Join in on the fun with my free
2024 Fitness Challenge!
Happy Holidays, friends!
I wanted to give you guys something useful this year for Christmas, and I’ve been racking my brain for a while about how to best do this!
I'm writing this on Christmas Eve in anticipation of all of the New Years resolution-ers out there aiming to improving health and fitness in the year to come. I know it's a cliche, but I actually love New Years resolutions! A new year is often a chance to see things in a new light. A chance to look back on the past year to see what went well and what you'd still like to accomplish. Sadly, New Years resolution time is also a time of predatory/fear-based marketing. And I'm not a fan of that.
I wanted to give you something for free this year. From me to you. No strings attached. No commitments. No sign-ups. Just a little nudge and a community for a little accountability and encouragement in the year to come.
Here's the idea:
What if instead of paying for a Noom membership or another cookie-cutter workout program or whatever is being sold to you, you bought yourself new gym clothes, a step tracker, a new water bottle, sneakers, lifting gloves, home weight set etc. as you made progress towards your goals?
I wonder… how much money you would save if you didn’t buy another new program this new year, and whether that money could be used to help strengthen your new habits instead of lining someone else’s pockets?
To be real, coaching can be helpful on a fitness journey. But, it’s most helpful when a coach empowers you to learn how to take care of yourself. And many coaches are very reluctant to do that because they rely on repeat customers… The coaches who are probably least likely to do this are the ones with many, many clients. You might see them bragging about having hundreds (or thousands?) of clients at a time. With a client-load like that, there's not room for much teaching. Think about the incentives at play in these scenarios... Asking a coach who has a huge client roster to take extra time to teach you how to set your own eating plan or workout plan would be kind of like asking a commercial fisherman to teach you how to fish once, when he could make far money every day by selling you fish. Selling fish to many people is probably more profitable for most than teaching a few one-on-one. Really teaching someone in a way that is individualized and allows for back and forth is very time-consuming. A few fishermen who are maybe the absolute best at teaching fishing could do alright with fishing lessons. And maybe they could automate lessons or pre-record them. But, the easier path would almost always be to catch a boatload of fish as easily and cheaply as possible and to then sell them at a premium to a bunch of people. Easiest of all would be to use an automated fishing system to farm/gather hundreds or thousands of fish and to sell them for cheap. I don’t know jack about fishing, I’m gonna be real. Maybe this analogy is falling apart.
I do know a little bit about fitness and about fitness coaching, having been at this for a few years. And you better believe that coaches make more money when clients stay with them longer because they don’t have to do all the initial onboarding again and again with as many new customers. Repeat clients are where it’s at. Finding new clients and getting them spun up is time-consuming.
As far as coaching options go: personalized coaching is the most expensive option, for good reason. Obviously, good coaching requires a lot of effort on the part of the coach. Personalized coaching can run anywhere from $200-$500+/mo. Companies like Noom and WW will sell you their automated app/subscription services for a much cheaper rate of somewhere between $20-$70/mo. And then there are the companies/individuals selling generic meal plans and/or workout plans (one size fits all). These plans are usually cheaper than personalized coaching and more expensive than the big industry fitness/weight loss programs. This might be something like a fancy tracking app with recipes integrated into it or a workout/training app with the same program for all purchasers.
I've personally done them all. And they all have their uses. But, at the end of the program, the coaching, the plan... you need to have some idea of how you are going to sustain this indefinitely.
So, my proposition to you today is: What if you paid yourself to get fit this year instead of paying someone else?
It sounds kind of weird, but this was actually the exact strategy I used to initially lose weight and become more active. I didn’t hire a coach. I didn’t pay for a program. I saved up some money and gave it back to myself as incremental incentives for reaching incremental goals. And then I used that money to buy items that would help me make even more progress towards my goals.
Worth a try, right? Think about it - if you pay a coach, say, $300/mo for the next 6 months, you will spend $1800 total. What if you doled that money out to yourself as a reward for measurable progress towards your goals? I call it the "Treat Yourself!" plan.
Here are some ideas:
I’ll give myself $100 to spend on gym clothes for every 2 lbs I lose.
I’ll buy myself those new gym shoes I’ve been wanting when I lose 10 lbs.
I’ll buy myself a new Apple Watch or step tracker after 3 weeks of consistently tracking my food and staying within 200 calories of my daily macro goals.
I’ll buy myself new leggings when I’ve showed up at the gym and lifted for 5 days/week for 1 month.
I'll put a dollar in my new purse fund every time I go for a walk.
Use your imagination and set the dollar amount and goal to whatever works for you, obviously!
The key here is to set measurable incremental goals. That way the goals build on each other and you can clearly evaluate yourself on whether you met your goals or not.
I am not trying to undercut anyone’s business, but here’s the deal: People spend more on health/fitness than ever and yet - we are in the worst shape ever and actually getting worse each year. Most Americans gain unwanted weight annually as they age and most Americans become more and more inactive/sedentary every year.
Spending more isn’t really working, is it? What if this year you take responsibility for your own health and fitness journey instead of outsourcing it yet again and hoping someone else will save you/kick your butt into gear?
Because I have to ask… how are you going to maintain your results if you only obtain them by blindly following someone else’s plan/instructions without learning how to set up your own nutrition and workout plans?
Here’s the 2024 Fitness Challenge:
You give me nothing. Zip. Nada. You give yourself the chance to figure this out and you commit to investing in yourself.
I know it’s hard, but I’m here as your support/cheerleader.
Because I’m about to lose 20 lbs in roughly 6 mos for my summer comp. It's gonna be tough! But I know I can do it. Why not lose weight along with me if that’s your New Years goal? We can support each other.
A lot of people set a New Years Resolution to lose weight. Think of it this way: If you lose about 1 lb per week, you can easily get a 20 lb weight loss goal accomplished by summer 2024. But, really, the prompt below could be adjusted for any goal. So let's get to it!
Challenge Instructions:
1. copy and paste the following text into ChatGPT (or any other LLM), change the blanks into your own info:
Pretend you are a fitness coach. Write me a 6 month _____ (gym or home) lifting program that optimizes hypertrophy with ____ lifts per week.
Write me a 6 month sample food plan with weekly grocery shopping list (or macronutrient plan if you want to track macros instead of following a meal plan) specifically tailored to my goal of _______ (losing) ______ (lbs) in 6 months. My personal info is: ____ (height), _______ (weight), ______ (gender), aged ______. I currently workout _____ days/week.
2. Print out/save the plan the LLM gives you based on your data*. Look over it, make sure it's: clear, makes sense for you, and that it’s actually doable/realistic. If the plan needs tweaking, keep refining it with more follow up prompts as needed. Eg. “I don’t eat meat, please replace meat in the meal plan above.” or "My gym doesn't have a leg press machine, please replace all exercises using that machine." Follow your plan every week and make a check mark in your calendar or a note on your phone for each successful week of training and eating that you accomplish. That's it!
Challenge Progress Check-ins:
I’ll post my results and updates each week of the new year on my Instagram and FB and you can let me know how your progress is going too either publicly or privately and I can cheer ya on as we go and say something encouraging! You can also just follow along and not share your own updates - that's perfectly okay too. If you post something on your own page just tag me so I can come shower you with encouragement. You can also use the hashtag: #drjfitnesschallenge
*Note: Check my blog post on writing effective fitness plan prompts for more info on this if you need a little more guidance about how to use Large Language Models.
Don’t have a weight loss goal? Cool! Just tweak the prompt above for whatever your goal is (deficit, maintenance, surplus). The same general idea holds no matter what your goal is. Let’s get organized together!
Anyways, feel free to use me as your accountability buddy for the new year. I’d love to help. Y’all help me every day by just being here. I would be honored to have the chance to give back to you in a little way. Love you and appreciate you. Thanks for all of your support and I hope this little challenge helps you as you progress towards your personal goals!
Happy Holidays and best wishes for a very bright New Year.
With love,
Dr. Julie
Page photos in header and footer by Jared Ribic of Identity Crisis Studio
Page photos in slideshow by Dave Gallagher
Hair and makeup (all photos) by Kimberly Boyd
