Discipline Is Freedom: Why Boring Is What Works

Discipline isn’t restrictive, it’s what creates the freedom to build a life and body you’re proud of. In this episode, I’m breaking down why structure, consistency, and delayed gratification are essential for creating sustainable fitness results, even when your routine starts to feel boring. We’ll also talk about why your motivation to workout needs to go deeper than physical transformation if you want your healthy habits to last long-term. Because the most successful fitness journey isn’t always exciting, it’s built through the simple, repetitive actions you’re willing to keep showing up for.

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Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:00

Everybody wants the result, but very few people are actually prepared for the lifestyle that creates the results. Welcome back to the embodiment lab. My name is Addy, and I'm gonna be honest, last week I think that I recorded my episode with my computer mic. Like I had my mic plugged into my computer, but I think that the setup was just so that it was like the input was for my computer and not actually for the mic. So I'm pretty sure the audio um was messed up. I'm not pretty sure. It was not my favorite audio, but I decided we were just gonna take messy action and put up the episode because what I had to say was really, really good, and I was not about to re-record that. So apologies for the quality, but we are back and I'm hoping that everything is good now. I switched the input. So hopefully audio sounds nice and crispy like how it should. But today I wanted to have a deeper conversation around discipline, around boring, around instant gratification, just kind of all of the above, because this is something that I feel like a lot of people really struggle with. And I just want to dive deep into what it actually takes to build a lean physique with a lot of muscle that looks strong, that looks defined and toned, and all the things. The reality is that this is not a short-term thing. If you are wanting to look muscular, you're wanting to lose fat, lean out, actually see muscle definition on your body. This is a long process. This takes multiple different phases of a reverse diet, a deficit, a building phase, another deficit. It might take a couple rounds of a deficit. Like this is a long process to get to where you want. And it's not a process that has a finish line, right? I think a lot of people get into this and they're like, I want a physical outcome. I want a physical result. I want to see change happen in my body. And then they think, okay, once I achieve this, then I can go back to quote unquote normal. I can go back to what I was doing before and I'll be fine. The result is permanent. And that is not the case. Unfortunately, the work that it takes to achieve the result is also the work that it takes to maintain the result. It's not something that you just achieve and then you never have to think about it again. It is something that needs to become a part of who you are so that you have the identity that aligns with the body that you are wanting to build, right? So, first thing that I want to say is that a lot of people are after instant gratification. They think that if they've been working out five times a week, eating clean and healthy, doing all the things, checking all the boxes, getting in their steps, drinking their water, getting in their fiber, their protein, eating their fruits and vegetables, all of this stuff. If they've been doing that for a month or two months, shit, even like four, five, six months, that bam, all of a sudden they should have their dream physique. When that is the beginning, that is the building block that sets them up for the long-term journey. Results don't come when you think that they should come. They come after months and months and years and years of hard work putting your head down and not really seeing a reward, but you keep going anyways. I think this is also why a lot of people do things like 75 hard and detoxes and a lot of cardio is like you start your fitness journey by doing everything all at once. You try and change and overhaul your entire life all at once. And you think that by doing absolutely everything that you're gonna get the quickest results when that is the quickest way to burn yourself out because you are going from one lifestyle where maybe you were eating fast food a couple of times a week, you weren't really exercising, you weren't really walking, you weren't really prioritizing these healthy habits to completely 180 flipping on the other side of it to trying to go to the gym five times a week and you're walking and you're drinking water and you're changing how you're eating and you're not going out and getting fast food. You're trying to do all of these major things that are very difficult to do, very difficult to maintain, and you're trying to do all of that in a day. What you don't realize is that it takes a lot more than just completely overhauling your habits in a week to create a lifestyle change, a physical change, a mental change, an identity change. Because this goes so much deeper than just the physical. It's also about the identity, right? It's about the person that you are becoming in the process. Because if you go through the process and you don't actually change who you are fundamentally, you will not be able to maintain the result that you actually achieve. You have to become the woman who is disciplined, who is consistent, who does make good choices, who knows how to go out to eat and get what she wants, but then wake up the next day and know that that means nothing about her progress. That didn't derail her progress. She knows how to get right back up and keep going. She is the woman who movement is ingrained in her lifestyle. She is somebody who chooses to be strong, who chooses to take care of her body, who chooses to feed and nourish her body well, who chooses to hydrate herself, to do all of these things. You have to be that person who chooses to prioritize your health. Because you know that if your health is in tip-top shape and you're feeling really good about your body, your confidence, the way you look, the way you carry yourself, the way you feel in your body, you know that that trickles into every other area of your life. Because you know that when shit hits the fan, life gets crazy, life gets stressful, you know that you do not get to put yourself on the back burner just because shit is hitting the fan. You know that you have to prioritize yourself first because you have to be able to walk through the fire of the chaos that is life. And if you are in shambles because you decided to put all of your goals and your the basic things that you need to do to take care of yourself, you put all that on the back burner, you're not going to be able to walk through the fire and handle everything the way that you could if you were still prioritizing yourself even through the chaos. So this goes so, so, so, so much deeper than just the physical. And I cannot stress this enough. So when you say that I've been doing all of these things for months, and you still don't have the physique that you want, that tells me that you are not in this for the long haul. You are not in this for anything more than a physical transformation. And that is so shallow. And that is why it is the quickest thing to get thrown to the wayside as soon as shit gets hard or things get busy or you get any slightest bit bored in your fitness journey. But when you are in this to take care of yourself, to prioritize yourself so that you can take care of the people in your life, your work, your family, whatever it is that you have to manage in your life, it becomes a lot easier to be able to maintain it because it becomes top priority so that you are fully equipped to handle and take care of everything else in your life. Because I'll tell you right now, I've been through many different seasons where my fitness journey has been a constant. The gym has been a constant. Making sure I'm eating good has been a constant. I was in college and working a job and had hours and hours of homework and I didn't let that get in the way. The gym was my escape. Granted, at the time, my gym, my version of the gym was my garage, which was super fun. So I could escape for about an hour during the day to take my brain off of work. And it was really, really good for me to make sure that I was still taking care of my body, taking care of my mental health while I was stressed out of my mind to trying to do homework and working at the same time. The gym was also still there and I was still prioritizing my health and everything while I was working three jobs at the same time. It was there while I was grieving after I lost my dad. It was there while I was working full-time 14-hour days as an in-person personal trainer, even though I was literally living in the gym. That was still an escape for me to be able to, oh my gosh, I remember like there were days where I would be like, oh my gosh, the imposter syndrome is so bad. I feel so incredibly just gross and like I feel like I can't, I can't do this. I feel like I'm incapable of doing my job. And then I would go and I would lift some heavy weights. I would hip thrust three plates, I would shoulder press 35s, and I would feel, oh my gosh, I just freaking did that. I feel so strong. I feel so capable and so empowered. And that fueled the rest of my day where I was able to show up for clients and give them the give them my absolute best because I felt good. I felt strong. I felt powerful and capable. That is what trickles into the rest of your life. That feeling is so, so good for you. It's good for your confidence, your self-esteem. It's good for everything. So there are so many different seasons where I look back and I'm like, thank God I had this because it is so much deeper than just the physical, it's also the mental. And when you have that through busy seasons, through really hard seasons, through seasons where you don't think that you can manage it all, and then you do, that is powerful. And that is life-changing. Discipline is freedom. Structure is freedom. And when you have these things to fall back on, when life gets crazy, that's freeing. It is so nice to wake up in the morning and have the structure of I know exactly what I'm gonna eat today. I know what I'm gonna eat, I know exactly what workout I'm gonna do. I know when I'm gonna go to the gym, I know how I'm going to execute all these things. And you fall into that routine. It is so freeing. Because imagine if I woke up every day and I was like, what am I gonna eat today? How do I eat to make sure that I'm actually building my glutes? How do I eat to make sure that I'm actually getting leaner? How do I eat to make sure that I'm actually managing all of these things at the same time? And on top of that, I have to do my job and I have to take care of household things and I have errands to run and like lots of stuff to do. Imagine if I had to make a thousand different decisions every single day without that structure. Instead, it's so easy for me to just wake up and just automatically make my breakfast I make every single day and not have to think twice about it. Know that the snack that I'm gonna eat at 11:30 helps me to hit my calories and my macros for the day. Know that my lunch is so easy to just throw in the air fryer because it's prepared and it's ready to go for me. And all I have to do is just assemble, show up and eat it. And to know that the snack that I'm gonna eat before the gym is gonna make me feel energized and ready to go so that I can go to the gym and lift heavy ass weights to know that I don't have to think about what exercises I'm gonna do today. What am I even gonna go to the gym? Like, no, I don't have to think about these things because they're automatic and I just show up and I follow the plan and I do them. So oftentimes I feel like people get really bored with the foods that they eat or with the routine or with their workouts or with whatever it is. And if you are feeling bored, good. Boring is what creates results. Boring is what changes your body. It's the compounding efforts week after week of repeating the same shit that creates a result. When you are trying to keep it interesting and keep it fun and switch things up, just so you don't get bored because you're afraid of a little bit of boredom, you're not going to get the result that you want. I feel like people think that if you shock the system, you shock your brain, you shock your body, you shock your, you know, whatever, that that shock, that shock factor is what's going to create the results. But I'll tell you right now, it's not. That shock factor just feels exciting. It feels thrilling. It feels like, oh my gosh, there's something new. I must be getting something out of this. And that's not the case. If you really boil it down, it's actually quite boring to show up and eat the same things every day. It's boring to get your steps in. It's boring to go to the gym and pick up weights and put them down. It's boring to drink your water. It's boring to hit your protein. It's boring to hit your fiber. It's boring. But it's repeating all of that shit over and over and over again and ingraining it into your routine so that it becomes automatic, that you just show up and you follow it. That is what creates results over time, not by doing the things that feel exciting. But something that I do think is kind of funny, like, for example, this week the gym has felt so fun and exciting to me. And I'm doing the same workouts that I've been doing since January. These are the same workouts I've been doing for the last seven months, and they feel exciting to me. And it's just you're going to, it's accepting that you're going to go through seasons where you're going to feel burnt out. You're going to feel bored. You're going to feel unmotivated. But then you're also going to go through seasons where you're like, heck yeah, this feels fun. This is what I need to be doing. I want to go back to the gym. Like Thursdays are my rest day. And I'm not going to lie, the last couple weeks have been like, oh, what do you mean today's a rest day? I want to go to the gym. That sounds fun. But it's a rest day. Like, what am I going to do? Right? Like, I've already hit all the muscle groups I need to hit. And if I I can't go, you know, like there's no reason for me to go today. But like I want to go. My brain wants to go, even though my body needs recovery. But if you if you've been around for a little while, last July, oh my gosh, a year from like right now, my boyfriend at the time, now fiance, haha, we went to his sister's wedding in DC. And I don't know what it was, but getting back from that trip, I was the most unmotivated, burnt out that I had been in a while when it comes to the gym. I did not want to go. I did not want to be in pain by lifting weights. I did not want to feel out of breath. I did not want to go to the gym. Did not want to do it. That lasted until January. That was five months of me feeling unmotivated. Five months. So it's like you cycle in and out of these feelings of feeling super thrilled and excited about the gym to then moments where you're like, the gym is the last place I want to be. But you continue to show up through all of those seasons, no matter what. Because it doesn't matter how you feel, you're going anyways, because you know that the benefits of going to the gym run so much deeper than just how you're feeling in this very moment. So if you just know and accept that you're gonna cycle through a bunch of different feelings with the gym, you'll be fine. You'll be good. All you have to do is just keep freaking going and you'll cycle through and find a different kind of feeling. It happens all the time. I'll also tell you this: it becomes a heck of a lot more fun to show up to the gym and to eat the meals that you have set out for yourself. When you get your eyeballs off the scale, you get them off of what you look like, and you learn to get lost in the process and enjoy the journey. Because it's a lot more about the journey than it is about the physical change. Because imagine, you probably don't even have to imagine, but like imagine how disheartening it is to go to the gym because you hate your body, to eat in a certain way because you hate your body, and you're doing these things in attempts to change your body, but you don't see those changes happen until months and months later. That is so discouraging, so disheartening, and honestly, probably the biggest reason why people give up. Well, yes, I want to point out that I understand that we get into this because we want a certain look, we want a certain outcome, we want to look a certain way, when we want to feel a certain way about our physiques, we're getting in this to change our body. I get it. But that cannot be the sole motivator for you showing up every single day because you will wake up more mornings than not feeling so unmotivated and so discouraged. So if you learn to find joy in the routine, in the mundane, in the simple, and you make it fun, it'll make it so much easier to show up. It'll make it a lot easier to be disciplined, a lot easier to be consistent, a lot easier to do the boring shit. And the results will become easier because they won't feel like there is so much pressure around getting those results. Also, it'll be a lot easier to maintain because you actually learned how to enjoy the process rather than beating your body up and hating your body into a certain result. So if you approach it that way, it's a heck of a lot more fun. That is going to be it for today's episode. I hope that you enjoyed, and I will chat with you in the next one. Bye.