35. How To Stop Starting Over: Why Decision Fatigue Gets In The Way of Results

You don’t need a better workout plan. You need fewer choices.

If you’ve ever felt “inconsistent” with fitness or nutrition, there’s a good chance the real problem isn’t discipline, it’s decision fatigue. When your feed is full of new routines, new rules and new experts every day, it’s easy to start a healthy habit and then abandon it the moment you see something that looks “better.” That cycle of starting over doesn’t mean you’re broken; it often means you’re trying to build a sustainable routine inside an environment where information overload is endemic.

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- Alita <3 

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This podcast is intended for general educational purposes only. The content discussed does not replace professional medical, nutritional, or fitness advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Individual needs and responses vary, especially with exercise and nutrition. Always consult with a qualified healthcare provider before making significant lifestyle changes.

Transcript

Welcome And What We Stand For

SPEAKER_00 0:00

What's up? Welcome back to Vito with Alita. This is a podcast about evidence-based wellness for real life. I'm Alita and I'm here to talk about fitness, health, mindset, and building a strong and sustainable life. But doing so without extremes, guilt, or perfectionism. If you care about your health, but you also want a life that you can actually live, you're definitely in the right place. Now before we jump in, I just want to say thank you for being here. It genuinely means a lot that you choose to spend your time listening. And I don't take that lightly. If you've been enjoying the show, following the podcast really helps it grow and lets me know that you're enjoying what you're listening to. And it will actually help more people find these conversations, which means I can keep bringing you new episodes every single week. Alright, let's get into today's episode.

Why More Options Break Consistency

SPEAKER_00 1:19

I'm your host, Alita, and today's episode is one that I think may hopefully shift the way you approach your routine. Now you don't need another workout plan, you don't need another what I eat in a day, and you do not need more information. What you probably need here are fewer options. And we've talked a lot about the impact of having way too many choices and way too many options. And I want to now look at this in the context of like routine or leading a healthier lifestyle. I think we all maybe feel that sometimes we are inconsistent. Like we're we can't really stick to anything. We're always starting over, we're always going to start on Monday. But most of the time, that's not actually the problem. The real issue is that we are constantly surrounded by options, different workouts, different routines, different options, different advice. And every time you see something new, you start to question if what you're already doing is enough, if you need to change it, if it's working, if now you have more information, it's going to be better. And what does this really look like in real life? So let's kind of apply it here. You start a routine, then you see something new and you switch. You try eating a certain way, then you hear something else and you change it. You finally feel like you're getting into a rhythm, and then you interrupt it because you think there might be something better. So you end up in this cycle of starting, second guessing, switching, repeating, and starting, second guessing, switching, and repeating, starting, second guessing, switching, and just repeating the whole of the cycle. And the real issue here actually is decision fatigue. So your brain has a limited capacity for decision making. This is something that's known that we've actually discussed before. And the harder it becomes, or I should say, the more decisions that you have to make throughout the day, the harder it actually becomes to follow through on them, especially as you start nearing the end of the day. And that's that's the gist of what decision fatigue is. So when you're constantly deciding, okay, what workout am I gonna do? What am I going to eat? What routine am I gonna follow? What advice am I gonna listen to? Who am I gonna listen to? Who am I not gonna listen to? You drain that mental energy very quickly. So in some cases, it doesn't always mean you lack discipline. And I say in some cases, because very honestly, there are times you'd probably just lack discipline, maybe not you specifically, of course, just in general, people sometimes lack discipline. But it could also just be that you are drained mentally, you're just mentally overloaded with the amount of information that you are consuming about the best way to live your life. And this is where I want to introduce

Decision Fatigue And An Endemic Feed

SPEAKER_00 4:23

the word of the week here. Our word of the week is endemic, E-N-D-E-M-I-C. Endemic means something that is constantly present within a particular environment. And I think that that kind of describes the world we live in right now. We're constantly, constantly exposed to information. This pressure to like optimize everything and this feeling that there's always a better way, that there's always something we're missing out on, that there's always something more that we can do. This this is becomes this becomes endemic and it's everywhere. And it's built into how we even consume content. You know, those like short videos of like that that just burst or that just convey a bunch of information in like a few seconds, or the the ability to endlessly scroll and scroll and scroll, and the amount of people putting content out there, saying I'm saying this as somebody putting content out there. No, like not putting anybody down here, but I can understand the overload and where it's coming from. So of course it feels hard to stay consistent. You're not operating in a neutral environment, you're operating in one where distraction, where you have comparison, where there's all there are always new options. Like you can think of this in terms of everything. Like I'm talking here about wellness and fitness and routines, but you can even think about this in terms of dating. Like dating apps. If you feel like there's there are always options, you're never gonna be satisfied with what you have, or you might not even be consistent because you feel like, oh, well, there's something better out there. So that's sort of what we're trying to get at today. When it comes to establishing routines and being consistent, we need to think really of like a core shift here and ground ourselves. So the shift that I want us to make is first of all understanding that consistency does not actually come from doing more. Consistency doesn't come from doing more, if anything, it comes from doing less and it comes from having less to decide. It comes from having proper structures in place so that you're not making decisions based on how you're feeling in that moment. And having the specific structures in place is the biggest thing that you can do to be consistent. What does this look like? So let's look at some ways to really make this real and actionable.

Simple Defaults For Workouts And Meals

SPEAKER_00 7:00

Like, what am I talking about here? Like, this is abstract structures, whatever. All right, let's say we're talking about working out. Let's pick one workout style and just stay with it. Instead of constantly switching and adding, pick something you enjoy or that fits your life. And this is our starting point. I know I've talked about the benefits of cardio and the benefits of weightlifting and the benefits of this and that and this and that and this and that. But you're not gonna reap any of the benefits if you're doing it for one day, two days, a week, two weeks, and then you stop. So it's better if, let's say, here we pick one workout style and we just stick with it. Don't just switch constantly, commit to it for at least four to six weeks. It doesn't have to be forever. See if you even like it after four to six weeks. See if you're able to challenge yourself, see if you progress. But four to six weeks, if you are, you know, pushing yourself and training hard enough and whatever you've decided, you should see some sort of progress. Be realistic about the progress. You're not gonna completely transform your entire physique in six weeks. But for example, let's say you decide to do, I don't know, Stairmaster, you can increase the level by one or two, maybe three. It you don't feel as out of breath when you're doing it. Things like that. That's what we're looking for. All right. The second thing that you can do for yourself is to create default meals. You don't need to be thinking about food all day. So you should have a few go-to meals that you rotate, that you know how to make, what to make, that you like, that you enjoy eating. And that as soon as you get into your kitchen, you can just like get into autopilot to make that meal, or you have it already prepped, something. So this removes decision making and just standing in front of your fridge thinking, what am I gonna eat? Just have a default meal when you really don't know you can fall back on. All right, three, we can reduce how much content we consume. This is probably one of the biggest ones. If you're constantly watching fitness content, nutrition advice routines, you're always introducing new options, you're always introducing new opinions, and that keeps you stuck. Just try limiting it. Give yourself space to actually follow through on what you already know. Pick one or two good people that you trust that you've maybe followed for a while, that that resonate with you, you like their personality, you like, I don't know what. Pick one or two people, choose what works for you. Try to do as much as you can, your due diligence to ensure that they are credible. But then otherwise, again, you're just overloading. So stick to simplicity here. Less options the better. Then you can truly figure out what works for you, instead of just saying nothing ever works. Alright, next we're going to stop optimizing everything. Not everything needs to be perfect, and I'm saying this to myself, but I think we live in this era where we feel like everything can be better, has to be perfect. Somebody else can do it, why can't I? Curated feeds, all of those things. But not every workout needs to be the best one possible, or else it's a waste of time. Not every meal needs to be like completely hitting your macros or ideal, or I don't know what your goal you're setting for yourself. Not every meal needs to be like that 100%. It's just something that you can repeat consistently, and you have to kind of take into account the small wins here. So no need to optimize everything. Of course, it's nice when things are optimized. I love when I crush a workout and it was just everything was on point and the weight went up, and I made myself a bowl that was just like completely just chef's kiss. But it doesn't have to be like that all the time. All right, next, building a simple structure. Instead of a complicated routine here, we're sticking to the basics. The basics are what's going to give you progress, not the little fluff that gets you like to optimize everything. What I mean by this is like I think we focus a lot on the fluff. What's the one drink I'm gonna drink to reduce my blow? What's what's the the one thing I'm gonna do that I that might make all of the difference? When in reality, the things that are making the difference are the basics. Move your body regularly, eat balanced meals that work for you, get enough rest. That's that's it. It sounds basic, but that's literally the point. Now, another thing I would like to kind of add to this sort of structure idea, going back to trying to reduce decision fatigue as much as possible. You have to build systems that are going to ensure that you are doing everything you can to stack the deck in your favor. So, what do I mean by this? It's little things like laying out your workout clothes the day before if you choose to work out in the morning. It's actually making a decision the day before what time you're gonna work out the next day or that for the next week, whatever you know how you can schedule your life. Some people can work out at the same time every day, some people can't, but just making those decisions ahead of time. So when it comes to it, you're reducing the friction of, oh my god, I don't want to work out, but I already have the workout closed laid out. Like, let's just go. It means planning or having an idea what you might want to eat the next day. And I say it might have an idea because I know some folks maybe don't want to have every single thing listed out and planned. Like, it's not about rigidity in that way, it's just about you're doing the hard work intentionally at an earlier time point in your life, so that later, when you get to the point where you actually have to act, you're more likely to follow through because you're not depending on how you're feeling in the moment. The structure has been set in place for you. This also looks like, for example, packing your bag the day before with food, with what you're going to need for the day, with putting your clothes somewhere, putting your shoes at the door, whatever it is, so that when the moment comes, you're just ready to go. Alright, so little reframing here.

Systems Over Willpower And Self Blame

SPEAKER_00 13:42

You're not inconsistent, you're not lazy, you're not lacking discipline in some scenarios. Again, those things I just mentioned could be happening. But let's I'm talking here for the people who feel like they're trying everything and nothing's working. You're just trying to function in an environment where overwhelm is endemic. And once you understand that, you can stop blaming yourself and actually just simplify your approach. Once you simplify your approach, you are more likely to see progress. It's so much easier to measure. You know exactly what you're looking for. So you don't need more information, you do not need a better plan, you don't need to keep starting over, you just need to reduce your options and then give yourself the chance to be consistent. And again, consistency is going to come from sticking to the basics, doing something that fits your life, and just giving it time to see if it's actually working. So that's all for me today. I hope you took a little something away from this episode, and I'll see you all next week. Bye-bye. Thanks

Share The Episode And Connect

SPEAKER_00 14:58

for hanging out with me today. I really appreciate you being here. If something in the episode clicked for you, send it to a friend, or you can reach out to me directly using the link in the description. I genuinely love hearing from you. And if you want more evidence-based wellness, you can connect with me via my Instagram. Again, that link will be in the description below. Take care of yourself this week, and I'll talk to you soon. See you on the next one. Bye bye.