THI's Live Transformed Podcast

57.Rebuilding Your Health After Years of Neglect - Episode 2: Food, Habits, and Self-Trust — Healing Your Foundation

• Adam Kelley • Episode 57

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Ever felt like every “fresh start” ends the same way—two strong weeks, one bad weekend, and a quiet slide back to zero? We’ve been there. Today we unpack why all-or-nothing plans sabotage your progress and how to rebuild self-trust with a handful of simple anchors you can keep even when life gets messy.

We break down the core problem behind yo-yo dieting: it isn’t weakness, it’s broken trust. Restrictive rules create short-term wins and long-term shame. Instead, we walk through five practical anchors—prioritizing protein, drinking water first, choosing whole foods most of the time, moving more through the day with NEAT, and sleeping on a consistent schedule. Each one is designed to be low-friction, repeatable, and resilient to stress so you can stack wins and stop starting over. You’ll hear how habit science supports small, consistent actions, why satiety and blood sugar start with protein, and how micro-movements often outwork a single gym session.

Then we connect habits to identity. Every kept promise is proof that changes who you believe you are, shifting the script from “I never stick to it” to “this is just what I do.” We share a simple savings-account analogy for your health: make more deposits than withdrawals, let momentum compound, and watch your energy, mood, and confidence accrue interest over time. No perfection. No punishments. Just a clear path to a stronger foundation and the self-belief to keep going.

Ready to trade extremes for a plan that sticks? Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs a reset, and leave a review to help others find the show. When you’re ready for step-by-step coaching and accountability, visit TransformHealthCoach.com or message us to get started.

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References:

  • Lally, P., et al. (2010). How are habits formed: Modelling habit formation in the real world. European Journal of Social Psychology.


  • Leidy, H. J., et al. (2015). The role of protein in weight loss and maintenance. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.


  • Transformed Health Initiative client outcomes.

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SPEAKER_00:

Studies on habit formation show that small, consistent actions, not massive overhauls, are what lead to lasting behavior change.

SPEAKER_01:

Welcome to Live Transformed, the podcast from Transformed Health Initiative, where evidence-based truth meets real life transformation. Lead yourself, integrate health, value what matters, engage in the process. This is how you live transformed. And now here's your host, Adam Kelly.

SPEAKER_00:

What is up, my live transform family? Welcome back to the podcast for another great week, great episode that I'm so excited to share with you. We are episode two of our most recent series, which is rebuilding your health after years of neglect. The title of this episode is uh Food Habits and Self-Trust Healing Your Foundation. So I'm your host, Coach Adam Kelly, owner of Transform Health Initiative, and I'm so glad that you are spending this time investing this time investing in you. Because all that we do here at THI, here at the Live Transform Podcast, is to bring as much value as we can to the world around us so we all become better. Because the healthier we all, the better we feel, the better we think, the better we move, the better the whole world benefits. Okay, so this is a big deal for me, and I'm so glad to have you here. So in episode one, we talked about how to begin without without burnout, shame, or regret. Okay. So if you haven't heard that yet, I definitely recommend going back. This is not a series that you want to skip around on. Okay, go back to episode one and listen because it sets the foundation for everything we're going, we're doing in this series, okay. Like I said, I expressed it so much in that episode. Set a solid foundation and everything benefits. Okay, the build comes out so much better when the foundation is right, all right. So um let's see. Today we're gonna get kind of practical here, okay. This is more applicable. We're talking about food, habits, and something deeper, all right. Rebuilding self-trust, all right. Because after years of yo-yo dieting, quick fixes, or neglect, that's often the thing people have lost the most. That is self-trust, all right. So, this isn't just about calories and macros, it's about healing your foundation so you can finally move forward with confidence. So, first we're gonna talk about why diets break trust. Okay, why are we even in this position? So, let's start with the hard truth. Most diets don't fail because you're weak, all right? They fail because they break trust. And here's what I mean: so diets often demand extreme restriction: no carbs, no sugar, no fat, 1200 calories a day or less. That might work for a few weeks. You may get some cool results there, but eventually life happens. You cave, you fail, and the diet tells you it's your fault. All right, that pattern repeats enough times, and you stop trusting yourself. You start believing the story that I can't stick with anything, I'm broken, I can't do this, I can't make it work. This isn't for me. That's a lie, guys. Stop lying to yourself. After years of neglect, on top of that, eating for comfort, skipping workouts, losing touch with your body, and trust erodes even more. Okay, it's a perpetual negative cycle, all right. But here's the good news okay, there's always a silver lining, and that's what we focus on. Trust can be rebuilt, and the way you rebuild it isn't by swinging to another extreme. Okay, you can't overcorrect and expect something better to happen, it's by anchoring the simple, doable actions that prove to yourself I can show up. Okay, I can do this. Research also backs this up. Studies on habit formation show that small, consistent actions, not massive overhauls, are what lead to lasting behavior change. So, the first step in healing your foundation is letting go of the quick fixes and committing to small wins that restore self-trust. And that's exactly what we're learning about today. So, here are some simple anchors that actually work. All right, you can start this today. What does it look like in practice? Huh? What does all this look like in practice? Let's talk about anchors, the simple, repeatable actions that rebuild your foundation. Anchor number one prioritize protein. All right, aim for protein at every meal. Lean meats, fish, eggs, Greek yogurt, beans, protein shakes, even protein bars if you have to. Protein preserves muscle, stabilizes blood sugar, and keeps you fuller longer. And studies consistently show that higher protein diets support fat loss and long-term maintenance better than low protein approaches. I've never really seen anything that shows anything really good coming from low protein diets. I see tons of benefits coming from higher protein diets. Doesn't mean extreme consumption, just higher than you know, maybe what the RDA is or what's recommended. Anchor number two is drink water first. Okay. This is something I like to do, is start with a huge glass of water as soon as I get up before I have my coffee or anything else. So hydration impacts energy, hunger, digestion, and performance. So start your day with a glass of water. Have water with meals, keep it simple. Okay. You can have your diet drinks, you can have your you know artificially sweetened juices and stuff like that, your coffee, all that, but make water an anchor and it's going to make a difference. Anchor number three is whole food over processed food. Again, none of this is black and white, all or nothing. This is the majority, okay? You don't need perfection. So this is not for always, this is for what you do the most. Well, we know that what we do the most tends to matter the most. So just aim for more nutrient-dense foods. You don't have to overcomplicate this, all right? Fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, whole grains, nuts, seeds, things that we actually find in nature. Those are gonna typically be the most nutrient-dense foods. Now, there's a lot of foods um like dairy and other foods that are fortified, like breakfast cereals that are fortified. That means they add extra nutrients to them. That's health promoting. So good options as well within within a level of control, but aim for those minimally processed or less processed foods. These foods naturally help with portion control, energy, and overall health, okay? Because I've never seen someone be able to get fat off of chicken breast and broccoli. Now, I'm not saying eat that every meal, but people don't typically get fat off of that. You don't see people overweight saying, Oh, if I could just stop eating apples, I would finally lose weight. You don't see that. It's usually the processed foods. You get a lot fuller off of minimally processed foods than you do highly processed foods. That's one of the biggest problems with them. They're not evil, they're not toxic, they're not killing you, they're not independently making you fat, but they are super easy to eat, super easy to overconsume, very hard to portion control, very easy to overindulge in. And there's always a reason everywhere, everywhere you look that's promoting these ultra-processed foods. So anchor number four is daily movement. All right, so not just workouts, movement, not just going to the gym, but movement throughout the day, walk, stretching, standing up more than you're sitting. All these little things, guys, make a huge difference in your health. Non-exercise activity or neat, non-exercise, um, non-exercise activity thermogenesis. It contributes massively to calorie burn and overall health. A large portion of the calories we burn each day come from unintentional movement, things that we're not planning for. It's just part of our day, it's part of what we do. Those tend to make up the majority of our calorie burn each day because if you're up 16 hours and you work out an hour, that's 15 hours of your day where you could either be burning very little calories or adding in too many calories, or you could be reducing calories more by keeping your body moving. Look, I know what it feels like to be frustrated with your health, trust me. To feel like you're doing everything right, but nothing seems to be sticking. That's why our coaching isn't about perfection. It's about building a system that works even when life gets messy. At Transform Health Initiative, we help busy adults rebuild their health, rewire their habits, and redefine their identity without shame, without overwhelm, and without starting over every Monday. If you're tired of trying to do it all on your own, we're here when you're ready. All right, back to the episode. So, yeah, you have a good burst of an hour of cardio, but if you go and sit for the next 15 hours that you're awake, that's not really gonna do you any good. Move that body, move that body, make sure you don't hurt nobody for that other 15 hours of the day, and your results are gonna be much better and you're gonna feel a lot better as well, especially if you can get some of that outside by being outdoors, moving around, things like that. Anchor number five is sleep consistently, not just sleep, not just sleep for a long time, sleep consistently, okay? We've already covered sleep in the last series in our fat loss uh over 40 series. We went a whole episode basically talking about sleep and stress. So go check that out if you haven't. But it also belongs here too. Sleep belongs in every discussion when it comes to our health because sleep is the foundation for energy, appetite, and recovery. Super important, should never be thought as less than this whole idea of I'll sleep when I'm dead. Yeah, because you're gonna die a lot faster if you ain't sleeping. All right. So uh, how about we sleep while we live so we can live longer and feel better while we're living? I like that idea. If not you, to each his own. But I'm trying to live longer and feel better while I'm doing it, all right? So I'm gonna get my sleep in. So the goal isn't to master all of these aspects at one, all five anchors at once. That's not the goal, guys. Again, that's stacking too much. Start small. It's it's to pick one or two, you know, one or two of these items, commit to it for a period of time, an extended period of time, even if that's for a couple weeks, even if that's for a month or two, and let success, let success stack over time, compounding interest. Okay. Each small win is a brick in the foundation of success. All right. Let me repeat that. Each small win is a brick in the foundation of success. You can apply that to anything in your life business, relationships, um, your health, your hobbies, your sports, so many different things. Each small win is a brick in the foundation of success. Okay. The best people aren't the most skilled people, the most talented people, the best people are those that are the most consistent and refuse to ever quit. All right. Those are the winners. That's who we're gonna be. So, this next section, we're gonna talk about rebuilding self-trust through your habits, okay? This is how you build that self-trust. So we're gonna connect the dots here, okay? Food and habits aren't just about health markers, they're about rebuilding trust with yourself. So here's how this works, okay? Every time that you keep a promise to yourself, you're gonna drink more water or drink your water, you're gonna hit protein, take a walk. You reinforce the identity of someone who follows through. You prove to yourself that you are a doer, not just a hearer, not just a talker, but you do it. You walk it like you talk it, walk it. You know what I'm saying? You get what I'm putting down. All right. So that is what it's all about, guys. Keeping those promises to yourself. And every time you break a promise, you weaken that trust. And so when we set ourselves up for failure by promising things that we can't sustain, we just perpetuate that cycle of failure and that breaking of trust with ourselves. This is why we don't chase perfection, because we know perfection is a myth. Perfection creates a cycle of failure because it's not possible. But consistency, consistency builds trust, and consistency can look a lot different for different people in different circumstances. Okay, there's a there's a spectrum of consistency, whereas perfection is a single dot on the page. Consistency is a spectrum, okay, depending on where you're at in your life, that's gonna determine what that consistency looks like. So I want you to think about this, all right? If you've had a friend who consistently breaks their promises, you wouldn't trust them, right? If your spouse consistently broke their promises to them, you're gonna have a little problem, you're gonna be looking at them with a little side eye, like, mm-hmm, okay, we'll see. The same is true with yourself, though. All right, rebuilding self-trust means making smaller promises and actually keeping them. Okay, I don't care if it's a teeny, teeny, teeny tiny promise. If you keep it, it's going to help build you. So, one of the most powerful things I see with my clients is when the conversation shifts from I don't know if I can do this to this is just who I am now. Like they fully engulf themselves in this new identity that they've created. And that shift doesn't come from massive results overnight. All right, this is a process, it comes from small repeatable actions that compound upon each other over time, okay. Getting better each and every day, day in and day out, constantly checking those boxes, doing our best, and whatever that best may look like in the moment, doing that over time, okay. Repeatable actions. So reframe the reframe is this all right? Food and habits aren't punishments, right? They are not punishments. Stop starving yourself because you overate. Doesn't work. Stop cutting out all of your favorite things because you had a, you know, a um frivolous weekend or a um, you know, non-limited weekend of eating. Don't do that, guys. You know that doesn't work. That's a punishment. So, food and habits, they're trust-building tools. They're there to refine you and define you and make you better. So every small action is a deposit into the account of your future self. This is something I talk about a lot about seeing your health as a bank account or a savings account would probably be a better idea. Think of it as a savings account. So the point of a savings account is you're saving up for something later on or a just-in-case situation, an emergency fund, but you're saving that. You're not using it, you're saving it. So if you think of your health as a savings account, everything that you do that's health promoting, that that makes you better, that makes you feel better, that gets you closer to your goals, this is a deposit into your savings account. You're depositing that to benefit from that in the future, or the future could be tomorrow, it could be next year and 10 years from now. Every time that you do something that goes against your health, that demotes your health, that promotes unhealthy habits, that is taking a withdrawal out of the account, a poor night's sleep, eating like a dump truck, not getting in protein, skipping workouts, skipping your daily movement, you know, not working on your stress, being engulfed in stress that you don't have to carry. These things are withdrawals out of your account. And we know how accounts work, or at least I hope you know how accounts work. If you make more withdrawals than deposits, you're going to go broke. You're going to be bankrupt. Okay. We need to be making more deposits than we are withdrawals. Now, obviously, that's interchangeable. Sometimes we're making deposits, sometimes we're making withdrawals. Maybe we're doing both at once, but overall, over time, we want our deposits to outweigh our withdrawals. And once that happens, we see that account stack up over time. And guess what? With savings account, we also accrue interest for the longer that your money's there. So the more money that you're stacking, the more healthy habits that you're instilling and walking out each and every day, you're actually getting more benefit and more benefit over time because of that interest is accumulating over time. Okay. Perfect analogy for our health work. So think of your health as a savings account. What withdrawals have you made today? And what deposits have you made today? And if you focus each and every day, no matter what's happening in life, that you're going to make at least one more deposit than you are withdrawal. For whatever reason you're making withdrawals, maybe it's out of your control, but what can you control? Can you make another deposit, even if it's a few pennies? That is going to benefit you in the long run every time. All right. So here is your takeaway. Here's your practical application here from this episode. All right. If you've neglected your health, do not start by punishing yourself with extremes. Okay. Start by healing your foundation. Start with the foundation. Again, the most, the most, um, one of the most important parts of a building, or as the scriptures call it, the cornerstone. Back when they used to build buildings back in those times, the cornerstone was the most important rock in the formation because everything would be built around and on and off of that cornerstone. So, you know, just think of it that way. This is your cornerstone, this is your foundation. And you want to make sure that you're that you're healing that foundation. So everything you build upon that is going to stand the test of time and not crumble at the first wind or first flood or first thing that hits up against your house. And because your foundation is cracked, everything comes tumbling down. We're not doing that anymore. All right. So anchor to simple nutrition practices: protein, water, whole foods, let that be your anchor of your nutrition. Okay. Anchor to simple lifestyle habits like daily movement, exercise, cardio, strength training, sleep, being consistent with those things. And then use those anchors to rebuild self-trust. One small promise at a time, okay? Take your time because you are worth every bit of it. You already let years pass, okay, of destruction. Why not spend the rest of your years making yourself better to the best of your abilities? Because once you trust yourself again, once you've done this, everything changes. You'll follow through, you'll feel momentum, you'll prove to yourself that you can live transformed because everybody can live transformed. No matter what that looks like, everybody can do this. Okay. I totally believe in you. If nobody else has told you today, you are capable, you are worth it, you are unique, you are one of a kind, and you are made for greatness. Okay. That is the truth. And if you are ready for a step-by-step process that not only restores your health, but also rebuilds your confidence and identity, that's what we do every day at Transform Health Initiatives. So when you're ready, we will help you take the next steps. Just reach out, go to our website, Transform Health Coach.com, message us on social media, message me directly, whatever. Get my phone number from somebody and let's chat about how we can help you accomplish this. So until then or until next time, do something good for yourself, something good for your health, something good for those you care about. And whatever you do, make sure you win on purpose. Talk at you next time.