Welcome back today. I want to talk about the secret to lasting consistency. It's learning to adapt. Okay, so we spent this month doing a mid-year reset, and I hope by now that you've realized that when I say reset.
I don't mean start over. I don't mean to get stricter or try harder or find another diet. I mean just pause, pause long enough to notice where you are.
what you've learned and what maybe you need right now. So we started this month by taking an inventory. Then we talked about what happens when the scale stalls, and how easy it is to either blame ourselves or decide. I'm already doing all the things. There's nothing else I can do.
So last week we talked about what happens when the habits that once felt exciting become boring, and we start looking for something new. Right? That's what we do. And today I want to bring it all of that together, because if you want.
To lose weight and keep it off.
There's a skill I think is even more important than motivation. It's adaptation, the ability to notice something has changed and then ask, what do I need now?
So, consistency doesn't mean doing the same thing forever. I think we sometimes have the wrong idea about consistency. We think that it means I figure out what works.
Um, and then I do exactly that forever.
But think about your actual life. Is your life exactly the same every day? Of course not. Even when we plan it for that way, it's not. Some weeks you're busy, some weeks you're exhausted. That's with me lately. You go on vacation, someone gets sick, work's crazy, kids go back to school.
Your body, it changes, your hormones change, your responsibilities change, your capacity, my favorite word of the year, capacity changes, so if your definition of consistency requires your life to stay the same.
You're going to feel like you're failing a lot, but what if consistency doesn't mean doing the exact same thing? What if consistency means continuing to take care of yourself?
Even when what that looks like has to change.
That's adaptation. So.
This is where all-or-nothing thinking gets us, okay? But I couldn't do what I normally do.
So let's say you normally exercise four days a week, then you have a crazy week.
You can't… you can't make it 4 days. So your brain says, well.
I messed up. This week is shot. No! What can you do?
Maybe it's 2 workouts. Maybe it's a 10 min walk. Maybe this week movement isn't even the thing that gets your attention at all. Maybe you need sleep this week more, or let's say you normally plan and cook dinner several nights a week. I coached someone the other night on this, and so she's like, Oh, I usually have a pretty good game plan when I'm going to the grocery, and then I make all those things.
but this week, you're barely home. She was telling me about all of her grandkids' stuff, and all the things that she does. And so, consistency.
Doesn't have to mean forcing yourself to cook anyway. Maybe consistency looks like deciding ahead of time what you'll order. Maybe you grab a rotisserie chicken and something easy to go with it. Maybe you have three backup meals that you can put together in five minutes.
You are still taking care of yourself. It's just going to look a little different. So that's the skill. So.
Do what you have the capacity for. This has come up in my coaching time and time again. I have a client who's made huge progress with water. She's figured out how many bottles she needs to drink. She knows.
what helps her remember. She's really grown in that area, so she also knows that she needs more sleep. We've coached on this so many times, and right now, she doesn't have the capacity or the desire.
to want to change that. She's got too many things going on, and so she doesn't want to miss out on anything, and so her life is not at a place that she's willing to change it. Um…
Because the things that she'd be missing out on are bigger than missing out on sleep. So right now.
That's just where she's at. These are things that happen in her life and that make getting more rest difficult. So that doesn't mean we throw our hands up and we say, well, if I can't do everything, there's no point in doing anything. No, we acknowledge reality together. Sleep matters. She 100% agrees that she feels better.
Her body feels better. She even loses weight better when she's been sleeping, so it would probably help her energy, her hunger, her ability to handle stress, and maybe.
probably even her overeating. And right now, this is what she has the capacity for. So.
We keep supporting the habits that she can do, and we stay open to adjusting sleep when she has more capacity. That's very different, very different from giving up. Doing what you have the capacity for is still consistency.
So the goal isn't always to do your best. I think we hear the phrase, just do your best, but even your best.
changes. Your best on a rested Saturday morning might look completely different than your rest on a Wednesday night after you've worked all day and someone in your family needs you. That's okay.
The question doesn't have to be, what's the absolute best choice I could make? Sometimes the better question is, what's a better choice that fits this moment? So maybe tonight isn't the night that you cook the perfectly balanced dinner, but you can eat something before you're starving.
Maybe you don't have the capacity for an hour-long workout, but you could, you could take a 10-minute walk, so maybe you aren't ready to work through the emotional reason.
that you're even wanting food tonight. But you can pause long enough to recognize, I know I'm not even physically hungry, I am overwhelmed and just wanting some relief.
And maybe you still eat. But guess what? You noticed it. That's growth. That is a win. So there are so many ways to keep moving forward that don't require perfection. So it's never, never too late to save the day. This is one of the things I really want to take away, want you to take away.
from this entire month. Stop declaring yourself a failure halfway through the day.
If you overate at lunch, okay, what's next?
You didn't drink any water this morning. Okay, what's next? So you ate the cookies. Okay, what's next? Or you didn't work out. Okay, guess what? What's next?
So it's never too late to save the day with the next step, just one small next step. And saving the day doesn't mean undoing what happened. It means refusing to turn one choice into a declaration about the rest of the day.
So you drink a little water, you eat when you're hungry again, or you stop when you've had enough, you go to bed, you take a walk.
Maybe you just planned tomorrow's dinner, or simply, you notice what happened and what you learned. One action, one awareness.
One little return. That counts.
So, this is how it becomes who you are. I know saying, it becomes who you are, can sound a little goofy, but…
That's really what happens. Lasting consistency is what we do most of the time. I'm just a person who it's the kind of thing that we do almost all the time forever. So which means whatever we're doing has to be simple enough to actually do most of the time forever.
So eventually.
You aren't drinking water because you're being good. You're drinking water because you're just a person who drinks water. You're not planning dinner because your your coach told you to. You're someone who knows evenings are easier when you've made a decision ahead of time.
And you aren't stopping enough because you're following a diet, a diet rule. You're someone who likes to… how it feels to have just enough. Your body feels better, lighter, when it's not all stuffed full.
And when you don't do those things, you don't have to make it mean some huge, big, terrible thing about how you're a failure, or you're never going to succeed, or this isn't for you, or you're terrible. You simply just start doing them again when you can.
That's self-trust. I like to think about brushing my teeth. I brush my teeth every morning and almost every night, but I can tell you if I miss one at nighttime, I am for sure brushing them first thing in the morning.
It's just who I am, that's just become what I do. It's not a big effort, it's just a preference now because it's been a habit for so long. It's just how I do it each day.
Your mid-year reset doesn't need to be huge. Doesn't, okay? If you're newer to this work, and you're thinking, okay, Kara, just tell me what I can do. Here you go.
Pick one, just pick one. Fill your water bottle and drink it, or choose three dinners this week. Maybe you just choose them. Move your bedtime, maybe like 15 or 30 minutes earlier. You could, I'm saying, pick one, right? I'm giving you options.
Um, just ask.
Am I physically hungry before you eat today? Just today, maybe not even all week, maybe just today. You could pause halfway through one meal and ask, have I had enough?
Sometimes just asking is enough. Have I had enough?
You can take a 10 min walk. That's a reset. It does not need to be impressive. It needs to be doable. So if you've been doing this this work for a while, your reset might be different. It might. Maybe it's asking, Where am I?
still expecting myself to be perfect. That's huge, right? Where do I think I need to be perfect at?
Where has my life changed but my expectations haven't, what am I capable of right now, what needs to be adjusted instead of abandoned, and so those questions.
are where the deeper work begins. Real confidence is knowing you can adapt. So at the beginning of this month, we talked about certainty.
We all want it. We just… just tell me what to eat. Just tell me exactly what to do. Just… just tell me that if I do it, it'll work.
But your life is never going to give you that kind of certainty. Things are going to change. There will be setbacks and plateaus. There will be vacations and busy seasons and hard seasons.
There will be times when something that worked before doesn't work quite as well anymore, so I don't want your confidence.
to come from believing, oh, I finally found the right plan.
I wanted to come from believing that whatever happens I can figure out what's next.
That's a very different kind of confidence.
you notice and learn, and then try something, and see what happens. And then you do it again, and again, and again. You just keep adjusting again. And that's not failure. That is a skill. That is an evolving skill. So, what do you need now? So, as we wrap up.
this mid-year reset, I want you to ask yourself, what is working? What's working? Let's keep that up, give ourselves a pat on the back, credit, right? What is working?
What has drifted? So return to it if it still matters. If not, let it go. And then ask yourself, what isn't working anymore?
What is it? Just get curious about that question. What don't I have the capacity for right now? And be honest about that one. And then…
What's one thing? One thing. Hear me again. One thing that I can do next.
not… not what I should be doing, not what would be the perfect weight loss plan to tell me what to do. What can I do next? Because you don't need another plan, and you don't need the skills to adjust the one.
that you've been practicing wrong. You need the skills to adjust the one that you're building! The one that you're building! And if you're listening to this thinking, I understand this.
I understand, but I have a hard time figuring out what my next adjustment, my next tweak, might actually look like.
That's the exact kind of work that I do with my coaching clients. You don't need to come to me with everything figured out. That's what we do together. That's the point of coaching. We look together at what's working, what's not.
what's happening in your life right now, and what feels doable for you. So, sometimes you don't need more information. You need someone outside of your own brain helping you see what you just simply can't see just yet.
So, if you'd like to do that together, I offer a free coaching call. Just one. Let's… let's get in there. There's no need to get yourself back on track before you schedule it, so come exactly as you are.
We'll talk about what's happening, and what you want, what your next step might be. You can schedule your free coaching call using the link in the show notes, or go straight to www.coachingkara.com/freecall.
I want to leave you with the thought we've come back to throughout this entire month.
Real confidence isn't knowing the answer, it's trusting you'll figure it out.
Real confidence isn't knowing the answer. You don't need to know it already. You just need to trust that you can figure it out.
So you don't have to get this perfect and you don't have to stop drifting.
You don't have to know today what you'll need to know for the next six months from now. Just notice, learn, adjust, and keep going.
That's lasting consistency, and that's how you build something that you can actually live with.
I will see you next week.
