December 5, 2022 • 14 mins
The holiday season, for many of us is one of the busiest times of the year. Sometimes it’s travel, or events, or just a scattered and chaotic work and possibly child care situation. It is really easy to let your movement practice go off the rails and take longer than we would really like to get back on track. In this episode, I’m going to talk about a few ways that we can shift our mindset, expectations and short term goals to deal with this. Instead of trying to fight the chaos, let’s explore how we can lean into it, give ourselves grace and come out of the other side of the holiday season refreshed, patting ourselves on the back and ready to keep the train moving down the tracks.
If you're loving my podcast content, but are looking for something more to support your wellness journey, here are my programs currently available:
Strong As A Mother: Postpartum (https://www.kellybryantwellness.com/strong-as-a-mother/)
Strong As A Mother: Live (https://www.kellybryantwellness.com/strong-as-a-mother-live/)
Strong As A Mother: Prenatal (https://www.kellybryantwellness.com/strong-as-a-mother-prenatal/)
As always, you can find me on Instagram @kellybryantwellness
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Shure MV5 & FaceTime HD (00:06):
Welcome back to the Not Your Mama
Podcast is your host KellyBryant.
This week, we are talking aboutwhat to do when the stuff hits
the fan in your workoutprograms.
So obviously, this is verytimely.
If you were listening to this inreal time, we are at the very
beginning of December.
This is when the stuff tends tohit the fan.
This is when life gets reallybusy.
(00:27):
There's travel, lots of chaoticstuff going on.
And so I wanted to talk aboutwhat to do to make your movement
practice sustainable.
Regardless of what goes on inlife.
Not that we are going to pushthrough and stick to the plan at
all costs, but rather how toadjust the plan to make it work
(00:47):
when life gets lifey, as I liketo say.
So the first thing is much likeI talked about in the last
episode about eating around theholidays.
We want to lead with grace.
Give yourself grace.
We are looking at a lifelongbehavior, not a six week plan.
(01:08):
We can white knuckle our waythrough a six week plan.
We can not white knuckle our waythrough our movement practice
for the rest of your life.
So we want to have that grace,that understanding that there
are going to be ebbs and flows.
They're going to be seasons oflife, where you are able to be
more adherent and where you needto have a little bit more
(01:30):
expectation that you're simplygoing to do a little bit less
during this time and that'scompletely fine.
So we are going to lead withgrace and then we're going to
create a comeback plan.
So when you have this momentwhere you're like, Okay, this is
just not getting done this week.
(01:50):
My workout program is nothappening this week or this day
or this month or whatever thetimeframe is.
You say, I'm going to givemyself grace, I'm going to miss
some workouts or modify someworkouts.
And I'll explain that in alittle bit.
And my comeback plan is asfollows.
So what I mean by a comebackplan is a timeframe.
(02:11):
Where you say.
I'm looking at the calendar.
I know that we are going to needto adjust the plan for three
days for a week, for threeweeks, for the entire month of
December, whatever it is.
You set a timeframe.
And you set an expectation ofwhat you're going to do when
it's time to start again.
That can mean.
(02:32):
Looking at your calendar threeweeks out, looking at your
calendar for January 2nd thisyear and putting your work out
on the calendar, creating theexpectation that this is when
you're going to come back toyour normal workout plan.
It can mean having in place anaccountability partner, whether
that's a coach, a workout buddy,your partner, your life partner
(02:54):
telling them,"Hey, I'm takingsome time off my workouts." I
want to get back to it onJanuary 2nd.
I want you to help hold meaccountable so that we can both
plan for me to be doing thisagain on this date.
That's a comeback plan.
So you're leading with grace.
You're creating the expectation,the understanding that life is
not going to look the same allthe time and it's okay.
(03:15):
It's normal.
It's expected.
It is part of the plan to haveebbs and flows and times where
you do a little bit less.
And when you have those timesthat you do a little bit less,
you're going to have a plan inplace for when you come back.
Because it does not matter whatwe do.
On the micro scale.
(03:36):
It does not matter what we doevery single day and every
single week.
What matters is what we do onthe zoomed out big picture
scale.
Are we mostly moving most of thetime?
So the problem is not when wemiss a workout or a week of
workouts.
The problem is when we make aweek of workouts mean that we
miss a month or two months orthree months.
(03:59):
Because we've created this thingin our head where it's really
hard to get started again.
And so that's why the grace andthe comeback plan are so
important.
It's not because.
I mean, it is in, in one senseit's because beating yourself up
is crappy.
It's uncomfortable.
It's unpleasant.
(04:20):
Of course.
I want you to have grace foryourself because why feel shitty
if you don't have to, but theother reason for the grace and
the expectation and theunderstanding that there are
going to be ebbs and flows is sothat it's part of the plan.
So that doing less is actuallypart of the definition of
success.
Part of the plan is that we havetimes that we're not doing as
(04:43):
much.
So that when there's that time,you're not doing as much, it's
like, yay, I am on plan.
I'm doing exactly what'sexpected of me.
I'm having a time where I'm notdoing as much.
That sounds like really trivialand like, that's not, I don't
really need to do that.
I'm not four, I don't need tolike celebrate these imaginary
(05:03):
wins, but you do.
I promise you do.
Your brain works just like afour year old's brain and you do
need to create that win foryourself where doing less is the
expectation.
It's a success.
And so when it happens, you canbe like, yay, everything going
to plan.
And that's going to make it mucheasier to start again whenever
(05:24):
your comeback plan says it'stime to start again.
So, as a part of creating thatcomeback plan and leading with
grace and adjusting expectationswe want to shift our goals a
little bit, not your like bigpicture way out in the future
"why," but your proceduralgoals.
(05:46):
Right?
So a lot of the time we talkabout like, you have this big
why, this big thing that you'reworking toward, yes.
Keep that the same.
Keep your eye on that.
Stay inspired and motivated bythat.
But the execution is going toneed to change.
And again, that's because we'resetting the expectation that
this is a stage.
This is a phase where you have alittle bit less time, a little
(06:08):
bit less energy, and thereforein service of your ultimate big
picture goal during this season,you're going to lower the
expectation.
You're going to say, instead ofdoing my, you know, metabolic
conditioning and my strengthtraining and my spin rides and
whatever, I'm going to do 15minutes of mobility, three times
(06:30):
a week.
That's what success looks likefor me in this season.
And even though it doesn't seemlike that's, you know, maybe you
have like a physique goal or astrength goal, even though that
doesn't seem like it's actuallyin service of the strength goal,
checking the box and feelinglike you are successful during a
low season is part ofaccomplishing your ultimate big
(06:53):
picture goal.
So we don't need to change theWhy, we just change the the
execution, the expectation ofwhat you are going to do during
this season.
And you're going to shift towarda maintenance mindset where
you're like the purpose of myworkouts.
The purpose of my movementpractice right now is to keep me
(07:14):
regular, it's to keep me on topof a behavior on top of the
habit.
I'm maintaining all the progressthat I've made.
And I, and that is in itself aworthy goal.
It is worthy of your time andenergy just to keep the habit,
because that is ultimately whatcreating movement practice is
(07:35):
all about.
It's.
It's changing who you are inyour, in your own brain, your
idea of yourself and becomingsomeone who works out regularly.
And so the working out regularlyis the part that we want to keep
the, what you're doing not soimportant.
So we focus on maintenance.
We shift that expectation towardmaintenance.
(07:57):
And we focus on the small wins.
You give yourself just as muchinternal affirmation, just as
much pride, just as muchexcitement about achieving the
three days of 15 minutes ofmobility as you would for the 45
minutes of heavy strength work.
You give yourself that.
(08:17):
This is like internal in yourbrain.
You give yourself that likehormonal yummy feedback of like,
yeah, I did the thing.
I worked really hard.
I held up my end of the bargain.
I did what I said I was going todo.
That's awesome.
I'm great.
You don't want to do the workand then still feel yucky about
(08:39):
it.
Right.
So what's important is thatwe're not saying let's shift the
expectations.
Let's shift the execution.
Let's make it, you know, threedays a week of mobility.
And then when I do it, when Iget up the energy and the focus
and all of that to do the work Ikind of shit on myself about it.
I'm like, ah, it doesn't reallycount though.
It's just mobility.
That's a really surefire way tomake sure that you don't keep
(09:02):
doing it, that you don't stayconsistent.
So we don't want to do that.
We want to give ourselves all ofthe credit for the win.
When you do show up and do yourmaintenance tasks.
And then lastly, remember thatrest is productive.
I mean, I think there's like ahigher level, big picture thing
(09:24):
that I would love for everyoneto get, which is that just like
not everything has to beproductive.
You can do things just becauseyou enjoy them just because they
feel good, just because youknow, you're your human shell,
like doesn't need to beproducing all the time.
That's thing one.
But also if you're still stuckin that, like everything has to
(09:44):
be for a purpose, remember thatrest is productive.
I've seen it time and time andtime again.
That when my clients go into amonth of recovery work, when
they come back from a singleweek of de-load, they come back
stronger, they come back withmore energy, they achieve their
goals.
I'll share a story of a clientwho I've worked with now for a
(10:06):
year.
And we have been doingprogressive overload strength
training.
She does her workout.
She's super consistent.
She's been going for months ofprogressive overload strength
training, and she saw someimprovement and like, yeah, I'm,
I'm definitely stronger.
Like I do feel like I have moremuscle in some places than I
did, but she was really hittinga brick wall of feeling like she
(10:30):
was only getting bigger.
You know, whether that's muscleor fat, she just felt like all
my clothes are tight I'm gainingweight.
This.
This, she was really frustrated.
And, you know, to my mind, I'mlike, I get that, that doesn't
compute.
It feels like you are workingreally hard.
I would expect to see someweight increase some, you know,
muscle bulking, but I would alsoexpect that to like taper off
(10:54):
and to go the other directioneventually.
And so, you know, we had alittle bit of a heart to heart
and I said let's do a month ofbody weight and Pilates and
recovery.
And the body weight was still alot of work, but we took the
intensity way down for an entiremonth.
(11:14):
And that's what broke it.
That's where she broke through.
And she was like, I see muscledefinition.
I'm cutting down.
I can totally see thedifference.
It does not make any logicalsense.
Even to me, like, I, you know,have lots of education in this.
I work with lots of people.
It didn't seem like to me anentire month of just body
weight, no weights, just likecore stuff, fairly light like
(11:37):
that.
I was concerned that thatwouldn't work, but I'm like,
you've tried everything else.
We have to at least do it.
And I was pleasantly surprisedas was she that that's what it
took.
Rest is productive.
Taking time off to like, letyour stress levels come down and
let your cortisol levels comedown.
Let your fuel.
(11:57):
Like you're your body's fuelstores come back and you may be
very pleasantly surprised by thedifference.
So I want to keep this quick andshort for you today.
I'm going to quickly go overonce again, the things that you
need to do when you see that thestuff is hitting the fan.
With your workout program, youwant to lead with grace.
(12:18):
You want to make a comeback planwhen you're going to take time
off, have a plan in place forwhen and how you're going to
start again.
Adjust your expectations in theexecution of your goal.
You don't need to change yourbig picture goal.
You can if you want, but youneed to adjust expectations in
how you're working toward thatgoal.
Knowing that.
(12:41):
The little workout, the time offthose things are ultimately in
service of your big picturegoal.
Give yourself the win focus oncelebrating those small wins.
And remember that rest andrecovery are productive.
That's it for this week, have afantastic holiday season.
Welcome back to the Not Your Mama
Podcast is your host KellyBryant.
This week, we are talking aboutwhat to do when the stuff hits
the fan in your workoutprograms.
So obviously, this is verytimely.
If you were listening to this inreal time, we are at the very
beginning of December.
This is when the stuff tends tohit the fan.
This is when life gets reallybusy.
(00:27):
There's travel, lots of chaoticstuff going on.
And so I wanted to talk aboutwhat to do to make your movement
practice sustainable.
Regardless of what goes on inlife.
Not that we are going to pushthrough and stick to the plan at
all costs, but rather how toadjust the plan to make it work
(00:47):
when life gets lifey, as I liketo say.
So the first thing is much likeI talked about in the last
episode about eating around theholidays.
We want to lead with grace.
Give yourself grace.
We are looking at a lifelongbehavior, not a six week plan.
(01:08):
We can white knuckle our waythrough a six week plan.
We can not white knuckle our waythrough our movement practice
for the rest of your life.
So we want to have that grace,that understanding that there
are going to be ebbs and flows.
They're going to be seasons oflife, where you are able to be
more adherent and where you needto have a little bit more
(01:30):
expectation that you're simplygoing to do a little bit less
during this time and that'scompletely fine.
So we are going to lead withgrace and then we're going to
create a comeback plan.
So when you have this momentwhere you're like, Okay, this is
just not getting done this week.
(01:50):
My workout program is nothappening this week or this day
or this month or whatever thetimeframe is.
You say, I'm going to givemyself grace, I'm going to miss
some workouts or modify someworkouts.
And I'll explain that in alittle bit.
And my comeback plan is asfollows.
So what I mean by a comebackplan is a timeframe.
(02:11):
Where you say.
I'm looking at the calendar.
I know that we are going to needto adjust the plan for three
days for a week, for threeweeks, for the entire month of
December, whatever it is.
You set a timeframe.
And you set an expectation ofwhat you're going to do when
it's time to start again.
That can mean.
(02:32):
Looking at your calendar threeweeks out, looking at your
calendar for January 2nd thisyear and putting your work out
on the calendar, creating theexpectation that this is when
you're going to come back toyour normal workout plan.
It can mean having in place anaccountability partner, whether
that's a coach, a workout buddy,your partner, your life partner
(02:54):
telling them,"Hey, I'm takingsome time off my workouts." I
want to get back to it onJanuary 2nd.
I want you to help hold meaccountable so that we can both
plan for me to be doing thisagain on this date.
That's a comeback plan.
So you're leading with grace.
You're creating the expectation,the understanding that life is
not going to look the same allthe time and it's okay.
(03:15):
It's normal.
It's expected.
It is part of the plan to haveebbs and flows and times where
you do a little bit less.
And when you have those timesthat you do a little bit less,
you're going to have a plan inplace for when you come back.
Because it does not matter whatwe do.
On the micro scale.
(03:36):
It does not matter what we doevery single day and every
single week.
What matters is what we do onthe zoomed out big picture
scale.
Are we mostly moving most of thetime?
So the problem is not when wemiss a workout or a week of
workouts.
The problem is when we make aweek of workouts mean that we
miss a month or two months orthree months.
(03:59):
Because we've created this thingin our head where it's really
hard to get started again.
And so that's why the grace andthe comeback plan are so
important.
It's not because.
I mean, it is in, in one senseit's because beating yourself up
is crappy.
It's uncomfortable.
It's unpleasant.
(04:20):
Of course.
I want you to have grace foryourself because why feel shitty
if you don't have to, but theother reason for the grace and
the expectation and theunderstanding that there are
going to be ebbs and flows is sothat it's part of the plan.
So that doing less is actuallypart of the definition of
success.
Part of the plan is that we havetimes that we're not doing as
(04:43):
much.
So that when there's that time,you're not doing as much, it's
like, yay, I am on plan.
I'm doing exactly what'sexpected of me.
I'm having a time where I'm notdoing as much.
That sounds like really trivialand like, that's not, I don't
really need to do that.
I'm not four, I don't need tolike celebrate these imaginary
(05:03):
wins, but you do.
I promise you do.
Your brain works just like afour year old's brain and you do
need to create that win foryourself where doing less is the
expectation.
It's a success.
And so when it happens, you canbe like, yay, everything going
to plan.
And that's going to make it mucheasier to start again whenever
(05:24):
your comeback plan says it'stime to start again.
So, as a part of creating thatcomeback plan and leading with
grace and adjusting expectationswe want to shift our goals a
little bit, not your like bigpicture way out in the future
"why," but your proceduralgoals.
(05:46):
Right?
So a lot of the time we talkabout like, you have this big
why, this big thing that you'reworking toward, yes.
Keep that the same.
Keep your eye on that.
Stay inspired and motivated bythat.
But the execution is going toneed to change.
And again, that's because we'resetting the expectation that
this is a stage.
This is a phase where you have alittle bit less time, a little
(06:08):
bit less energy, and thereforein service of your ultimate big
picture goal during this season,you're going to lower the
expectation.
You're going to say, instead ofdoing my, you know, metabolic
conditioning and my strengthtraining and my spin rides and
whatever, I'm going to do 15minutes of mobility, three times
(06:30):
a week.
That's what success looks likefor me in this season.
And even though it doesn't seemlike that's, you know, maybe you
have like a physique goal or astrength goal, even though that
doesn't seem like it's actuallyin service of the strength goal,
checking the box and feelinglike you are successful during a
low season is part ofaccomplishing your ultimate big
(06:53):
picture goal.
So we don't need to change theWhy, we just change the the
execution, the expectation ofwhat you are going to do during
this season.
And you're going to shift towarda maintenance mindset where
you're like the purpose of myworkouts.
The purpose of my movementpractice right now is to keep me
(07:14):
regular, it's to keep me on topof a behavior on top of the
habit.
I'm maintaining all the progressthat I've made.
And I, and that is in itself aworthy goal.
It is worthy of your time andenergy just to keep the habit,
because that is ultimately whatcreating movement practice is
(07:35):
all about.
It's.
It's changing who you are inyour, in your own brain, your
idea of yourself and becomingsomeone who works out regularly.
And so the working out regularlyis the part that we want to keep
the, what you're doing not soimportant.
So we focus on maintenance.
We shift that expectation towardmaintenance.
(07:57):
And we focus on the small wins.
You give yourself just as muchinternal affirmation, just as
much pride, just as muchexcitement about achieving the
three days of 15 minutes ofmobility as you would for the 45
minutes of heavy strength work.
You give yourself that.
(08:17):
This is like internal in yourbrain.
You give yourself that likehormonal yummy feedback of like,
yeah, I did the thing.
I worked really hard.
I held up my end of the bargain.
I did what I said I was going todo.
That's awesome.
I'm great.
You don't want to do the workand then still feel yucky about
(08:39):
it.
Right.
So what's important is thatwe're not saying let's shift the
expectations.
Let's shift the execution.
Let's make it, you know, threedays a week of mobility.
And then when I do it, when Iget up the energy and the focus
and all of that to do the work Ikind of shit on myself about it.
I'm like, ah, it doesn't reallycount though.
It's just mobility.
That's a really surefire way tomake sure that you don't keep
(09:02):
doing it, that you don't stayconsistent.
So we don't want to do that.
We want to give ourselves all ofthe credit for the win.
When you do show up and do yourmaintenance tasks.
And then lastly, remember thatrest is productive.
I mean, I think there's like ahigher level, big picture thing
(09:24):
that I would love for everyoneto get, which is that just like
not everything has to beproductive.
You can do things just becauseyou enjoy them just because they
feel good, just because youknow, you're your human shell,
like doesn't need to beproducing all the time.
That's thing one.
But also if you're still stuckin that, like everything has to
(09:44):
be for a purpose, remember thatrest is productive.
I've seen it time and time andtime again.
That when my clients go into amonth of recovery work, when
they come back from a singleweek of de-load, they come back
stronger, they come back withmore energy, they achieve their
goals.
I'll share a story of a clientwho I've worked with now for a
(10:06):
year.
And we have been doingprogressive overload strength
training.
She does her workout.
She's super consistent.
She's been going for months ofprogressive overload strength
training, and she saw someimprovement and like, yeah, I'm,
I'm definitely stronger.
Like I do feel like I have moremuscle in some places than I
did, but she was really hittinga brick wall of feeling like she
(10:30):
was only getting bigger.
You know, whether that's muscleor fat, she just felt like all
my clothes are tight I'm gainingweight.
This.
This, she was really frustrated.
And, you know, to my mind, I'mlike, I get that, that doesn't
compute.
It feels like you are workingreally hard.
I would expect to see someweight increase some, you know,
muscle bulking, but I would alsoexpect that to like taper off
(10:54):
and to go the other directioneventually.
And so, you know, we had alittle bit of a heart to heart
and I said let's do a month ofbody weight and Pilates and
recovery.
And the body weight was still alot of work, but we took the
intensity way down for an entiremonth.
(11:14):
And that's what broke it.
That's where she broke through.
And she was like, I see muscledefinition.
I'm cutting down.
I can totally see thedifference.
It does not make any logicalsense.
Even to me, like, I, you know,have lots of education in this.
I work with lots of people.
It didn't seem like to me anentire month of just body
weight, no weights, just likecore stuff, fairly light like
(11:37):
that.
I was concerned that thatwouldn't work, but I'm like,
you've tried everything else.
We have to at least do it.
And I was pleasantly surprisedas was she that that's what it
took.
Rest is productive.
Taking time off to like, letyour stress levels come down and
let your cortisol levels comedown.
Let your fuel.
(11:57):
Like you're your body's fuelstores come back and you may be
very pleasantly surprised by thedifference.
So I want to keep this quick andshort for you today.
I'm going to quickly go overonce again, the things that you
need to do when you see that thestuff is hitting the fan.
With your workout program, youwant to lead with grace.
(12:18):
You want to make a comeback planwhen you're going to take time
off, have a plan in place forwhen and how you're going to
start again.
Adjust your expectations in theexecution of your goal.
You don't need to change yourbig picture goal.
You can if you want, but youneed to adjust expectations in
how you're working toward thatgoal.
Knowing that.
(12:41):
The little workout, the time offthose things are ultimately in
service of your big picturegoal.
Give yourself the win focus oncelebrating those small wins.
And remember that rest andrecovery are productive.
That's it for this week, have afantastic holiday season.
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