How to Break Bad Habits, Start Before You’re Ready, and Prioritize Your Health With EASE

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If you’re struggling to break bad habits and prioritize your health it’s not because you’re too weak, lazy or unmotivated. This advice may be a lil untraditional but here’s the thing: I don’t think YOU are the problem.

I think the problem lies in the tools you are or aren’t using, your mindset, and your habits. So let’s all just take a collective sigh of relief because you are doing a really good job. I repeat. You are doing a really good job.

You may have so many amazing ideas of how you want to get healthy but when it comes to actually doing the thing you don’t know where to start or feel totally overwhelmed by all the things you need to change… Can you relate!? Because if you can, you are not alone.

You are not crazy for feeling overwhelmed. Hard things are hard because they are hard. Simple as that!!

In this podcast episode, I pour into you big time and flip the script a little…

Instead of telling you how to be more motivated or disciplined, I’m just going to help you take feel good action today.

Instead of aiming for perfection, we’re just going to start small. We’re going to get really good at taking baby steps. We’re going to start before we’re ready. And we’re gonna do it together. Me and you. Right here on The Fit Flamingo Podcast. Ya ready?

Hi my friend :) Welcome to Episode 13 of The Fit Flamingo podcast. I’m Madison – your fitness coach & wellness obsessed BFF and really my superpower is in helping women reframe their health.

I’m not the person who’s gonna give you a fitness or nutrition plan that you follow to the T. I don’t promise weight loss and I won’t promise you that summer ready bikini body. But I can promise you this: I will teach you tools that you can implement to feel empowered, uplifted, and equipped to prioritize your health in a fun and approachable way.

As a personal trainer, nutrition and self-love coach, I focus on the inside first, helping you get to the root of why you think and feel the way you do. Then I use things like functional fitness training, holistic nutrition coaching, mindset and self-love tools to help you connect with yourself on a deeper level, see things from a new perspective, and unlearn habits that no longer serve you so you can take up space, step into your power, and become the woman of your dreams (and just so you know, you’ve been her all along! Sometimes we just need to unlearn and leave behind some of those habits and thoughts that keep us small). So friend Welcome to The Fit Flamingo Podcast, I’m so glad you’re here!!

How to Break Bad Habits, Start Before You’re Ready, and Prioritize Your Health With EASE. 2 Tools to Try Today:

Now look. I’m all about taking feel good action. You may know that I have an on-demand membership called Feel Good Monthly where I upload new workouts videos, self-love trainings, food freedom coaching, and more every single month. At the end of the day, everything I post in the membership is to help you take what I call “feel good action.”

Taking action truly is the secret sauce to gaining confidence and clarity.

The Secret to Gaining Confidence & Clarity

Quite literally, if you feel stuck – take action. If you feel overwhelmed, take action. If you feel insecure, take action.

You can research and think things through and come up with the world’s best plan but the truth is, if you never ever take action, you won’t ever gain confidence.

Also if you’re unsure of where to begin, taking action can help you gain clarity. It can help you get clear on what you actually want to do and who you actually want to be.

This example isn’t necessarily health related but let’s say you’re trying to figure out what career to pursue. You can do research. You can watch YouTube videos. You can get advice from other people. But until you actually start that job in real time, you’ll never fully know whether or not it’s the right fit for you.

Here’s how we can relate this concept to our health:

If you feel ready to make your health a priority that’s an amazing place to start. And then you may think, okay what’s next? Do I start a diet? Do I sign up for a marathon? Do I commit to working out every day for an hour? It can instantly feel overwhelming right?!!

There are so many different ways you could prioritize your health. So how do you know what’s the right fit for you? How do you know which foods will feel best in your body? How do you know what forms of movement you’re gonna love most? How do you know what you should do for a morning routine?

This is the secret: You take action.

Feel good action is the key to success!!

Celebrate YOUR Journey

Friend, I want to encourage you with this: 10 years ago, I was 17 years old. I was obsessed with sugar, fast food, and pasta. My favorite after-school snacks ranged from McDonalds 3 for $1 cookies with a large fry, Slurpees from 7-Eleven, Oreos with giant glass of milk, or a large tub of popcorn with orange juice (strange combo, I know but I love eating popcorn with orange juice!).

I say all this to say that my journey with food, movement, and self-love has been a journey. A 10 year plus journey of learning and unlearning how to love and nourish my body, how to view food as medicine, how to fight for my health and make my wellbeing and mental health a priority, and so on! In fact, I’m still on my journey and know that I’m going to continue learning and unlearning for the rest of my life.

So hear me when I say that you being on your journey is something to celebrate. I hate to break it to you, but there is no finish line. There is no triumph victory where you wake up one day and have it all figured out. There is no magic bullet and that perhaps is the most magic thing about all of this. This is a journey. A beautiful, frustrating, overwhelming, awesome, magic journey. And it is yours.

How to Show Up for Yourself With Ease!

I want to teach you how to show up for yourself with ease. The follow 2 tools will you help you do just that. Remember, we’re building our self-love toolbox. Feel free to add any of these tools to your toolbox. Use what you need and leave behind what you don’t.

Tool 01: How to Accomplish Every Goal You Set

Tool 01: We’re gonna call this tool “10/10 Can Do,” which is kinda cheesy but stick with me. Pick a goal that you have for yourself. One goal. It can be related to your health, fitness, nutrition, self-love, or literally anything because at the end of the day, everything is connected.

Once you have your goal down, I want you to ask yourself this (and bonus points if you literally write this down. It will help you visualize what we’re talking about!).

Ask yourself, “on a scale of 1 to 10, how confident am I that I will follow through with this goal?”

1 being, “ehhh not gonna happen” and 10 being like, “I’m 100% certain I will follow through on this goal.”

Be realistic with yourself. Think though questions like, how long will it realistically take? An hour a day? Do I have an h  our a day? Think, what is there any financial investment involved in this? Do I have the ability to make that financial investment?

If the answer to any of these is no or not right now, that’s amazing because you just gained clarity on where you’re actually at and that is magic.

I want you to set a goal for yourself that you feel 100% certain you can achieve.

I’m looking for you to give me a 10 on our scale or at least a 9. This is so important because if you can’t achieve the goal, you’re going to get discouraged. You’re going to feel ashamed. And we don’t want that. We want to set ourselves up for success!

Maybe the goal you have in mind is too big for right now. Or maybe today there are too many obstacles in your way to accomplish that goal with EASE.

So let’s break it down.

Take your goal and make it just a little bit easier. For example, if you really want to get into running and your big goal is to run a half marathon but realistically right now you’re like “hey, I don’t have the money to invest in high quality running shoes or I don’t have an hour to train everyday” – that is OKAY. Let’s break down that goal so you can accomplish it with ease. Here’s how:

Instead of training for a half marathon, could you run a 10k? A 5k? Or maybe run just 5 minuets every day consistently for 30 days??

On a scale of 1 to 10, how confident are you that you will through with this goal?

The cool thing about goal setting is that we’re not just working towards the goal. We’re also teaching ourselves how to be consistent. I have no doubt in my mind that you could accomplish a small goal. But what happens when day 14 comes and you’re freaking tired? What happens on the days you feel depressed or unsure of yourself? Do you feel equipped to show up yourself even then?

Friend, when it comes to our health and wellbeing, we get to teach ourselves what it looks like and feels like to show up for ourselves on good days and on the bad days, too!

You can train yourself to show up for yourself on the bad days. I’m not saying it’s easy. I’m just saying that it’s something you can learn how to do! And that’s the most empowering thing.

Tool 02: How You Do One Thing Is How You Do Everything

Tool 02: There’s this quote I love that says, “How you do one thing is how you do everything.” So here’s the challenge for you >> Start becoming mindful of how you show up to things. This really at the end of the day is a permission slip to slow down.

It can be so tough to balance nutrition with fitness and self-care while also trying to be a good friend, partner, and mom who keeps a clean home, runs a business, has good hair and does all the things- am I right!!!?

This is your permission slip to stop trying to do it all, all at once!!!

You doing more is not the answer.

Instead of trying to do more and be perfect at everything, pick one area – one goal – one thing that you want to do well at.

Then, show up to that thing – that goal – that area with your full heart. And believe me when I say, that everything else will improve too. Because how you do one thing is how you do everything.

If you’re overwhelmed in your health, focus on one thing first. Remember, this is a journey! If you start today, you will have years and years and seasons and seasons to grow more and implement new habits. But you don’t have to do it all at once right away. Rather, get really good at one thing.

For example, get really good at drinking a glass of water first thing in the morning. Another example could be, getting really good at moving your body every single day no matter what. Or lastly, get really good at giving yourself a compliment every time you see your reflection in the mirror.

Small things make a big difference.

Friend, this is your permission slip do throw out the big self-improvement to do this. You’re already awesome. You’re already enough. It’s okay to have area that you want to fix and grow in. But you are not something or someone that needs to be fixed.

You are already whole. Already enough. Already worthy. So cut yourself some slack and do one thing – just one thing – as well as you possibly can. Then, when you’ve mastered it, add in the next thing!! HEY – you got this. You are incredible!! There’s nothing you cannot do.

Both of these tools will help you break bad habits and create new ones that empower and energize you. These tools will help you prioritize your health with ease and without stress, overwhelm, or the need to constantly beat yourself up. And I hope with all my heart that these 2 tools inspire you to start before you’re ready.

As we wrap up this podcast episode, I want you to know that you already have everything you need. I’m just here giving you tools. Deep down, I bet you already knew this. Maybe you just needed a lil friendly reminder or a kind lil push to take feel good action. I hope this episode did that for you. I hope you know how enough you are. You are enough – today and always. You’re enough on the good days and you’re enough on the bad days, too.

Friend, I would love to hear from you. What feel good action are you going to take today? Send me a DM on Instagram @thefitflamingo or if Insta isn’t your thing, email me at thefitflamingo@gmail.com.

I wanna hear from you! I want to cheer you on. I want to be in your corner, lifting you up and checking in on you. And as always, if you have a specific question or anything I can personally help you with, please reach out!! I’m your new BFF remember? :)

I’m sending you so much love. You are enough.

Now before we go, I’m going to read a review for the Podcast because I’m a big believer in celebrating the baby steps. This Podcast is a way for me to start before I’m ready. Look, at this point in my business, I don’t have a big following. I don’t get thousands of downloads on this podcast. Honestly right now, I’m average between 30 and 100 downloads a podcast. My first episode has like 99 plays. And honestly it can be easy to feel like “uh that’s not that many” but you know what? That’s 30 people. 30 beautiful, unique, extraordinary people like you who are willing to prioritize their health and show up for themself in a big way. So I’m gonna start reading reviews out loud on the podcast not because I want to toot my own horn, but because I want to celebrate you for listening and taking feel good action. It means a whole lot to me that you support me and the show, but it means even more to watch you shine and take ownership of your health in this way.

I love being in your life. Simple as that.

With that, I’m gonna wrap this episode up! I hope it helps you feel empowered. Way to go for listening. Now all that’s left for you to do is to take feel good action. Ya ready? Let’s take action together in 5… 4… 3… 2… 1… GO!

PS – Check out this review for the podcast!

Have a specific question? Send me a DM on Instagram!

Friendly reminder: You are enough.

With Love from your Fitness Coach & Wellness Obsessed BFF,
Madison | The Fit Flamingo

Hi, I’m Madison Deaton. As a personal trainer, nutrition and self-love coach, I focus on the inside first, helping you get to the root of why you think and feel the way you do. Then I use things like functional fitness, holistic nutrition, mindset and self-love tools to help you connect with yourself on a deeper level, see things from a new perspective, and unlearn habits that no longer serve you so you can take up space, step into your power, and become the woman of your dreams (friendly reminder: she has been YOU all along). Welcome to The Fit Flamingo! I’m so glad you’re here.