Hi, welcome to today's podcast episode where I am going to be talking to you about your fitness foundations starting your journey to a healthier. You, if you're listening to this right now and you are feeling tired, sluggish overweight, uncomfortable in your clothes, stressed out, overwhelmed, unfit, worried about your health. Then this episode is for you.
This is a short little episode where I break down the really simple action steps that will help you lay really good foundations and that will bring you closer to feeling fit and feeling healthy, whatever feeling healthy means to you, feeling healthy is different to all of us and that's why I despise so much. Those one fits all diet plans, fitness plans, where they tell you exactly what to do exactly what to do because they don't work because we're all different. What being healthy means to me might be completely different to you. So bear that in mind when you're listening to this episode, be asking yourself as you go throughout this episode.
What does being healthy mean to you? I know for me being healthy means to me um not being reliant on food, for comfort, not being reliant on alcohol to, to wind down. Exercise is huge for me feeling healthy. I exercise four days a week for 30 minutes. And that's really at the core of me being healthy, drinking water, eating healthy, being relaxed. They're all really, really key important features in my healthy lifestyle. And when one of those goes, I don't feel healthy, feeling really good in my clothes is also really important to me. It's a big, big, big important thing for me when it comes to being healthy.
So ask yourself what does being healthy mean to you? What does being healthy mean to you? And if you're listening to this now and you're struggling to be healthy, you're struggling to fit in your clothes. Um You're struggling to get into a good routine that I I really want you to figure out why that may be and nine times out of 10, it's because we're doing things that aren't designed to work. And that's pretty much nearly every single thing in the weight loss industry. Remember that when you are working on being fit and healthy or you're following a program that you want to be able to sustain it.
If you can't sustain something, is it helpful? No, short term, things aren't helpful. You have to be able to get results in a, in the most simple way. It has to be able to fit into your life. It has to be easy to follow. It has to be simple. It has to be worth the investment, it has to be enjoyable or you're not going to stick with it. And in my opinion, it has to focus on the positives. Yes. When I look at the weight loss industry or I talk to women who have tried lots of things. Now bear in mind the average woman has tried does about eight diet plans a year or eight like weight loss programs um in various different forms. Eight.
So that means they have felt like failures at least eight times a year. However, what I want you to know is that it's not you, it's the program that you're following. Take, for example, weighing yourself. Ok. Or being in a, in a club, some form of club that makes you weigh yourself. Is that positive? No. Is it enjoyable? No. So straight away off the bat, you're going to a weight loss club. It's not ticking the boxes of being, of focusing on the positives and, and being enjoyable. And it's my belief that for you to be successful in a healthy lifestyle, it has to focus on the positives and it has to be enjoyable. How can you continue to do something that's not enjoyable?
And that focuses on the negatives, which is weight, how can that be sustainable long term? So there are at least three boxes that, that, that aren't being ticked. So that's just blown out of the water. That is a reason why weighing yourself or being in a, in a weight loss club does not work long term. It just can't, it's negative and it's not enjoyable. Therefore, it's not sustainable and it keeps you trapped in this really negative cycle and anything that keeps you trapped in a negative cycle, are you going to really get great results out of it or are you just going to see it as this really negative thing?
And I, and I do sometimes believe that when women, when you're in a tough place, you can actually gravitate towards things that make you feel worse. Um, and you kind of rely on a stick, you have a stick to beat yourself with, for example, if you've ever like been bullied or had a hard time with somebody and you get really used to that feeling of being beaten down, well, weighing yourself every week or every day or going to a weight loss club where somebody tells you that you're up £2 where you're relying on somebody. Oh, it just ties in. I'm not articulating this very well. But it just keeps you in that trap of that negative cycle of being hard on yourself cycle. It keeps you in the being hard on yourself cycle.
Does that make sense? Um, the next thing, Calorie counting doesn't work. Is it sustainable? Long term? Are you going to calorie? Count for the rest of your life up until the day you die? If the answer is no, it's not sustainable. It's easily fit into your life. I completely disagree with that. Not a chance. It's just the most annoying frustrating thing and it's not even accurate anyway. It's, it's only weighing the calories in your food. You can, you can count out the calories in your vegetables. Do you need to? No, calorie vegetables are so healthy. Is it easy to follow? Ok. I'll give it easy to follow. Is it enjoyable? No. Does it focus on the positives? No, a lot of nos not ticking any of those boxes. It's not sustainable. It's not enjoyable. It's very, very negative, bad, bad stuff. Calorie counting keeps you trapped in that loop. Keeps you feeling like you're failing. Keeps the control away from you. Keeps the power away from you next up.
Doing endless amounts of cardio going to the gym, doing the, the gym machines quickest and easiest way. No, you've got to take into account the fact that you are going to jump in your car and spend time getting to a gym. Is it worth it? No. Going to the gym doing Keto, doing Paleo, doing all those diet plans. They're not easy to follow. They're not simple. They're not enjoyable. They don't focus on the positives and you're not able to sustain it. I want you to go through anything you've ever done in the past or anything that you're trying to do now and ask yourself these following questions. Can you sustain it? What you're following or what you've tried to follow long term? And if the answer is no, get rid of us.
Does it give you results in the most simple, easiest way? Is it able to fit into your life? Simply there's so many things I see out there that, you know, they have. So somebody following something completely different food wise to their family. Crazy, crazy stuff. Is it easy to follow? Is it simple? Is it worth the investment? Is it enjoyable? And does it focus on the positives? And if it doesn't tick those boxes, it's not going to work long term. And when something doesn't work long term, you're not going to be able to keep it up and therefore you're stuck in that stop start loop the all or nothing, the stop start, the gain pounds, lose pounds.
That feeling of inconsistency where you might get healthy or lose weight for an event. And then before you know, it, 10 days later you've piled it all back again. If you are focusing on things that keep you in that on off loop, you're never really getting to the point where you're healthy, where you're healthy. Um, and what I get, what I do with my clients is we focus on really simple action steps that they commit to that, that they've decided? Ok. Well, what are the really simple things that I can do that are going to get me from where I am now to where I want to be. And then we tweak as we go and we keep following really simple action steps. The secret to good health is in simplicity.
The secrets to becoming healthy and fit and strong and your clothes feeling really good. The secret is that you have to be able to sustain it. It has to give you results. It has to easily fit into your life. It has to be easy to follow. It has to be simple, it has to be worth the investment, it has to be enjoyable and it has to focus on the positives. Anything that's too confusing, too difficult, too expensive or not worth the money, too difficult to sustain. It's setting you up for failure and rather than you carry that failure with you and think it's, you think it's your lack of motivation, think it's you're not able to follow it.
Just remember that it's not you, it's the vehicle that you're in trying to get from A to B and it might be about time to switch vehicles. So I want to give you some clear guidance into how to become fit and healthy and set the, the really solid foundations for becoming healthy. Um And my first tip is to get really organized, that's going to be like the, the building block of your really lovely house. That's going to be the concrete going in at the bottom, getting organized, getting organized means getting um a calendar and getting a journal and writing out all the action steps that you're going to follow and every single thing that you're going to do. Um III I go through this with my clients, the five step framework.
So you want to be looking at areas to do with your physical fitness, your nutrition, your self care, your mindset, accountability, support. You want to break it all down and have action steps that hit on all the lovely things you need to focus on that are going to get you healthy when you have yourself all organized and you know what your action steps are going to be. You also want to make sure that you know what your goals are. What are you actually, what's your goal? Is it to become fit? Is it to become healthy? Is it to lose weight? Is it to be less stressed? Is it all of the above and making sure that your action steps match your goals, having really clear action steps that are simple and easy to follow and that they're sustainable.
Now, you can go to my, um my page Jessica Cook dot IE forward slash coaching if you need help with this, if my doors are open to enrollment. Now, as I as I talk about this and you want support, you want to follow my five step framework, go to Jessica Cook dot IE coaching and if the page is open and there's a space for you, I'll see you on the other side. Um Breaking down your action steps into what I love to say. My five step framework, Pam's having action steps, focusing on your physical fitness, on your accountability and support, hydration, mental health and self-care, making sure all your little action steps bring you up and turn you into a fit and healthy person. And I promise you when you keep it really, really simple and you focus on different action steps that incorporate a really lovely holistic approach to your health, you're going to become really fit and healthy. Um Over the 14 years of coaching women, one of the biggest mistakes I see people make is they associate being healthy with dieting, they associate being healthy with restriction or spending hours at the gym or counting calories like I mentioned or, or, or, or doing a diet plan.
All of these things that aren't sustainable. Remember to ask yourself, is it sustainable? Does it get you results? Is it easily able to fit into your life? That's a big one. Is it simple? Is it easy to follow? You have to be able to say it's worth the investment because that, that'll help you feel good. You know, you're getting great value. Is it enjoyable? So important? I really encourage you to make sure you're doing something that you really, really enjoy and is the thing you're doing? Does it focus on the positives or does it focus on the negatives? And remember if you are weighing yourself right now or, or, or part of a weight loss club that is getting you to stand up on the scales and weigh yourself that not only is that a really inaccurate measuring tool as to where you are, it's also really demoralizing and really, really negative and what happens when we feel demoralized and negative, we move away, we want to move away from those things.
So if you're jumping up and down on the weighing scales now and it's making you feel bad, what makes you think that you're going to be motivated to eat healthy and exercise and get to bed on time when you're giving yourself this horrible feedback every day and making you feel like you are failing at something when in fact, it's not that you're failing at anything. It's that the thing that you're doing is failing you. The thing that you're doing is failing you, you're not failing. So find the right vehicle, find the right program to get you from where you want to be from where you are to where you want to be and make sure it fits in with your life. You don't fit in to that program and you're going to be really successful getting fit and healthy.
Once you do it the right way and the way that works for you, you don't have to do it again and again and again, that's it. You're fit and healthy for the rest of your life. I hope you enjoyed this. What I hope to be motivating short little episode if you are struggling and you want help. If spaces are open to my coaching program, you can go to jessicacooke.ie/coaching and if there's a space for you, I would love to see you on the other side. Thanks for listening and take care. I hope you enjoyed this podcast episode and you must let me know by getting in touch and commenting below.