Embracing Accountability and Self-Discipline for Personal Growth

Feeling like you've lost your best self and want to reclaim your body and confidence? I've been there, too! After moving to a new place, my eating habits and workout routine slipped, leaving me feeling less than fabulous. But then, my neighbors unknowingly inspired me to take action and create a six-week program that helped me regain my strength and confidence. Join me in this journey as I share that it's not about comparing our current selves to our "back then" selves, but giving ourselves grace and focusing on the path ahead.

In addition to my personal journey, we'll explore the importance of accountability and self-discipline in reaching our goals. Whether it's finding a friend or mentor, hiring someone, or scheduling time in our calendars, having a support system can make all the difference. We'll also discuss the stories we tell ourselves and how they impact our progress. And stay tuned for the next episode where we'll dive deeper into self-discipline, old patterns, and how we sabotage situations. Don't miss this honest and inspiring conversation about finding strength in our struggles and becoming the best version of ourselves.

Chapters

• 0:04 Getting My Body Back
• 16:13 Accountability and Self-Discipline

Transcript

Speaker 1: What's up everyone? Ursula here with the You Are Strong podcast, where we find strength in our struggle. Today I am talking to you about the fact that I wanted my body back. I was feeling blah and what I did to start the ball rolling to get my body back. Alright, guys, i never thought that I was gonna be the one to say this, because in my head I was like I'm always gonna be fit, i'm always gonna be in shape, i'm always gonna eat right, i'm always gonna work out. Hmm, well, always isn't the case. Now is it? And we do go through waves and transitions in our lives. So never thought I would say this. But the beginning of 2023, i was saying I want my body back, i want to bring sexy back. Yeah, not that I wasn't. No, you know what? let's be honest, i was not feeling sexy, i was feeling blah, i was not feeling like myself. 

Speaker 1: So, you know, moving to a new place, of course I wanted to try all the things here. I was eating goo goo clusters and trying all the ice cream shops, and then I wasn't really working out as regularly as I did when I lived in Hawaii, so my workouts kind of slacked. And when I was in Hawaii, i had my workout partner, april, so even if I was feeling like kind of unmotivated to workout, i knew she was gonna come over and we were gonna do it together. So I missed my my workout partner, my buddy, you know, like someone to hold me accountable. So basically, i just started slacking in my eating habits as well as movement, moving my body. And then winter arrived and if you listen to my last podcast, you know that I went through some seasonal depression and I really had like zero motivation to workout. I remember this a while ago, my husband and I, we, even when we had a more healthy lifestyle because you know there is that like 80-20 rule, like It's not, like we never ate ice cream or we never ate a processed food, but that was like the 20%. I think that kind of shifted a little bit, at least for me, when we moved here to Tennessee because of all the transitions and trying new things and not having my accountability partner. 

Speaker 1: What happens after stress and when you're going through transitional times in life? you're going to gain weight and you're going to feel blasé and you're just not going to feel like yourself. Or at least I didn't. I didn't feel like myself. I was out of a routine. I was so used to being in a routine that this was an uncomfortable spot for me. And now I was in a place where I actually needed to lose some weight, which was also new for me because I had always been able to maintain my weight. Although I've trained clients who have wanted to lose weight and inches, i had never actually been in that spot before. So again, new territory for Ursula People here in Tennessee, my neighbors and people that would have made it the dog park, the topic of winter and gaining weight or whatever, would come up. 

Speaker 1: They might have thought I was crazy when I would say I feel blah, i've gained weight since we've moved here, because I think if you looked at me I'd look normal. However, i would say things like I wish you knew me back. You know, back then, when I lived in Hawaii and I you know, i used to be a badass And I could have reinvented myself in the sense of just being okay with where I was physically in my body, because people here knew me no other way. They had just met me this way. But I was just thinking back to how I was and how active I was and how in shape and not even aesthetically, so not even just the way I looked, it's just for me. It was more like I was like physically fit, internally, cardiovascularly, i could lift heavy things and I just wasn't feeling like myself. 

Speaker 1: I truly believe that God makes no mistakes and I feel so blessed that he placed myself and my family in this particular neighborhood, in this particular cul-de-sac that we live in, because right across the street I have neighbors that kill it every single morning. They're out there working out at like 5 30 in the morning and I would walk past the doorway because we have like a little glass. I can see basically out my side of my door and I see their garage door open. I see them killing it and I'm like, oh my gosh, ursula Dang, they're out there killing it Like I need to get out there. So, unknowingly to them, they helped push me to get my butt back in gear just by seeing them out there killing it in their garage gym. 

Speaker 1: I started slowly but I was like I'm gonna put myself on a six-week program and, honestly, to you know, again, being super raw and real, i had like come up with a six-week program before winter time for myself. Did I do that shit? No, i did not. But again I went through like super depression, like phase, and so giving myself grace for that. But this time, come January, i was like, no, i'm getting back into it. 

Speaker 1: So I put a six-week program together for myself and I went out there and I was in the garage gym, i was jogging again and I had this realization around April I had this realization, man, ursula, the story that I'm sharing with my neighbors and people that I first meet here in Tennessee is I wish you knew me back then. I wish you knew me when I was a badass. That's some serious negative self-talk and so I had to point the finger at myself and say Ursula, you need to stop. That's not only the story that I'm telling other people. When you verbalize that, that's what you're telling yourself, f, that I still am a badass and every piece of me that used to be is still inside of myself. Like I still have the discipline, i still have the motivation, i still have the routine, i still have the inspiration. I still have the camaraderie of people. Now they may not be actually working out with me, but I have my cheerleaders. I have my neighbors next door that work out. I have neighbors down the road that said, hey, let's all go do a 5k together that I went and did a 5k with in January. So, even though I didn't have my workout partner like physically here with me doing the workouts with me, i still was in this bubble of people who were living healthy lifestyles, and that was inspiring for me, and that was the part that I needed to recognize, as well as I needed to stop the negative self-talk and I needed to instill hope within myself. One of my purposes, i feel, in this life is for me to instill hope and support others, but I needed to like give that back to myself. 

Speaker 1: So here, what I want you to think about is what story are you telling people When you meet someone new? what do you say to them? Are you like dogging on yourself? Are you being a Debbie Downer about yourself? Think about the words that come out of your mouth. Think about the ears that are hearing those words. Do you have little ones at home that maybe hear you talking about yourself in this way? 

Speaker 1: I could have chose to continue to live in the I used to be. I once was. Oh well, i gained this weight and I'm just since. I've already gained it. I'm just it's not going to go anywhere. It's going to take forever to go anywhere. I'm getting older. It's going to be harder for me to get this weight off. I could have went down that spiral. Would that have made me happy in the end? No, because I was already feeling. Blah is honestly how I can describe it. Because, again, physically, the way I looked when I looked at myself in the mirror, i knew my body had changed, but it wasn't even so much that I mean, yes, that is a piece of it, but the other piece that, for me, was the driving force to kick my own butt in gear was how I felt internally. And again, the only word that comes to mind and I know it sounds funny, but it's just blah when you just feel like whoa, and I, freaking, don't like to feel that way. 

Speaker 1: I started with baby steps, that 5k in January And I actually got my neighbor involved because she had said one of her goals for 2023 was to run a 5k. I'm like, let's run this 5k together, partly for her, so she could do her first 5k. But honestly, i was being a little selfish and, hey, let's do this 5k, so at least I get my butt, you know doing something. So it was for me just as much as it was for her. And then I created a six week program for myself. I started doing that, being more consistent with getting back into the groove of moving my body. And yeah, i have a garage gym and I do like to lift weights, so I was lifting, but I also left room for movement in regards to just like dancing and having fun, and nothing choreographed, not like a zoom book class or anything like that, like just dancing and like having a little dance party for myself, and that was my cardio some days. I think the easiest thing to start with is moving your body And so once I kind of got into that groove, i started to be slightly more aware of what I was putting in my body. 

Speaker 1: Now, if you've followed me on any of social media, like, for the most part I eat healthy, but, like I said in the beginning of this, i do like to have ice cream, i like to have cookies. I do drink alcohol every now and then, so I wasn't really cutting that out. Oh, and pizza on Friday nights Yes, love me some pizza. I can throw down on a pizza pie. I really took some serious baby steps there because I wanted to have my treats when I wanted to have them. So I started to get a little bit more into the 80% eating healthy again and then the 20% treats. So mid April I did start feeling better. I had that discipline of, like I'm going to work out, i'm going to, you know, eat every three hours. I wasn't fully tracking every single thing that I ate, but I did do my own calories and macros So I was following that slightly. 

Speaker 1: Come mid April I started to feel like I needed a little bit more accountability because I started slipping when it came to the eating habits. I said I was tracking loosely, but then I started to not really track any longer. And then you know those Friday nights with pizza and then Saturday I'd have some ice cream and I wasn't really seeing any drastic changes. And I was coming close to the end of my six week program that I had put together for myself And I realized I need to kick it up into high gear and I need to be more accountable to someone else, because just being accountable to myself was not allowing for me to reach the goals and the timeframe that I wanted to reach them. I literally need to answer to someone to make sure that I get this done and to really like hone in on ensuring that my goals were going to be met. For me, when I work with somebody and I have to answer to someone like I know I'm gonna do it, because I like to be the A-plus student, i want to make sure I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing, and when I have to check in with somebody, i am way more likely to get it done and to do it. 

Speaker 1: I decided to hire a coach, and this is a coach that I worked with back in 2016. He was helping me back then build muscle, and now I was like hey, remember me from 2016 where I was like super ripped and I needed to like build muscle? Yeah, well, now I need to like shed the fat around these muscles so you can see my muscles again. And he is just amazing And I just really love how he is direct, straightforward, like no BS, because that's what I need. So here, what I am trying to get across is what do you need to truly like reach your goal? 

Speaker 1: So what story are you telling yourself and telling others? Thinking about that story? is there validity to it? Is there truth to it? Is there some irrational beliefs or thoughts? Is there some old programming that you're living by that no longer serves? you Think about that And then think about who you need in your circle to help you in creating the story that you want to live here and now. There are obviously times that we're gonna fall off the track, but you know what. Another train is gonna be coming and you can get right back on. And that's what I feel like I did in the beginning of this year and I'm continuing to do and I'm starting to feel more like myself again. That blah feeling Honestly, it's not even there. 

Speaker 1: I'm recording this mid-May and I started working out on my own, getting back into a routine in January, not even being super strict with my eating habits until end of April, and I feel so good. And you know what else. I'm in my early 40s and I've always had issues with honestly I mean, it's pretty much adult acne, like my face still breaks out like a teenager And I would just said to my husband today I'm like you know what. And this last month of really being on it when it comes to my workouts and really being more aware of what I'm putting in my body as it relates to food, and I've noticed a difference in my skin. I honestly don't even think I've had a zit in like the last month, and so not only again is my body physically going back to what it once was, my skin is, for the first time in forever, like not having breakouts. So that is just the added bonus that I wasn't even necessarily expecting. That is awesome. 

Speaker 1: This is where I'm going to end today's podcast with the two main points in thinking about and listening to the story that you're telling other people, as well as finding what you need to help in holding you accountable. Do you need a phone or friend? Do you need to hire somebody? Do you need to just put it in your calendar and schedule it in? Are you good enough to just be accountable to yourself? What do you need to hold yourself accountable to your goals, and what story are you telling people about yourself? On the next podcast, i'm going to dive a little bit deeper into self-discipline, old patterns and how we sabotage situations. So stay tuned and I hope you join me next time on the You Are Strong podcast, where we find strength in our struggles. If you enjoyed listening to today's podcast, please feel free to leave a rating and a comment. I would love to hear from you.