Inside The Mill Episode 31

The Vital Ingredient To Build Strong Discipline

In this episode, Seth Humphrey and Coach Christian discuss the importance of having a structured plan for achieving fitness and life goals. They emphasize how plans create clarity, confidence, and momentum, and share practical tips for building sustainable routines.

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Transcript

Introduction to the importance of having a plan

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Inside the Mill. We talk real fitness, real results, and the stories to prove it. Welcome back to another episode Inside the Mill Podcast. Coach Christian here. My main man Seth. Today's podcast episode is Have a Plan for Glan to Fail. And the biggest problem with this is a lot of people are just winging it. They know they might not have clear go clear goals, but they know the direction that they want to go to, whether it be I want to drop 20 pounds, I want to feel better, I want to put on muscle. They have these goals, these targets, but they don't build and customize things around that. And then the sad part is they start to get frustrated, they start to beat themselves up and have a lot of self-doubt in their capabilities. And it's not their fault. It's just that they haven't created a plan that's going to set them up to even be able to achieve those things. And so if you don't have a plan, then you're relying on your emotions, you're relying on your motivation, you're relying on all these things. And man, as people, we're very inconsistent. Our emotions are inconsistent. Our schedule could be inconsistent. There's going to be roadblocks and things that happen. So if you don't have a clear plan of, hey, this is what I need to get done today, this is what I need to get done this week, and this is what I need to get done this month, then you're not going to have that plan in that direction that you're going to be able to go and actually have the data to look back and go, did I do what I needed to do today? Did I do what I needed to do this week? But if you don't have the data, then you can't blame yourself and look back and reflect on, hey, did I get done what I need to get done? It's like, no, you had your big goal, but you didn't have a bunch of little things that you need to do on a daily basis in order for you to reach that goal. And so now I know you're going to love this topic. This is how we live our life. We customize it around that. Our clients at the Vitality Meal. You know, every week we're having them set a fit four. And then that fit four, we're holding them to that. But we've got plans around how much steps our clients need to get. We've got plans around their nutrition. And so all these little things and these plans that we have, they know, okay, my next meal needs to be

How plans influence motivation and results

SPEAKER_00 1:56

this. My next meal needs to be this. I need to have this many steps by this time at night. I need to stop drinking by a certain amount of time. But we have it all the way down to the details. And that why that's the reason why they can look and go, hey, I got the results because of all these other things that I did and the plan that I had in order to get the results. So yeah, I'll let you let's kind of take it away from there.

SPEAKER_01 2:16

Yeah, no, I think uh I think the biggest issue is is people and their beliefs around themselves and their stories around themselves is I'm not disciplined. And the biggest thing I see when with individuals that come into the to the vitality mill is they've usually accomplished something pretty big in their life, meaning that like you've got doctors, you've got nurses, you've got moms, you've got dads, you've got people with master's degrees.

SPEAKER_00 2:44

I mean, they've done stuff.

SPEAKER_01 2:46

They've done all kinds of things to prove that they have discipline. But how'd they have that discipline? They had even individuals that are in the military or whatever it may be. How did they have, how were they able without discipline, how were they able to accomplish the things they accomplished? Well, they had a plan, they had structure, they had accountability, they had somebody that said, hey, this is what time we're going to do this, you got to be here at this time, or whatever it may be. And then they get into the every other area of their life and they don't have that plan and that structure. And so the story and the belief is I'm not disciplined. Well, if your story and your belief is I'm not disciplined, then your actions are going to dictate and reflect that exactly. And so then what's going to happen is you take actions like an undiscipled disciplined individual. And then what happens from there is you start to have results of an undisciplined individual. And so I think that's the big pit that most individuals and that we work with are in is we've got to shift their uh beliefs and their stories around uh who they are, and that it wasn't the it was

Beliefs about discipline and the role of structure

SPEAKER_01 3:53

it's not that they're not disciplined, it's that that that the plan that they had failed them or they didn't have a plan at all, and that's what failed them.

SPEAKER_00 4:00

Yeah, yeah. And I, you know, we see this with clients too that come in to work with us and they're like, I've tried it all. I've tried this diet, I've tried this style of working out, I've tried they've they've tried plans, but they've tried plans that might not necessarily be built around their life. And so, you know, a lot of I had a conversation with a guy last week that I kind of told you about, and this guy's 70, almost 80 years old, and he's like, Man, I think I'm gonna go do Orange Theory. And he's talking about these boot camps and this high intensity training. I'm like, man, if you go do that, you're gonna get injured. You're going to spike your cortisol. I mean, you're you're there's gonna be a lot of things that aren't gonna be working in your favor. And so you need somebody that's gonna set you aside, strategize a game plan around you with your nutrition, with how many times you're training per week, um, with all these other things. That way we can control your control your stressors, but also give you the right amount of stress that we need in some of these areas in order to help you build muscle and and speed up that metabolism and and help you age the way that you want to age. And so yeah, I think that it's some people, it's not that they don't have a plan, they're just following the wrong plan. And they have an outlook of, I'm gonna follow this plan for a specific amount of time. And once I get the results, I'm gonna be in that place of, okay, I'm good, I'm comfortable here. And then they stop. But man, there's always got to be something that we're working for because we've seen it with clients we have at the Vitality Mill where whether they come in on our 42 strong challenge, and within the 42 days, there's certain targets that we've set with them. And then once they get through the 42 days, you know, they've been pushing, they drop the weight, and then they kind of get into that place of, yeah, I dropped that 20 pounds that I said I wanted to, and then they they go away from those things that work when they needed to continue to work the plan and then also, you know, continue to lean on their coach to help build that game plan around them. And so there's always we've never made it. We've never made it to where and we're never gonna be satisfied. That's how humans are. Like, I know I've told

Examples of effective planning in fitness

SPEAKER_00 5:51

myself I'm gonna get to a certain body fat percentage, and I get to that body fat percentage, like for what? It's then there's another area that I need to work on. You've never got it all figured out, but that plan, man, that plan is key because it it creates clarity, it creates confidence, it creates momentum. It's all these other areas that it does for you, but it's it's gotta be a plan that is built and structured for you, not just this broad game plan that you're following off of TikTok or social media.

SPEAKER_01 6:16

Or that or they choose the hard way of doing it. They start to cut carbohydrates or they they do 75 hard and they get in a result, and then it's like, okay, I've got this result, and then now I've got to do this thing that's hard the rest of my life to maintain that result, or that I that I hate doing. And you've heard me say it a million times. If you hate doing it now, you're gonna hate doing it later. And so we have to find a uh a plan that's that fits you, that's simple. You know, and I sent you a video the other day. It's like so many people like stay in this fat loss phase of like they're always going to be in fat loss phase. And like that's the beautiful part of what we do is like once you get to a certain place where you're like, hey, I feel pretty good here. Now we can we can have even more calories and maintenance calories, or we can start to help build muscle and have more calories. Then it starts getting really fun as far as that stuff goes.

SPEAKER_00 7:07

So that side of it, a lot of people don't understand. They think that they look at somebody's journey and somebody maybe lost 100 pounds and they, or maybe even more than 100 pounds, and they look at them and they think, this person probably stays super disciplined, super structured, and they continue to lose weight every single week and just continue to go down. No, there's times in your fat loss phase, our metabolisms adapt. Our bodies are very good at adapting. So if we put you in 1,600 calories, your body adapts to that. 1600 calories, I really don't like to take our clients any less than that. So what do we have to do? We've got to raise our calories for a few weeks to a month. We're going into a maintenance phase, but the beautiful part about that is we're building muscle while we're in the maintenance phase. We're speeding

Adjusting plans for different age groups and lifestyles

SPEAKER_00 7:47

up our metabolism. So now we're starting to give ourselves more food. And so what we used to lose weight on 1,600 calories, we've now sped up your metabolism to where you're losing weight on 18, 19, 2000 calories. And so that's what, but people don't know that. And so they think that, oh, I can just continue to, I'm gonna continue to be in this place of not being able to have a whole lot of food. Like, no, like you said, it gets fun. Once you start to get to that place, okay, let's start to speed our metabolism up. Let's have some other focuses, and then we can go back into that and start to drop more weight and more body fat. I mean to cut you off there, but a lot of people think that they can just stay in a deficit their entire life. You can't do that. Our body at our metabolism adapts to it.

SPEAKER_01 8:26

Yeah, no, and that's why you have to have a plan. You have to have somebody who is Yeah. It's like, it's like right now, it's like that's with, you know, Austin lays out a plan for me. And it's just like all I've got to do is I've got to take action on what he's laid out. And it's it's it's fun because I'm like, okay, what are my workouts gonna be? What is my nutrition gonna change up to? And it's it keeps my it keeps my mind happy because I continue to see progress that almost, you know, this month I'll be 45 years old. So it's just one of those things where you you've got to find a way that you you love to do something that that is going to last and is going to be sustainable long term, or you're gonna go back to your, you're gonna hit your result and then you're gonna go right back to your own. And that's what most people do is they they start and they do really, really well and then they stop. And then that's the other side of it too, is they're so focused on being in that like calorie deficit or whatever it may be that they slip up one day. And I've been that guy that's like, I got a flat tire, I've slipped up one day, I got a flat tire. Well, let's just go slash all these other three tires though. So let's just get all four of them and slash all four of them. It's like, well, no, and that's the that's the crazy thing too, is you can have a meal and just bounce right back, and like, and then like it won't it won't impact you. It probably even with some people, it it it even help them as far as that stuff goes.

SPEAKER_00 9:42

If you've been at a deficit for an extended period of time, yeah, showing your body like, hey, exactly, showing your body, hey, okay, I'm I'm not starving. Like, they just fed me some food. But if that's it, man, it's that guilt and that shame that keeps them stuck in that pit, and then one bad meal turns into 10 bad meals, and then they just they get off off track from there. But that just goes back to having a plan. If you've got a plan,

The danger of short-term focused plans and the importance of sustainability

SPEAKER_00 10:04

sometimes you know, we've even worked in meals with our clients to allow them, hey, go out with your wife this night. But as long as you get back on track, you can work that in and not worry about it. Don't stress about what you're ordering. But obviously, if you make that a regular thing, then you know your results are gonna start to show. Okay, you're probably eating in a calorie surplus. But it's if you've got a plan and you're working that plan, it's you know, the results are gonna follow. But it's it's there's gotta be a clear game plan of, you know, where are my meals coming from, what time am I gonna do this? Just simple things too. Simple things that you're setting on a daily basis, a weekly basis that are going to get you the results that you're after. But yeah, man, a plan is key. I I jotted down a few things here. I kind of want to give some clients an idea of you know, some targets that they could maybe take away and set from themselves. On and this is some things that I've I've kind of set for our clients that allow them to have clear targets that they want to achieve throughout the week. But one a couple of things here around movement. Just schedule three workouts for the week so you know, hey, this week I'm working out this day around this time. That way it's not, yeah, I'm gonna hit my three workouts this week. But if you haven't thought about what days, what times you're gonna do that, man, our schedule changes are sometimes we get off work, we're tired. But if you've told yourself you're gonna do something, you put it on the calendar, more than likely you're gonna show up and do it. So scheduling your three workouts for the week. Set a daily step goal. Man, this is this is huge for me and huge for a lot of our clients. But I know every single day I have to get this many steps. Uh how many steps you gotta get? I just get minimum 10, 10,000, like every single day.

SPEAKER_01 11:34

How many steps you got right now?

SPEAKER_00 11:36

9,000. But that's minimum. Like every day I have to at least hit 10. Yeah, I was gonna say, like, if you're on that, you're on the floor, like you can get 10,000 steps. Yeah, that was just in the morning session. I'll get 20 today. But and then having some structure running your nutrition. So for some of our clients that have been working with us for a little while, they're they have a protein goal. So, hey,

Practical targets: workouts, steps, and nutrition

SPEAKER_00 11:55

every day I've got to hit this much protein. Plan your meals before the day starts. So this is key. And it's a separator for a lot of people. If if you go into your day not knowing what you're gonna have for lunch, not knowing what you're gonna have for dinner, a lot of times you've got to let your emotions decide what you're gonna have. So with our clients, we try to you know get them on, hey, what protein are you gonna prep for this week? What carb sources are you gonna prep? And then the night before, you're gonna have those meals planned that way that you know, hey, I'm having this. So you're not letting your emotions and everything else dictate the actions that you take there. So some rules around nutrition. Keep healthy snacks available. So whether it be cottage cheese, beef jerky, stuff that is high in protein that's quick for you to have. That way, if hey, maybe you don't have time to eat something up at work or you don't have access to a fridge or something like that, you can have some quick snacks that you can have planned there. Recovery, setting a bedtime. Man, this is this is so much more important than a lot of people realize is knowing, hey, at this time I'm gonna go to bed and start to wind down and I'm gonna put my phone up and not scroll. But a lot of people, they don't realize how much that bad sleep is impacting their results. But sleep alone can keep you from getting injured. Sleep alone can keep your stress down. That way you can your body can start to drop some body fat. A lot of it that people are just holding, you know, a lot of stomach fat because they have cortisol through the roof because they're getting terrible sleep, and it's just another stressor on their body.

SPEAKER_01 13:15

Yeah, sleep is a sleep's a prerequisite. Yeah, sleep's a prerequisite for elite results. Impacts how you show up. Everything, how you do everything.

SPEAKER_00 13:23

Yeah, no doubt about it. And then scheduling in recovery days for our clients, it works out good because you know, Monday through Friday we're open, and Saturday, Sunday, we we already have the recovery days set in for them there. Accountability, we do this with all of our clients. Every week we ask for three wins. So we're tracking our wins. We check in weekly with our clients. And this is if you're a Vitavi Mail client right now, and I talked to Seth about this, I want to shoot a video just about the app alone. We've got so many clients that want results, but they're not tracking any data in the app. I'm reaching out to them on the app and

The role of sleep and recovery in progress

SPEAKER_00 13:53

I don't, it's crickets, I don't hear anything. And you know, if I was training you guys one-on-one, we could always have conversations in the gym, that'd be awesome. We wouldn't really need the app. But with, you know, not being able to have those times set aside where I have 15, 20 minutes, maybe hop on a call with somebody or have a conversation with them. If we're checking in on the app regularly, then we're gonna be doing the things that we need to do. But if you're not utilizing the app, if you're not tracking the things on there, but you're wanting results, you're you're cheating yourself in a lot of areas there. Yeah, that way that we're able to measure our progress. So real life examples of people that aren't getting good results, that don't have a plan, it's somebody that skips breakfast, somebody that grabs fast food on the go, somebody that's missing their workouts, and then because of that, they're feeling guilty and then promising, okay, I'm just gonna restart and start Monday. But it's always pushing it back on when you're gonna take action. And then a good example of with a plan is you've already packed your breakfast the night before, your workouts scheduled for whatever the time may be that day. You've got a water goal set. I need to get this much water. I'm gonna plan an evening walk right after I eat dinner. And with that, you know, you're creating momentum in your life and you're gonna end the day feeling uh feeling very accomplished. So those are just kind of some easy examples and some ways that we help our clients set some targets around their lifestyle. Do you got anything you want to add to that?

SPEAKER_01 15:06

No, your mind is the happiest when it's making progress, but if you're not tracking any progress and you can't see if that you're actually winning, that you're moving forward, then all that's gonna happen is that I we will lean on our beliefs and our stories instead and our feelings. I had a guy that was in my DMs the other day and he his his girlfriend had left him for another guy, or another guy. Yeah, another guy. Girlfriend had left him for another guy. He he just got diagnosed with LMS. He was studying for a certification that he needs to take. And at the same time, he's still becoming and still being a parent, still showing up for his kids. And he's I'm I'm talking to him, and so I I see his stuff, and he's like, I feel like I'm drowning. And I'm like, what if we just looked at it a little bit differently? And we we removed your feelings from it and we look at the facts. You your girlfriend left you, okay? You have the LMS newly diagnosed, you keep on showing up for your kids, and you keep on showing up and doing the certifications you need to excel in your career. What if you changed your story of I'm I feel like I'm drowning to like, regardless of my mood and feelings and emotions and the problems and the

Tracking progress and accountability

SPEAKER_01 16:13

struggles, I'm continue to show up, be a parent, continue to do the things I need to do, regardless of what's thrown at. Which one's way more powerful? Well, the second option is way more powerful. And that's what we do on a daily basis as humans is we we base it and like you said a while ago, is we lean on our feelings instead of leaning on the facts first. The plan gives you the facts. And then now you start to see that you're putting the plan in play. Then you can start to lean on your feelings and go like, oh, this is how I feel. I feel empowered, I feel like energetic, I feel momentum and I'm happy because I see the progress. But if you're leaning on your feelings first, then you're going to uh you're gonna lose majority of the time. Like you said, you're you can feel like a million bucks one minute, and then the next day you can feel like you're the biggest loser in the world and nothing's working for you.

SPEAKER_00 17:01

So yeah. You know, people probably look at look at us and like, well, it's easy for y'all to say y'all are the most disciplined people that we know, you guys. But man, like me and you just had the conversation, we had to reset because you know, I'm I do a lot of our social media and planning our videos and things like that, and like I would get a little bit of momentum. And then it's been a few, you know, a few weeks since we've really had many posts on the Vitality Mill. So you're like, you you put it to me like this in a way that I really understood it. You're like, man, you are gonna hit your workout every day. You know what you're gonna do the night before for your workout, you know about how long it's gonna take, you know how to plan it around in your day. You're like, man, if you attack the social media side of it or anything with having a plan and knowing what's gonna what you're gonna do the next day, like you're gonna get it done. And like, so now Monday, Tuesday, I've scheduled posts. I've done them the day before and then they've been scheduled, posted in the morning. And so that's you know, just because people look at us and think, are you the most disciplined? No, we just have structure, we have plans, and once we have those, we're just able to work the system. And once you work the system, you might look at it and go, well, man, planning all that out, like thinking about what I'm gonna have the next day and going

Overcoming setbacks and emotional challenges

SPEAKER_00 18:05

to bed at a certain time, you start to think about all these things and think that that's that's probably gonna take time away from me. But what you realize is once you start to do it, you build a skill set and then it starts to give you time back and you start to get the fruit for your labor. And then you you get into a place of, I don't know how I would live without having a structure. So the structure that I have in my workhouse, like Seth, you know, gave me that clarity to use it with social media and other things within the business. And now it's like, man, I can apply this to literally anything in my life that I want to get results in, and now I'm in control because there's so many things in life we are not in control of. And that's why I like your story this morning. You said, I've done this, this, and this in the morning. Now I'm weaponized because something's probably gonna happen. I'm gonna walk in the door at the Vitality Mill, AC could be out. There could be a client that wants their money back. There could be all kinds of things that happen, but I've done the things that I need to do to be able to show up on another level. And so with that, I'll be weaponized and ready to attack that. But when we're not showing up weaponized, we're not ready to attack it, something happens and it throws us off, and then the rest of our day is ruined because we didn't do what we needed to do to take care of us and our emotions just take over. And when we let our emotions dictate our actions, it's it's bad 99.9% of the time.

SPEAKER_01 19:12

And understand that that that's being the people will say, like, well, if I'm putting myself first, that's selfish. No, it's selfless because I know that I show up differently. If I do all the things I need to do, and Christian needs something from me, or clients need something from me, or whatever may happen, that now I'm I'm taken care of. I'm ready to, I'm ready to roll. And uh, and there's not anything that's gonna be able to throw me off of off course because I've put my focus on what needs to be done to to to show up and do what needs to be done across the board. So it doesn't have to be doesn't have to be hard, but it needs to be, it needs to be simple and you need to have structure. And just like Christian was talking about with me just pointing in a direction, I'm like, bro, if this says that you gotta run six miles, there's not a question whether you're gonna go run six miles

The power of structure in all areas of life

SPEAKER_01 19:59

with the same intensity. He's got accountability from me. I got accountability from him and uh and other clients because I don't want them to, I don't want to any, I don't want to be passed up. You know what I mean? So like if I'm not following through and I'm not doing what I said I was gonna do, then like nobody needs me around. I'm I'm it could easily go like I can do this on my own and and and go off on their own.

SPEAKER_00 20:20

So yeah, so maybe somebody listened to this that still doesn't know where to go from here and that that needs some guidance and accountability, where can they, where can they find us, where can they reach out?

SPEAKER_01 20:27

I uh uh right now the rebuild uh it's the that's the program that's introductory that like if you want to take the rest apart this year and into next year and have a simplicity structure starting you like you're a beginner, like you've done nothing ever, and then taking you to where you know how to do full body strength training around your injuries, limitations, you know how to eat, you know how to and be able to build a skill set that you can have the rest of your life. That's what the total rebuild's all about. And we we give you another 12 weeks after you follow the plan for 12 weeks. We then gift you another 12 weeks because the way we look at it is that six months that we're getting you getting to work with you, we're front loading all of the skills, all the everything that you need is front loaded. And so when you look at it, it's like, okay, everything I need is in this six months. And then what the that having that carrot at the end of the stick is just like, oh, it's got to follow through, get my steps, turn in my three wins, here's my fit for for the week, communicate with us, weigh in, let us see that you're come in here three days a week and see us at least. And you do that, then what we do is we give you another 12 weeks for free, and that allows you to bid then complete the full six months, and then you're a raving fan, and then you're like Bill, who's down 90 pounds, you're like Dean, who just started three weeks ago. That reel

Final thoughts and call to action

SPEAKER_01 21:50

that you just did. Like I heard him yesterday, he's talking about his shoulder hurting him for, and the dude only signed up for 30 days because he wasn't sure if we were gonna be able to help him. He was his wife's worked out here forever. And then he comes in three weeks, he's had a sh bummed shoulder his whole life, I'm sure. And then now he comes in and he I just listened to him yesterday say to Christian, like, woke up this morning with no pain at all. So, uh, and it's not like Dean needs to drop weight. He's been a doctor, he's lean, he's taken care of himself uh physically, it looks like it's just worked out like three, four days a week on his own.

SPEAKER_00 22:22

He's been active, but he just didn't have the plan that was built around him. And that's we created that. We met him where he was, started from the foundation, and he's like, Man, I feel like I like I've been doing more on my own, but you guys gave me a plan that was really built around me, and I didn't feel like I was doing a whole lot, and now I'm pain-free and I feel great, but I know that you're gonna start to ramp it up from there. I'm like, dude, we have to build a foundation first before we can start to build. I'm not gonna give you a bunch of weight on your bum shoulder. We gotta attack the foundation first.

SPEAKER_01 22:50

Yeah. Started from the bottom, now we're here. Oh, so yeah, that's the that's the that's the key. The total rebuild. You can go to the vitalitymill.com. You can find our uh our podcast at vitalitymill.com, thevitality mill.com, but you can also find the total rebuild. If you're a man or a woman, you can click on the link, it'll direct you right to the total rebuild. And yeah, that's what we do. Uh, there's a reason why we've been doing it 20 years. Yeah, we're just waiting for the right people at the right time, the right place, and then and then magic happens. And so let us take our expertise and let us uh pour into you so that it can be a uh a strength for you. And that's all we're asking. So we're not gonna be a boot camp, we're not gonna be the cheapest, we're not gonna be thousands of people in here. There's not gonna be TV in the treadmill, but there's going to be results. And that's all our clients care about, and that's all we care about is getting you results. So if you're on the road all the time, then we still can get you results. And so you understand this before we let go. You have a story and a belief that is keeping you imprisoned where you are. And if you want something different, let go of the bars and question your stories, question your beliefs, and reach out to us and let us prove to you over 30 days, just like we did with Dean, that what we can do, and then you can make a long-term investment after that. And then we got birthday specials coming up. It's my birthday this month, and we always uh give back some on some discounts that way as well. So it's a perfect time for that. And uh, more than anything, like we know we have something that works, and that's why we do these podcasts and stuff, so we can we can reach those individuals that may be on the fence, jump the fence and come on over and uh let's let's do it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:30

So for another episode of Inside the Mill Podcast, Coach Christian, Seth, see you guys next week.