Stage 1: Inspiration
Remember the last time you felt inspired to make a change?
It could have been a friend telling you about their amazing results from something new they tried -
It could have been a pair of pants that suddenly didn't fit quite right -
It could be what you're reading right now! 
Every Fitness Journey begins the same way, with a boost of pure inspiration - that raw energy that fully convinces you that anything is possible, wipes away the memories of anything in the past that didn't work, and sets you on a new path forward!
But..... what comes next?
This week we are going to take a hike through each of the 9 Stages that Every Fitness Journey takes!
tap that Like button to follow along with us (and request access to our members only group where you can get the free challenges and guides that will go along with this week!)
It's a Monday - and that's inspiring, right? 
Think about it, we've got the whole week ahead of us, every day a new opportunity to learn what's going to work for us (don't worry - we'll go over every step together)!
At the start of next week you could already be 7 days into the new you! You could know what every stage of the journey ahead of you is, what it's going to take, and how you're going to do it. You could have already taken 7 steps on your journey, and you could be feeling that confidence that comes with taking true action.
The first stage of every fitness journey is different for everyone - so share in the comments what your inspiration is, what you write could be just the inspiration someone else needs!
and remember...... you're just one calorie away!
Stage 2: Decision
I almost didn’t start,
it was almost too easy.
It was knowing that the commitment was real, and feeling like I had to do everything perfectly from that point on. I could have waited and put it off to a ‘better’ time. What I didn’t realize was how unrealistic my expectations for myself were. I didn’t have to be perfect, I could see results from small changes as long as I stuck with them, and I have.
The real problem I faced was consistency, not the motivation to change but the determination to do it most of the time. It was easier than I thought.
Once I changed my mindset from never to sometimes, and sometimes to most of the time it becomes so much easier. I didn't have to be perfect with my diet, or my exercise, or my attitude. When I became determined, the consistency eventually became habit.
I was feeling better sooner than I imagined - once I knew those first few easy steps to take.
I have a system which makes it almost too easy to start. The toughest part to begin with is just saying "YES" I will - and join our members only group where we go through the small, simple steps we can take to better our bodies every week!
The second stage of every fitness journey is Making the Decision! If you have made the decision to make a positive change in your life tell us below in the comments - and make sure to request a spot in the group where we can all find what will work best for you together!
and remember...... you're just one calorie away!
Stage 3: Choice
How do you choose a diet?
Is it what you want to eat? What you think you should eat?
How do you know that you’ve chosen the right diet for you?
Sometimes the easiest thing to do is start whatever fad diet is going around at the time - it’s tough not to see waist trainers, fit teas, cleanses-detoxes-fasts-and so many more options that it can feel like it could be easier to just choose the one that catches your attention the most.
That choice could be perfect, or it could be less than perfect, and there is really no way to know at the time of that decision. That’s how a lot of diets end! We chose something that seemed like a good fit at the time, but we never considered how it would perform over the long term – are we still going to be on the same diet next season? Next Year? In 5 years? Forever?
That sounds….daunting. To say the least.
So let’s try an exercise and let me know in the comments what you find -
What is the most ridiculous diet or fad diet that you have seen in your lifetime?
If we can poke a little fun at these diets and see that at some time they were actually considered to be a real, viable option for someone to improve their health we can look at the options that exist right now and see that a lot of what’s out there might actually be something we should avoid.
How can we avoid the scams, and find the diet that is right for us, right now?
It might seem counter intuitive but the best thing we can do is not make a choice immediately for what we are going to eat in terms of a specific diet like going Paleo, Keto, Vegan – just don’t choose yet. Instead we can make the choice that we are going to seek the option that works for us and understand that we might not get it right on the first try, but we can always look for improvement. The first step to choosing a diet is knowing if you’re ready to make that commitment to a specific diet – and you have to be sure that it’s worth the effort and you’re going to see the results you want from it.
So before you choose that diet, and make the commitment take some time to make smaller steps in the right direction – our first goal is always tracking what we eat!
Join us in the members only group where we can start to take the small, simple steps to find the right diet choice together!
Let us know which diet trend you’ve found the funniest below!
And remember….. you’re just one calorie away!
Stage 4: Plan
What is your fitness plan?
Let’s look at what we’ve seen so far in the stages of every diet journey –
1.) Inspired to make a change
2.) Decision to follow through on finding what works
3.) Choosing to experiment and make changes according to what will work for you
Now let's make a plan!
The first plan I made was to drink more water…. I know – it’s not ground breaking stuff, it doesn’t appear to have any immediate weight loss effects and its not as attractive as thinking that I’m going to lose XX pounds in X days by immediately jumping into an intense workout routine and only eating ribeye steaks....
But that’s where I started – and it was with only one intention – I will drink a gallon of water a day, and I will track it so that I know I have done it. This next part might sound even crazier but my goal was to create a streak – just 2 days in a row!
That might sound like it is too easy, but for some reason we always want to make it harder than it needs to be (maybe because we could use that as an excuse when we inevitably miss a day or eat one of those ridiculously named “cheat” meals).
But why not make it ridiculously easy? Give yourself no chance but to succeed!
We can always make it harder later, but making it easier after committing to something harder can feel like we failed. So why not start with something so easy that you would 100% be able to accomplish it?
That’s how all of this started, with something that I knew without a doubt I could accomplish – and I’ve come a long way since then by losing 27.6 pounds and slowly ramping up what I could to so that it was always reasonable.
There were three other Super Easy challenges I set for myself the first month I committed to making a change – adding diet tracking, exercise, and mental exercises – but each of them was introduced in the easiest way possible, there was no way I couldn’t start off with a success.
If you want to hear about the specifics for each of these weeks and how the challenges were exactly set up head over to our group and request access!
Do you think you could accomplish these Super Easy tasks?
and remember….. you’re just one calorie away!
Stage 5: Effort
How do you actually put real effort behind a diet and exercise plan?
Lets start by looking over the Stages of Every Fitness Journey that have brought us to this point (and if you haven’t read the other posts go back and start at the beginning and give them a share to help everyone else out!)
The 9 Stages of Every Fitness Journey
1.) Inspired to make a change
2.) Decision to follow through on finding what works
3.) Choosing to experiment and make changes according to what will work for you
4.) Making a plan that we know we can succeed with
5.) Make an honest effort
What is effort?
“A vigorous or determined attempt”
This is a perfect definition for what we are going to aspire to.
An attempt,
not perfection,
not 110%,
not immediate success.
Just a determined attempt. If I make the attempt the goal, there is no way I can fail, all I have to do is try!
How can I keep my commitment to bettering my body when I know that at some point in the future I'm just really…. really not going to want to put those gym shoes on and get after it.
Effort doesn’t have to mean 100% completion of every single goal I set for myself – we should be asking if we even made the attempt at all.
We have three small, simple steps to make sure that we are setting ourselves up for success every chance we get, so that we know we’ve put in the effort at every stage of our fitness journeys. Ask to join the members only group (where real -easy- magic happens) to learn these small, simple steps that we can take to better our bodies!
We’re new to posting like you might be new to the 99 Calorie Diet (the easiest diet – ever) so it would mean a lot if you could give this post a share and a like,
and remember…. you’re just one calorie away!
Stage 6: Fail Forward/Learn
How can we learn from our past diet mistakes?
The 9 Stages of Every Fitness Journey
1.) Inspired to make a change
2.) Decision to follow through on finding what works
3.) Choosing to experiment and make changes according to what will work for you
4.) Coming up with a Plan (the easiest one possible)
5.) Putting in real Effort to work on your plan
6.) Failing Forward
There’s a tough truth to dieting and fitness that is better to stare down right at the start of the Fitness Journey, because its unavoidable.
I’m going to fail – a lot.
But I know that… right? If I look back at everything I tried before I found the 99 Calorie Diet they all ended at one point or another in a failure. Each and every opportunity became a lesson that pointed me in the right direction, and so those failures actually became successes once I tried again and used the knowledge that I had gained from those other attempts.
If we can understand that every time we failed at something was a learning opportunity we can Fail Forward, and continue with whatever momentum we have until we find the fit that is going to work for each of us.
So when we come upon a failure try to take heart as soon as you can, its going to happen because none of us are perfect – and the best thing we can do is look at why we failed and understand that we are going to have to make some changes in how we are trying to better our bodies to get a better result!
SO Fail Forward!
What’s one diet or exercise that you tried that didn’t work out? You might be surprised that what didn’t work for you was just what someone else needed and vice versa!
and remember….. you’re just one calorie away!
Stage 7: Determination
What’s my Diet Determination?
What thing is going to last past that spark of inspiration that throws you into a change you might not be prepared for?
What’s the factor that will be different in your efforts this time?
That moment of Inspiration that sparks the start of every fitness journey is empowering – it convinces us that anything is possible (which is great!)….. but it also convinces us that anything might be possible immediately, or faster than realistically possible.
How did I become DETERMINED to succeed with my diet?
For me it was knowing that if I had the opportunity to go on a multi day hike I probably wouldn’t be able to do comfortably – and I might even have to turn it down completely.
We’ve covered a lot so far in the stages of every fitness journey – but this is the single most important step that everyone will take if they want to succeed – we have to become determined!
Determination involves creating a mindset that goes beyond those moments of inspiration, an agreement that you’re going to act a certain way to see the outcome regardless of how you feel.
What we want – to be able to take that camping trip, hike to the top of that mountain, swim across that lake or crush that run through the city streets – has to be earned over and over again. And most importantly, without giving up along the way because of failures.
Determination is valuing the agreement you made with yourself and acknowledging that at some point in the future you are going to feel like not doing something – but you’re resolved to completing at least what you agreed to.
So don’t make it harder than it needs to be to start.
Why not start off this change determined to succeed by doing small, simple exercises that you know you can accomplish while you figure out the best long term plan?
What are the simplest steps you could take to succeed?
and remember….. you’re just one calorie away!
Stage 8: Progress
How can I guarantee I’ll make progress on my diet?
Progress is something we earn, and it’s important to look at all of the different ways we can make progress - these recognitions can help cement that moment of inspiration into lasting motivation that will ultimately give us the determination we need to succeed (whew!)
What’s your mindset around progress? I actively seek the smallest amounts of progress I can make – think even smaller. This shift in my mindset had a huge effect on what I viewed as progress, and ultimately how much progress I saw at the end of every week. When I broke down progress into the smallest possible unit - a 2 day streak - it became so much easier to see for myself that real progress was being made. Even better than just seeing progress, when I had a day or two that didn’t work towards my goals it was so much easier to understand that I hadn’t broken a commitment, I hadn’t lost, and there was no reason to give up – I had a super easy way to get back on track.
All I had to do was refocus on getting that one small piece of progress back and that slump was averaged out by my new success!
So when I was thinking about making progress I was looking at those small, simple steps I could take right in the moment to better my body, and then trusting the process that over time I would get to my other goals (like losing 27.4 lbs and counting!)
If you had to choose a super easy challenge to see progress this week which would you choose?
1) Drinking the right amount of water and tracking it for 2 days in a row
2) Tracking your calories for two days in a row
3) Planning and following exercises for two days in a row
4) Meditating for 10 minutes two days in a row
Let me know in the comments where you’d start!
and remember.... you're just one calorie away!
Stage 9: Refine
How can you refine your diet to see continued success?
So you’ve made it! This is the last stage of every fitness journey, but the first stage in every healthy new lifestyle!
Once I got over the first few bumps and stuck with making consistent small progress, I began to see that some things were working better than others.
These patterns are perfect for identifying when it’s time to switch things up a little or a lot – whenever you’re stalling or in need of some new experience to add some excitement it’s time to refine and refocus your efforts!
I found a few things that helped as I worked through those Super Easy challenges-
Drinking Water – I bought two new reusable water bottles, they looked cooler and were sized so I could always carry one and have a big one by my desk or bed
Trying Diets – I ended up just tracking calories and making sure I was within 99 calories of my target, every time I tried to restrict it to something like keto I would get too discouraged – so I did what worked for me!
Once I accepted those super easy challenges and started to see consistent progress I made sure not to change anything too drastically, and I tried my best to only change one thing at a time – and I started seeing the real results I enjoy today!
If you were going to start a diet today which one would you choose?