2026 check-in... Have you let some shitty habits start creeping in?!

Today we're doing a little audit/check-in, working through a checklist of common habits or things I've seen people let creep into their nutrition and training journey, that start wrecking their progress!

We wanna assess whether we're personally doing these things at the moment, and if there's anything we want to tidy up over the coming months, to get the best results possible 🏋🏽‍♀️

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DISCLAIMER
The Eat Like Ruby podcast is not a substitute for professional medical or dietary advice.
The advice given in this episode is general in nature and should not be used to treat any medical conditions, health conditions, illnesses, injuries and/or any nutrition related conditions, deficiencies or similar.
This podcast is not to be used as, or in place of, medical advice or dietary advice.
Please consult your health care professional before implementing any of the advice, information or protocols discussed in this episode.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:09

Hello Fee and welcome back to the pod. Today I'm gonna do an episode that I think is just like a little quarterly check-in, if you will. I know we're well past the quarter. We're actually coming up towards halfway in the year, which is wild, but just like a little check-in episode. And I'm gonna work through a few little things that I've seen people doing lately, I've seen people doing over the years that I just want to bring to the table, bring a bit of awareness to, and just have people do almost like a little audit. I feel like we've done episodes like this before. I'm getting a bit of deja vu, but just like a little bit of an audit about like, oh, am I doing some of these things? And if I am, have I not even realized and or is it negatively impacting my nutrition training, performance, results, whatever it is that you're working towards? I think it's common to come like guns blazing into the year, which is awesome, go off. Then we kind of get to that quarterly mark around the start of April, and we have things like Easter, school holidays, events, people go away. Like there's just that little shift in April, I reckon. It's always a bit of a weird month, especially, I don't know, just with me and my clients, everyone's got a lot going on. It's like I've knuckled down for the start of the year. Now I've got some different shit happening throughout April, and now just starting to come out the back of that. Coming into winter, I think winter in Australia is a really cool time to just knuckle down and focus on specific goals. And that's why I like to do episodes like this as we start to come into that time. Clock anything that might be holding you back or getting in your way of really getting after those goals so we can intercept it right now, fix it, and make the most of the coming months. So obviously, if you're listening in real time, that's awesome. Equally, if you're listening back, it's so funny because people message me and they just go like, I listened to episode 86. And I'm like, wow, that's like 2024. Like, that's so funny. It's awesome. So I know people don't always listen in real time, or they do go back and listen. So whenever you're listening, have a think about what it is that you would love to get out of the next few months with your nutrition and training and everything related to that, and then just have a listen to these things and just be like, oh, do I need to clock myself doing any of these things? Just intercept them so it doesn't get in the way of my progress. And the thing I want to say before we get into it is two things actually. First one is I never want to do episodes like this to shame. I want to do episodes like this to bring the awareness. So if you hear something in this episode and you're like, oh, I think that's me, shit, called out, just know that we're not calling out with shame. We're calling out so it can be like, hey, if you're doing this and you think it's getting in the way of your progress, now we've called it out, you can intercept it and have it stop getting in the way of your progress. So no shame, no judgment. And it's never just one person. It's never like, oh, let's talk about this thing because this one person is doing it. I've been in this game a long time and I see the same shit over and over and over. So just know that if you can relate to anything we talk about today, you are so not alone. There's a reason we bring stuff up because we think that a lot of people are gonna benefit from hearing it. On that same note, almost kind of on the flip side, the thing I do want to point out is I don't think people are gonna relate to all of these things. You might, which you might have a lot to work on. That's fine, that's what we're here for. But I think it's gonna be common to hear one and be like, no, that's definitely not me, and then hear others and be like, oh yeah, I could be doing that. So, like I always say, just have a bit of discernment, take what applies to you, leave what doesn't. But also if you hear the first you and think, oh, I don't think this episode's for me, I don't think I'm gonna relate to any of these. I think I think there's one at the end that a lot of our experienced or advanced girls can relate to. So stay tuned for that one if you're in that category. But just come into the episode with an open mind, take what applies to you, and we can go from there. So the first little question I want you to ask, like I said, we're almost gonna do this like a little audit or a checklist. The first thing that I think is so important to ask is think about if there is anything in your nutrition training or similar that you're whinging or complaining about in a bit of a victim mentality, right? And I say this with love, we have all been there. Trust me, we have all been there. So we're not judging, we're not shaming, but just have a think if there is something external of you. That's really what I want to look at here. Something that you feel is outside of your control. So it might be like an injury, it might just be like a work schedule, it might be, I don't know, it could be anything, right? We're gonna have so many things. But something that you think is outside of your control, and then therefore you're stuck in a little bit of a victim mentality, like this thing is so shit. I wish this thing wasn't happening. Why me? Poor me. Like I said, we've all been there. So have a little think if there's anything like that. And like I said, what we're really looking at here is something external of you. And if you can think of something, maybe you can't. That's awesome. Go off, you're having a great time. But if you can, then what we want to do is just think about that thing and then really let your guard down and ask yourself, is there more that I could be doing about this thing? Or while this thing is happening, if there is something going on that I can't control and I'm waiting on things external of me or I'm hoping on things external of me to work out, come back and go. But is there something more that I can be doing? Because I see this a lot, and we could really dig deep on this one with like all the mindset work and stuff, but this is where we can see this big element of secondary gain where it's like on the surface, we do have that bit of a poor me attitude, and we think that there's something going on, or like there is something going on that we don't have full control over. So, like you said, we're playing a little bit of a victim and we're wishing it wasn't happening, but then beneath the surface, there's a big element of like, well, as long as that's outside of my control, I don't have to do anything about it. I can just whinge about it, right? And we can see this maybe where a really common thing I see is people that have issues with their sleep. And maybe you've got little kids, maybe you do shift work, maybe you've got stress, like anything at all. And I just want to make it really clear, guys, I'm not taking away from those things. This is what I'm talking about. We can absolutely have things in our life that are very true and are external of us and we can't do anything about them. If you've got any of those things that I just said that are keeping you up at night or interrupting your sleep, that is so true, that is so valid, right? We are not taking away from that. But what we then want to do is go, okay, well, if there's shit that I can't do anything about, what can I do something about? And if we use this sleep example, this is a really common one I see where there is genuinely an external factor at play, but then the person who's complaining about that external factor is also doing something like pumping a ton of caffeine before bed or scrolling on their phone all night, having a ton of screen time before they go to sleep, going to bed and playing on their phone for an hour. And I'm not even sitting here saying these things are wrong. I mean, we know those things aren't great for our health, for our mental health, physical health. Like we know those aren't ideal things to be doing. But like I always say, no one's got a gun to head, do whatever you want. But what we want to clock is are we out there on the surface, sort of going, poor me, I can't get good sleep because of this thing? And then beneath the surface, it's like, oh, but I'm also contributing to that. Pausing to just let that one sink in. And the sleep, like I said, this is a common one that I see, but we can see this happening in so many ways. Another place that I've seen this play out hugely over the years, and again, I'm not shaming, this is a very common one, but it is important to intercept this one and think about it. Something I've seen a lot is if somebody has been having like ups and downs with their weight over the years and they're trying to lose weight, and maybe they've lost a bit, maybe they haven't lost much, and it's sort of just not too successful. Like you feel like you've given a lot to it, but it just hasn't been that successful, right? I think that's one of the most common scenarios in the world. Something we then commonly see is let's say somebody then came in to eat lack Ruby or started working with a similar coach, and you get into a deficit and you start flexible dieting, and we've just set up what we think is required to actually get this fat loss happening for you, which is awesome. What we can commonly see then is people having that deficit in place some of the time, and then sort of being like, oh, you know, this thing happened on the weekend, or we went away, we had a little family trip, this happened, that happened, I was a little bit snacky this day. Like, there's just a few little iffy things that are pulling this person out of the deficit. And then after a few weeks, the person can turn around and be like, this doesn't really work for me, deficits don't work for me. I always struggle with weight loss. And again, guys, if you can relate to this, like think about that sentence. I always struggle with weight loss. Probably one of the most common sentences in the history of the world. So you're definitely not alone. But if we stop for a second and just think about what is actually required to achieve fat loss, we know it is a consistent, effective calorie deficit implemented long enough to actually let it be consistent and effective. If we put that in place, let's say we, what are we, start of May. Let's say we put that in place at the start of March, and you sat in it for a week and then you had a few little things come up, so you weren't too consistent with it, and then you went back to it for a few days, and then you came into Easter, that was a little bit inconsistent, then you went away for a few days, and you had a lot of little things just interrupting the deficit. This is where we want to look and go, well, we know that we need the deficit to achieve fat loss. If you've had constant interruptions to that deficit, again, this is where we see someone on the scenes going, deficits don't really work for me. I don't think I'm in a deficit, these targets don't work for me. I always struggle with weight loss, like I said before. It's this real narrative of like, poor me, this isn't working. And this is where we then need to come back and go, but what more could you be doing about it? Like, yeah, maybe you've been thinking about that deficit for a while, or maybe you've been trying to implement it for a while, or maybe you actually have been implementing it for a while. But then let's come over here and look at all the times over the last two months where you haven't implemented it. Then we come to this story or this narrative of deficits don't work for me, it's so hard for me, I'm so hard done by, essentially. And again, saying it all with love, I'm gonna keep reminding you. But I want people to clock that because this can be such a strong one where people genuinely believe deficits don't work for me and diets don't work for me. And then we step back and we look and we go, you haven't even consistently implemented it. And this conversation and doing these things, like these can be hard to admit. Most people don't want to admit what more they could be doing. It's all easier to blame other things than to blame ourselves, right? Again, this is why we've all been there. But the cool thing to really understand here is if there's something in your life that you're unhappy with, and we'll bring it, we'll keep it with nutrition and training, or we'll be here all day. So if there's something in your nutrition and training and your progress and your results that you're unhappy with, if there is something more that you can be doing about it, that's awesome because then you can do it. It's actually a way worse position to be in, to feel like you have genuinely done every single thing right and you're still not making the progress you want, or you're still not achieving the thing that you want. Let's go back to the sleep thing. Like if a person has the most elite sleep routine and night routine, like you're doing every single thing you possibly can, and then your sleep is still shit, that's actually a worse position to be in than a person who looks and goes, Yeah, I probably am having too much caffeine too late in the day, I'm probably playing on my phone too much, I'm probably getting too much stimulation from my phone and my TV and social media and all these things before I go to bed, and that's interrupting my sleep. Because if we look at those two scenarios, if someone genuinely feels like they couldn't be doing any more, then you're left sitting there going, like, my hands are tied. I literally don't think I could be doing any more for this thing. Then we come over to the person that's like, yeah, as much as I hate to admit it, there probably is more shit that I could be doing. Like I said, that's a great position to be in because then you can act on those things and actually start to get some change. Same thing with the deficit. And I think this is a harder one to admit, and I don't even think it's hard for people to admit. I think people have just been so caught up in these things for so long that you haven't taken this step back and just gone, yeah, like hang on a minute. Is there more that I could be doing? I think it is so common and it's so genuine for a person to have been thinking about dieting for so long that they genuinely believe I have given my all to this. And we've spoken about this on the podcast before. There can be a big element where it's like, you've given your all, like you've air quotes given your all because you've thought about this thing for the last 20 years. I think there's a lot of women listening who can be like, yep, I've thought about dieting for the last 20 years, depending on how old you are. But then people can get that confused with have you actually consistently implemented the deficit for the last 20 years? You definitely haven't or you'd be dead. If you've implemented a consistent deficit for 20 years, you're not going to be here listening to this. But even if we bring it back to, like I said, the last couple of months, like if we've had someone who's been trying to implement a deficit for the first few months of this year, let's say, but there's been those constant interruptions and constant things coming up that have intercepted that deficit, again, that's actually a better position to be in because you can sit there and go, no, it's not so much that, quote, deficits don't work for me, it's that I probably just haven't had enough consistency to make this one work. That's a way better position to be in than to be someone sitting there going, I have done every single thing I possibly could. Like if we were to say right now, gun to your head, do you think you have done every single thing? If you're watching on YouTube, I'm waving my hand like a gun. But honestly, gun to your head, any single thing in your nutrition and training that you're feeling a little bit hard done by with and you're playing a little bit of victim with right now, if we were to hold a gun to your head and say, Do you genuinely think there is not one single thing more that you could be doing for this? If having that gun to your head made you go, yeah, probably like there probably has been maybe a couple little extra snacks or for the sleep thing, yeah, probably am spending a bit too much time on my phone at night. Whatever it is, like we see it with so many things. We see it with injuries, you know, when people get an injury and then like, poor me, I'm so injured, like so hard done by, and then it's like, Were you getting a little bit ego with your training? Were you getting a little bit sloppy on your warmups? Like, whatever it is, we've all either got our shit or had our shit at some point in our journey. But if we are in that gun to your head scenario, I need to stop saying that. But if the question is, like, is there genuinely something more you could be doing? You actually want that answer to be yes. Because if the answer is no, it's like, well, there's nothing we can do then. This is just the reality. If the answer is yes, as much as that can be shitty, because then it's like, shit, now I'm the one that has to do the work. Now I'm the one that has to take responsibility, I have to step up, I have to change. Like I said before, it can be a lot easier to blame things external of ourselves because then we don't have to do anything about it. If we come back to this scenario and realize, like, shit, there is actually something I could do about this. I think you're gonna have two types of people in the world. There's gonna be people that look at that and go, well, that sucks. Because I don't want to do anything about it. I want to whinge about it. If that's you, I'd probably leave now. You've probably already left. But if you're clocking this and you're going, ah yeah, Rose has called me out, she's right. There is actually something more I could be doing about this thing. Then that's cool because you can actually start doing that thing. You can start stepping up and then starting to make progress with that thing that you're currently not feeling like you're making progress with. So that was pretty much the first point I had in my notes. The first two notes I had were, what more could you be doing? Question mark, where are you blaming other things? Question mark. And this episode, by the way, this episode has like come really randomly. I have just been brain dumping so much shit in my phone. And then when it comes around to recording, I'm like looking at all these notes and I'm like, yes, I have so much to say about all these things, but I don't know what ones go together. I don't know exactly what I want to talk about right now. Like I've had a bit of a recording block, and it's like so many notes, so many ideas. We all know she can yap for days, but just like getting the episodes together and in the right order and stuff, it just felt really weird for me at the moment. So I'm actually recording this episode two days before it comes out. This is Monday morning, and I woke up and I was like, Rubs, you don't have an episode for Wednesday. And then it was funny because pretty much on Friday night, one of these came into my mind on Friday night. I think maybe the next one we're gonna talk about. And I put it in my phone and then something clicked in my brain, and I was like, I think this kind of goes with some of those others. I think it's almost like an audit episode. And it's so funny because sometimes I'm organized for months with the podcast, and then other times I literally just have to back myself and go, like, don't force it, Rubes, don't record an episode that you don't want to record just for the sake of getting one out. Sit with it and it will come to you. And it was so funny because on Friday night, this thought just came into my head while I'm like literally sitting on the couch watching football, and then I'm like, get that in your phone. Oh my god, that goes to the other ones. That is Wednesday's episode, record it on Monday, you're good. So, little pointless story there, but that's how this episode came together. And we have covered the first two on my list. The next one on my list says, Where are you chilling? Question mark. We've talked about this on the podcast before. I feel like we might have even talked about it this year. And I think this is just a cool little one to think about where we almost just get stuck, I don't want to say stuck, but kind of, stuck in our routine and then therefore stuck in a little bit of a rut. And probably more so just settling for things being quote good enough. And that's really what I want to look at. Just like do a little audit of your nutrition training, your habits, your routines, anything at all, and just ask, like, is there anywhere that I'm just chilling a little bit and settling for things being quote good enough? And this isn't even always a bad thing. We've spoken a lot on the podcast about people having phases where you're like really getting after a goal and then you have a more chilled time where you are just chilling and you don't have an intense goal and you do just want to ease things off a bit. That is totally fine. I'm a big fan of that. I personally have had phases of both with my nutrition and training, but I think it is just important to clock a disconnect where if you do have a goal or something you really want to achieve in the next few months or just something you want to make progress with, is there then a habit or an action that is required to make that progress that you're actually being a little bit chilled with? And the first thing that comes to my mind, and it kind of flows into the next note that I had, is I think we can see this a lot with training. Just chilling with training, and we see it with nutrition as well. Something will probably pop into my head that I'll rant about in a second, but we see it a lot with training where we just kind of settle, maybe settling for a program and for exercises where you're like, oh, I've just done this for ages and it works for me, it's good enough. So I'll just stick with it. And that can be good. Like, I love program repetition. I think I've spoken about that last week or next week. I don't know. But I love repeating exercises so we can actually progress with them. But what I more so mean is like, have you kind of created a training program that is very enjoyable, it's very chill, you've slowly taken out anything that feels a bit too hard or too taxing or that you don't like, and then you're left with this program that's like not that challenging. And again, there can be times like I have times with my clients where we say there's a lot of external stress in your life, there's other shit going on, let's make a really somewhat chilled program compared to normal. Let's take out anything too draining, too stressful. Let's make this quite enjoyable and pleasant for you for the most part, right? But then when we come around to other times where they've got clear goals and they really want to get after it, this is where we commonly see people say things like, I hate Bulgarian split squats, but let's give them a go in this program. Like, let's challenge myself, let's ramp it back up. And just any particular exercises or things like that, like I said, I think it can be beneficial to take things out at times to give ourselves that bit of relief. But that's where I think it's important to come back to this question of like, have you been doing that for too long? And it's just left you at a point of chilling. And then I think on a similar note with training, maybe you can or can't relate to that last point, but then a really common thing I think we see is just chilling with the lifts themselves and with the reps and the sets. And there's gonna be people listening to this, I just want to say FYI right now. So many of my training girls are getting after it. So if you're a training girl of mine, do this little audit for yourself. And if you're a training girl in general, but I can literally think of a lot of my girls right now where you could ask yourself this question and you're not chilling. So that's why I said at the start of this episode, not everything is gonna apply to everyone. There are people who are sending it right now. So this is one of those things where you could ask and just go, no, that's actually not me. Like I'm absolutely getting after it in the gym. I'm not chilling. And I think I've said on the podcast before, if you know you know, you know if you're chilling, or you know if you're not chilling. Like I would personally say, I'm not chilling in the gym at the moment at all, right? So I would hear this and go, yeah, that's a good point, something to keep in mind, but definitely not applicable to me right now. So just keep in mind this could be the case for you. But then on the flip side, we're gonna have people listening that are like, oh yeah, shit. Like maybe I have just been a little bit too chill for too long. Avoiding anything challenging, not really pushing, even like this can happen in so many ways. Like it can happen with not pushing extra weight or reps or sets, but it can also just happen with not pushing good depth or good range or good control or good tempo. And that's where we see people just kind of in that energy of like getting it done. So if you're going through a session and you're like, yeah, technically I ticked off my three sets of ten reps and then my three sets of six and my four sets of six, like technically on paper I got it all done. But did you half-ass a lot of those things? Did you rip yourself off a little bit of depth, a little bit of range? Were you really just in that get it done energy? And therefore, are you just training in that like get it done, tick it off kind of energy? Because there's a big difference. Like I said, if we've ticked it all off on paper and technically the numbers look good, but then we look at the actual session and it's like you're doing half reps on a leg press, mate. Like you've mentally left the building. So that's what we want to intercept and just go, like, oh, where am I either just chilling or have just taken my foot off the gas a little bit? And like I said before, it might be a good time for you to do that. You might have been going hard for ages and you're like, I actually am in a little bit of a chill era. That's awesome. But just clock the fact if you're not, if you're like, no, I'm not in a chill era, I'm in my getting after it era. Are you actually getting after it with all your sessions? And that does actually bring me to the next note that I had. I'm gonna go to my next note and then we're gonna. Come back to this chilling question with some nutrition talk because then that's gonna link up to the last note that I had. It's a little bit messy, but it's all gonna tie in. So the next note that I had is, and this is in relation to training, and I literally wrote this when I was training on Saturday morning, two days ago. Do you genuinely think you can't do more? Or is it just that you hate the exercise, you're uncomfortable, you're not even close to failure, but you just don't like it.

unknown 22:35

Right?

SPEAKER_00 22:35

And what prompted me to write this, I literally wrote this in the middle of my leg press sets because I was on the leg press, and the leg press is something I've just bought back in recently, so I'm finding it hard, I'm finding it heavy, like it's mentally draining, physically draining, but in a good way. Like I'm loving the challenge. But when I was on there, I think I might have been doing the second set, maybe. And in the first set, I'd gone to 12 reps, and then I had the same weight for the next set. And when I got to eight, I literally thought to myself, Well, you could stop at eight because like eight's eight's a reasonable place to stop. And then I thought, you're not stopping because you can't do more, you're just stopping because you don't want to do more. And it's one of those things where like I think all the gym girls listening will be like, Oh yeah, been there. And it's like you think about it, and it's like, well, of course I would stop if I don't want to do more. Like, why do I do this to myself? I was having thoughts when I was in the gym on Saturday of like, imagine if I just traded my strength training hobby for like scrapbooking or something. How nice would that be? Like, why do I do this to myself? So I was having all the thoughts on Saturday, but I think that's a really important thing to differentiate between are you just stopping because you're like, this is shitty, this is unpleasant, this is uncomfortable, I don't want to do any more, versus I genuinely do not think I could do more. And for me, like before I get on the leg press, I hip thrust. And with my hip thrust at the moment, I'm doing my prescription is like six to ten reps, I'm getting like six to eight, and usually I'll get like eight on the first hard set, and then when I go into that second set, I'm like, just get the eight again, rubs, and genuinely on like the sixth or seventh one, it's like it's almost like a half rep. I'm like, I actually cannot get to eight reps, which is awesome because like that is pretty much failure. It's like, no, I don't want to stop. I actually don't want to stop. In my mind, I'm like, just get that one extra F and rep robes. But my body is just like, I can't get this. So, difference between that versus then me getting on the leg press, doing eight reps really well, like yes, they're shitty and I'm like low-key whinging, but they're not shitty quality. They just feel shitty because they're uncomfortable. But getting to eight reps and then going, should I stop here? And then it's like, if the question is, should I stop here? I would argue that you've got more to give. If you're like deliberating stopping, it's like, okay, well, you've obviously got the option to keep going. Whereas on that hip thrust, I'm like, there's no option to keep going. I literally can't get this up. So just an important thing to catch, especially obviously for the training girls, and if you do have like muscle gain strength, physique, goals, etc., have you kind of, I think that comes back to the chilling question. Have you got those things where you are just like, yep, eight reps is good enough. That weight is good enough, stopping here is enough, that's enough. Wasn't enjoying that one, gonna call that one there. We just want to clock that behavior because it's like obviously we know we need to train close to failure and get that progressive overload and push hard and all the things we've spoken about before on the pod. So we want to just be able to clock the difference between I genuinely can't keep going versus I'd like to stop because this is unpleasant. And then coming to the last note that I had, and then like I said, this is gonna tie back to my are you chillin' question. And if we look at are you chilling with nutrition, I think there's so many ways that people can be too chilled with nutrition. We could talk about that all day. But if we look at our kind of niche girls that do like to flexible diet, monitor their nutrition in some way, I think the most common way we see people chilling is just letting things get that little bit too chilled, too flexible, and too sloppy. And I obviously want to make it really clear, I'm the biggest advocate of flexible dieting. So yes, we can be flexible, we can adjust things, etc. But there's a difference between doing that in a positive, controlled, intentional, structured way versus someone just getting a bit too chilled and like I said, a little bit too sloppy with their nutrition. And really, when you step back and you look at your days and your weeks, you're like, that wasn't really how I wanted to navigate that. That wasn't really my plan. I have just gotten a little bit too chilled and therefore a little bit sloppy. We can have good chilled with nutrition and then we can have sloppy chilled. And again, I think you know. I think if you look back over your current days and weeks and your habits overall, you know if you're happy with them. And if they are chilled, you know if it's chilled in a good way or chilled in a way that you're actually not that stoked with. So that in itself is like a cool little audit to do. Just be like, am I chilling with nutrition? And if I am, am I happy with that? If you are, again, this almost comes back to that training thing where you might just be having those few months where you're like, I don't want to track my nutrition. I do want to be a bit loose, I want to have a bit more flexibility. That is my goal right now. That's awesome. If it's intentional, it's positive, and you're feeling good about it. So you just want to do that little audit of, am I chilling with nutrition? If I'm not, awesome. Happy days go off. If I am, am I happy with it? If I'm not, is this something I need to look at and just tidy up a little bit to progress the way I want to progress over the coming months? And then that brings us to the last thing on the list. And this is the thing I said at the start of the episode that I think our advanced and experienced girls need to catch this one. Because I would absolutely be guilty of this if I worked with a coach. And I've seen experienced girls do this when they work with me. And I actually have a client, she's probably listening, and I said to her the other day, make sure that you don't do this. And I'll read out the note that I have, and then I'll explain the example that I said to this client. So the note that I have says, Where have you? I've written seeked. I don't think seeked is a word. I think it's sort, but I've written, where have you seeked help and support, but then reverted back to your old ways? And I think there's a few ways that this could play out, but the one that came up with this client the other day is this particular client came to me with a big training volume, big training load. She's an experienced, flexible dieter, she's been planning her days for ages. Like she knows all the basics, really solid understanding of nutrition and everything. When she came to me, she was on a decent amount, but I said to her, I definitely think we could be eating a bit more, and I think we should be eating a bit more for the goals that you have. So we felt like she was kind of hanging in at her low end of maintenance. So she wasn't crazily undereating, but massive training volume. And I just said to her, I think there's so much room to crank this up. And I think you're gonna feel the benefits of that with your performance and the goals that you have, the events you want to do this year, everything like that. It is just time to bring your nutrition up a bit to match this training and to fuel it as best we can. And this is what I said to this client. I said, right now things are good enough for you, just, but they could be great. And remember, like you've come to me for help. So you've been doing, quote, good enough for ages, and you want to do great. That's why you're here. So this is where the difference is for this particular client. It's like, what's gonna be great for you is to start fueling this training, not just getting by on the bare minimum. So we navigated that for a few weeks and she had some little ups and downs, and that's fine. That's the point of coaching. And then I said to her, even though you know exactly what you're doing with nutrition and you can absolutely plan your own days really well, I want to plan a day for you and I want to take all the foods that you're currently eating and your usual times and habits and all those things, and I'm just gonna write the meal plan based off of that, but then with some little tweaks that I think are gonna help you increase that intake and just start to intercept some of the little habits that you've got that we think are holding you back. So I wrote her this meal plan and then I sent her a voice message and I said, I've written the meal plan, like here it is. More than happy for you to tweak this a little bit just with, you know, like flavors or brands or whatever. Like put your own spin on it, but and this is what comes back to the question where have you sought help and support, but then reverted back to your old ways. What I said to her was, yes, you can tweak this, but be mindful of tweaking it so much that you basically bring it back to the day that you've been doing for months. And I think this is a huge one for experienced and advanced girls to think about. Were you in a good enough position with your nutrition and training? I think nutrition especially, were you in a good enough position where things fairly good, not too bad, and then you've sought out someone like me or a different coach and you're like, okay, cool, yep, help me refine this, help me make it even better. I know there's a few little habits that I've got that aren't ideal. I want to step up, I want to make this even better. And even though you've made that decision to reach out to a coach and we've had those conversations and we've started to adjust plans, when it comes to actually carrying out your plan every day, you continue to carry out the shit that you were doing that led you to hiring a coach in the first place because you wanted to change it. Are you someone who's in a position with your nutrition where things are pretty good, but you know little things could be better? So you reached out to a coach to help you make those things better. The coach has helped set up a plan to do that. Yet when it comes to actually carrying out that plan every day, you go back to your old ways. And a few examples of this, I think there's already going to be people that are like, yeah, shit, I've done that. Big examples we see of this are the protein. We've spoken about that over the last few months on the podcast. Very common for experienced and advanced girls to be consuming really high amounts of protein that they don't need to be consuming. And then we go, hey, we want to bring this back, we want to bring in some extra carbs. Here's how I would do that: I would remove this food from your day. Remove protein bars. Side note, right now, if you are consuming more protein than you need to, stop adding protein bars to your day. Stop adding protein bars to your day if you're eating enough protein without them. Because this is such a common one that I see where, like I said, they come to me and we go, mate, too much protein, let's bring it down. Let's up the carbs to fuel all the training that you're doing. And they're like, Yeah, yeah, yeah, like good point, Rubes. I know, I know. And then when they go off and they start actually carrying out their days and eating their foods, we slowly look at it over time and we're like, mate, you're doing what you were doing all along. You haven't made those changes that you came to me and asked, Hey, Rubes, what should I change? And we can see it with meal timings, we can see it with people who are maybe not as experienced or advanced, and they come and they go, like, oh, I've heard you talking about pre-training nutrition on the podcast. Like, I know I need to eat before the gym, like I know you've been getting in my head about it, like I know I need to be doing it. So, yep, help me write my plan, help me organize my shit so that I can actually start doing it. So we do that and we write the plans and we organize your shit so that you can actually start doing that. And then again, when it comes to literally carrying out your days and eating foods, we look at them over a few weeks and we're like, mate, you haven't been doing it. You reached out to a coach to help you with something, but then you slowly just trickle back to your old ways. And the meal plan example is such a perfect one because I reckon a lot of people can relate to this where you ask someone for a meal plan and you get it and you're like, oh yeah, that's cool, that's awesome. But like, usually I have this for dinner and usually I have this for breakfast and usually I do this. Okay, cool. So you just want to go back to what you usually do. Why the hell did you ask for a meal plan if you want to eat the foods you're already eating? And I just want to say on that note, guys, like I don't give all my clients meal plans. If we think people need them or want them or whatever, if we think they're warranted at times, we give them. If people are planning their own days and that's working well, we can work with that. If people are planning their own days and there's things they need to work on, we can just look at those days and go, exactly like I said before, mate, let's piss off the protein bar, let's bring in some more carbs before training. Any or all of these things, like there's so many ways we can navigate it. But the big underlying thing I wanted to look at here is where have you reached out to someone for help and support on something that you wanted to change or you think needs changing or something you just wanted to elevate? Because come back to what I was saying before. These people are in a good place with their nutrition. But if you reach out to a coach, usually it's because you want to get to a great place. If you go back to doing the same shit you've been doing all along that just had you hanging in that quote, good enough place, you're not really gonna get much out of your coaching and you're never really gonna transcend that shit and elevate in the way you want to elevate. So that's gonna look really different from person to person, but I think just a cool question to ask yourself: where have I asked for help, asked for support, asked for resources? Literally said, like, Rubes, how would you do this? How should I change this? What should this look like? Gotten that help, support, resources, etc., and then been like, oh yeah, that's cool. And then when it actually comes to carrying out your days, you do just revert back to your old ways. And I think it literally plays out like if we use that meal plan example, you get the meal plan, you go off and put it into something like my fitness pal, and then you're like, oh yeah, I'll just change out that dinner to my normal dinner. Oh yeah, I'll just change out my breakfast to my normal breakfast, etc. And then, like I said before, well, now you've just completely come back to the days you've been doing all along. The meal plan's been boycotted. And the last thing I'm gonna say, I've actually seen this with training as well. This is just like jumping into my mind. I've seen this with training where people come to me and they go, Oh, I've reached out to get a personalized program because I've been doing the same shit for a while. I'm a little bit stagnant, I'm a little bit bored, shit's getting a little bit dull with my training. Can you write me a new program? Absolutely. Yes, I can. This is what I do. Write the person a program, go in and look at their first few completed sessions, and they've substituted exercises for all the old shit they were doing. Literally, exactly like the meal plan. Okay, so just confirming, you came to us for progression, for elevation, to update it, to step up, and you've gone and tweaked the whole thing right back to what you were doing all along. So this is a huge one, and like I said, I think it's especially huge for the experienced and the advanced girls because it's almost like, you know, there could be an element of like, no, I know this stuff, I don't have to do it the way Ruby said. That's fine, you don't have to do it the way Ruby said, but ask yourself why you reached out for help in the first place to me or to whatever coach you're working with. And then also really just ask, yeah, okay, cool, maybe the way I have been doing it is quote good enough, but am I happy settling for good enough? Usually people in this position reached out to a coach because they want to go from good enough to great. They do want to elevate, they do want to progress with things. So are you letting yourself revert back to something that you had decided was good enough, even though you don't want to stay there, you want to move forward past that point. Just a cool one to think about as we come into the winter and the rest of 2026, it's gonna fly by, so we don't want to hang around entertaining the same shit we've been entertaining for weeks or months or years, if that isn't getting us the progress and the results that we want. So if we go through that little checklist, the first one was what more could you be doing? As in, what more could you be doing? Where are you blaming other things? So, where are you blaming other things that yes, they might have some truth to them, they might actually be a reality, they might be a factor, but then what more could you be doing alongside those things? Where are you chilling? Are you chilling with nutrition? Are you chilling with training? Are you chilling in the gym? Are you just ticking boxes and getting it done? Even though you would love to get better results or get the results of someone who's not just getting it done, they're absolutely getting after it. Are you stopping exercises or capping your weight, capping your reps, or anything like that just because things are uncomfortable? Are you stopping thinking I can't do any more? Or is it more so that you just don't want to do any more? And then where have you sought help and support, but then continue to revert back to your old ways? So that is our audit. That is our checklist. Have fun working through that one. That is all from me today. I will be back next week with two episodes, two QA episodes. So we put the QA box up on my Instagram story and we got a bunch of questions about training and then a bunch of questions about nutrition, so we split that into two episodes. They're both gonna drop next week. So make sure you have liked, subscribed, followed, whatever it is that you have to do wherever you listen. Make sure you give the podcast a rating. Guys, if you listen on Spotify, the amount of plays we get on Spotify compared to the amount of ratings we have. I've said it before and I'm gonna say it again. The math ain't math. And if you listen to this podcast all the time, all the time. If you listen to this podcast all the time and you haven't made the effort of going to that little five-star thing and hitting it once, that's all you have to do on Spotify. You literally hit the five star, submit that end. It is probably a two-second job. If I've given you hours on hours on hours of free help, give me two seconds back. Go to Spotify, hit that five star, please. Same on Apple, if you listen on Apple, but the Spotify, the ratio of Spotify plays to ratings, devastating, guys. Don't do it to me. That is all from me today. I will be back next week. Thank you so much.