[KATHRYN]:
Welcome to Imperfect Thriving, episode 29. Today we have Adam Schaeuble, PhD – previously heavy dude, is how he refers to himself and he is on a million-pound mission. He tells us all about the law of attraction and how he used it to lose over 100 pounds, get out of over $40,000 in debt and pay off his house. He gives us his secret sauce of how he reaches big goals, a way to measure progress that keeps you on your weight loss journey, a strategy for weight loss and how to make it happen, and how to keep it off, and most importantly, he shares the number one mistake sabotaging your weight loss goals.

Welcome to the Imperfect Thriving podcast; for all of us women in midlife to discover your self-limiting beliefs. determine exactly what you want your life to look like, and the imperfect actions to get you there.

[ADAM]:
I’d read those affirmations at night and I would say, okay, did I do anything to move the needle at least 1%? And if I didn’t, I’d do something before I’d allow myself to go to bed. And it didn’t have to be, did I lose 100 pounds that day? Or did I fix all my relationships in one day or find a great career in one day? It’s like, no, maybe I could read a blog. Maybe I could send an email. Maybe I could drink some water. Maybe I could food prep for the next day. Maybe I could do a mini workout. I had to do something, 1% every day. And my phrase that is kind of my mantra now is, the law of attraction is important, but you can’t spell attraction without action. So, I combined those two things every day for five years. And here’s what happened: I lost 100 pounds, which is amazing in and of itself. But, as I started doing that, other people started to ask me how I did it. I started to help other people. That transformed into a business, that transformed into a gym. Over the five-year span of my affirmation commitment, I helped my hometown lose 35,000 pounds.

[KATHRYN]:
Have you joined our Imperfect Thriving Facebook group yet? This Facebook group is so full of wonderful people who nudge ourselves toward our best lives, and I share posts, articles, discussions, summits, all about the different eight domains and ways to improve our level of satisfaction and fulfillment in those domains. And that reminds me of the Blueprint to Thrive which you can go to imperfectthriving.com and get for free. It is a free email course that I designed based on what I do with clients in my office that has proven successful in helping them get closer to their most satisfying and most fulfilling lives. So, you can go pick that up today as well. Now, if there’s one thing I’ve learned through counseling and coaching individuals and through getting my masters it’s that we all have a relationship with two things outside of our relationships with people. That is money, and food. The next three episodes all address our relationship with food in different ways. Today’s episode is all about setting realistic, healthy weight loss goals and how to achieve them. And Adam is such a wonderful, warm, and just… he’s just an incredible guy; I know that you’re going to love him every bit as much as I did. So, here’s Adam. I hope you enjoy.

I am so excited to welcome Adam to the show. Adam, thank you so much for being here.

[ADAM]:
Well, I am fired up to be here, Kathryn. I think that anytime I can connect with a fellow podcaster that’s got a show with a lot of purpose behind it, I’m super excited about that. I know your show. I know what you’re doing is super important. You’re really impacting people in a positive way. So, I’m all about it.

[KATHRYN]:
Well, thank you so much. And y’all, if you haven’t met Adam, I’m gonna ask him to share his story, but I was fortunate enough to hear him speak at Podfest, and he just lights up a room. Whatever room he’s in, he just lights it up. And it doesn’t just have to do with the fact that he’s so cute, but it’s really his personality and his energy that he brings. He makes everybody in the room feel important and lifts everyone up. So, I knew that I just had to spend more time with Adam and learn more about him. So, for those of my audience who don’t know about your story, tell us more about you, Adam.

[ADAM]:
Yes, Kathryn. Well, thanks for that compliment. You’ve got me blushing now. One of the things I do is, I deal with a lot of people, like you do, that are struggling a little bit, and they’re feeling like they’ve lost momentum. And something I like to put out there up front is that I’m kind of an energy giver, you can borrow some of this energy that I’m putting out until you build up your own momentum. I know Kathryn does the same thing. So when she talks about when I get into a room where I get an opportunity to speak, that’s a big part of what I’m doing, is like, if you guys are feeling a little bit stuck, like you’re going the wrong direction in life, especially with your health, I’m gonna give you a little bit of Mojo today, alright?

[ADAM]:
So, way back in the year 2007, that’s kind of where my personal transformation story really took off. I was 327 pounds. I had $40,000 of credit card debt. That’s just personal stupid spending, that’s not like business credit card – I had even more on that. And kind of lack of purpose, was not happy with my career, was unhappy with my relationships, just kind of circling the drain of life. And at that point I was, for the very first time of my life, introduced to the law of attraction, which came to me through a DVD called The Secret: The Law of Attraction. And to be honest, it was the second time that somebody had given it to me, so I was like an official crap magnet at that point if two separate friends have given me the law of attraction. So, they’re like, you need to watch this buddy. The first time I pretended to watch it and give it back. So that was super smart. And then the second time I’m like, alright. It was kind of collecting dust on my DVD player. I had come back from the grocery… I remember I’d maxed out another credit card. I’m like, alright, I’m just gonna see what this is all about. And it just lit me up. It was just like flipping a light switch on for the very first time and seeing things clearly, I’m like, wow, I just felt so out of control. And like I said, to kick things off here today, and I know a lot of people are feeling that. It’s kind of like, you feel like you’re speeding down the highway, pedal to the metal, but you don’t have your hands on the steering wheel. And the law of attraction helped me to get a firm grasp and go okay, I think I can control at least some of this. And that gave me hope. And reclaiming hope, is a big, big deal.

So, I started to implement the law of attraction. And I created a process that I call my lifestyle rehabilitation statement, we kind of dive into the basics of that if we choose to here today, but the gist of it is I created affirmations and I had a certain process with that where I committed to what I wanted to create in my life over the next five years. I had a deadline on those affirmations; I had a goal that would read; it was July of 2007 to July of 2012, and I mapped out what I wanted to create, what I wanted to attract in my life, and then I made a commitment. And if I have one superpower, it’s implementation. I’m just like a hungry dog, like I will find a way to eat. Every single day I will show up, show up, show up. So that’s my superpower, and I implemented it for that five years. So, from July of 2007, to July of 2012, I committed to reading my affirmations out loud with passion with feeling with energy every morning and every night. I’m like, regardless, I can do that. I can show up for myself at that level, just a few seconds per day reading, feeling, getting dialed in in the morning, that was my focus point. At night, it was about accountability. And that’s the magic word in transformation is you have to have some accountability, personal accountability, and external accountability. But with this, I was accountable to read that process, those affirmations, at night and I would say okay, did I do anything to move the needle at least 1% and if I didn’t, I had to do something before I’d allow myself to go to bed. And it didn’t have to be, did I lose 100 pounds that day? Or did I fix all my relationships in one day, or find a great career one day? It’s like, no, maybe I could read a blog, maybe I could send an email, maybe I could drink some water, maybe I could food prep for the next day, maybe I could do a mini workout. I had to do something, 1% every day. And my phrase that I… it’s kind of my mantra now is, you know, the law of attraction is important, but you can’t spell attraction without action.

So, I combined those two things every day for five years, and here’s what happened. I lost 100 pounds, which is amazing in and of itself. But as I started doing that, other people started to ask me how I did it. I started to help other people – that transformed into a business, that transformed into a gym. Over the five year span of my affirmation commitment, I helped my hometown lose 35,000 pounds, I helped 15 different people, including myself lose over 100 pounds, I fell in love, got married, started a family, erased all my debt, created a business and a lifestyle that I was super passionate about. And it was a complete just opposite of where I started, it still blows me away, that five-year span, it was all about just taking action consistently and showing up for myself. So that’s kind of the big picture overview there.

[KATHRYN]:
Okay, well there are so many things I love about that. I’m going to try to keep up with all the questions I have in my head as you were speaking. What I’m hearing is that helped you be so successful are several things: one, you got to the point where you really saw I’m done doing what I’m doing right now. And you got really down to what is important to me, what do I value and created a five-year plan. But after you created your goal, it sounds to me that you sort of put the goal in the background and were all about the process, the actions, the little actions that it takes every day to reach a goal that would otherwise seem unobtainable or too big. And in the result, you got so much more in that five years than you could have even dreamed when you were creating that plan. Did I get that close?

[ADAM]:
Yeah, yeah. And it’s just about that implementation and accountability. Those are kind of my two magic words. If you are struggling or feel like you’re kind of spinning your wheels in any aspect of life, if you’re not achieving a certain goal, you have to ask yourself, am I implementing tenaciously and consistently? And am I infusing accountability – I call them accountability anchor points – in my life. And if you aren’t, those are probably two areas where you should start putting more energy into.

[KATHRYN]:
Okay, so when you’re working on that implementation part, it’s called Imperfect Thriving, and I’m all about helping people treat themselves with flexibility and forgiveness as they’re working toward their goals as opposed to striving for perfection because that usually just means we’re going to beat ourselves up, which is going to negatively affect us and make us not want to try. How did you implement this process while also not pushing yourself too hard or expecting too much of yourself in any one day?

[ADAM]:
Great question there, Kathryn, and, to me, the thing I figured out is that especially with the health game, there’s a lot of pressure that we put on ourselves. Now, that I’m on the other end, being a coach, there are a lot of people that come to me and they’re like, Adam, I’ve done everything and now you know, whether it’s keto or paleo or clean eating or whatever, whatever it is that they’re thinking about doing, intermittent fasting, this has to be the solution that fixes everything and fixes everything forever. And I’m like, okay, no pressure. So, we come with these epic things that we have to do. And it’s all self-imposed. I’m like, how about we figure out a nutrition protocol that we can use for the next 28 days that gets your momentum going. That’s a lot lower pressure, and how about we give ourselves the flexibility to adjust as we go, that sounds a lot more user friendly to me, because, you know, 10 years ago, when I started losing weight, the keto diet didn’t even exist, it wasn’t even a thing. And now it is so things change. So, I think that was one of the big lessons was I had to be okay with being flexible, you know, being allowed to change course if needed, adjust my goals. The lifestyle rehabilitation statement was edited through the years, it was just slightly like, there was one thing that I took off, I was like, ah, that’s not really what I want. It wasn’t a contract written in blood like, oh, I have to do this, or I fail. So, I gave myself some buffer there.

Then the other thing I really figured out that helped so much is the technique of measuring progress. And it is this simple. Most people, when they measure progress, they are facing the wrong direction. And what I mean by that, is we have this goal. Let’s say your goal is to lose 50 pounds. And what we do as human beings is we go and then we achieve that goal. And then what do we do? We celebrate for one day and then go, oh, but I’m not at 60 yet. I’m not there yet. The ‘I’m not there yet’ syndrome ruins this whole process. So even if you’ve lost 25 or 30 pounds, we aren’t celebrating that. We go, I’m not at 50 yet, pressure, failure. We are chasing a horizon line that we can never get to. And we’re looking from where we stand to that horizon line. It’s always out there and we’re never there. So, we always are in this sense of I failed, and I’m incomplete, I’m insufficient. So instead of facing that direction, we have to plant our feet turn around and measure from where we started. That simple technique will take the pressure off and allow you to celebrate your progress and really be in a much more positive momentum building mindset. So instead of, oh, my goal is 50. Cool. Goals are amazing. But let’s say you’re at 35, you don’t go, oh, but I’m trying to lose these last 15 pounds. The focus isn’t that last 15 pounds. You turn around and go, dude, 35 pounds, blood pressure medicine, gone. Risk of diabetes, way lower. Energy, way up. Self-confidence, way up. That’s how we measure. That is a key thing in any goal, getting trapped in that ‘I’m not there yet’ position will destroy our energy and eventually destroy our willpower and our decision making and we will never achieve that next step in our goal process, does that make sense?

[KATHRYN]:
Yes, I absolutely love that. And that is what I help clients with all the time, is celebrate that you are farther along today than you were yesterday. And when you turn around and look back at 35 pounds, sit in that, like, don’t just look at it turn back around and keep trudging forward. Because if you turn around and you sit in it, that is positive reinforcement. Willpower can only get you so far. Right? You got to have that pat on the back and who better to give it to you than yourself?

[ADAM]:
Exactly. Exactly. And I love the term like, sit in that feeling. And you can set up little triggers. This is what I’ve done. So, I set all kinds of goals. I set a lot of financial goals and one of my financial goals was to be mortgage free and have it all paid off, have a house paid off in my 30s, because not a lot of people do that. And I’m like, I want that freedom. I’ve been in such debt I’m like, I don’t like that feeling; I want to be as financially free as possible, as early as possible. So that was kind of a big goal that I worked for a lot of years, then I ended up paying off my house at the age of 38. And I set up a trigger – every time I come down into my podcast bunker in my house, I sit, and I just feel some gratitude for this place being mortgage free. And every time I do that, I just sit and feel that positivity, because that’s a huge accomplishment. Same thing, every time I start a workout. I’m down over 100 plus pounds. And I just feel that gratitude, that accomplishment every time I work out. I don’t just displace that and just be like, oh, that’s the thing I checked off in a checkbox. This life changing goals like those things should be used for constant motivation and personal momentum. Like, that’s a big deal. We can’t just discount the fact that we’ve done these amazing things. We’ve got to use that moving forward to continuously build momentum.

[KATHRYN]:
Yes, I just could not agree more. And I have so many clients that come in my door for counseling and coaching that think that the way to prod themselves forward, to reach goals, is to sort of beat themselves up and tell them, they’re not there yet. As opposed to what you’re doing, which is sitting in what’s already happened, and when you do that, it just propels you forward.

[ADAM]:
Yeah. And it also motivates you to not go backwards because you’re constantly reminded… it’s positive reinforcement though, it’s not scarcity mindset. It’s like, this is who I am. This is where I am. And a funny example that you may relate to, we have to share some client war stories you know, not names or anything you know, we have to stay certified. So, I do these workshops, I call them goal achieving workshops, and was working with a young lady that she had a yearly goal of losing 60 pounds. I’m like, you’d be thrilled if you drop 60 pounds this year? Yes, I would be thrilled. It would be the best health year of my life. I’m like, alright, cool. So, we would do a process to break it down into quarterly goals. Well, that’s 15 pounds per quarter. That’s about five pounds per month. That’s a little bit over a pound a week. The next phrase out of her mouth was, but that doesn’t sound like very much. And I’m like, but you just said the 60 pounds, I’m like… I knew that this was gonna be her mindset. I could kind of feel it. I’m like, you were thrilled to the 60. This is the math to get us to 60, it doesn’t matter. Like, at the end of the year, you said you were just thrilled with this. But that’s what we do mentally, is we go, ah, that sounds like… no, that’s too slow. We should be more. Another example. I just did a consultation with somebody this last week. And I was like, well, how things are going? How are we doing so far? And it’s like, well, I’ve only lost 14 pounds in the last seven weeks. And I was like, okay, let’s shift our thinking here because two pounds a week is really good. And this individual is not morbidly obese. So, you know, I’m like, this pace is really good, really sustainable. And they’re considering doing coaching with me, I’m like, listen, just so you know, if you are unhappy with that, you’re gonna have to shift that mindset if you start coaching with me, because I’m gonna be very happy with that pace and that progress, and that’s a pace we’re gonna try to maintain. And I go, and before you say anything about what I just said, how were the previous seven weeks, like, were we gaining weight? Were we not gaining weight? And that’s the key comparison, is like we went from negative momentum to shifting our momentum to positive momentum to really steady momentum. That’s all good stuff. So sometimes we have to get out of our own head in those situations.

[KATHRYN]:
Yeah. Especially when you have a really big long term goal, if you can focus on your trajectory today versus your trajectory before you started, and you can start to see, I don’t know, have you ever read James Clear – Atomic Habits?

[ADAM]:
Yeah.

[KATHRYN]:
Oh my gosh, love that, right? It’s so helpful. If you just look at that trajectory for one day and plot it out over the next month or the next year, you can see how far you can go with that sort of mindset.

[ADAM]:
Yeah, and you have to keep in mind also that when we deal in the area of momentum, there’s a buffer zone, there is a transfer zone. It’s like, if you’re going the wrong way in the highway, you have to take an off ramp and you aren’t necessarily going in the right direction as you go on the off ramp that’s going to get you going in the right direction. So, a boulder is rolling down the hill at you, you have to absorb impact, reverse momentum, that’s going to take energy to get it moving back up the hill. And we have to give ourselves some time. Sometimes people are like, it’s been a week, I haven’t lost 50 pounds yet. That was the goal – how come I haven’t accomplished all my goals? Like I said, when I did my five-year plan, I chipped away every single day 1%, it wasn’t do everything in one day, and keep that pressure on myself. So, we have to give ourselves some of that buffer of I am now shifting my momentum. The three phases of momentum are negative momentum, positive momentum, and momentum shifts, and people tend to forget that you can’t just jump from negative to positive, there is energy and time that needs to be invested in shifting that direction. I interviewed somebody that gave the analogy of like turning around a ship. It takes some time, and you are now correcting course, but that’s good. You know, just that visualization is really what I’m getting after, is you have to take some time turning the ship in the right direction.

[KATHRYN]:
Yeah. So, if you’re on this long-term plan and this long-term goal, don’t freak out if every day doesn’t look exactly the same.

[ADAM]:
Exactly.

[KATHRYN]:
Okay. So that’s a little bit about how you implement. I want to hear a little bit more about how you infuse accountability for yourself and for your clients.

[ADAM]:
Yeah, so accountability anchor points – this is a major topic that will make a difference for people. And I want to clarify accountability, because a lot of people, especially in the health space, maybe because of Jillian Michaels fear or not, they think that accountability is someone yelling and screaming at you and shaming you, like Biggest Loser, like, I gotta run the treadmill and my trainers held me accountable by screaming at me and making fun of me and yelling at me. That’s not what I’m talking about. Accountability is a positive thing. I want you to reshape that definition and think accountability equals support, it equals momentum, it equals coaching, it’s a positive trajectory with accountability. So, we can’t run away from accountability. We need to look for what I call accountability anchor points in all the areas of our life where we spend the most time. So, you think family time, you know, you spend a lot of time with your family, hopefully, workplace, friendship groups, clubs, church, anything like that. When you look at your calendar, look at the main three, four areas where you spend a high volume of time, and you want to try to plot an accountability anchor point in each one of those areas and very few people do this. So, if you’re doing like a weight loss mission, you’re on a weight loss goal or, you know, getting healthier or whatever it is, at home, something you can do… A lot of people struggle at home, they’re like, my family is not supportive. Okay, well, it’s gonna be on you to establish this anchor point, but you could do a family healthy meal prep Sunday or something like that. Get your kids involved. If your spouse will get involved, cool, but otherwise just you know, let them do their thing. But get as many family members involved. And I tell you what, if you get kids in a routine, and you say, this is a thing that we’re going to do, they will remind you every single time and if you don’t do it, they will call you out.

[KATHRYN]:
Best at accountability.

[ADAM]:
Yes, yes. My kids are five and nine; we do family meetings, and if we haven’t done one in a while, like, bro, family meeting, why isn’t it happening? So, it’s very interesting how that works. But, you know, something like that. Maybe at work, you can do a walking lunch Wednesday, or you join the softball league or something. But it’s something where people know that you’re supposed to be there, you know that they’re supposed to be there, and it’s something that’s just healthy. It’s not like, let’s do a wellness workshop every week at work – that probably won’t go over well, but walk and work Wednesday, walking lunch Wednesday, that’ll do something. Or maybe you have a certain day where… I know like medical offices, there’s all kinds of crap that gets brought into that backroom, and people bring in doughnuts and candy and pizza. And maybe you have a day designated that’s healthy lunch day. And if somebody brings stuff in, they know that it has to be a certain category. So, something like that. Friendship groups, maybe you have a day of the week that you go, and you go out for beers or wine with a friendship group. Maybe once per month, maybe the first week of the month that turns into a bike ride, or maybe every week it’s a bike ride. Little things like that are healthy accountability anchor points. And then things like personal trainers, coaches, those are the big ones, but people depend on that one so much. And I’ve seen it, like, I did personal training for 10 years and I had clients that, if I had to not train… there was a point where I had a real big injury, I tore my pectoral muscle and I couldn’t do anything for several weeks. And that really affected them because I was their only accountability anchor point. So, if your trainer moves or goes out of business or is sick, you’re gonna fall off that mountain that you’re trying to climb, cos you only have one anchor point and you need multiple. A regular measurement process to assess your results, your kind of analysis time, maybe that’s some measurement, some scale, body fat, anything like that, that’s another accountability anchor point. So, we need to just collect these. I’m telling people I’m working with like you need to have three or four, at a minimum. That’s the zone that you need to be plugged into because if one falls off, okay, you have more to kind of catch you in case you slip.

[KATHRYN]:
So, what I’m hearing is it’s not just about an eating plan and exercise. It’s about taking the different areas or domains of your life and implementing anchor points to make your goals easier and more enjoyable and more infused in your life as a whole.

[ADAM]:
Yeah, hundred percent. Nutrition and fitness to me is the most simple, easy part. It’s the consistency, it’s the implementation, it’s the accountability. What we have to figure out for most people on a health, and specifically a weight loss journey, is how do we quit the back and forth. I call it transformation light switch syndrome where they flip the light switch on, they flip the light switch off. They do a bootcamp, eight weeks, light switch on, 8 weeks is done, light switch off, go back to everything they were doing before. All the bad habits are there, all the good habits are gone. How do we figure out a way to stop that? When I work with people, I have people doing keto, carnivore, I have people doing Weight Watchers, I have people that are vegan, I have people that are doing moderate carb, high carb, low carb. That’s not the most important thing to me, because all of those are better than the standard American diet to me. And we get them moving, we get them drinking water, we bring their anxiety and stress levels down, we bring their sleep quality up. And those are way more important than like, oh, this super-secret Russian fitness program and then, you know, zero carb diet or whatever the latest trend is. I’m more about what I call strategic thinking around a transformation. We look at our body like a business. Let’s make sure we don’t go out of business. And then we implement, and we add accountability, and some pretty awesome things are able to happen.

[KATHRYN]:
Yeah, what I’m hearing here is, if you want to make a permanent change, it really is a complete lifestyle change. You have to find a way of eating and exercising that you can infuse into your entire life if you want it to work for you and to last.

[ADAM]:
Yeah, yeah. And along that line, we also have to be willing, initially, to sacrifice some of those lifestyle points as we learn something new. A lot of people are getting into it and going, oh, I want to be able to live my life and eat what I’ve always eaten and get this result also. But you have to sacrifice… maybe you don’t go out to eat as often, and obviously, we’re not going to be able to eat some of the foods that we’ve always eaten, or drink some of the drinks that we’ve always drank. And so, there’s a time period of learning and sacrificing some of those things in the short term. But eventually, we try to find a nice balance and that is something that I’m upfront with my clients about. I’m like, you’re gonna be feeling this burn a little bit with the lifestyle points for a matter of weeks and or months depending on how much work we have to put in. But my goal as your coach is to get you to a place of balance, where you feel good about your lifestyle, your friendships, your social situations, and you also feel good or great about your health. But that takes some work, and that takes some sacrifice up front; you may have to get up at 5:30 to do a bootcamp class. You might have to meal prep and give up some carbs, some ice cream treats, more days than you used to, or not go out with the buddies for beer after work every day. But we can find a happy medium – we just have to put in the work.

[KATHRYN]:
Yeah, that’s gonna take some letting go of some prior limiting beliefs and kind of changing the picture you have of yourself. Instead of, oh, I’m not a morning person. Well, you might not have been a morning person before, but you can be a morning person if you want to be a morning person. It depends on what’s most important to you.

[ADAM]:
Exactly.

[KATHRYN]:
So yeah, tell me a little bit more about treating your body like a business and the kind of strategic thinking that we need in this area.

[ADAM]:
Yeah. This is one of my favorite things to talk about because no one in health, nutrition, fitness really thinks about it this way. That’s why, when I go on stage, people are like, mind blown, this is the thing that helps me more than anything else. And this is really my platform. And it is about escaping what I refer to as the black hole of weight loss doom. And that epic name is epic on purpose because I kind of want to freak people out. So, the typical situation that happens, Kathryn is, I want you and your listeners to envision a four-part circle with interconnected arrows. So, the top of the circle, we start a new thing, we hire a personal trainer, let’s say. The next arrow on the right side of the circle is we get some initial results; we’re doing something we’ve never done before, it’s a new stimulus, our body responds, and we lose 20 pounds and we’re fired up about it. The bottom of the circle is when life happens, and we’re not ready for it; our work schedule changes, we go on spring break, there’s a global pandemic, you know, anything, it could be anything. And then the last arrow that connects back to the top is we crash and burn and go back to where we started. We lose all that momentum. People see this as the weight loss game. I do a thing, I get some initial results until it quits working, and then I fall back to where I started. And people blame that first part of the circle, like, oh, that personal trainer didn’t work. My Zumba class didn’t work. My low carb diet didn’t work. But what didn’t work was that we weren’t ready for the bottom of the circle. That life happens moment when we get sick, or injured, or our kids school schedule shifted, or anything that just throws us off our trajectory. That’s the transformation danger zone and that’s where we need to think strategically to be better prepared for that the next time it happens.

So, when I talk about strategic thinking, and not going out of the business of our health, is we have to scan out, I recommend 28 days in advance and go, alright, what could throw us off? We have to identify, analyze, and prepare ahead for our transformation danger zone. That three-step process, so maybe you scan 28 days out, and you go, oh, spring break. So, I’ve identified that. Okay, let’s analyze it and what normally happens on spring break? Well, I dropped 20 pounds going into spring break because I’m motivated because I’m gonna get my bikini body going on, or my Speedo body, or whatever kind of body you want to have. And then you go on Spring Break, you have a few extra drinks, a few extra meals. To me, that’s still not the biggest part. What happens after Spring Break is we don’t get back in the gym for three months and then it’s just downward spiral. So, we have identified, analyzed, and now we can prepare ahead and go, alright, how do we go into this better? Because I’m not gonna stop going on Spring Break, because that wouldn’t be fun. So, we still do the same prep, you can still enjoy yourself on Spring Break. But before we leave for Spring Break, we set up our training schedule, we set up, we book our personal training sessions in advance, we pay for them in advance, we order our grocery shopping, click list or whatever. So, we know we have to pick up on that day that we get back. Everything is there, the roadmap is laid out, all we have to do is walk into it and execute instead of oh, we’re back from spring break, I’ve got all this negative momentum now. Now I have to try to figure it out. That’s not successful. So, that’s what I mean when I talk about strategic thinking is we have to find those transformation danger zones, those life happens moments there at the bottom of that black hole of weight loss doom, and figure those out. If you’re somebody that’s lost 30 pounds and gained it back 20 different times, this is the issue. It’s not CrossFit not working. It’s life is happening. It’s smacking you upside the head, and it takes away all your momentum. How do we fix that? And if we can do that, anything is possible, with any program.

[KATHRYN]:
Yeah, I completely agree. If you’re not looking at your danger zones ahead of time you go on Spring Break, you come back, gaining a few pounds, being bloated, and it’s so easy to then say, I’m too far gone now. But if you have everything laid out ahead of time, it’s so much easier to just swerve back onto that path instead of turning around and thinking, this is just too much for me.

[ADAM]:
Yeah. And it’s all about that willpower and that decision fatigue, if you’ve got the map ready to go, the battle plan is ready as soon as you set foot back on the home base, all you have to do is execute at that point. And obviously it’s more like an on ramp scenario, it’s not right back to perfection, like, there’s going to be little bit of buffer there, maybe a few extra calories still, a few extra carbs, or fewer workouts as you… I like to incorporate like a buffer week post vacation in that example, just because it allows us to recalibrate from vacation. Usually there’s extra business that needs to be taken care of, and things like that. So, allowing yourself some buffer in there is important, but the key thing is just I don’t see people thinking ahead and just scanning the perimeter. It’s like driving, and only looking right at the end of your windshield and going well, if I run into something, then I’ll deal with it. Like, that’s a terrible way to drive your vehicle, like you gotta scan out and be like, oh, that person is slowing down, I better change lanes or I better, you know, move around and get around this slow moving vehicle. Like, you have to scan the horizon out there and see what’s coming, so you don’t have to deal with it on the spot.

[KATHRYN]:
Oh, yes, I completely agree. So, I hear that you are generously offering our audience a free course, The Seven Necessary Steps for Long Term Weight Loss. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

[ADAM]:
Yeah, yeah. Again, it’s my platform. And when I do like health keynotes and things like that, this is what I deliver, this is what I speak on. But I give it to everybody for free because I feel like this is such a game changer for people that I don’t want to put this behind a paywall. So, it’s a course – you’re gonna get some videos of me coaching you through each of the seven necessary steps. It doesn’t matter what nutrition protocol; it has nothing to do with a specific nutrition or fitness protocol. So, everything I’ve talked about can be applied to anything that you want to do. But without these seven things… when people aren’t applying these things, that’s when we see people going back and forth, back and forth. And again, it’s gonna take some work. I’ve got a workbook that I call the The Transformation Battle Plan workbook that I will walk you through on how to fill it out. You can use it for a 28-day cycle where you scan out in advance, you’re setting goals, it includes accountability anchor points, it includes habits. What I figured out was, as you know, Kathryn, it’s hard to incorporate lots and lots of different habits all at once, right? So, I created this workbook that’s involved in this free course that incorporates all those habits, but the only habit that we’re really focusing on is fill out the workbook once every 28 days. That’s the habit. And if you do that, everything else takes care of itself. So I’ve baked in all of these amazing habits like the goal setting, like the danger zone analysis, like the accountability anchor points, the nutrition, the fitness thinking, but the habit is fill out the workbook; take 15 minutes every 28 days, fill out the workbook, and the videos walk you through piece by piece how to do that, and it kind of takes care of itself.

[KATHRYN]:
That is so awesome. Thank you for sharing that with us.

[ADAM]:
I’m fired up to share it.

[KATHRYN]:
I love that. So, you know, I could talk to you for hours and hours and hours, but I know how busy you are. So, I wrap up our podcasts the same with every guest by asking you, what is the one imperfect action that you would suggest our listeners take today that will bring them closer to their best lives?

[ADAM]:
Alright, so this is the perfect question for me because you’ve seen me speak before. Every time I guest on a show, every time I speak to an audience, I end with this and it’s my implementation alarm challenge. So, what I’m not asking you to do is to fix everything in the next 24 hours; what I’m asking you to do… I know a lot of you that listen to podcasts are listening to them on your phone. What I want you to do is set the phone alarm for 24 hours from right now, just from whatever time it is, you feel free to just hit the pause button real quick and then come right back to it. Pause this episode and hit the alarm for 24 hours from right now. Your goal is, if there was one thing that inspired you that we talked about today, if there’s one thing that you want to take action on, take action on that in the next 24 hours before that phone alarm goes off – do something. Maybe it’s reading a blog, maybe it’s going to a website, maybe it’s contacting a trainer or setting up an accountability group. Anything. You have to do something because without implementation, we’re just entertaining you. Kathryn and I want to entertain you, but we want you to see a result, we want to make a difference, and that is so important to me. So set that implementation alarm for the next 24 hours, do something that’s going to just move you 1% in the right direction; not fix everything, but we’re just initiating momentum. And then just keep that rolling. And you will be surprised at how fast it builds up.

[KATHRYN]:
I absolutely love that answer and I know that all of our audience is going to want to find out more about you or connect with you What is the best way for them to do that?

[ADAM]:
Yeah I have a couple different lanes that I operate in with my brands. If you’re interested in health, weight loss, those sorts of things, go to millionpoundmission.com – that’s where my Million Pound Mission podcast kind of lives, and anywhere that you listen to podcasts. I’ve also got a podcasting brand if you are a podcaster or interested in being a podcaster you can go to castingthepod.com and check out my show Casting The Pod on any place that you listen to podcasts as well. And then I hang out on Instagram. Instagram is in fact my jam, @millionpoundmission, hit me up, send me a direct message to let me know that you listened to this episode. But also, real quick while you guys are on this episode, pop into the ratings and reviews and leave this one a five star rating review, mention me – Adam aka the PHD, Previously Heavy Dude, and let Kathryn know this was your favorite episode of all time. There’s the plug.

[KATHRYN]:
Absolutely. I know it’s definitely been one of my favorites. So y’all please, please get on there and do that. So, Adam, I’m so happy to have had you here today. Thank you so much for sharing all of your knowledge with us. I really appreciate it.

[ADAM]:
Well, thank you. And thanks to everybody that listened in, investing your time in something like a podcast episode. I know that it’s not a small thing. So, I appreciate you guys and, Kathryn, thank you for sharing your platform with me.

[KATHRYN]:
Absolutely. And y’all heard Adam, go ahead and set those phones and do just one thing between now and 24 hours from now that will move the needle forward, get you closer to the life that you want to have, and until we meet back here next week, go out and take imperfect action toward your best life.

Imperfect Thriving is a part of the Practice of the Practice Podcast Network, a network of podcasts seeking to help you thrive imperfectly. To hear other podcasts like the Bomb Mom podcast, Beta Male Revolution, or Empowered and Unapologetic go to practiceofthepractice.com/network.

If you love this podcast, will you rate and review it on iTunes, or your favorite podcast player? Also, I have a free, nine-part Blueprint to Thrive email course. It’s a step-by-step guide to find out what you want your life to look like, exactly what’s holding you back, and how to get to that life you want. Head on over to www.imperfectthriving.com/course to get the course today.

This podcast is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information with regard to the subject matter covered. This is given with the understanding that neither the host, Practice of the Practice, or guests, are providing legal, mental health, or other professional information. If you need a professional, I encourage you to reach out to one.