you do better alone or do you need someone to keep you accountable? Would you enjoy a group activity more than a solo workout? 

  • Brainstorm your usual excuses - time, energy, soreness? What has prevented you from being consistent in the past?

  • Schedule it ,but be flexible. Your week won’t go exactly as planned, so you need to be able to not be completely thrown off. (This may look like planning to walk M,W,F and do Barre or Pilates on T/R but it is 12 degrees outside or it’s raining all week, so you do a quick youtube workout or stick to pilates/barre every day instead.) You have to be able to pivot or you’ll never stick with it.

  • Track your activity with an app or watch to give yourself a little extra accountability. 

Do you see how changing your focus from 5 goals or areas of focus to just this 1 could lead to more successful progress? It’s like a snowball effect. A little change and progress leads to another change, which leads to another, and another. Before you know it, you look back and things look completely different. 

Here’s the thing - consistency and success in one behavior or habit usually crosses over into another. For example, when you’re feeling good about how you’re moving your body, you will likely naturally be more intentional about what you are eating and if you’re hydrated. Or maybe you’ll notice that your sleep starts to naturally improve and you start to pay more attention to the quality of your sleep overall. Success usually breeds success leaving you feeling more confident in how you’re caring for your health. Which is really the goal at the end of the day anyway. 

So I hope that you will try adjusting how you approach living a healthy lifestyle and choose to focus on 1-2 things at a time. I believe it will be a game-changer for you. 

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