Why You Keep Falling Off Your Fitness Routine (And How to Fix It)

Most people don’t fail because they lack information—they fail because their system breaks when life disrupts their routine.

In this episode, Michael Caulo breaks down the real reason consistency is so hard to maintain and introduces the concept of pattern disruption. You’ll learn why traditional fitness plans fail and how to build a system that adapts to real life, not perfect conditions.

This episode covers:

• Why do you keep falling off your routine
• What pattern disruption actually is
• The LOF 4-step formula for results
• How to stay consistent through travel, stress, and busy schedules

If you’re tired of starting over, this episode will change how you approach fitness and consistency.

👉 Get the full replay + system

💭 Thanks for listening to The Lifestyle of Fitness Podcast with Coach Mike Caulo - NBC-HWC health coach, retired pro Muay Thai fighter, father of 4, and founder of the LOF 100-Day Comback System, 

Transcript

So let's see if this sounds familiar for you. You know what to do. You've got all the bookmark tabs. You even have what you would consider a play-by-play plan in what to do, but somehow you're just having a gap between the knowledge and the actual doing, or even you've tried, but you continuously fail. And now you're at that place where you just feel like you want to give up or you're like, you know what? It's just me. I'm going to go over why your system may be failing as well as what you can actually do about it and what I've learned from literally coaching thousands of people over the last almost twenty years and what we're going to be able to implement in real time and ideally walk away from today with the action oriented steps. is piggybacking on a series of content i put out over the last month first we were talking about the actual formula behind coaching that i've seen replicate time and time and time again that leads to success it's a four-part formula so i want to introduce you to that if you're not familiar with it if you've already seen this it'll be a little bit of a review number one it is having awareness Number two, it is having intention. Number three, taking action. And number four, having accountability. All four of these things in the formula will yield results when it comes to coaching and growth. I talked about that in real strong detail last week and the week prior, so I won't do all of that. I'll touch on some of the core pieces. We'll talk about some of the insight and data related to that. But also we will look at what happens when the system fails and what contributes to that system potentially failing. Bye. specifically when it is in a pattern interrupt is what I like to refer to it as. So when we think about a pattern interrupt, we'll look at that defined because you might be asking, what is even a pattern interrupt? First, I'll define that. And then we'll dive into the different types. There's really two different types of pattern interrupts or disruptions that I see when it comes to people's lives, what we're going to do with that information. And then as always, you guys know, I love to share data around the information I'm going to provide. Back by peer review journals and studies. So you know that the information is not just something anecdotally I'm seeing, but something we can replicate over and over and over again. And others and scientists have been able to do that. So with that being said, let's look at, again, the core framework here in the formula is awareness that. combined with intention, combined with action, combined with accountability will yield results. I want to give you some examples first of awareness in and of itself. So when you think about awareness, it's again, having measurable data and insight. For example, I have this right next to me, so I'm just going to grab it. This isn't even like a sponsored thing, but Renpho is one of the brands that has gifted me products in the past. They have been a sponsor of mine. This is a traveling scale. and circumference measurement tool. This is pretty cool. It's digital, syncs up to the app, all that good stuff. The point is that's an example of something we can use as a tool to create awareness. If I'm aware that my weight isn't where I want it to be, that's something I can then change. Oh, what's going on, Landon? What's up, Ash? we doing how we doing again feel free to drop questions if you guys got them so that's the awareness part another layer of awareness might be hey i'm eating foods that don't necessarily make me feel good or aligned with my goals that's the first stage we then combine it with what's my intention when we think about intention having a very clear clan plan of attack with intention so for example again i have another i'll grab another a literal real-time example of this. I'm gonna set an intention in a book or a planner, or one of the things is a little sneak preview. It says not for sale right now because this isn't ready to be purchased, but we're working on our LOF hundred day planner. And the point of me sharing that is having a very clear path and intention you wanna go down. For me, for example, it is being able to have a healthy body where I can support my kids and have my body composition and my life align in a way that has me feeling good. That's a long way of saying that I know the measurable version of that is when I'm roughly between fifteen and eighteen percent body fat. I'm getting seven to nine hours of sleep and I'm mindful of what I'm putting into my body. I feel good. That's my intention to feel good and to be able to show up as my best self for my kids and for all of you guys. The action is then what we do with that information, what we got from awareness and how it leads to intention. So for example, I'm going to not watch TV an hour before bed or another version I like to look at is I'm going to add journaling and reading in one to two hours before bed. where I'm going to take pictures of everything I eat, or I'm going to order a set of resistance bands and I'm gonna do a workout with that for ten to thirty minutes, three times a week. These are the action oriented steps. And then lastly, taking accountability and using either accountability coaching and or a support system like you have friends your online groups whatever that looks like now the key here this is something i've already talked about these things but i want to work in where this tends to run into a system fail we'll call it or a barrier is a pattern interrupt now there's two versions of a pattern intro what do i mean by a pattern answer something that is going to disrupt a behavior Now there's two ways to look at this and leverage this. And being able to one, look at if there is a desired pattern I already have, I'm starting a new routine. There might be like going on vacation, getting sick, something like that. That is a pattern interrupt that gets in the way of us continuing the routine. On the flip side, let's say I'm, yeah, am I in the attic? No, I'm in my shell. We're gonna get this bad boy organized though. Being able to, let's say, change. I'm staying up till two in the morning and eating like peanut butter cups. That can definitely be a behavior pattern I've exhibited in the past as well. So being able to be aware of that, I want to have a pattern interrupt. For me, the pattern interrupt is instead of just mindlessly doing it, I'm going to pause and I'm going to journal. And what I mean by that is I'm going to write out, what am I feeling right now? Why am I eating? Why am I stressed? That's another version of a pattern. It interrupts the pattern of what we're doing. To me, that's more of a positive pattern interrupt. Then being able to, on the flip side, look at the quote unquote negative pattern interrupt. We're in a groove. We're doing something that we want, but life happens. We get sick. I got sick the other week. That interrupts a potential routine and pattern. Being able to, let's say, travel for work, whatever, that can interrupt patterns. Knowing that these can be the impactful areas and opportunities to influence our systems. i'm going to pause there i'm going to check the comments in the chat and see what we got here a from some funny stuff um gotta get our hydration on hope that's not too loud let's see we got um i love you guys you guys are hilarious i appreciate the uh great comments oh so let's see if we got anything good on the other side just more of the things that make me chuckle. I appreciate you guys. So with that being said, going back into the pattern interrupt, right? So you go through life and you got your new routine, your new years, whatever, you're motivated. You have the plan. We did all this stuff, right? You have the knowledge. You even got to coach all those things. Here's where it runs into the wall. When we travel, when we get sick, when we have something atypical come up, For most of us, when the routine is not established, when it's not going from routine to habit, it's the gap between reintegrating it is where we fail. So what I mean by that is, okay, I was sick for a whole week. I didn't work out at all. The following week I'm feeling better. We're not getting back into the workout routine. We don't go back to the gym. We don't go back to working out. We just kind of go back to our normal quote unquote life. Most people will say, all right, I failed. I'm going to reevaluate the system. I'm going to do something. But then there's a gap between when they start working out again and where they are currently. The idea is to try and shrink that gap as much as possible. So it's setting a realistic goal. That's where again, having intentional action comes into play and having accountability with a coach or somebody else is really valuable saying, okay, instead of me trying to do thirty to forty five minute workouts, Or even for me lately, I've been loving an hour to an hour and fifteen minute workouts. Today I did a thirty minute workout. And if let's say thirty minutes isn't realistic, I'm going to do a ten minute workout or as little as a three minute stretch protocol or body weight movement. So the idea is we're trying to reintegrate our behavior pattern to get back from the disruption. That is the massive takeaway I wanted to invite for you guys from this. I'm going to share a little bit of data that I've had in past live streams that I'll reiterate here as well. And then if you guys have questions on like even the products that I have behind me or different tools or things that we can leverage, feel free to let me know in the comments. And yes, don't worry. I'm going to redesign the space here so that slowly won't look like I'm in my attic and or shed. That's like our actual workspace because I moved into a new shed here, which we're going to get rearranged. so number one stress weakens executive function so for example if you are stressed out whether it's because you were just sick and you're coming back from that or you have a stressful event related to work your executive function goes down why does that matter what does that mean with executive function that is what's connected to our ability to have working memory pay attention, control our impulses and make logical decisions. For example, if I know I want to work out logically, but I'm impulsively driven because I'm stressed out, I'm not going to be as likely to work out. So being able to be mindful of that fact, I'm going to try and shrink my workout window. I'm going to try and not work out for thirty, forty five, sixty minutes and say, hey, I'm going to literally put my workout clothes on right now because I'm stressed out and I'm going to go for a walk for three to five minutes or I'm going to try and just do ten pushups. So the goal is to try and reduce that friction as much as possible. Another aspect that's related to this that, again, I mentioned in the past is when you lose sleep, it's going to hurt and impact the same system, that stress response system, our executive function oriented system. So if you're getting less sleep because you are either sick, stressed or whatever is contributing to that, you had a pattern interruption, you went on vacation, you're catching a red eye back from a particular work event. That is going to impact your same part of the brain that's responsible and impactful for your logical decisions, your impulse control, and all of those aspects. This is now specifically, I'm going to kind of pivot with another data point, looking at awareness, okay? And this is going pattern interrupt. This is now pattern interrupt in a positive sense. So let's say you're just kind of normally going through your life and you're doing your thing. Here's where we can take an opportunity for a pattern interrupt in a positive fashion. And we can use self-monitoring and awareness as a tool. Whether it's, hey, I'm going to start weighing myself every week, where in the past I haven't. The reason I bring that up is because it's a pattern interrupt. It interrupts us from just casually going through like, I'm fine, I'll deal with that later. But if we see, man, I've gained like five pounds of fat or whatever, a ten pound or whatever that thing is, then that grabs our attention and we're a little bit more aware. It interrupts our just, I'll start next week or I'll start on Monday. We're now having a little bit of a stronger sense of urgency. another aspect of that we can use with awareness and self-monitoring is i'm going to take a picture of what i'm eating going back to that two a.m example it's two a.m instead of just eating these peanut butter cups i'm gonna stop take a picture and i'm gonna journal about it because that interrupts my autopilot thinking So that I can become more aware and logical with what I'm doing. And then bonus points, it brings awareness to the choices that we're making. So then you can review with a coach or you yourself review at the end of the week and be like, oh, you know what I noticed? Every night at two a.m. I'm eating chocolate and sugar. Oh, no, not no surprise. I do my weigh-ins on Sunday. I've gained weight. This is again where the pattern interrupt can be in our favor, interrupting the quote unquote patterns or bad patterns, the things that basically don't serve us that we want to be able to refocus or work around. Now, another aspect to this is in the kind of action and intention side is implementation of intention help turn people's information based systems into action oriented systems. So being able to basically look at it from if X happens, then I do Y type of a planner statement. So it's an if then statement. So if I feel like eating Reese's at two a.m., then I'm going to pause, take a picture, maybe send it to my coach, send it to somebody, or just then decide if I still want to do it after doing that. So having a very intentional action and if then statement becomes impactful. And that piggybacks on awareness. So A, we're bringing awareness to it. measuring things or bringing some captured data, some objectivity to it. And then it allows us to have a gap in the bringing awareness to the then action. So we can be a little bit more logical about it. So where this comes into play is, again, if we're intentional with our actions, that will yield results. And then over time, we bring awareness to what is or is not working. And then we have layered accountability if it's working out for us. So intention gets stronger when it becomes specific. So when we have specificity to our actions, it will increase and get stronger. Not I'll work out tomorrow or next Monday. But instead, if my normal workouts gets disrupted, if then statement, then I'm going to do ten minutes of a band workout at home. Or again, if I don't eat dinner and then I just want to have dessert instead, then I'm going to pause, take a picture, send it to my coach. I'm going to pause, take a picture and then decide if I really want to eat this or I'm going to journal about it and decide, is this an emotional based decision or is this a rational based decision? Now, again, I'm gonna pause here, see if we got questions in the comments, and then I'm gonna go into the next layer. And again, the goal of all of this is to not only drive action, but immediate action, things you can do right now, like right after you jump off of watching this or listening to this, or reading this, or being able to even do it in real time. So let's also keep in mind that context is going to change and disrupt habits. So habit research shows that habits are cue dependent. So when context changes, old cues weaken or environment changes, old cues can weaken. And old routines can often stop translating into the behavior and shift into something new. That's basically the habit discontinuity idea. So the idea here is your routine may not be broken because you're lazy. It may be broken because the cues that held it together disappeared. For example, our environment changes. I take my supplements in the morning on the same stable like area with my coffee. But when I travel, That doesn't come with me. And maybe even if I pack my supplements, it's not on the same nightstand that I traditionally use. So being able to be mindful of, okay, how do I lower that friction? You know what, I'm gonna put on the same nightstand where there's coffee, if there is a nightstand. If not, I'm gonna put it in a place that's similar to where my coffee would be. Another example of this is let's say you just had a new baby. You're getting less sleep. Maybe you got sick. Maybe you're shifting career paths or jobs or schedules. Any dynamic where things are atypical and uprooted, your change of environment, your change of cues will change your routine most likely. And sometimes that's for the better. But most of the times, if it's a routine we want, a change can lead to potential gaps. And that's where we get to be mindful of it And again, have intentional action and accountability with our coach. So being able to think of pattern disruption as, again, an opportunity, but also a potential pitfall. It can be both of these things. It's just a matter of how and where do we want to apply and use it. So I've given you plenty of examples. And I want to pause to see. I'll invite you guys in the chat. If you have any particular situations that jumps out to you, I'll gladly speak to. But then I'll just keep rolling right along. So this same idea of habit, discontinuity, In literatures will suggest, in different studies will suggest that moments of life change can be a window for, again, opportunity or, again, pitfalls. It just basically is that window for behavior change. Because, again, the cue is either weakening or shifting. There's an opportunity for a new cue to be installed. And I'm calling that opportunity very specifically. Now it may feel like a daunting task as well. If you liked being able to have the same routine, for example, I like having my supplements by my coffee stands. When I travel, if I don't have that, it's a little bit of a pain in the butt for me, but being very intentional, okay, how do I simplify it? Instead of having all of this, I take like five different supplements in the morning, I'm gonna maybe take one, two or three of the most crucial ones that are easiest to travel with and I'll combine it again with an easy, accessible morning routine. I drink my coffee, I have my protein shake, I take my supplements, boom. I don't have to worry about droppers and all the other things that I like to do. Being able to, again, have a pattern disruption as a potential danger if you don't have a system recognizing that, and then being able to recognize there's power if you apply it in a reset and install a system that works for you. so again if what you're doing isn't working this is an opportunity when change arises to install a new system if what you're doing is working but you notice oh man i have travel coming up oh man i got sick that's still an opportunity to get back to your system the big opportunity i see for people that they're missing out on is a lot of times they try and install the same exact system even though there's a gap. And what I mean by that is you get sick, like I was alluding to before, you travel, you're saying, all right, I'm gonna pick up right where I left off. And that works if you have a really strong habit. Like for me, I can pretty much pick off right where I didn't do my four by four interval routine for almost two weeks. I was walking instead. I was able to pick it right back up today. I do four minutes, high intensity sprinting on my jump rope, high pace or as high pace as I can maintain for the four minutes and then take a four minute rest. I was able to jump right back that back into that today. However, last week I wasn't doing that. I was walking. as best I could. So being able to then say, okay, I'm going to do what I can. If it's walking, then we allow that. But being mindful of the intention and the system. This week it's, hey, going back to that same kind of environmental cue of I have my little break here in between calls. I have thirty minutes, not an hour. I'm going to do this thirty minute interval routine and be able to implement it. Now, if I couldn't do that, if for whatever reason I was struggling, I'd allow myself to cut it in half and do fifteen minutes or sixteen minutes instead of thirty. That's where having just the amount of reps and experience I do. And also I have coaches on my side. I have a great physical therapist. I have a great mindset coach. I have a great team of trainers. I have a great doctor and our medical director, Dr. Eric on my side. We having all these resources. That's what's powerful about having the accountability is if I'm uncertain, I can literally just ask one of my coaching team members to be able to support me in that. That's why having a coach is so impactful. So the idea here also is having stable cues will help form habits. So again, on the flip side, if we're constantly changing traveling, there's an uplift there and that's where challenge, but on the flip side of that, if we have stability and we have the same type of cues, that's going to help reaffirm habits and have them solidify and form. On average, it's going to take anywhere from twenty one days to one hundred and eighty days from a routine to become habit. On average, for most of us, about sixty to sixty seven days to turn into a habit. So knowing that, you know that if you have travel coming up or plans, be prepared to pivot when the pattern gets disrupted, have a plan in place. So your good routine, if we think about routine, it's going to need time. Replicable cues. Okay. When I wake up in the morning, I see my actual supplements next to the coffee machine. That's a replicable cue constantly. I have low friction. It's not put away. That's a big one for me. It has to be in my line of sight. Otherwise it's a higher friction point. I got to go in the cabin. I got to take it out. May sound simple, but it's impactful. It's again, consistent. So that goes back with the replication cue. It's a cue that I can see it's replicable, but it's consistent. It's consistently there. It's in the same place. I can see it, it's out. And even if that isn't going to happen, having a backup option. For example, I have plenty of supplement options. So if the one I have is about to run out, like my main multivitamin is about to run out, I have a backup multivitamin. I have the next order ready to go. or if we go on the flip side working out i have this awesome shed now that i get to work out in it's not fully set up so in the meantime while it's getting set up i have a backup plan i have some bands inside the house that i'm going to use for my workouts which is actually i'm going to do a second workout today because i'm feeling good i'm feeling myself so i'm going to do i did my thirty minute intervals earlier now i'm gonna dive into a resistance band workout program after this live stream actually And the point of me saying that is I have a backup plan. While I can't use the setup out here, I have a plan where I can use inside the house. So if your habit only works under perfect conditions, it's not a sustainable system. It's a lucky dependent system. So you're depending on luck that everything goes exactly to plan, which is just not real life. More than likely, you're not going to get the perfect conditions in a replicable, sustainable, consistent fashion. So you want to have a plan in place for when ish hits the fan, when you get sick, when your dog breaks her leg, like that happened to us, when your kids get sick, when the schedule changes, when you have to cover shifts, when a call runs over and you only have thirty minutes instead of forty five or sixty. What are you going to do? That's how a system is refined, tested, and strong. And that's the whole point of everything that I try and create and share with you guys and our team creates is to help you support and navigate having systems that are resilient, that are durable, and that are going to last a lifetime. And eventually teaching you, how do you create those own systems for yourself? So again, I'm going to pause here, see if you have any questions and go into... a little bit of like maintenance here as well. So we can not only have, yes, I'm transforming, creating a routine, but now how do we have a maintenance mode as well? Okay, let's see, we got some. All right, gotcha, gotcha, gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. Right, making me juggle. Trevor over here. What's up Shauna? How we doing? Okay. so uh here's another this is a great another like data point so a major review on behavior change in studies showed that maintenance was related to long-term factors like self-regulation resources habits and environmental support not just initial motivation so along with being able to maintain these systems isn't just about being motivated not even just about being disciplined It's about focusing on the factors that contribute to it, like self-regulation, which is a component to discipline, but it's actually self-regulation is less about a force. It's about creating a particular environment and again, system. So for example, if I don't have chocolate peanut butter cups in my house, I don't need discipline because I don't need to have them there. That's a variation of self-regulation. The discipline comes in like not buying them at the store. Or if we then have them, being able to have a system in place, like I'll give you a perfect example. I, in general, like to have homemade peanut butter cups because I have more control over the fiber, the protein, and the quality of the ingredients. Kerry does a great job of making them. They're delicious. We've refined them. We actually got a great dessert recipe coming out. Basically, what we want to do is lean on that as much as possible. But Kerry saw, hey, I saw like these Reese's were for sale for like two for one. So I got both of them. So now the temptation is like, oh man, I'm about to house two packs of Reese's if I'm not using self-regulation of my system. That's where I put them in a different part of the fridge. I have a different queue. And then I leverage my resources, which is, my team or being able to have my knowledge which is having fiber and protein which i had earlier today helps me stay full so i'm less likely to eat more sugary items and again leveraging on the habits that i have like working out being active being able to read being able to journal and then using environmental supports whether it's putting things out of sight whether it's asking carrie hey can you like help support me in this and hang out with me when i'm trying to eat so i'm not as likely to do it i'm not by myself or just tagging in friends these are another again so i'm not relying purely on motivation i'm leveraging my environment And then also that's a great question. So yeah, we do have coaching. We have courses, but like, I'm not here to just like sell you all of that. But if you're interested in coaching, you can just go to our website. We got all that basic information. We'll jump on a call with you for free. And nowadays you can even leverage the cool thing is you can leverage your insurance. So it might be a low, if anything out of pocket cost for you. But to be honest, if you're curious, I'll give you a straight up answer. It can range anywhere from literally we have ten thousand dollar programs all the way down to forty five dollar programs and everything in between. So it's really just a matter of what you're looking for. So I'm always torn because a lot of times people will be like, oh, what's the price? And they're like, you got to get on the phone with me to tell you or like, I won't just share it. And there's a good reason to that. But I like to be very honest with you guys and transparent. I don't want to waste your time or mine. you're interested in coaching we're not the cheapest program and platform if you're paying cash we're probably one of the more expensive ones but nowadays that's why i added insurance options so you can actually use your health insurance to cover the cost of it or use hsa and fsa programs so and again it's every everything in between we have it's just a matter of what you're looking for so hopefully that helps by the way shauna and again happy to jump on a call with you. You can go to our website and just schedule a free complimentary consult to see like, Hey, what could be a good fit? And even just starting with things, the best way to start honestly is with our diagnostic session. We run everybody through a diagnostic and you're able to do a, basically a, a thirty to forty five minute workout. Then we go over your nutrition. We'll go over your plan. We then give you a hundred day plan you can either implement on your own or you can actually hire our coaching team to help support you with the accountability or you could actually go to another coach go to another trainer but we'll at least have a plan in place that has been thoughtfully designed with myself with our team with our medical director dr eric that's customized for you Now that's a little bit on like even the maintenance side, because again, motivation will get you started, but systems cues and self-regulation are what's going to keep you going and maintain the results and the sustainability behind that. Cause that's what this is all about. It's not just about, all right, cool. We have a hundred day program. I got the results, but then I'm unable to sustain it. Like I've kept forty pounds off for the last twenty years. Because I have systems in place, because I've leveraged resources. Now, what I will say is I do personally kind of fluctuate about fifteen pounds every year between cycling, between like putting on muscle, then being able to lean out. I like to play and experiment. I also, in the wintertime, like to enjoy certain foods and things related to that. And then come the spring and summer, I'll like lower my body fat percentage. That's what I just know works for me. Everyone's situation is going to be different there. So it's finding, again, the sustainability and what maintenance looks like for you. And kind of another variable, so something to just share with you guys, physical activity dropout is common. So what do I mean by that? On average, fifty percent of people that start an aerobic exercise program in this one particular study stopped within the first six months and didn't pick it back up again. So. Let me just reiterate that. If you are doing a training program, the likelihood of you maintaining it for six months is fifty percent. So that's one that tells you immediately to me that that reveals a they were riding motivation. They didn't have very good systems in place and they didn't have a backup plan. So being able to know if you can make it past a certain checkpoint, that becomes substantially more impactful and really leveraging the system. The system's going to be, okay, I can't do my normal run today. For example, I want to go run three miles. I'm going to have a ten minute walk instead. That still can attribute to the exercise aerobic program and having consistency, having sustainability. This is why I care about personally adaptable resilience systems and starting isn't really the hardest part. It's a huge part, but it's staying in the game from a sustainable perspective. It's using the proper resources, tools, insight, and action to be able to stay in the game, be able to play the long game, the infinite game of constantly going and adapting. So, all right, let me circle back into the comments and pause here. It doesn't look like any additional questions. I lost fifty pounds in a year. Nice. Kudos to you. That's awesome. That's exactly right. Yeah, it's possible. Dieting, getting seven thousand steps in. Let's get it. Yeah, Yazi, I see you. That's awesome. Now, again, the cool part about that, kudos to you. How long has that been? So that was in a year. That's a lot to lose in one year. That's awesome. Now the question is, like, can you now keep it off? Which you can. You totally can. Kudos to you. And I'm always fascinated. What, if you don't mind me asking, got you started? That's always the interesting part is the initial, yes, motivation is a key component, but it's also having systems in place and even a simple to that point, right? Okay. So I'm going to stick to a particular nutrition protocol and I'm going to walk seven thousand steps a day. That in and of itself is a system, right? And it's finding, okay, when you talk about diet, I'm not a huge fan of the word diet. I'll be honest with you. I like having nutritional plans or preferences or even like feeding opportunities or what is my adherence level to these things? Because again, being able to have sustainability is the key. A diet doesn't tend to have associations to sustainability, right? For most of us. That's not necessarily the truth. It's a story that we have. But for the most part, when people think diet, they don't think it's something that they can sustain. So it's having an opportunity. Even like, I don't like the phrase cheat days or cheat meals. That's a key component to it. So just to kind of recap, I wanna again connect what I just talked about to again, this four step formula, because this formula in and of itself is to me the most impactful part, is having awareness. But now let's look at where can awareness fail? If you don't track, if you're not measuring, like whether like circumference measurements, your scale, body fat composition, if you're not tracking your, let's say meals, tracking your steps, tracking your workouts, if you're not tracking, that's where awareness can fail. Stress will also blur self-perception. So if you're relying purely on your own subjective interpretation, especially when you're stressed, it's going to fail. So that's where taking pictures is another version of tracking, by the way. Because you could say, oh, I think I looked good in this or I didn't look good in that. But if you take a picture, the picture won't lie. The images won't lie. Also, even another way of tracking is what clothes fit. Because you know, like, okay, I'm a thirty four waist. I'm really a thirty three waist. Like, I usually fluctuate. So I like saying thirty three. I know when I'm at my leanest, I'm usually like thirty two inch waist in the summertime. In the winter, I'll go up to maybe a thirty four inch waist. Usually it's like thirty three. So the point is that's a measurable component we can use our clothes for. Also, thank you for the follow here. I appreciate you. So that's another, knowing where this can potentially have pitfalls and where the systems can fail. When it comes to awareness of the four part system, awareness, intention, action, and accountability, with awareness where you can fail is you're not tracking. You let stress blur your own self perception of what's working or not, or you can't even remember what you ate the other day. And then routines become automatic and invisible. that's the other piece too so you're unaware of even what your routine is and you may even forget so being able to bring awareness to it and just the the data behind this and what science would support is self-monitoring simply works it will increase your adherence level by over thirty percent and stress will impair your logic and rational decision making so being able to not rely on your rational mind and have data to objectively measure things becomes really impactful and supportive over the long term. Oh, what's up, Johnny? You know what's up. Yeah, I'm just getting excited, dude. So now let's look at intention. Again, the second part of this four-step formula. When intention can fail, it's around goals are vague. They're not very clear and specific. Plans aren't converted into an if-then step or action. For example, if I can't make my normal workout, then I'm going to do a ten banded workout at home. So plans aren't converted into that. If then back up, you're going to more than likely fail when it comes to the intention. Your identity and environment don't match the goal. For example, if I am a healthy, conscious father, health coach and business owner, I don't have Doritos and all these things in my cabinets, for example. You could even argue I wouldn't have Reese's in my fridge, but that's like my one thing. I personally just enjoy them and I make homemade peanut butter cups, but I don't have a million packs of them, for example. So figuring out what is the identity that I'm going to anchor myself to? What does that identity and environment look like? Are those things aligned? Does the choice I'm about to make align with the reality I want to create? Does that match my goal? If it doesn't, again, not right or wrong, good or bad, just that's something to take note of and something to evaluate. and being able to look at the science behind improve your behavior your change so if you haven't