Fitness Habits to Train for Life (feat. Emily Nichols)

When it comes to your fitness routine, what are you training for? If you’re like most of us, not a marathon or a bodybuilding competition. And yet, most trainers and fitness influencers advise us to train like we are! What if instead, we train for life?! Those fitness habits look pretty different…and they’re A LOT easier to maintain. 

In this episode of Salad with a Side of Fries, host Jenn Trepeck welcomes Emily Nichols, a personal trainer and host of Habit Hack Your Health, to explore the art of forming lasting fitness habits. Emily shares her expertise on creating keystone habits, mastering functional movement, and embracing a habit loop of cue, routine, and reward to foster lasting lifestyle changes. From rejecting diet culture to prioritizing enjoyable workouts, this conversation offers practical strategies to move your body, fuel your soul, and be your best self.

The Salad With a Side of Fries podcast is hosted by Jenn Trepeck, who discusses wellness and weight loss in real life, clearing up myths, misinformation, and bad science surrounding our nutrition knowledge and the food industry. Let’s dive into wellness and weight loss for real life, including drinking, eating out, and skipping the grocery store.

IN THIS EPISODE: 

• (00:00) Emily defines habits as ingrained actions that require minimal decision-making
• (04:56) Emily’s journey from stress and unhealthy habits to embracing her fitness journey
• (09:34) Habits are reframed as lifestyle choices that reduce decision fatigue
• (11:20) Keystone habits are introduced as foundational actions that inspire other healthy behaviors
• (14:20) Training for life is defined as sustainable movement and nutrition practices, not tied to restrictive goals
• (21:11) Forming habits takes about 90 days, Emily challenges the notion of intense workouts
• (27:00) Shifting away from diet culture, emphasizes strength training for body composition 
• (30:54) Habit loops (cue, routine, reward) are explained, with tangible or intangible rewards 

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• Adopt keystone habits that inspire other healthy behaviors, such as improved nutrition and sleep, to create a sustainable lifestyle foundation.
• Build sustainable fitness habits using cues (e.g., calendar reminders, Post-it notes), routines, and rewards, taking small, intentional steps to reduce decision fatigue and foster long-term consistency, ultimately creating lasting lifestyle changes within approximately 90 days.
• Embrace functional movements and sustainable nutrition, prioritizing enjoyable fitness habits tied to personal identity and joy over diet culture and extreme workouts, to support everyday activities and promote lasting health, not just scale numbers.

QUOTES:        

(00:00) "Habits for me mean less decisions. Habits are part of my lifestyle." - Emily Nichols

(01:05) "If your plan has you opting out of life, it's not your plan for life." - Jenn Trepeck

(08:55) "The thing I hear all the time is, well, I just need to do it. And I'm like. Yes. But, that doesn't get us there. The other piece of this is habits."  - Jenn Trepeck

(23:17) "Because the other thing thats in our heads is I have to kill myself in a workout." - Jenn Trepeck

(30:38) "The reward part of all of this... people often forget." - Jenn Trepeck

RESOURCES:

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