Episode 9: Trying Is A Terrible Plan

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Welcome to the Reclaim podcast. I’m your host, Leah Van Dolder. I’m a weight loss dietitian and mindset coach, and this program is for you if you’re a busy working woman or female entrepreneur, and you’re ready to take charge of your health, lose weight and make lasting positive change in your life.

The only kicker is that you’re on the brink of burnout, you’re exhausted, you’re feeling frustrated, discouraged and uncomfortable. This is how I help my clients, by giving you simple, practical and savvy strategies to help you achieve your goals while reducing stress, boosting your mood, energy and self-confidence. To learn more about working with me, check out my website at leahvandolder.com. Welcome to the show.

Hey guys, and welcome to this episode of the Reclaim podcast. This is going to be a quick and dirty episode. But it is a powerful one. Because girl, how many times have you caught yourself saying, “Oh, I’m trying to eat healthy, I’m trying to exercise more.” But at the end of the day that “trying” doesn’t happen, right?

This is going to be an episode about the mindset of just shifting your perspective around “trying,” because trying is a terrible plan. I want to help you do and make a plan to get you results. Okay, so instead of, you know, trying to do things and banging your head up against the wall, how can you expect a different result if you’re trying all the same things? Right? That is pure insanity. Let me help you with that.

Before I get going, girl, if you’re not following me on Instagram, come on over. It’s such a great platform, it’s so active, and you get a lot of real, honest advice. I mean, I was just chatting to a new follower yesterday. She’s like, you know, I gotta say, I love how real honest and just down to earth it is. And she’s like, I’m a woman who appreciates knowledge and education, but also appreciates being called out and just needing that good kick in the pants to get you going. Because it’s true, right?

If you’re wanting to make change in your life, you got to start getting real with yourself and start calling yourself out on your craft in order to just do things a little bit differently, right.

So let’s talk about getting out of the trying mentality. Now I’m going to use a client story for this. I started working with Krista just a few weeks ago. And you know, she’s like, “Well, I’ve been trying to eat healthier on the weekends. I’ve been trying to exercise and oh my gosh, you know, this weekend, my mother in law’s showing up. And that’s always stressful. So I’m going to try to hold myself together.” And I asked her, I said, “How’s that worked out for you? In the past? How is trying worked out for you in the past?”

And she laughs, she’s like, “Oh, not very good.” Because what happens, right, you’re trying. Trying implies that you have an intention, right? You have an intention of eating healthier over the weekend, when the mother in law shows up and you’re all stressed out, you have the intention to get to the gym. But then what? Like an intention is only as good as the thought, right? It’s not going to take you past the thought phase of it. Unless you have a solid plan of action, then you’re probably not going to follow through on your intention, right?

Because we always have the greatest intentions, we think about the stuff that we want to do. But we fall short, or the major gap is actually putting a simple plan in place to help you with the execution of it. Right.

So trying is a very terrible plan. Coming up with a practical strategy. That is smart. That is what’s going to push you into action. So I’m just giving you an example of this. A plan to push you in the action and I’m going to use the weekend example.

If you’re only trying to eat healthy and get to the gym, you’re not going to get very far. So what Chris and I were talking about just the other day, I said you tell me because you know yourself better than anybody. And I want to ask you when you actually eat healthy and exercise on the weekend. Like what do you do? What helps you what are those steps that help you execute that intention?

Because often times Carl, you gotta give yourself more credit for knowing what to do. And I gotta say, that default excuse of, oh, I don’t know what to do stop. Yes, you do. You may not even realize how much you know, until you just quiet your mind. And you’re actually asked this question like I asked my clients, well, you know better than yourself, like what actually works to help you execute your plan? Because it’s in there. When you tell yourself that you don’t know what to do, you’re completely writing off. Even trying to figure it out, like looking for that answer. Because it’s in there, it’s in there.

And this is how I help my clients, I bring out these answers within you, I help build your confidence, build your character, and just push you into action and truly show you, you’re smart, you know what to do. And you also know what to do for an execution. I just give you some guidance, right to get this done.

So with Krista, I mean, her answers were, well, when I write stuff in my calendar, I usually get it done versus just thinking about what to do. Right. Other times, it’s having healthy food in the house that absolutely helps with healthy eating, rather than just kind of winging it throughout the weekend. So I said, Okay, great. So this Saturday, here’s your plan.

Saturday morning, you’re going to block that time in your calendar. So that’s what she did. 9am to 10am, she put that time in her calendar, and you can do this to put that time in your calendar. See it, you made an appointment with yourself.

The other thing she did, on Friday night, she put her gym bag together and put it right at the front door. So that she was ready to go right you’re setting yourself up for success. Third thing she’s like, Okay, I got to stock my fridge with healthy snacks. Because that’s typically where I fall apart is just all the unhealthy snacking throughout the weekend. I’m like, awesome. So right after the gym, because you drive home past the grocery store anyway, dodge into the grocery store, and you’re gonna grab some healthy snacks.

With her goals, you know, she’s got some weight loss goals in mind, she wants to lose some belly fat, and she really wants to improve her energy. So the recommendations I gave her of what to pick up at the grocery store, were specific to her and this is what I do with my clients. But to just share with you, you know, we put a big fruit tray on her grocery list. If she has some more time, she could totally make a fruit tray but she’s like, I’m just gonna bite the bullet and buy the fruit tray. Great. Awesome, do that.

Other one vegetables, getting a bunch of ready to eat vegetables like baby cucumbers, baby carrots, some grape tomatoes have vegetables readily available in the fridge. Third one, we looked at some healthy trail mixes for her she loves like the sweet and salty mix. So we talked about a roasted edamame a and cranberry trail mix. So that is an example of a simple plan that you’re executing. And that’s going to give you a result, not just trying not just implying and having these great intentions about things right. Make a plan, get her done.

So Chris, she just texts me she’s like, Oh my gosh, that was so easy. And I ate so much better. And I even reduced my stress throughout the weekend because you know, mother in law’s coming into town. By exercising Saturday morning that put her in such a good headspace. She felt accomplished, and she reduced her stress. These strategies are so helpful across the board, not just within your food choices, but how you feel physically, mentally, emotionally. Set yourself up for success.

And hey, if you’re loving this episode, go rate and review my podcasts it honestly helps so much to reach other women that need to hear this message because seriously, if this message is hitting home to you and you love it, you bet there’s somebody else out there that needs to hear it too. So go rate five star and write a little review.

Let’s talk about some action steps that you can start putting into place over there in your everyday life. First one, start paying attention to the words that are coming out of your mouth. Pay attention to when you say Oh, I’m trying or it was a great intention. And actually pay attention to those thoughts are those great intentions that are just fine into your mind? Because I kind of like to think they’re there for a reason. Right? It’s like your inner Are your higher self, I like to call her the boss lady, the boss lady is giving you a little knock on the door, like, Hey, you’re thinking about getting to the gym because you’re not feeling so energetic and your stamina is really going down. So I’m just going to give you this little wake up call here, or, Hey, you haven’t done any meal planning for a bit, your lunches are all over the map, wake up. So I like to think of that as it’s just this inner voice or your Higher Self, your inner boss, lady, whatever you want to call it, she’s just kind of helping you out. Because she’s here to remind you, like, Hey, you can do better. And, I mean, it’s your intuition that’s really telling you what’s up. So start paying attention to these thoughts and these great intentions that are flying into your mind, because they’re usually pretty bang on with what needs to be executed, right?

Second one, this is a big and very underrated action step. But write these things down. Write down those thoughts that come to your mind, write down those great intentions that you have, because they’re so abstract when you just think about them, right, they’re way more real way more concrete, when you write them down, and you see them on paper. And kind of going one step further with that. Write them in your calendar, if you have this little intention of Oh, yeah, I really wanted to get to the gym this weekend, well, then write it down, put it in your calendar, make that appointment with yourself. If you have an intention of you know, prepping some more vegetables so that they’re sitting in their fridge during the week, well then, put some time in your calendars on Saturday afternoons like trapa veg. It’s so much more real and tangible when you can see this stuff on paper.

And third one, give yourself more credit, right? I said at the beginning of this episode, I mean, we’re so easy. Those words just roll off our tongue like, oh, I don’t know what to do. But you’re immediately discrediting the capability that you truly have, right? Because I’m just gonna remind you like nothing, none of this stuff is rocket science, right? We’re not moving mountains, you prepping some veg, or, you know, moving your body getting out for a walk like this is not rocket science here. You’ve done it before, you can absolutely do it again. Instead of saying, Oh, I don’t know what to do. Say, how can I make this happen? Because I’ve absolutely done it before. And I can absolutely do it again.

The last thing I want to mention here too, because like legit, if you’re having a really hard time trying to figure out a strategy, a practical plan for you to follow. Like, that’s why people hire me, right? So I’m just saying you don’t have to be the hero and try to figure all this stuff out. Because you’re probably wasting your time and spinning your tires over there. That delay time is, you know, it’s delaying those results that you want. So reach out for help. Am I shownotes, there’s an application link that you can apply to work with me. So fill that in, and I’ll reach out and I cannot wait to chat about your goals. Your challenge is exactly how I can help you out and get you into action and just getting those results for you. Just like Krista right a lot can change in two weeks. She just texted me this morning to she’s like, Oh my gosh, I can’t believe how much better my weekend went. When she got to the gym on Saturday morning. When she picked up a bunch of stuff at the grocery store. Right after the gym. She set herself up for success and she was better able like she made better decisions throughout her day. Instead of being a victim to the circumstance and you know just throwing your hands up in the air take some control take charge because girl you always have a choice and you can absolutely take charge of any situation.

Thank you so much for tuning in today guys. It was awesome to connect with you and I will talk to you in the next episode. Bye for now.

Thanks for tuning in to this episode of the Reclaim podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, I encourage you to follow rate and review. To learn more about working with me check out my website at leahvandolder.com Thank you again for being here. It means the world to be able to connect with you, girl keep doing amazing things. You have everything that it takes to achieve your goals and be successful at anything that you want.