Why Nothing Is Changing ... (Except Everything Is)

A few weeks ago I was doing everything right. Hitting my 10k steps, tracking my macros more consistently than ever, showing up to every workout. And I was still in my head. Still questioning myself. Still wondering why I wasn't seeing the physical changes I was working toward.

Then last week it happened. My legs and arms looking more toned and lean than ever. Feeling like I'm in the best shape of my life — better than when I was running consistently last year.

In this episode I'm taking you through exactly what that period of doubt looked like, the signs of progress I was seeing that I wasn't giving myself enough credit for, and why the physical results are always the last thing to show up. They're the lagging indicator — proof that what you've been doing is working, just on a timeline your body controls, not you.

If you're in that place right now where you're putting in the work and feel like nothing is changing — this episode is for you. Don't you dare quit right now.

my instagram page:
https://www.instagram.com/andreamartinez.fit/

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hey guys, welcome back. Um, I'm pretty excited for today's episode because I I really like the topic. Um I feel like I don't know, I think it's just whenever whenever it comes to the topic of quitting your fitness journey because you don't see results or because like something gets in the way, I feel like I don't know, I just love to challenge that. And I feel I don't know, like you should not throw it away. That's just my opinion. Even if things get crazy, that's what you use a coach for. But anyways, today is gonna be all about you doing everything right in your fitness journey, not seeing results, and then feeling like you should quit. And that is exactly the moment when you should not quit. So I'm gonna get a little bit into a personal story that just happened with me over, I would say, the last month. Um not me saying that I'm gonna quit my journey. That's not at all what I'm trying to say. But you see, the thing about fitness is that it's just a mind game at the end of the day, and I feel like my mind was toying with me the other day. Um a couple weeks ago, I was in that headspace where I was like, you know what? I've been doing a lot of work recently. I've been doing everything right, I've been heading all of my steps, I've been doing all my workouts, I've been increasing my weight, and you know, tracking my macros and hitting my macros, right? And still in that moment in time, I was like, I feel like I'm doing everything and nothing's changing. And that that right there is exactly the moment where you need to keep going because that moment is exactly when everything is changing, and you need to keep at it. You just need to get over the slump. Um, like I said a few weeks ago, I was in my head. This exact thought was happening in my head, and I was still questioning everything. Like, okay, I was like, am I even am I tracking right? Like, am I not doing enough? Why isn't my body changing like faster, you know? Um, yeah, that was me. That was me. Um and I thought that maybe I just hit a plateau or something, um, or what felt like a plateau, because I'm doing everything that I'm supposed to do, but I'm not seeing any changes, like, you know, but then I I you know, me being a coach, me being, you know working in fitness, and this is exactly what I do, I had to like coach myself through it and be like, hey, you know, progress isn't linear, right? Like it does, it's not just like okay, if I do this and this, this happens. It's not linear. It's there's ups and there's downs, and your body, especially as a woman, like you have hormones, crazy hormones, uh compared, not crazy as in like we're crazy, but the way that our hormones fluctuate are way different than how a man's hormones fluctuate, right? Like there's barely even fluctuate at all. But women, I mean, we go through it, you know? It's not easy over here, but yeah, anyways. So point is fat loss and progress is not linear. You can be doing everything right and the scale will go up. Like it just it's not linear, unfortunately. I wish it was, it'd be awesome. But also there's beauty in that because then it becomes too easy if it's linear, you know? And now you're probably like, what the fuck? Like, don't you want it? Don't you want it to be easy? And yes, like obviously that would be awesome, but also, I mean, it becomes more worth it if you really work for it, you know. Anyways, that's besides the point. What I'm trying to say is that you can feel like you're doing everything right while nothing is happening on the outside, but underneath the surface, things are quietly happening, and you need to give yourself more credit for that. Even if you can't see the progress on the outside, things are happening on the inside that you're probably not even counting. For example, one of the ways that you can actually tell that you're making progress is by increasing your weight in the gym. If you notice that you're reaching for the heavier weights and challenging yourself, and it then, you know, it starts to get easier for you, you're getting stronger. And that's one of the ways that you can tell that you're making progress is by feeling stronger. Another way that you can tell that, you know, you're making progress and you're getting stronger is by taking shorter rest breaks in between each of your sets. Because if you find that your rest breaks used to be like five minutes long, but now they're like a minute and a half. That's your body's way of signaling to you that it can do more, it can handle a lot more now than it used to. Again, your body is adapting, it's getting stronger, and strength is a sign that you're making progress. I had this client who um used to do Pilates, like that was her main form of exercise before. And then she, you know, came to work with me. She started string training and then mixing in Pilates here and there um with her programming. And she told me that one of the ways that she saw that she was making progress is that when she would go to Pilates, Pilates became so much easier for her. Before when she wasn't incorporating any kind of strength training, Pilates was very, very hard for her. But she said, you know, I notice my strength a lot more now when I go to Pilates because I'm actually able to do everything a lot easier than I was able to before. And I'm like, well, yeah, your body is adapting to a specific amount of resistance. So when you go to Pilates and you do lower weights, it's gonna feel a lot easier. This client also told me about how she walks stairs at her job, and before she started coaching with me, she used to take these stairs and be super winded walking up the stairs. But now that she's gained more strength and more endurance, she has like no problem walking up the stairs. And that's another way that you can tell that you're making progress. You know, like if you're if something like a walk used to be super hard for you, you would get out of breath really easily. And now you go for like a three-mile walk and it's cake. That's one of the ways that you can tell that you're making progress without visibly seeing changes on your body. Your body is constantly signaling to you that it's making progress, but we never pay attention to it because it's not something that we can physically see. And the part that sucks is that usually the physical changes that you see in the mirror are the lagging indicator that everything that you're doing is working. And let me give you a quick example of this. So, like I said, I was in my head a couple weeks ago because I was like, you know what? I do so much, I do so much damn work and I felt like I was plateauing, right? Like if I like I wasn't seeing any changes, so I was like, why am I doing all this work, you know? But in that moment, I was ignoring the other things. I was ignoring the fact that I am lifting a lot heavier in the gym right now. I ignored the fact that the other day I just went for a run. If you don't know this, um last uh this is a side note, but if you don't know this, last year I was running consistently and um then I injured my knee after running a half marathon. Actually, no, I ran the half marathon and then like two months later I got injured and I had this knee injury for months and months and months, and I'm barely now still getting over it. I went for a run the other day, just a quick one mile run because I wanted to test to see if my knee was gonna be okay. During this run, I felt so energized. I felt so good. It felt easy. Like, and by that, I'm not talking about like my knee, my legs, or anything. I'm talking about my cardio, like my cardio health, like my heart, my heart rate, my breathing, everything. I felt so good. And I have not ran in like half a year or more at this point. I think longer than half a year. I have not ran at all for more than six months, and I felt more in shape in this last run than I did when I was running consistently last year. And there you go. Another way that my body is signaling to me that the work that I'm doing is really working, but the physical results that I keep looking for aren't showing up yet, right? And that goes to show you that the physical changes, the physical changes you see in the mirror are always the lagging indicator. And during, you know, a couple weeks ago when I was going through this weird mindset where I was questioning my results, my effort, everything. Now, a few weeks later, four weeks later, I am actually seeing huge, huge changes in my body. I feel like I've noticed a big, big difference in my arms and my legs recently. And I feel like I'm I have the most muscle on my body than I probably ever had.

SPEAKER_00 11:28

And just a couple weeks ago I was spiraling. Results are really physical results.

SPEAKER_01 11:36

Now you see visible results, I should say, are the last thing that are gonna show up. Unfortunately, like that's just how it works. The biggest challenge is you and your mind. Like, you have to get over the hurdle, you have to ignore the thoughts. When the thoughts of quitting come up, you need to be like, shut the fuck up. I'm gonna keep going. Imagine if I was in a spot four weeks ago where I was like, I'm gonna quit my finished journey, nothing's happening. Imagine where I would be right now. I would not be in this position where I'm like, oh my god, like I have the most muscle I've ever seen. I am really leaning out. I feel like I'm in the best shape of my life. I wouldn't be in this position if I let all those negative thoughts consume me. Imagine if I would have let it, like, seriously, imagine if I would have let it consume me and I quit my journey. I would probably be eating like all kinds of junk and gain like five pounds and never would have seen all the muscle gains that I have made. Like, I could have destroyed my progress. Now, I am not one to quit my finished journey. Like, that's just not something that's ever gonna happen because this is my life. But I'm just saying, like, imagine if I would have actually done it. And the reason I say to imagine it is because too many people do this, they get so, so close, and the exact moment where they feel like quitting is the exact moment where they need to keep going. And that's why I'm here to tell you, if you feel like quitting right now in this moment, this is exactly the moment where you need to keep going. I know that we can just get in our heads a lot. I mean, even I get in my head, I'm not immune to it. I mean, four weeks ago it was in my head, and just now I'm noticing that my legs look a lot leaner, my arms look more defined. You know, the work showed up, just not on my timeline. It showed up on its own timeline, and now I feel like I'm in the best shape of my life. All this to tell you that progress is not linear, okay? Please remember that because even I forget it sometimes, and I had to remind myself. And I'm gonna speak this to you plainly as well because I feel like you need to know this. I do get a lot of DMs about this, so I'm definitely gonna put this out here. Um, but belly fat is usually the last to go, and I know it fucking sucks, but it's the truth, and it's just the way that our bodies are engineered, honestly. And I know that a lot of people, especially women, are most fixated on their midsection, like on their belly and stuff, because it's the place in our body that holds on to the most fat. And you know, everyone wants to have abs and have a toned stomach and blah blah blah blah. But this I just want you to know, okay? Because you have belly fat and everywhere else looks okay, that does not mean that you're failing, it just means that's how the body works. Belly fat is the last thing to go, and it's why you need to keep going. If you quit right now, you are stopping right before the part that you've been waiting the most for. I know it's hard and it's frustrating, but you need to keep going. You have to trust the process even when the process doesn't look like anything yet. Okay, just keep going. I'm not saying it's gonna be easy because it's not. And I'm not gonna promise you that you're gonna get the results tomorrow or the next day.

SPEAKER_00 15:53

But because you've already done the hard part now, all you have to do is stick to it. Stay on the plan. Don't let it all be for nothing because you're literally almost there.

SPEAKER_01 16:10

If this is something you needed to hear today, then I'm glad I made this podcast. Or if you know somebody that really needs to hear it, maybe you should send it to them. But other than that, I hope you guys have an amazing rest of your week. See you in the next episode.

unknown 16:28

Bye.