116 - Making Weight Loss Easier: Prepping
Embrace the Power of Planning
Maggie kicks off Episode 116 with an exciting announcement about Vibe Club's enrollment, inviting listeners who resonate with the podcast to dive deeper into their weight loss journey. She likens the podcast to learning about riding a bike, whereas Vibe Club offers the hands-on experience necessary to actually ride it.
Weekend Wins and Structuring Time
Maggie and Ryan reflect on a successful weekend, emphasizing the importance of structuring time to avoid boredom and mindless eating. By planning activities and giving each other alone time, they were able to enjoy their weekend more and stick to their health goals. This simple change underscores the significant impact of planning and prepping on overall well-being.
Prepping Beyond Meal Prep
Maggie expands the concept of prepping beyond the typical meal prep to include planning for various aspects of daily life. She explains how prepping is essentially planning in advance to make decisions easier, reduce decision fatigue, and enjoy mealtime without the stress of last-minute preparations. Prepping is portrayed as a strategic tool to manage energy and time more efficiently.
Making Prepping a Gift, Not a Chore
The key to successful prepping, according to Maggie, is to view it as a gift to oneself rather than a chore. She shares personal examples of how she preps her weekly dinner meals, daily food plan, lunch, and even her gym clothes to make her intentions for the day clear and manageable. This mindset shift from seeing prepping as a restriction to viewing it as a facilitator of goals is crucial for long-term success.
Ryan's Routine Change: A Case Study
Ryan shares his experience of adjusting his sleep schedule to be more productive in the mornings. By gradually waking up earlier, he managed to align his most productive hours with Maggie's schedule, enhancing their collaboration and personal productivity. This personal anecdote further illustrates the theme of making small, sustainable changes to improve lifestyle habits.
Conclusion: Embrace Planning as a Path to Ease
Episode 116 of Maggie's podcast is a testament to the transformative power of planning and prepping in the pursuit of health and weight loss goals. By viewing preparation as a gift to oneself, listeners are encouraged to make their journeys easier, more enjoyable, and aligned with their long-term aspirations. The episode is a call to action for listeners to start seeing planning not as a limitation, but as a liberating strategy for success.
Transcript
[00:00:00] Maggie: Before we get into today's episode, I wanted to make the exciting announcement that Vibe Club is now open for enrollment. I would like to invite you to join Vibe Club if you feel like you really resonate [00:00:10] with what we talk about on this podcast and you're ready to take it deeper. The way I see it, this podcast is like me.
[00:00:16] Maggie: Telling you everything about how to ride a bike. And [00:00:20] I tell you to get on the seat and balance yourself and put one foot in front of the other. But Vibe Club is where you actually learn how to ride the bike. It's the place where I'm able to teach you [00:00:30] how to make a plan. What is best for you to eat? How much you should eat?
[00:00:34] Maggie: How do you lose weight without tracking? How do you stop quitting on yourself? How do you stop the habit of [00:00:40] emotionally eating and eating when your kids are stressing you out and you just feel like you can't take any more? That's the place where I'm able to teach you the exact process that I used to lose 90 pounds, [00:00:50] even being busy AF, okay?
[00:00:53] Maggie: So, if you feel drawn to it, I want you to head over to vibewithmaggie. com and you can sign up there. [00:01:00] Hi, I'm Maggie. I've lost a combined 90 pounds after having my two kids and struggling with postpartum depression and anxiety. I teach you how to lose weight a different way. How to fix the thoughts in your [00:01:10] head holding you back from finally taking weight loss off your to do list.
[00:01:13] Maggie: Losing weight doesn't need to be a struggle, and it's my mission to help you love the process all the way down the scale. If you're ready to [00:01:20] lose weight a different way, then let's get it. Welcome to the podcast.
[00:01:24] Ryan: How's it going?
[00:01:25] Maggie: Going good.
[00:01:26] Ryan: I have coffee here.
[00:01:28] Maggie: I know, I was just looking at it thinking that I [00:01:30] wanted some.
[00:01:30] Ryan: Does be good.
[00:01:31] Maggie: What's new? What's going on?
[00:01:33] Ryan: Oh, you know. Is there, is there
[00:01:35] Maggie: anything we need to update people on your weekends?
[00:01:37] Ryan: Oh yeah. Last weekend was good. [00:01:40]
[00:01:40] Maggie: It was like one of the first successful weekends in a long time, right?
[00:01:43] Ryan: Squeaky clean.
[00:01:44] Maggie: And that, I think that's important. I think it's important to follow up on stuff like that because we talked to [00:01:50] you guys about what we would recommend.
[00:01:51] Maggie: We talked to you about what we think would work and what you could try. And a lot of this stuff comes from our own experience. We just, we put it to the test. We go first and then we tell people about [00:02:00] that experience. So, I think it is helpful because all Ryan really did was exactly what we talked about last time.
[00:02:06] Maggie: Which was what? Structuring your time a little bit more. We decided [00:02:10] to make like the most glorious
[00:02:11] Ryan: Helped a lot.
[00:02:13] Maggie: You can get into routines for a long time where you just keep doing the same stuff and you, you keep running up against walls, but you don't change anything. You're just like, this is [00:02:20] just how weekends go.
[00:02:20] Maggie: And it was kind of like with date night, that was a change that we made that I'm like, I love that change. That's like my favorite change we made in all of 2021. But then this one was like, I had the thought [00:02:30] that like, I could go to a grocery store, I could go to Trader Joe's is what I did on Saturday. And all by myself and like be like, I'm going to be gone for two hours.
[00:02:37] Maggie: And then when I get back, you can go do whatever you want for two hours. [00:02:40] And like the amount of time that took up in the morning. We weren't distracting ourselves from our hunger. We were just doing stuff. We just normally don't have stuff planned. And [00:02:50] so everyone's just sitting around getting annoyed with each other.
[00:02:52] Maggie: And so it worked so well. But then Sunday, Sunday I had a coaching call and you still watched the kids and stuff, but we did still do trade offs. Yep. [00:03:00] And we didn't have a date night. So it was actually all of Sunday.
[00:03:02] Yeah,
[00:03:03] Ryan: we didn't have a babysitter. Yeah. Didn't have to deal with restaurant eating drama in my mind [00:03:10]
[00:03:10] Maggie: I think the like the lesson to pull out of this was that like this was a big problem that he was facing Without being able to problem solve it and he tried [00:03:20] one thing and that one thing was let's just do trade offs Let's just basically let's give each other the gift of some alone time.
[00:03:28] Maggie: Go do what you want to do I don't [00:03:30] care what you do. You want to go work go work. You want to work out? That's fine You want to go shopping? That's fine. I'll watch the kids. Don't worry about it
[00:03:35] But
[00:03:36] Maggie: like it was so much juicier because listen, like my weekend, I don't [00:03:40] have a huge problem with my weekends, but I got a huge gift out of Ryan wanting to problem solve for his weekend.
[00:03:45] Maggie: You know, it was like the most glorious shopping trip ever. So it just [00:03:50] shows you there wasn't a huge change made. There wasn't a drastic change made. There wasn't a change that like costed a lot of money. There wasn't like. Some big explosion, [00:04:00] mind blowing change. It was just a very simple change. Weekends are not structured.
[00:04:04] Maggie: I need to structure my weekends, aka I need to have something to do. And being able to do [00:04:10] something alone without a kid in tow, same with shopping, was A shift that for now is working, and we'll just keep doing that until it doesn't work, and [00:04:20] then when that happens, we will find another shift. So pay attention to that if you feel like, oh, this is going to be so hard to figure out, this is gonna, how do we get to the bottom of weekends are hard?
[00:04:29] Maggie: Like, [00:04:30] it doesn't have to be so drama. It's just like, no, weekends are different than the weekdays. I don't have as much structure. I need to do some stuff on the weekends. Did that. Problem solved. That's it. It can be easy. That's [00:04:40] what I'm always saying, and I feel like this is a good example of a time when one small shift made a hundred percent of the difference.
[00:04:47] Maggie: Yeah. It was a five percent shift. Yep. [00:04:50] Okay. So, I think that was good to update on. I was thinking for this episode, I wanted to talk about prepping.
[00:04:57] Ryan: Meal prep.
[00:04:58] Maggie: Prepping.
[00:04:59] Ryan: [00:05:00] Meal prep.
[00:05:00] Maggie: But that's what comes to your mind, right?
[00:05:02] Ryan: When you use the phrase meal prep, I think about 57.
[00:05:06] Maggie: Yes, I see it in my head.
[00:05:08] Maggie: Tupperware's on the counter. There it is. Okay, we have [00:05:10] the clear lids. Yep. The black. Okay, and they're long. And like the same exact meal. Beans, rice, chicken. We've all been there.
[00:05:18] Ryan: As if you want to eat the same [00:05:20] shit every day.
[00:05:20] Maggie: And it's like always the most boring shit. I'm not saying none of you guys make anything cool.
[00:05:24] Maggie: I'm just saying my experience with meal prep It was not a good one. It was like, yeah, the food was good the [00:05:30] next day, but it wasn't good five days later. And I see my clients run into this too. They also have a connection to meal prep is like, I get bored of it. I get sick of it. And you know how much we talk about being excited [00:05:40] about your plan, but I wanted to talk about prepping on a bigger scale.
[00:05:44] Maggie: And first of all, like why it's helpful to the brain. What do we mean by prepping? First of all, it's planning in [00:05:50] advance. I don't know if that surprises anyone because it is a little bit of a recurring theme coming out of our mouths, but prepping is planning. Prepping is thinking in advance of what [00:06:00] am I going to need to do?
[00:06:01] Maggie: What's coming up today? What's going on? What would make this easier? What can I do now so that I don't have to do it in the moment? And I noticed that [00:06:10] although I'm not a meal prepper, In the way that your brain wants to think about it. I am a prepper in the sense that I prep a lot of stuff. But the reason why I do it is because I like to look into the [00:06:20] future and I don't like doing stuff in the moment.
[00:06:22] Maggie: And I believe the same way my daily plan works, like, it eliminates decision fatigue. Like, you don't have to, and we'll get into the ways that I [00:06:30] do prep, but I first want to talk about most people's connection to prepping. And why they're against it. Why do you think people feel like, Uh, no, don't, don't make me do that.[00:06:40]
[00:06:40] Ryan: I think I've tried it in the past and, and I have just a few small problems with it. One, I don't like eating. I've, I've found very recently that [00:06:50] I, eating the same thing every day for me is not good. You can do it. It simplifies things. Yes. There are some benefits. There are pros and cons and it's going to be [00:07:00] different for everyone.
[00:07:00] Ryan: Some people can do it. I thrive with variety and I don't even need that much variety starting like three options. Yes
[00:07:07] Maggie: It's like the same option seven days in a row. You're like, this is good, [00:07:10] but it's the sixth day So we
[00:07:11] Ryan: have that and then we also have like if you're trying to meal prep for an entire week Like that shit is just sitting in the fridge.
[00:07:18] Ryan: How good can it be on day six and seven [00:07:20] nice
[00:07:20] Maggie: and microwaved
[00:07:21] Ryan: like Yeah, I there are pros and cons and and it's going to depend on the person really
[00:07:26] Maggie: yeah And for some people it's going to be a game changer [00:07:30]
[00:07:30] Ryan: Yeah. I mean, maybe there are ways that you can figure it out that I'm not thinking about because I haven't tried it many times.
[00:07:35] Ryan: This isn't just
[00:07:37] Maggie: specifically about meal prep. I think when it comes to planning [00:07:40] and prepping, because people have the same pushback with me as a coach with planning their food, you know, like prepping your meal plan for the day. I think some things that stand in people's way is [00:07:50] that they believe along with a lot of things related to weight loss, that this is going to take a ton of my energy.
[00:07:56] Maggie: I don't have the energy for this. Like, they just weigh [00:08:00] out, like, time versus value, or energy versus reward, and they're just like, I don't know. And I think that's a lie most of the time. A lot of the [00:08:10] time, the prepping that you choose to do, the prepping that you choose that you value, it doesn't take as long as you think.
[00:08:16] Maggie: And again, I'm not talking about meal prep. I will get into the ways that food [00:08:20] is included in my prepping, but I don't meal prep at all. So I just want to clear that up. I ain't got Tupperware's full of these
[00:08:26] Ryan: small prepping things that you're about to talk about are [00:08:30] like small tiny shifts that relieve like some like cognitive strain throughout the day.
[00:08:35] Ryan: The decision making stress.
[00:08:36] Maggie: Yeah. Yeah. So and then the only other thing is that [00:08:40] like, I think that people think it's boring, like it's boring and predictable. Like why are people so against predictability? It's, it's funny to me because everything we're after is certainty. [00:08:50] Yet when I give you tools to make your life more certain, you're like, I want to be spontaneous.
[00:08:54] Maggie: Like, no, that's no fun. I want to, I want to live on the edge. I want to surprise myself. It's like, no, we actually thrive off [00:09:00] routine. We thrive off of habits. We thrive off of certainty. We want to know what to expect. That's the reason most people don't get started because no one can guarantee them they're going to get what they want, you know, so.[00:09:10]
[00:09:10] Maggie: Everyone's so hesitant and they're just like, don't tell me what to do. This sounds boring. So I think those are the two things that I think stand in the way of most people. It's like, this is going to take too much effort or it's just going to make [00:09:20] my life boring and routine and to be expected and whatever.
[00:09:24] Maggie: So I wanted to first say, like, stop prepping shit that you hate. It's like a good starting point. [00:09:30] Stop meal prepping if you hate what you're eating. What other things that people prep for? Stop planning to work out seven days a week if you don't want to work out seven days a week. I'm talking about all those [00:09:40] decisions you make in advance, maybe on Sunday where you're like, here's what I'm going to do for the week.
[00:09:44] Maggie: And everything you have put on that plan, you don't actually want to do.
[00:09:49] Ryan: Yeah. I had [00:09:50] a conversation with one of my close friends recently and he was just like talking to me about, he's just kind of stuck where he was at and has asked me for advice. And he asked me about cardio. [00:10:00] I was like, do you like doing cardio?
[00:10:02] Ryan: I only do things that I like to do because you're not going to stick to it.
[00:10:07] Maggie: And what's like super in, like doing insanity [00:10:10] for four weeks, what, what is the value of that in the long term?
[00:10:13] Ryan: It's even just like jogging. Yeah. Do you like to jog?
[00:10:17] Maggie: No, but I think that I have to because that's how you lose weight and it's like, [00:10:20] that is just not true.
[00:10:21] Maggie: That's just, that's not even factual. Yeah. And we take action as if it is. I don't
[00:10:25] Ryan: know what this has to do with planning, but.
[00:10:26] Maggie: A lot of people are planning shit that they hate. That is [00:10:30] happening. And they're doing that because they think it's the only way that they can get what they want. I can only lose weight.
[00:10:35] Maggie: I can only get stronger. I can only build my endurance if I'm doing this [00:10:40] seven days a week. If I'm eating the exact same meal, no deviation, Monday through Friday, doesn't matter if it's old, suffer for your dreams. Like, That [00:10:50] mentality is like, you need to stop planning stuff that you hate. You need to get way more comfortable planning stuff that you love and look forward to.
[00:10:57] Maggie: A lot of the things that I prep, they're things that [00:11:00] I like, I'm really excited about doing.
[00:11:03] Ryan: The purpose of planning here should be to make your life easier.
[00:11:07] Maggie: Absolutely. And so if it's causing you a [00:11:10] ton of mental strain, something's off. And the thing is, there's always two options there. Is your thinking off or is what you're doing off?
[00:11:17] Maggie: Yeah. Because sometimes it will just be like, [00:11:20] you're just thinking about it in a really, really shitty way. You're making these choices, you're choosing what you're putting on this plan, and then you're rebelling against you, you know, or [00:11:30] you're just planning way too aggressively. And Rebelling against that.
[00:11:34] Maggie: So what do we need to change? That's kind of a personal thing to dive into of am I thinking about this in a shitty way [00:11:40] or am I Way over planning a bunch of shit that I don't want to do that. I hate
[00:11:46] Ryan: I have a really small example that I think is a is a good way to [00:11:50] illustrate what we're talking about with my pancakes
[00:11:52] Maggie: Okay,
[00:11:53] Ryan: I often eat pancakes and it's kind of a a weird task to blend the batter together.
[00:11:58] Ryan: Yeah. It's egg [00:12:00] whites, oats, a protein scoop, and some baking powder blended together in a small blender. And it takes me probably like, I don't know, four or five minutes to [00:12:10] prep. But I've been doing it in the morning and then just putting it in the fridge. Oh,
[00:12:15] Maggie: it's batter.
[00:12:17] Ryan: It's just batter. Yep. So, when it's time to eat, [00:12:20] there's nothing I have to do.
[00:12:21] Maggie: Because what you do have to do is get all of the ingredients, add them all, weigh them out because you're getting certain amounts in it, and [00:12:30] you're measuring it all together, and then you have to blend it, and then you have to heat up the thing, and then you have to pour it, and then you have to wait, and then you have to flip it, whereas, yes, that work is all getting done, but it's getting done in a way [00:12:40] because you're not saving any work.
[00:12:41] Maggie: You're, you're going to do that work either way, but the way that you have it set up is so that you can enjoy mealtime more by just pouring the pancake batter and using the time you have [00:12:50] in the morning that's kind of like, Oh, we're just kind of all dilly dallying around the kitchen to be like, I'm in the kitchen.
[00:12:54] Maggie: I may as well get this prepped for my literally for my future self, the future self who's like, it's ready. I'm [00:13:00] ready to eat. Now, and now all I have to do is pour my batter.
[00:13:03] Ryan: I'm saving zero time. I'm just doing it at a different time. The way that changes it for me [00:13:10] is like, when I'm ready to eat, I'm eating much faster.
[00:13:13] Ryan: Yeah. I'm not, I haven't cooked the food. Yeah. But I'm making it so like that cooking food is not drama.
[00:13:19] Maggie: Yeah. [00:13:20] So you're not like, I'm ready to eat. Okay. Now I have to wait like an extra 10 minutes longer or whatever. It doesn't seem like it would make a big difference, but it totally does. It's just setting yourself in a way.
[00:13:29] Maggie: You that you [00:13:30] make the experience more juicy, you make it more enjoyable, you make it more like, I'm in the kitchen, I don't have anything to do right now, the kids are eating breakfast, we can't leave for school yet, I'm literally standing here with nothing to do, and [00:13:40] if I can use this time where I have nothing to do, where it ain't no skin off my back, it's a very unstressful time to do it, now when I want to eat, everything's prepped.
[00:13:48] Maggie: I prepped ahead of time, I prepped for my [00:13:50] future self who when he wants to eat, wants to eat, he doesn't want to prep and eat. He just wants to get them done and eat.
[00:13:56] Ryan: And you have to look for these small little instances to make your life easier. [00:14:00] Yes. That's just all I've done.
[00:14:01] Maggie: Yeah. So I, I have a couple things that I do weekly.
[00:14:04] Maggie: I prep my weekly dinner meals. So I will like go through [00:14:10] my food list. That's something that I teach my members in Vibe Club, but like, I'll go through my food list. I'll go through, you know, the fridge, whatever I bought from my groceries, and I'll make a list of like six different dinners. And I'll just put them [00:14:20] on a list because that's going to make it easier for me when I'm making my plan in the morning.
[00:14:24] Maggie: I don't really have to do any forward thinking on my lunch stuff, so I just do it for dinners and [00:14:30] then every day I make my daily plan, which we talk about extensively on this podcast. I plan everything that I'm going to eat for that day, and then I also prep my lunch [00:14:40] every single day. I work from my house.
[00:14:42] Maggie: There's no reason for me to. Prep my lunch. Like I said, I don't meal prep. I don't have 16 containers full of my food for the [00:14:50] week, but I do prep my food for that day. And I love doing it. And I love doing it in the morning because we get Mooch up, get her some yogurt. She's, you know, eating her food. I'm just sitting around.
[00:14:58] Maggie: I cook my bacon. I do [00:15:00] everything I need to do and I treat my job like a real job where I go down and I put my food in my little fridge and I eat it whenever my body tells me it's time to eat. [00:15:10] Before, I didn't do that, and I would wait until noon, because noon was when I was allowed to eat, because that was the time that I ate, and I would come up, and I would make my whole lunch, and I'd be frustrated, and I'd be [00:15:20] hungry, and I'd be annoyed, because I want to eat now, and then I'd start eating some nuts.
[00:15:25] Maggie: Because my lunch is cooking. Yeah, and then I'd eat more like that. Do you see the problem that it [00:15:30] solved?
[00:15:30] Ryan: There's something frustrating about having to prepare your food while you're hungry.
[00:15:33] Maggie: Yes Exactly, and I don't want to prepare my food when i'm not hungry because then the chances of me eating that food When i'm [00:15:40] not hungry You know what?
[00:15:41] Maggie: I mean like making food too early Like I just like to know that it's ready and I don't have to do that for dinner for dinner It works just fine But for lunch, I really trust my body these days and sometimes i'm eating at 9 [00:15:50] 30 in the morning A lot of the time i'm eating around 11. That's breakfast. I'm never eating at noon Like that was not a good plan for me, you know, so I I prep my [00:16:00] food I walk my ass down to my basement to my office.
[00:16:02] Maggie: I have my chips. I got my ranch in a little container I got my drink I got my fork like everything is prepped so that when I'm [00:16:10] hungry I can just eat
[00:16:11] Ryan: the point here is that you have enough mind drama Yes,
[00:16:17] Maggie: I do not like the days when I'm like, Oh, [00:16:20] should I cook? Should I eat a hot lunch or should I eat a cold lunch?
[00:16:22] Maggie: Should I, should I prep? Should I not prep? Is that my mood? Then the mood for this? Is this ready? Is this prepped? Is this thawed? Is this? That's what's happening in your [00:16:30] brain. And we have no idea how much of that is happening. And I see it when I don't make a plan.
[00:16:33] Ryan: Even outside of prepping stuff and planning, like you're going to have mind drama around urges and everything [00:16:40] else that comes along with.
[00:16:40] Maggie: You need that space for other stuff. Yeah. Yeah. You don't want to use it for, what do I it's not related, but it is. Totally related. You only have so
[00:16:47] Ryan: much energy in your brain. And that's the thing. If you
[00:16:49] Maggie: drain yourself [00:16:50] with decisions about food all day long, then when the urge shit kicks in, not a chance.
[00:16:54] Maggie: Yeah. Because you've already exhausted yourself because you didn't know where you wanted to pick up your lunch from and you [00:17:00] spent all day trying to figure out, I don't know, should I, should I eat that? Should I eat something that's on my plan while I've had a stressful day? Should I just have a chicken sandwich or should I get a salad or should I, You know, it's not just even [00:17:10] decisions about what I want.
[00:17:11] Maggie: It's this decision of like, what should I choose based on how this day is going? Like, it's been a shitty day. Therefore, [00:17:20] I just deserve a break. I'll just go to McDonald's or whatever. It's like you want those decisions made. So that when I say prep and when also when I say making your plan juicy, I don't just mean the food on your [00:17:30] plan, the plan for your day.
[00:17:32] Maggie: And the way that I plan for my day is these things that I'm telling you about is doing my weekly meal plan, my daily food plan, prepping my lunch. [00:17:40] And then the other thing that I do is I drink ketones every morning. And if you follow my Instagram stories, you know I'm up at 4 o'clock every morning. When I wake up at 4, I don't want to hobble around my [00:17:50] kitchen to fill up a water bottle.
[00:17:52] Maggie: Every single night, I prep a water bottle. Another thing that I do is I work out Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Every Sunday, Tuesday, [00:18:00] Thursday, as I'm getting ready for bed, taking my makeup off, I go into my closet and I grab a bra, underwear, pants, socks, [00:18:10] Shoes and a jacket. All of it is put on my counter and I don't even think about it anymore.
[00:18:15] Maggie: Doesn't matter that it's not even a daily thing. It's just tomorrow's the gym. Do you know how much less likely I was to [00:18:20] work out when I had to find all of that crap in the dark at 4am? Now it's just like, I'm dressed. I'm ready to go without even thinking about it.
[00:18:27] Ryan: I need to start doing that.
[00:18:28] 10 out of
[00:18:29] Maggie: 10 [00:18:30] recommend.
[00:18:30] Ryan: Because I am finding stuff in the dark. You're fumbling around. Yeah. Same with your water. I've been waking up at 5am. I don't know if
[00:18:36] Maggie: We have not talked about this. Can we talk about it just super quick?
[00:18:39] Ryan: Just a little, uh, [00:18:40] side combo? Yeah. Because
[00:18:41] Maggie: it's big. It's really big. Ryan and I, like, haven't gone to bed at the same time together.
[00:18:45] Maggie: Have we ever? Maybe at the beginning of our relationship? Did I stay up later?
[00:18:49] Ryan: And that's because you go to [00:18:50] bed at 8.
[00:18:51] Maggie: Okay, but now you do too. I know. So it's been a really long time and he'd always make fun of me and be like, you go to bed so early and he'd always say I wake up so early. But also the thing about [00:19:00] me is that like, I'm on fire in the morning.
[00:19:02] Maggie: And it's a good time for Ryan to be with me, especially because we work together in this business, you know? Right. So he decided when and [00:19:10] why.
[00:19:10] Ryan: I decided the end of last year that I was going to shift my schedule two hours earlier. Okay. Two hours. Because, because between 8 and 10 p. [00:19:20] m., I used to be really productive during that time years ago.
[00:19:23] Ryan: Yeah. And I always clung on to like, okay, whenever it goes to bed, I'm productive. That's my me time too. But it just turned into this thing where I'm [00:19:30] just too tired and I would just sit on the couch and watch, and be hungry. Yeah. And, yeah.
[00:19:34] Maggie: And be hungry. He, he would just be sitting around, everyone would be asleep, but he'd be like, what the hell am I supposed to do?
[00:19:38] Maggie: I would plan
[00:19:38] Ryan: to eat something every day at 9 p. m.
[00:19:39] Maggie: [00:19:40] Yeah. Yeah. Because the hours between dinner and his bedtime, I mean that was like five hours or something. Yep. Yeah.
[00:19:45] Ryan: So I just, I just decided I was going to wake up two hours earlier, [00:19:50] go to bed two hours earlier, and be productive as possible in the morning.
[00:19:53] Ryan: That's why I did it.
[00:19:55] Maggie: And how did you do it?
[00:19:56] Ryan: I started nudging my wake up time 15 minutes [00:20:00] earlier for three days, and then I would nudge it 15 minutes earlier for three days, and then 15 minutes earlier for three days, and then Our Christmas trip, we had to wake up really early to fly out to [00:20:10] California at like five and then Mooch was waking up super early in California.
[00:20:13] Ryan: So like I jumped at like an hour because of that. Yeah, it wasn't like it was like
[00:20:18] Maggie: forced for three days,
[00:20:19] Ryan: but it was [00:20:20] easy. It was a lot, a lot easier than I thought it would be. Either.
[00:20:22] Maggie: Yeah, it was just like, well, what are we supposed to do? Like, so
[00:20:24] Ryan: when I came home, I just stuck to it and then I wake up at five and I go to bed at eight now.
[00:20:28] Maggie: It's amazing. And we just [00:20:30] have this, like, I'm telling you, like something about the mornings is magical.
[00:20:33] Ryan: I've always had this, this big brain drama about, Getting up so early it ended up being a lot easier [00:20:40] than I thought it would be
[00:20:40] Maggie: and do you enjoy that time?
[00:20:43] Ryan: Yeah it's time but before the kids wake up that I can Wake up and get some caffeine flow in and
[00:20:49] Maggie: get some [00:20:50] steps in
[00:20:50] Ryan: get some steps in and get some work done really Yeah, I try to figure out what I'm gonna do beforehand and The same volume of
[00:20:58] Maggie: productivity is not the [00:21:00] same between eight and ten at night and five to seven in the morning.
[00:21:03] Maggie: So I thought that was cool and I mostly like it because of the way that he did it just being like 15 minutes. But most people would be like, that's not enough. That's not fast enough. [00:21:10] That's long. I'll just, I'll just wake up two hours early and feel terrible. You know, I just
[00:21:13] Ryan: knew if I had jumped two hours earlier, it would have worked.
[00:21:15] Ryan: Right off the bat cold turkey. I would have a few like really miserable days and I just didn't want that.
[00:21:19] Maggie: [00:21:20] Yeah, and so and what's the rush? Like it was just something he wanted to do and he did it in a way that was very sustainable to now. It's just what he does and that's the best way to [00:21:30] make changes.
[00:21:30] Maggie: It's really easy now.
[00:21:31] Ryan: I just fall asleep read it. 8 or 8. 30 I'm, I'm out.
[00:21:35] Maggie: And that's what's up, the whole, the whole family's asleep by 8. 30. Weird. So yeah, I think, hopefully that [00:21:40] helps you guys understand prepping and planning at a deeper level. I think the most remarkable thing about everything that I prep is none of it feels like [00:21:50] a chore to me.
[00:21:51] Maggie: Every bit of it feels like a gift to me and I think that's the problem. That's where people get it mixed up Yeah, this feels like a punishment. This feels like putting myself in a box. This feels like taking [00:22:00] away all my spontaneity I don't see any of it that way. I'm like, this is a gift to me So I don't have to be hungry and cook my food This is a gift to me So I don't have to scour the kitchen every night to figure out what we [00:22:10] have for dinner This is a gift for me because I don't want to stumble in the dark trying to find all my gym clothes All of it is a gift to me.
[00:22:16] Maggie: It's a gift to my future self Who wants to do these things and I [00:22:20] want to make it on as easy as possible on her. What will make it easier for her to do this? What will make it easier for me to get into the gym? Just putting my clothes right on, then I'm ready to go. All of it [00:22:30] has a higher purpose, but it didn't take a lot of stress and drama to get myself to prep these things and I think one of the biggest reasons for that is because I see it [00:22:40] as a gift.
[00:22:41] Ryan: Yeah, I mean you're here and, and your goal is here and there's friction in between. Yeah. From getting you to where you are to be. Like into the gym to work out. Exactly. Yeah. And if you [00:22:50] can remove as much friction as possible, you're going to get there a lot easier.
[00:22:53] Maggie: That's one of the things that James Clear says.
[00:22:54] Maggie: He says, make it as easy as possible. I believe that prepping in all these different forms that we've talked about [00:23:00] is the way that you make the the creation of habits as easy as possible, because you're removing some of that friction. You're removing what makes it hard. Well, I wake up so early and I can't find my [00:23:10] clothes and I don't even know if my underwear, whatever, you know, like you have all of these, honestly, just excuses.
[00:23:16] Maggie: You have all these excuses for why it's hard to work out. And [00:23:20] this is just one easy thing that just says we're doing it. We already planned it. Clothes are out. I'm dressed. Let's go. Okay. See you guys next week.
[00:23:26] See [00:23:30] [00:23:40] ya.