Why 30-Day Diets and Meal Plans Don't Last After 40

Nikkiey: Real quick, the only ask I could ever have of you guys is to help spread the word so we can help more women lose body fat, build muscle, reach their goals, and feel insanely confident. And the only way we can do that is if you rate, review, and share this podcast. So the single thing I ask you to do is leave a review. It will take you 10 seconds, and it will mean the absolute world to me and may change the world of someone else.

The word diet: people think of it in terms of, I'm going on a diet because I need to lose 10 pounds in 30 days. And so I'm going to cut out everything that I've been doing and get to that goal in 30 days. And then once the goal is achieved, I can go back to doing all the things I was doing before I set out to achieve that goal. That's not a lifestyle change.

What is going on, you guys? Welcome to The WarriorBabe Show with Nikkiey Stott, co-founder of WarriorBabe. On this podcast, we talk about mindset, methodologies, and tactics that will help you lose body fat, build muscle, be strong, and feel insanely confident. I am your host, Nikkiey Stott, and welcome to today's episode, episode 189.

We are 11 episodes away from the 200s. And we are about 3,000 downloads away from 600,000 downloads of this podcast in just over a year and a half since it was birthed. This was birthed back in January of 2023, and it's now September of 2024. It's just so cool to see that type of growth, guys. Thank you. I know I've probably said this in so many of the podcasts before, but thank you guys so freaking much for tuning in, for listening, for your support, and for just being freaking cool people. Appreciate you guys. So here we go, baby. Let's get to one more. We're 400,000 downloads away from a million.

And we've got so many more episodes to come. It's just super exciting. I was about to hit record and I thought, I just freaking love coming here to share things with you guys, in hopes that you're taking this information and running with it, learning things, testing it within yourself, or joining WarriorBabe, or all the things. I just hope in some way this is making a positive impact on your life.

All right, let's get to today's episode. The 189th episode is, I think, a really cool topic to be talking about, because we just kicked off a similar thing inside the WarriorBabe VIP program. The babes inside are doing a 60-day lifestyle challenge. We are encouraging the babes to give up alcohol, to focus on meal prep, to focus on their steps, to focus on strength training, and to focus on their mindset. And I think all of these pillars really make up a lifestyle change, rather than just focusing on another diet to follow.

So that's what I want to talk about today: the difference between a diet and a lifestyle change. So many people use the terms diet and lifestyle change interchangeably. However, while they seem similar, I believe there are some very, very important differences between the two.

A diet is a temporary approach to food. It's usually focused on achieving some specific health goal or addressing a particular health issue. For instance, someone might adopt a low-carb diet to lose weight, or go gluten-free because they're managing celiac disease. Diets can be helpful in the short term. I don't want to totally discredit that word. But they often require a lot of willpower, they're often very difficult to sustain, and they may not provide the necessary nutrients that your body needs for optimal health.

And beyond people using diets to achieve specific health goals or address specific health issues, women out there jump on tons of different diets in hopes of some type of instant gratification result in X amount of time. There's the low-carb diet. There's the keto diet. There's the freaking 21 Day Fix. There are so many things out there that require you to drastically stop all of the things you are doing and put on mad restrictions and rules in order to get to X amount of weight loss in X amount of time. With the 21 Day Fix, it's typically 21 days. Some people expect immediate results with a keto diet. I've talked in previous podcasts about what happens with immediate results. But then what happens when you start actually eating that one macronutrient that you can't give up forever, because it's not sustainable?

What's up, everybody? Today's episode is brought to you by Paleovalley's grass-fed whey protein powder. If you're on a mission to build muscle, stay toned and smoothly navigate menopause, this message is for you. Paleovalley's protein comes from 100% grass-fed cows, ensuring a clean, high-quality source of protein that supports muscle maintenance and growth. It's ideal for those of us looking to enhance our strength training results and overall well-being during menopause. With no hormones or antibiotics, just pure nutrient-rich whey, it's designed to help keep your body feeling strong and energized. Blend it into your smoothies or stir it into water after a solid workout for a post-workout drink. Also, this protein powder is absolutely delicious, and I'm not just saying that for the partnership. It's actually pretty solid. Are you ready for a great-quality protein powder? Head over to paleovalley.com/themacrohour and use code THEMACROHOUR for 15% off your first order. Now, let's get back to the show.

People think of the word diet in terms of, I'm going on a diet because I need to lose 10 pounds in 30 days. So I'm going to cut out everything that I've been doing and get to that goal in 30 days. And once the goal is achieved, I can go back to doing all the things I was doing before I set out to achieve that goal. That's not a lifestyle change. That's just you getting on and off the hamster wheel of losing and gaining the same 10 pounds over and over and over again. And that's what these diets give you, because they have their own set of rules. They have their own set of restrictions.

What I firmly believe in, on the other hand, is a lifestyle change. You've heard me say this if you've listened to multiple episodes, and if this is your first time hearing it, you're going to hear me continue to say it: I believe that macronutrients are not a diet. I believe they are a skill set that can serve you for the rest of your life. If you understand the food on your plate and you know what that food is made up of, then you have empowering skills to make decisions for every other meal you eat moving forward.

I believe that to be a lifestyle change, because you're gaining skills, you're gaining understanding, you're learning insights about nutrition that carry out long term and apply to a long-term commitment to living a healthy and balanced life. So you don't have to set specific rules or specific restrictions with macros like other diets do. Sure, there are rules with macros, but they allow you to eat the foods that will help you manage a sustainable plan in the long term. Macros aren't asking you to eliminate anything. They're not asking you to drastically cut down on calories in one specific group. They're saying, here is what you should be eating based on your lifestyle, based on your goals, based on where you're at as a human.

You can dive even deeper into lab work and understanding how metabolic processes work for you, where your sex hormones are, where your hormones are in general, where your cortisol is. What is so cool is that there can be a unique number for you to follow on a regular daily basis. Nobody should be following the same macronutrient numbers, because we are so vastly different.

What the diets offer you is, here's a cookie-cutter program I found online. It's a PDF that came from my cousin's friend's sister's daughter, and they're all following it, so you should follow it too. That's a diet. That's a plan you should follow that has so many confines, limited to what is on the PDF or what the rules are, leaving out the vast array of foods you could be applying.

I'm kind of going off and going all over the place right now, but just follow me, because there are trains of thought here. This is going to be a Nikkiey rant. At WarriorBabe, we pride ourselves on not giving meal plans for our babes, our clients, to follow over a 60-day, 90-day or 24-month period. We give them meal plans at the beginning as a tool and resource for learning how to put macros and meals together on a daily basis.

But a meal plan is restrictive in and of itself, because it's telling you, you have to have this for breakfast today, this for lunch today, and this for dinner today. And it can only be these three types of foods at breakfast, these three at lunch, and these three at dinner. But there is a wide variety of foods out there in our world that you can incorporate into your plan rather than the three options you're given at each meal. Some people don't find those enjoyable, but they eat them anyway. And the reason they get off the plan after 30 days is because they don't like it, it's not enjoyable, and it's not sustainable. So they go back to all the things they were doing before, which is that hamster wheel of gaining back and losing the same 10 pounds over and over and over again.

So diets are very cookie-cutter, in that a lot of people are probably following the same thing, which you shouldn't be doing. Diets also don't give you what you individually and specifically need. I think I made that point. People are only looking at the surface level of what diets can offer you: quick results.

And this is what I'm hoping you understand from this podcast episode. If people can shift from that mentality of instant gratification, of here's a simple plan I can follow for 30 days, and shift to, okay, this lifestyle bit that Nikkiey's talking about may be a little bit harder to do, which it is. But anything worth doing, you guys, requires hard work, consistency, and changing the way you're navigating the result you're going after.

It's the same result people want: losing weight, getting toned, building muscle. The diet approach has a different type of mindset to get you to that goal. You might think it's easier, but it's also not sustainable. It's not long term. Actually, I don't even agree that it's easier. It's harder, because you're constantly in this loop of gaining and losing, and restrictions and rules and pressure and unhappiness. Same goal, though. That's the diet approach.

Now the lifestyle change. You can find any fitness program out there. You can find somebody giving you a workout program, an app, a nutrition protocol. You can find all of that. But what makes a long-term change, a lifestyle change, applicable and something you can actually jump on board with? It's the behavioral changes that have to come into play.

With diets, it's: I'm going to get rid of the habits that got me to where I am, where I'm not happy, for 30 days to make a change. But then the habits come right back. The bad habits come right back. Whereas a lifestyle change is: okay, I'm learning the triggers I have when it comes to food. I'm understanding that I'm not eating enough, and why. It's being insightful, taking this information and getting rid of the bad habits that got you to this point, or understanding the triggers that got you to this point, or being okay learning that eating less actually isn't ideal and I need to eat more.

And you're learning all these facets about yourself, which you should, because you're so individual. There are different triggers you would have than somebody else. There are different beliefs and stories being told about eating less food than somebody else. There are different habits you have than somebody else that got you to where you are, not feeling comfortable with yourself right now, and that led you to want to make a change. But I want you to not make the diet change. I want you to make the lifestyle change. I want you to understand and learn these behaviors about yourself, which is what we do at WarriorBabe.

What we pride ourselves on is that our coaches don't just give you these plans I mentioned. They build a relationship with you to understand how you operate, how you think, your stories, the narratives you're telling yourself on a daily basis, the triggers you have. From building that relationship, they can professionally give you tools and resources to create new habits and shift the behavior. That's what's going to lead you to the ultimate transformation. That's what's going to lead you to a lifestyle change.

Not to mention all the behavioral aspects, but also understanding your stress management, understanding your sleep, and, like I mentioned in previous episodes, we have you do hormonal testing on the way in, so understanding that too.

This kind of lifestyle change is so much more sustainable because it involves developing new habits and new routines that get integrated into your daily life, which is harder at the beginning. You're not going to get the instant results you'd get with the 30-day fixes, the instant gratification results. It's a little bit harder at the beginning. And if it were easy, everybody would be doing it. Everybody would be walking around with goddess bodies.

It's a little bit harder at the beginning because you've got to face these things about yourself, and that's never easy to do. But you give yourself a little more compassion, you're understood, you're heard, you're validated: these are your experiences up to this point. And then you have the tools you need. Maybe it's day 40, 50 or 60 when you're recognizing these things, starting to implement some things, putting them into action and executing on what our coaches are helping you do. And from there you build and build and build and start putting these things into play. This is where the true transformation happens.

It's easier for you to follow the surface-level plan, which is still important. But below the surface of the iceberg, the deeper stuff, is everything I'm talking about right now that needs to be understood, addressed, validated and changed.

Ladies, are you feeling frustrated with the body changes you're experiencing during menopause? It's time to take control. If you're between 45 and 65 years old and tired of struggling with body fat and muscle loss, WarriorBabe is here for you. At WarriorBabe, we've helped over 18,000 women just like you lose body fat, build toned muscle and understand their bodies better with personalized plans based on hormone and thyroid testing and more. Imagine knowing exactly what your body needs to see real results, and results that last. Don't wait anymore. Take charge of your health and join our community of strong, empowered women. Visit warriorbabe.com/apply today to start your transformation. That's warriorbabe.com/apply. All right, let's get back to the show.

And then that's where going to work out is easy, and eating the food is easy. Once all of this is untangled and not as messy, it's easier to bring awareness and wisdom to it, and then you're able to deploy on it with the plan, with the macros, and with what your coach is saying. That's a lifestyle change. That's freaking what I want y'all to strive for. Okay?

It's not just having the balanced diet, the regular exercise, the stress management, the sleep. Those are examples of a lifestyle change and how you implement it. But more so, the changes that are going to make a positive impact on your health, your well-being, and the results you want to see are the lifestyle components of it all.

So that was my little rant. I went from talking about macros and why macros are so important, to the differences between diets like keto and instant gratification, to really emphasizing what a lifestyle change even means.

Inside the challenge we're doing with the VIPs, we hope that within the 60 days they learn something about what might trigger them to want to drink alcohol. And if they can bring light to that, sit with it, figure out what those triggers are and address them, then after the 60 days, which we specifically timed because of the holidays coming up, the holidays may be a little bit easier with alcohol. And then maybe come March of next year, a woman who was once drinking wine three, four or five out of seven days of the week is drinking maybe once a week. And then maybe by next year, alcohol isn't even a thing anymore. That's lifestyle change.

That's the stuff that gets me hyped up. That's the stuff that gets the coaches hyped up. That's real transformation. Because alcohol can impede your results, and I've shared that in multiple episodes. When all of that gets freed up, more results happen.

And then you knock down one pillar. Maybe alcohol isn't your thing. Maybe it's, I have a desk job and I sit all day long. So one of the things the babes are working on is their steps, and it's different for everyone. Even the rules of the challenge are: whatever your coach wants you to hit is your goal. It's not 10,000 steps across the board that everybody has to hit. We know some people are only getting 3,000 steps a day, and going from 3,000 to 10,000 is very overwhelming. So we're going to make a goal of 7,000 steps.

And in the 60 days, let's say you get there. You go from 3,000 with a goal of 7,000, you start ticking away at it, and you get to 7,000 pretty consistently throughout the challenge. And then come the new year, you're like, okay, I'm going to do 10,000. See how it's stacking? And then by next year, maybe you're signing up for a freaking half marathon or whatever. It builds on things, and that's what growth is. That's what long-term, sustainable lifestyle changes require of you.

It's not cutting everything out, going cold turkey, changing everything on a Sunday, going keto on a Monday and cutting everything out, and in 30 days saying, I deprived myself, I ate 1,000 calories a day, I had no carbs, and I lost 10 pounds.

You can do the lifestyle change. You can stack. You can recognize the pillars I mentioned: habits, behaviors and knowledge about nutrition. Knowledge about nutrition is, okay, I understand that I shouldn't be eating this little. I need to be eating more, and I should be incorporating carbohydrates, because carbohydrates do X, Y and Z, and they're going to help me tone the muscle and give me energy. And so you slowly start stacking in carbs, you're attuned to how your body is reacting to those carbs, and you feel great after 60 days.

One of the coaches shared a huge win: she got one of her babes, and mind you, our people are 45 to 65 years old, to over 400 grams of carbs. That didn't happen overnight. It takes time. So building on what I'm talking about with lifestyle change: you start building in carbs. You have an understanding. You're listening to your body. Your body is becoming in tune with the carbs. You're learning what carbs are doing for you. And then let's say by March of next year, you're eating double the amount of carbs you were when you started. That's a lifestyle change. Because you're seeing the importance of carbs, you're feeling the importance of carbs, you're understanding the importance of carbs, and you're also seeing the results with the carbs.

So anyway, guys, I think I got my point across. I hope this podcast opened you up to think a little bit differently and to understand that the things I'm saying about lifestyle are hard, like I said, but they give you so much more reward for the long term. So with that said, guys, I love y'all. I appreciate you all. Cheers to lifestyle changes, and I'll see you in the next episode. Peace out.

Hey guys, real quick. If you're interested in taking your body to the next level, losing body fat, building more muscle and feeling more confident, do it alongside one of our 30-plus professional coaches. Work one on one with her to eliminate all of the guesswork you may have. All you need to do is the work she tells you to do to get to those goals of yours. To learn more, click the link below this podcast and apply to our VIP program right now.