Before You Change Your Plan, Listen to This

January is the time when many people start doubting themselves.

They feel like their plan isn’t working, results aren’t showing fast enough, and the first thought is often: “Maybe I need to change everything.”

In this solo episode, I talk about why so many people quit their fitness goals in January and why changing your plan too often is usually the real problem.

I explain how unrealistic expectations and constant plan-hopping keep people stuck, even when they’re actually doing many things right. Early progress often goes unnoticed because it doesn’t show up on the scale, but it shows up in other ways first like better digestion, more stable energy, improved sleep, or better workouts.

I share why consistency beats variety when you’re trying to create change, especially in the beginning, and why doing less consistently is often more effective than doing more for two weeks and then quitting.

I also talk about patience, using the metaphor of a growing seed, and why long-term progress comes from repetition, not drastic changes.

This episode is a reminder to slow down, trust the process, and stop chasing fast results. If you feel tempted to switch plans or start over right now, this episode will help you pause, reset your expectations, and keep going in a way that’s more sustainable both physically and mentally.

And finally, if you need help with this, email me turo@fitmitturo.com or check coaching options https://www.personaltrainerturo.com/

Transcript

Turo Virta: 0:57

Hey and welcome to back to the podcast. It's Turo here, and if you are listening this episode at the end of January, this episode is especially for you, because this is the moment where many people think this is not working. Maybe I chose the wrong plan. Maybe I need to change something. Maybe I should do more or something totally different. And before you change the plan, I want you to listen this episode, because it's not that change is bad, but because changing too fast is one of the biggest reasons people stay stuck. And this is often time when I see that there is so many people quitting after maybe week maybe two. And this is this episode is coming out on end of January. So this is the time where I would say over 80% of people have already quit, and this is not happening. Not happening because you think that there is, there is nothing happening, but because you are, your expectations are not the right. Because early, early January, it feels usually hopeful, and late January feels already more quiet and it feels more uncomfortable. And because the excitement is gone, real life is back. You have your work, you have your stress, you have your tiredness, you have your routines. And suddenly, all those people who are who have started some working towards some fitness goals in early January, they start checking out how much the scale weight move, or if it moved at all. You are looking your body. Is there some visible changes? Motivation is usually at this point is going already to be lower, and you are not feeling as motivated anymore as in the beginning of January, and most of the people think that I'm doing the right things, but nothing is happening. And this is usually not a problem with effort. It's a problem with expectations, and that is the most common mistake I see, because let me tell you what I see again and again working with the clients, because someone is starting to training more regularly. They are eating better, they are drinking less alcohol. They are maybe sleeping a bit better for two or maybe three weeks. They look for the results, and when results don't look dramatic. Panic is starting to come. So people are trying to starting to add more cardio, eat even less food, cut more things out, jump maybe into a new plan, and this feels productive, but usually it's the opposite, because the body needs time. So why you are not seeing why that kind of not seeing results? And doesn't mean that nothing is happening. And this is very, very important, because the first sense is almost never so on the scale, early progress is often looking like that. You have maybe better digestion, maybe you are sleeping a bit better, maybe you have a bit less cravings, maybe you have more energy on some days, not every single day, maybe you have better workouts. And those are not small things. They are signs that system is changing, but people, most often, they are ignoring them because they are not visible. And this is some metaphor what I like to use. It's very simple. So don't pick up a seed every day to check if it's growing. You water it, you give it time. So think it like a plant or seed, what you are, what you are putting it's not it's not growing every single day that you don't have to dig it, look it underneath, if there is something happening, because you just trust the process and keep water it you give it time, and good things usually happen. So why didn't this, this plan, hoping, is keeping you stuck? Because this is often what I say, that people are doing something, maybe for a couple weeks, maybe for a month, and then they think that, oh, I should be seeing lot faster results. So every time you change your plan too fast, you reset the process, because new training means new soreness, it means more water retention. So your scale rate there is, it's not. It would be very wrong to expected scale is going down when you change your training program, because I said it's you are actually damaging your muscles when you are training, especially strength training, and it means your body is going to retain even more water. So you are not going to see more often than not. You are not going to see results on the scale. You will have, maybe you have a new diet. It means more stress, and that again, leads to more cravings. So maybe you have new rules. It adds pressure and it leads to burnout. So people are thinking that I tried everything, and this is a sentence, what I what I hear so often that I have tried every single thing, but in the reality they tried many things, but only briefly, and because this is such a big important thing that consistency beats variety when the goal is changed, not forever, but at the beginning. And a good example was this, when I run these eight week challenges, and recently, I had a client in my past that changed, that there was like, initially, I always asked that, what is the call, how the how you should be? What? What are your expectations in in the beginning of the challenge, what would you would what would need to change that you would be happy? And often, people list their expectations, I need to lose whatever, five kilos of weight, I need to lose fat. This is an I get it. I get it. If you have lot of weight to lose, you want to lose and faster, better, it is because, ultimately, that gives you motivation, that gives you that feeling about this thing, what you are doing is actually working, but honest road is that you have to, you have to have patience, have consistency, and then keep doing no matter what. Because what is that, if you think that how to set your realistic expectations, if you have any of those signs, what I what I listed before. So you are maybe you are digesting better. Maybe you have a better energy on some days, not every single day, you are sleeping a bit better. You are making better decisions. Those are all small things, which sounds small things, but they are all what makes the difference in the long run. Because if you are chasing the fastest possible results on the universe. Often those are even you, it's, I know it's, it's a it feels that you need to have it, but, but that is the best receipt for going to going to burnout, going to feel overwhelmed and not reaching your goal, because even I have done it with so many people, that the faster progress. It doesn't mean that, if you I like to think that always in the long term, like if you look six months from now, 12 months from now, let's say that it's going to be end of July. 2026 if you are listening this end of January, or if it's going to be January next year, one year from now, look where you are. If you look back where you have been six months ago, 12 months ago, are you looking back that? Oh, I last January. I started and I lost eight kilos in two months and then, but then I gained everything slowly back, step by step. By end of June, I was the same weight, or even more. And here from now, I'm exactly the same point than I was before, or even worse. So that is not a sign that thing what you were doing, despite the first success, it's not the sign that thing what you were doing was working, it's a failure, because you have to think it like that. Maybe most of the people are thinking that I need to have more discipline. I have to have more willpower, because that thing what I was doing was working. I lost so much weight in the beginning. But that is not that is not actually progress, if you really think it. The progress is that if you lose first month, you don't lose anything, you maintain everything, but you are building those habits. Next month, at some point, you will start to lose and you will start to see progress. Maybe it takes more. For most people, it takes three to at least three months, at least two to start to see visible changes. And then you have to have your realistic expectations, because it's not happening. If it's first month it's a one kilo. Second month, it's two kilos. You have lost three kilos. But this progress you are able to maintain. Let's say that it's one kilo per month. It's in the 12 months. It's 12 kilos. And I haven't worked. I have been doing this now over 10 years. I haven't worked with a single person who is telling that, that after a year I have lost only 12 kilos, that my progress should be a lot faster. No, they are very, very excited very, very happy about their progress. For some people, progress looks like that. You might lose first month four kilos. Next month, you gain one kilo, then you lose again to one. It goes up and down depending on situation in your life, season you are in. But if you look at in the long term, that is the that is the how you should be measuring your progress and not focusing on those quick wins, because that is the best receipt to not making progress in the long term. So how you then know if your plan needs time or change, because this is, here is I have a simple check list what you could what you could ask yourself. So first ask yourself, am I actually doing this consistently, or am I doing it perfectly some days and not at all on others? Because if consistency is missing, don't change the plan. Fix consistency first, and then another question, is this plan exhausting me mentally? And if yes, don't quit. But make it more simple, less rules, less pressure, but the same direction. And then what? What most people should be doing, instead of changing the plan, instead of changing everything, do one of these things, eat the same meals more often. Train one day. Less pass, but better stop tracking perfectly and aim for good enough remove one stressor instead of adding effort. So progress is often coming from removing friction, not adding force. And and this is it sounds kind of against everything, what you have probably learned, but often doing less works better. And why is that? Because I know that it might sound very, very strange, but it's true, because most people don't need more workouts, stricter rules, more discipline. What they need is more recovery, more patience, more repetition, because doing less but consistently beats doing more for two weeks and quitting. And this is I, I was, it's from my background. I was, I was a professional athlete myself, and for me, that was the hardest thing. What I learned it took. I was in my 40s when I learned it, and I was thinking that there is no point of doing 1520 minute workouts, because I know that I'm not going to get any results if I do just so short workouts. And now, when I'm I'm in my 40s, I have a pretty busy schedule, family, work and so on and and then I was, I was always like, kind of, now I start training. It took, it was, I was the person who was training perfectly for two weeks. If I didn't have time to do at least 30 minute workout, I didn't do anything at all. And now when I look back, I look back from my 2025 it's funny what those sport trackers are telling you. It is consistency. I'm I have I, I must say that I have never felt better than I am now. I have. I'm very, very satisfied with my progress and or at least maintaining it, because for me, at this point, I don't have any physical goals that I need to look checked or something for me is just doing it for my health, feeling, having best possible energy to be there for my family, for my for my clients, and be someone who actually delivers stuff with the good Energy. And I was, I never was. I can't remember for last year that I have done a workout that was more than one hour, especially at the gym, because that is not something what I naturally enjoy. But I have done it consistently, and when I look back to my stats, it's every single month. I go back, I look I have worked out between eight and 10 times in a month. So that's two and a half sessions per week, more or less. So in that and I'm talking about my strength training, because that is something what I naturally don't enjoy. And the goal for me, it's never doing perfectly everything all how I'm talking to myself. I all I need to do two times per week to get started, even it's a 10 minute workout, 15 minute workout, but I get into my karasume, get started and do one exercise. If I feel that today, I'm not feeling it. I allow myself to quit. And it happens sometimes that I was like, No, today is not the right day. I'm not going to do more. But I proved the point that I'm a person who keeps promises to myself and not quitting, and that is that have lead then the results, because it's so much easier it would be now in a Christmas time, so much easier to say that I do some other things. I go hiking, I go walking, I enjoy time of being my family, with my wife. But I don't know I I can't, it's, it's that consistency would have bring me this far, and this is something where I'm not willing to negotiate. So even during Christmas, even I was doing a lot of other things I did get started, I had a couple 20 minute workouts. And because it's now in January when there is more time, when there is more again, routines, it's so much easier to keep doing, maybe doing a little bit more, than starting all over. And what most people are instead of doing, they think, yeah, I take now week break. Often it starts that, like, at least I was talking myself out of it, that now I take a week off or maybe two, and then it ended up being, like, at least month, sometimes even more, taking off completely from strength training. You start, then you are, like, I talked myself out of it, that, no, I will be so sore again that I don't want to do this. But when you do it even minimal to maintaining everything to get started that saved and changed. Basically everything. So at this point, end of January, your success should look right now, because, and that is that is first I want to start. What is the success end of January? It is not having a perfect body, having a big weight loss, or feeling motivated every single day. Success is looking like that. You are still going. You didn't quit after a bad week, your habits are feeling more normal, and you trust the process a little bit more. And that is what is real progress. So because then what I would people ask that, but Turo, Listen, I'm not seeing any progress. So when it doesn't make sense to change the plan, and I want to be clear with this one, change is good. When your plan, what you are doing, it hurts your body. Your plan, what you are following, it creates anxiety. The plan doesn't fit your life at all. Most people don't need a new plan. They need more time, less pressure and clearer expectations. And I don't mean more time. More time means that you don't need to work out more you need to have more patience and giving, giving it to go and keep doing no matter of results, because the best results, what my clients have got is that they just simply didn't quit. They kept going, trusted the process, and of course, most people are quitting when there is too less visible results. So what I want you to remember from this episode, if you are thinking about changing your plan right now, take a pause. You are probably closer than you think before you change everything, ask yourself, What if I just keep going, but simpler, and that's often where progress finally shows up. And this is like the best example is that that dialog is often, I like to use the timeframe, like, usually 12 weeks, for four months somewhere. There you most people are getting what they deserve. So if you, if you are thinking like there is a stone cutter who is hitting, hitting with the hammer on a stone, you are blowing 99 times, 100 times, nothing happens. Stone is still in a one piece, and then it's that 101 100 of blow you're hitting the rock, and then Whoa, all of sudden, it's in two pieces. You never know when that moment is coming. And it's often with this weight loss and this fitness journey, it's you never know when the time is coming. There might be often. It's that one week you are like, Oh, holy shit. What just happened? I lost all of nothing. I did the same things. I lost two kilos in a week. And that is exactly what often happens. You give it time, you give it go, and at some point there is that big wow effect. And it's kind of the same thing when you are when that stone cutter is trying to hit the stone. It's feels like that. There is nothing happening, but there is, trust me, there is all the time, something underneath happening. And then it's all of certain All results are there, what you were receiving. So this is, if this episode was helpful, I hope this episode was helpful. It was just this is coming from my heart for you, for those who are actually struggling and thinking that now nothing is broken. And if you if this episode was helpful, share it with someone who you know, who feels or talking to you that they are stuck, they are thinking about changing their plan. And if you need support with this realistic, sustainable results. You know where to find me. My Instagram is at personal trainer underline Turo. You can email me Turo at fit me turo.com or I will add my website, personal trainer turo.com where you find all coaching options. You can always only message me without any expectations. I'm I love answering emails, messages without, if without any expectation that I want something from you. I do it because I, honestly, I love this helping people. I love talking with people. And if you decided, Oh, this guy might help me, good. Then we talk if we can help if I can help you, if not. No worries, though. There is no pressure at all, and I'm not some sales guy, unfortunately, who is just trying to sell you the most expensive package or something even this is my work, but ultimately I do it because I love it. Thank you so much for listening and talk to you soon. You.