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Welcome to another episode of the 1% Better Podcast with your host, Josh Williams, here today. As some people might say, you're Fitness Sherpa. Episode 2, let's get it kickin'. So today I wanted to talk about a subject that is not really that well talked about when it comes to the fitness journey. So when you're looking at the fitness journey, of course there's the start, there's a finish, which... Not to be bleak, I would probably say that's more like end of life. But in the journey of fitness, a lot

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of times we think of we start, we hit our goal, we feel great. Cool. What happens after that? You know, in the hero's journey,

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you know, a lot of times the movies that we watch, when the ending that is just so nice and wrapped up feels really nice versus the ones that are, Maybe wrapped up a little bit, but leave you hanging for more could be annoying, especially in this world that has so many sequels that just don't need to be made. But in our life after, things keep going. And so in the fitness journey, the phase that is often not talked about enough is what happens when you hit your goal? What happens when the pain that motivated you to get started now goes away? in that thing and so we know that when we start our journey we often will start off at a peak motivation or we'll start at peak discomfort and what that might mean is you know maybe we have less energy maybe we don't feel comfortable uh you know in our clothes maybe we do actually have some aches and pains we're not on as mobile and we want to fix these things and so when we start on our fitness journey we we sign up for that membership we get the coaching We start seeing the results. We start feeling better. That discomfort starts going away. The motivation might go away. And this all kind of came up the other day with me and my own fitness journey. And, you know, I was talking with one of my coaches. Like, hey, how's your running going? You know, I was like, it's going pretty good. You know, I'm in a good spot right now. And, you know, when I started out, it was really hard running. It still is hard. I don't love it. But I'm at a point where it's not bad. It's at a point where I'm confident enough that I'm like, yeah, I don't have to do it as frequently. And I can probably keep going. And we all hit this in different ways as well. It could be with our weight loss journey. Maybe we hit the goal weight that we wanted to hit. Or we're fitting into the clothes now. And we kind of forget that feeling that drove us to where we're today. And we take our foot off the gas. And we start... You know, I don't have to work out as much or I don't need to be as active. And we might not do this consciously, but because that pain that got us going is no longer front and present, we take our foot off the gas pedal of our fitness journey. And this is just something we want to watch out for because what happens is, you know, you might feel good and then you recognize it. I feel better than I did six months ago or a year ago. I have more energy. I have more stamina. I have more strength. But because you have those things, you no longer feel the discomfort of that. And so it's easy to be like, well, I don't need to. I can get this time back or I don't need to watch as much as what I eat anymore and I'll be fine. Or I might slide back a little bit. And what I encourage people is during this phase is, yes, it's good to remember how you once were, how you came, but then also appreciate your new baseline, your new normal. And the actions that you are currently taking are what allow you to be at that new normal. And that's where we have to watch out and say, hey, I don't have to go pedal to the metal. I don't have to go full sprint right now. But I do need to keep progressing forward. What does that look like? Well, maybe you were working out, you know, four or five days a week. And now maybe you just need to work out two days a week. But I'm not going to go from five to zero. I'm going to maintain that too. You know, maybe I had to, you know, food log every single day to get to the results that I wanted. And maybe now it's, I need to, I feel like I can go off that. And maybe you can. But, Now it's just doing periodic audits instead. So the step down might be, hey, I'm going to do a food log three times a week instead of seven days. A week, and then I'll monitor that. Again, we can't necessarily take fully our foot off the pedal because a lot of times we get confident in that we will just keep doing these things. And at the end of the day, the outcome comes from the inputs, what we do, the actions that we take. And sometimes the tracking, helps produce that motivation to continue on. And so that's what a lot of today is, is just that spot where you feel good, you feel like you don't need to do what you were doing before, that you can move on. And unfortunately with fitness, fitness is a lifestyle. It's something that continues on and on. It's something we have to continue at some level. Again, it doesn't have to be peak effort, but it needs to be at a level that allows us to at least stay at where we're at without the risk of backsliding. So for most people, especially when it comes to strength and more energy, that is consistently working out two days a week is going to do a good job maintaining a good level of what you call functional strength. What do I mean by that? Strength that you're going to need to do things day to day. Get up and down, move, carry things, play with the grandkids, do yard work. Two days a week of strength training is going to maintain that, if not gain that, for a majority of people.

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And

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it's just a constant reminder of I feel good now, but if I take my foot off the gas, I can get back a couple hours of my life maybe. But again, it'll pick my head up six months later, and now I've slid far back, and then it's getting that motivation to do it again. So all that to say, don't take your foot off the pedal. Keep going. Keep pushing. But recognize, yes, you don't need to go as hard as you once did. So again, the plan of action for this is if you're feeling like you're in a good spot, feeling really good on your journey, don't stop. Maybe cut down a day or two, but don't stop. Keep going. Find something new to keep you going. Maybe that's a new hobby. Maybe that's getting a dog, going out for walks, joining a different club. But keep going, keep moving, keep after the fitness journey. I encourage you, I implore you. We don't want to have this up and down where I'm good, I stop, I slide back, I get to the point where I'm like, oh, I need to take care of my body again, and then go back up. Let's go at a place where we go, we find that sweet spot where we feel good, maintain it until maybe we're ready to chase another goal again, or not. That's all I got for today. Hope you enjoyed the show. If you think that this is something that might help someone else, please share it as well as also if you're needing help on your fitness journey, then please reach out to us. We would love to sit down, talk with you and get you started on your fitness journey. And if you're one of our lovely Sperling members and you're kind of in a sticking spot, again, that's what we're here for as well. Reach out to one of our coaches. We'll set up a time to meet with you. That's it. That's the show. Have a fantastic day and we will talk to you all soon.