Updated: December 12, 2023
Episode 149. Why Routines Are Great For Weightloss (and Life)
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Creating your own daily routines makes losing weight even easier than I’m already making it for you.
There are only 3 simple steps:
1. Make a plan.
2. No talking to yourself like an asshole.
3. Do a little better today than yesterday.
Our brains love routine, and they make life easier.
The problem most people have is that they HAVE routines; they just are routines that SUCK for weightloss.
You routinely hit that snooze button.
You routinely hit that pantry at 4pm.
You routinely check out of your life by scrolling Facebook checking into someone else’s.
Most of us go through life UNCONSCIOUSLY building routines.
Today I’m going to teach you how to CONSCIOUSLY DESIGN a routine that helps you live a better life.
It’s not about waking up at the crack of dawn just for the hell of it.
It’s not about jumping out of bed ready to slay the day.
It’s not about judging yourself for what you’re doing or not doing right now.
It’s about deciding what you’re gonna do.
Learning how to slowly shift from what you do now to what you want to do.
Then showing up for yourself to do it.
You got this.
We’re doing a deep-dive into all things routine on today’s podcast. Don’t miss it.
Transcript
Go to www.pnp411.com to sign up for Corinne’s free weightloss course.
Corinne is often asked about her morning and evening routine. Her routine is pretty irrelevant in your life because it’s the routine that works for her. It has taken her years to develop a routine she loves that she can stick to. You’ll have to work to develop one that you love.
Corinne was recently on a business trip with a fellow coach, Katrina Ubell, and they were out at dinner chatting. Katrina wants to write a book and was lamenting about the fact that Corinne gets up at 4:30 in the morning. She has realized that if she wants to write, she needs to get up early in the morning or that book will never get written. Now, when Corinne gets up, she texts Katrina for accountability.
The first few days of a new routine will probably be hard. Be prepared for that. This is a process that happens over time. You may have to try different things to figure out what works for you.
The more you practice your routine, the easier it will be to get back into the habit after you get home from vacation or after being sick. It’s okay to create a watered down version of your routine when you are away on a trip. Your brain will find comfort in staying semi-close to your normal routine.
When starting a morning routine, you body is going to be conditioned to what you currently do. If you want to get up at 5am, either get up at 5am (and really get up, no snoozing) or get up 10 minutes earlier than normal each week until you get up at 5am.
When you get up at 5am, at first just plan on getting out of bed, sitting on the couch and drinking coffee. After a couple days, maybe add in writing a few sentences in your journal. Figure out what you eventually want your morning routine to look like and slowly add in the different parts of it over time. Don’t try to do everything at once, it’s too overwhelming and will make it more difficult to stick with. You need to figure out a way to do this that is easy to figure out, is easy to execute, and has minimal drama.
Think about what you’re doing now. You probably have a bit of a routine now. You can start slowly adding in little things to your current routine. Most of us have very routine lives with pops of things here and there.
Corinne gets up at 4:30am, goes to the bathroom and puts on workout clothes (including her heart rate monitor). She doesn’t workout right away, but is less likely to skip a workout later if her workout clothes are already on. Then she goes and makes coffee. She drinks water while the coffee is brewing and starts journaling. If she’s creating a new program for her members, then she’ll set a timer for an hour and work on the project before journaling. She creates her plan for the day after journaling. Then she works out (she does whatever is on the schedule for the day). After that she showers and puts on make-up (if she has to be on camera). She works the rest of the day.
Corinne’s evening routine is the weakest part of her day. She’s not good setting an end time for work. She tries to stop working around 5pm or a little sooner once her son is home from school. She prefers to spend her evenings hanging out in her bed. She takes her Doc Parsley’s Sleep Remedy and drinks quite a bit of water. Then she and Chris will watch a show together. Occasionally, they’ll watch a movie if they get to bed earlier. Around 7pm, she puts the phone down for the night. If she gets on the phone after that, she’ll get sucked in and has a hard time falling asleep at a decent time. She is asleep by 9pm at the latest most evenings because she gets up so early.
Corinne has to be careful about keeping set work hours and staying off of her phone. She compares working to snacking. It takes effort to stay away and not keep going back for more. Corinne said that sometimes her husband and son aren’t as much fun as her members, but just because they aren’t as much fun doesn’t mean she shouldn’t be there hanging out with them. Her members are tempting and they are good and are like a snack. She feeds off of the love from the members the way she used to feed off of a bag of chips. She has to work on the urge to not work all evening and relax and focus on her family.
Kathy has non-negotiables in her daily routine. One of them is the time she spends with her husband Ken, which Corinne calls Kathy’s Ken doll. Kathy doesn’t work on Saturday’s because time she spends with her husband.
Corinne said that Chris loves to work just like her. They have to be intentional to stop working so that they can spend time with Logan. Corinne has slowly been rearranging her schedule to not take calls after a certain time. She wants to get calls done while her son is at school. She only has a couple more years of him living at home. She doesn’t want to look up one day and wish that she would have spent more time with him while he was still living there. Corinne’s son has started to create a routine for himself. If he can do it, so can you!
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