Effort Alone Is Not Enough; There Is Such Thing As Too Much Of A Good Thing

In this episode, we’re talking about why effort alone is not enough to change your body. You need effort, the right amount of effort, and a strategy behind it if you want to lose fat, build muscle, and actually see results.

I also break down why doing “more” is not always better, and how taking health advice to the extreme can backfire. Because sometimes the reason you’re stuck isn’t that you’re not working hard enough, it’s that your effort is going in the wrong direction.

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Transcript

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The thing about effort is it feels like you're doing the right things. It feels like you should be getting something out of it. And you definitely need effort, but effort alone is not enough to guarantee that you're actually changing your body. Welcome back to the Embodiment Lab. My name is Addy, and in today's episode, we are talking about effort because this is something that every single woman that I am currently working with, have worked with in the past, has this in common where you're working really hard, you're going to the gym, you've been going to the gym for months, years, you've tracked your food at some point, you're making an effort to eat less, you're making an effort to eat healthier, cleaner, you're walking, you're drinking your water, you're doing all of these things that are fantastic, but you reach a point where you feel like your body is fighting you and you're not leaning out, you're not seeing any new progress, new muscle growth. You feel as though your body's stuck, it's plateaued, it's not responding, and you think that the answer is more. We're gonna talk about that because I know how it feels to be in a body that doesn't feel like it's responding to you. I grew up a dancer, I worked out alongside dancing, and I always thought that if I trained more, if I did more exhausting circuits, if I sweat more, if I was sore, if I skipped breakfast and I went as long as I could without eating, if I ate salads and weird stuff, then I would be lean, I would have muscle, I would have the shape that I wanted, and I would feel happy and confident. And I would feel like my body looked like everybody else's body that I looked up to and wanted to be like. And when that didn't happen, I thought that I needed more. And a little side tangent, you know what's really funny is I had this random memory last week of this one specific meal that I made because I got it in my head one day, obviously, like everybody does, that I needed protein and I needed to figure out how the heck to protein max the shit out of everything that I ate. I obviously went on to Google and I looked at all of these high protein foods without even really understanding what the internet classified as high protein versus what's actually high protein. And I learned that chickpeas were supposedly high in protein. Now, looking back, they are more of a fat food rather than a protein type food. They have some protein in them, but they are not technically high protein. And being the kind of person that I am, I have a texture sensitivity issue. I don't like mushy foods, which means that beans are not my favorite. I do not like beans, but chickpeas were the one bean, even though technically it's like a pea, it says it's a pea in the name. It's a chickpea. It's also a garbanzo bean, it's the same thing. But this was the one bean that I actually could I could do. I could eat it and not like be completely disgusted. Like it wasn't enjoyable, it wasn't fantastic, but I was like, hey, cool, I could eat a chickpea. Yeah. And so this meal that I put together was a can of shredded chicken. It wasn't even the entire can, it was just some chicken in a bowl with chickpeas that were seasoned in I think paprika or cayenne, one of the two, and chupacabra, which, if you don't know what chupacabra is, it's occasion seasoning that has basically everything in it, and it is the best seasoning known to mankind. But it had chupacabra in it. I think it had lemon juice in it, and pickled jalapenos, and I mixed it together, and that was my lunch for I don't know how long. I had this every day, and I fooled myself into thinking this was good. And eventually I reached a point where I was like, I don't want this ever again in my whole entire life, and so I stopped having it and I haven't had it since. But that's so funny that I'm like, oh, let me have whole foods and let me have these high protein things that go together, and I'm gonna pretend I'm gonna trick myself into liking this because surely this is helpful, surely this is healthy, and this will get me my dream physique. And yeah, it was healthy, but also like Addy, what the heck are you doing? What the heck? You know what I mean? So there's a little side tangent, but we'll get back into the actual nitty-gritty of what we're talking about, the actual, the actual topic of the podcast. But I was this person, I was putting in all the effort. I was working out every single day. I was working out twice a day sometimes. I was in the dance studio, I was walking, I was running, I was doing HIIT workouts, I was restricting, I was fasting, I was doing my hot lemon water in the morning trying to detox, quote unquote. There's no such thing, detox my body, trying to do all of these things, and my body was stuck. And you're probably thinking, how is that possible? How are you not making any progress? You're doing so much, and I get it. But one day it clicked. And if you want my whole story, there's an entire episode on that. I'll let you go back and listen to that. I'm not going to get into that in this episode. But once this clicked for me, everything changed. My body changed. I was able to stay really, really lean, grow my glutes, build my shoulders, build my back, build out the shape in my body. I was a very small individual, terrified of gaining weight, terrified of the scale, terrified of all this. And I wanted to look like a woman with curves, but I was afraid to gain fat. But once I figured out the strategy my body needed in order to look like that, everything changed for me. And it wasn't about putting in more effort, it wasn't about doing more, it wasn't about longer workouts, it wasn't about more workouts, it wasn't about more days, it wasn't about a specific diet, it wasn't about trying extra hard with my food, it wasn't about any of that. Let me put it to you this way: you could be doing all the right things, you could be running full speed ahead in the wrong direction, right? Effort is like if you have a car, you could be flooring it. Pedal to the metal, foot on the gas, flooring it, right? That's your effort. Strategy is the steering wheel, it's giving you direction. If you have effort with no strategy, in other words, if you are flooring it, but you don't have a steering wheel, you're not getting to your destination. At least not in an effective way. You're not getting there. You need the gas pedal and you need the steering wheel. It's the same in reverse, right? Kind of a little off topic, but it you can't have the strategy without the effort. You can't just know what to do. You also have to apply effort. But effort needs to be controlled, right? You can't hear one thing. I have this happen so often, but you can't hear, for example, you need to eat high protein if you want to build muscle and have a lean physique. You can't hear that and then take it and be like, cool, I'm gonna have as much protein as possible. I've had people consuming about 300 grams of protein, and I'm like, dude, what are you doing? How is your digestion? Shit, yeah, that's because you don't actually need that much protein. And have you checked your fiber? Because you can't put a bunch of protein in your body without also giving your body something to help push it through your digest your digestive system. You just can't do that. So there is such a thing as too much of a good thing, and that's where effort can be too much of a good thing. Same goes for workouts and for cardio specifically, to be completely honest. You know, you hear, oh, cardio helps you to burn calories, it helps you to lose fat, helps you to stay lean or to lean out, whatever. And people hear that and think, cool, I'm gonna spend hours on the treadmill. I'm gonna go spend hours on the stairmaster. I'm gonna do so much cardio and I'm not going to strength train because all of my focus needs to be on cardio. No, it doesn't. No, it doesn't. Because cardio needs to be used strategically and within reason, not something to be completely overused and abused. First of all, cardio is not fun. It has potential to not be fun. And if you're spending most of your time doing a bunch of cardio, you're gonna hate your life. Cardio also temporarily burns calories. It burns calories while you're doing it. And to be honest, it doesn't burn as many calories as you would think. You would have to be doing a lot of cardio for a long time to burn a decent amount of calories, which you then replace by your next meal. And so you will find yourself on this hamster wheel of burning calories and immediately replacing them, and burning calories and immediately replacing them. And you go around and around and around, burning yourself out, not getting anywhere, and you're adding inflammation to your body. So that's an example of hey, you can have a little bit of cardio in your life for sure. Cardio is a great thing. It's great for your heart health, it's great for your endurance, your stamina, your breathing, your lungs, all of these things. It's fantastic. But in terms of a fat loss strategy, it's subpar at best. It's helpful, it's a tool, but it's not the tool. The tool to fat loss is calorie manipulation and energy expenditure combined, used strategically, right? Not by one thing alone, and not by one extreme either. Another note about your workouts and how it's not just simply about putting effort in. I'll give you an example. I was at the gym this morning, obviously, because I obviously uh spent a lot of time there. Just kidding. I'm just somebody who's very devoted, and I go to the gym every single day. Minus the weekends, because rest days are also important. But I was doing glute max kickbacks, but I'm trying out this different version of a kickback because I've been doing glute medious kickbacks for the little the last little bit, and I thought a max kickback would be super fun. So I was doing glute max kickbacks and I was in between sets resting. And you know, when you rest, you kind of look around the gym. I made a funny video about me watching people do exercises in the gym last week and how it's kind of funny because I am also uh I am the form police. I care a lot about form. So this is kind of on that same wavelength. But I saw a woman who was on the abduction machine and she was kind of like playing with her hair as she was doing her set. I looked at the weight she was using, and she probably only had like three or four plates pinned. So she was probably only moving about 40 to 50 pounds, maybe. And abductions, you can lift like a pretty decent amount of weight pretty easily. Like it's not a challenging machine, like a it, like a squat, right? Like you can you can move some decent weight with that, right? And she's doing the set and she's kind of just like willy-nilly doing her reps and playing with her hair, and then she stops and she rests probably like 10 seconds, and then she goes again. This is a very good example of when your workouts are not actually working for you. This is when you find yourself in the loop of I'm working out, I'm going to the gym, I'm lifting weights. Why is my body not changing? Your body's not changing because you're not giving it a reason to. If you are ready to go to your next set within 10 seconds, shit, even within like 45 seconds of stopping your last set, you are not going hard enough in that set. If you're able to maintain a conversation or play with your hair in the middle of your set, you're not going hard enough, you're not going heavy enough, you need to increase the weight, and you need to give your all into that set. You should need your rest times. You should need them. If you don't, you're not going hard enough, and you're not going to grow muscle, you're not going to change your body. So that's a very clear example. As yeah, you could be doing all the things, but you're not doing them strategically or correctly. The same thing goes for your nutrition. You could be eating healthy, you could be in a deficit, but if that's all that you're focused on is eating healthy, you're missing half the picture. If you are in a deficit Monday through Thursday, and then Friday through Sunday, you are going out to eat and you're having fun and you're eating out a whole lot, and you're not really paying attention to what you're eating, but Monday through Thursday, you're in a deficit. Friday through Saturday, you are not in a deficit. And so about 40 to 50% of your week is spent not in a deficit. I hate to tell you, you are not in a deficit. Simply putting in effort on certain days and then just not the other days is not enough for you to actually lose body fat. And it's not enough to be like, okay, well, I overindulged this weekend. So on Monday, I'm going to eat as little as possible to hopefully make up for it. That's not how that works. Your body likes simplicity, your body likes consistency, and if you can't apply enough consistency, consistently, you're gonna find it very, very difficult for you to actually see progress. And I'll even say this when you do have an equal balance of effort and strategy, the strategy will actually allow you to have a little bit more flexibility than having no strategy and a crap load of effort. So within the strategy, you're able to go out to eat every now and then. You're able to enjoy some things here and there, you're able to do that. But if you are simply just going through the motions at the gym and only focused on eating healthy without actually looking at the rest of your nutrition and following a strategic strategy, then when you do go out to eat or you do kind of just go off the rails a little bit, it will affect you a lot more. But with that being said, it doesn't grant you permission to go completely haywire and eat whatever you want, eat like an asshole, or to skip a couple workouts. It doesn't grant you that permission. A rule of thumb that I have with going out to eat is if I go out to eat, I will not have multiple meals out. I either go out to eat for one meal or I don't go out to eat at all. Same thing with like snacks. If I go out to eat, I'm not also having a bag of chips or ice cream or whatever. I'm having that one meal out. And for me specifically, I have meals where I eat out at a restaurant or I get takeout and I eat it at home twice a week. For somebody who is in a fat loss phase, I'd recommend probably once a week. So when you have the strategy, you're able to work around these meals that you go out to eat, these fun things that you eat and enjoy, you're able to work around that because you're actually following a strategy, and that strategy will allow you to work it in. But again, it doesn't grant you the permission to eat like an asshole. So have discernment around that. Oh my gosh, another thing that I just thought of is, and this goes for my overachievers because I know this exists and it blows my mind. But when you miss a workout and you think, oh my gosh, I missed a workout, I'm a failure. What the heck am I thinking? What am I gonna do? I'm gonna double up my workouts. I'm gonna go and I'm gonna do two workouts in one day. I'm gonna stop you right there. Please don't do that. Please don't do that. It's okay to miss one workout, but challenge yourself to not miss two. Because if you miss two, you are creating a habit. So don't do that, first of all. Second, if you go to the gym and you stack two workouts, you are not getting more out of it than if you were to just do one. In fact, you're putting your body under more stress than what's necessary. I would so much rather you just go to the gym, do your scheduled workout for that day, and then move on with your life. Try and see if you can fit the other workout that you quote unquote missed somewhere else. Maybe you mix around your rest days and you just do it on the day that you were supposed to rest versus the day that you had to skip the workout in the first place, if that makes any sense. Hopefully that made sense. But do not, for the love of all things holy, do not double up your workouts. Another thing that I see is, you know, you're putting in all of this effort and then you start to get a little sick. If you do not rest and allow your body the chance to recover from that illness, it will come back and bite you in the ass. I promise you. Okay. And I'm not talking about like when you have a little sniffle, little allergies, a little headache. I'm talking about like if you have body aches, you have chills, you have a fever, any of those things, like if your body is like, hey, I am straight up getting sick, I would rather you take a day. Right. I've done this before where I feel my body like getting sick and I take a day off and I rest and I wake up the next day feeling fantastic and I'm able to go back to the gym. Great. I missed one day. Cool. But what happens is if you push through not feeling good and going to the gym, anyways, because oh my gosh, you have to get in your workout. How dare you miss a workout? You're a failure if you do, even though you're sick, then your body is already in a weakened state. It's already fighting something, it's already under stress. And then you're gonna take it to the gym and put it under more stress. You are asking to be knocked on your ass. Because then instead of being down for one day, now you're down for two, three, four, five days while your body repairs and recovers itself from something that is probably worse than what you would have dealt with initially had you just taken the rest. If you were going to the gym and you're feeling sick, you're also probably not able to put in your full 100% effort into that workout because your body is fighting something else. Your workout is the least of its concern. I actually have an example of this. I had a client who he was actually an example of this and my last thing that I just said, where he was sick and he missed a couple workouts and he didn't let his body fully recover from that. And he went back to the gym and stacked two of his workouts in one day. The next day, he ended up in the freaking hospital because he had an ear infection that got so much worse because his body was fighting for its life, and then he went to the gym and completely overkilled it and ended up in the hospital. He's okay, thankfully, but it is not worth it. Just for the sake of effort, it's not worth it. So please give your body rest when it is literally fighting for its life. That is it for today's episode. I hope that it was helpful. I hope that you see that putting in effort is not the be all end all. It's not the only thing that matters. Direction and strategy with that effort, with an appropriate amount of effort is what matters. Obviously, too much effort. Like I said before, there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. You don't have to push it to the absolute max. It's okay to breathe. It's okay for things to be simple. It's okay for things to be boring. Just because it's boring and just because it doesn't feel like it's as hard as it possibly could be, and you're suffering and you're miserable, doesn't mean that it's not working. In fact, I would rather it feel boring. I would rather it feel like not super exhausting, not super draining. I'd rather it feel like that because that is when your body is the least stressed and it'll respond better. But also you will be in a better place to be able to continue living. Giving out that lifestyle so that you can be consistent for long enough for your body to respond to it and maintain it for the rest of your life. Because that is what matters. So don't go crazy. Breathe and apply some strategy. And if you need strategy, I have the strategy and you know where to find me. But that is it for today's episode. I hope you enjoyed, and I will chat with you in the next one. Bye.