“Everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you're climbing it.” - Andy Rooney

If you'd prefer to listen to audio, you can enjoy a deeper dive on our corresponding podcast episode:

We all know what to do when it comes to being healthier right?

I mean, it’s not rocket science.

We can pretty much all agree that we need to eat clean, exercise more, sleep more and stress less.

So WHY do we struggle so much?

Have you ever started out, all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, ready to take on the world with your new diet and exercise program, only to feel sore and hangry by day 2 and rapidly losing interest on day 3?

So, what’s going on? Are all these programs complete crap?

Actually, most diet and exercise programs are pretty great - including those you put together yourself! If you follow the guidelines and stick to it, you will almost definitely start to lose weight and feel better.

So why do they never seem to work?

That is because nearly ALL health and fitness programs fail to recognise and address two things…

They don’t consider where you’re at right now…

And they fail to address the underlying reasons you got here in the first place.

To illustrate what I mean, imagine wanting to climb a mountain, but with a long-term knee injury, you’ve got a little unfit and overweight lately. A pretty good map from the local tourist office would give you an exact route up the mountain, but it would not include tips on how to support your knee or changes to the route to avoid sections that would hurt your knee. The map also wouldn’t give you a rehab program to fix your knee injury or address any of the underlying causes of the knee pain.

So, no matter how good that map is, you might have to turn back half-way because of knee pain, or you could get stuck up there in bad weather (because the map didn’t come with weather warnings) or even more disastrously… you could slip on your bad knee and fall off the side of the mountain.

And that, unfortunately, is what most diet and exercise programs do too. They provide you with a perfectly good map (in the form of your new diet and exercise program) that would 100% work if you stuck to it.

But that program doesn't take into account WHERE YOU ARE AT RIGHT NOW!

It doesn’t take into account that right now, you’re overweight, tired all the time and struggling to keep on top of your life, let alone your sugar cravings! The program doesn’t recognise that you just don’t have the time, motivation or energy to do all this new healthy stuff right now.

And, just like the map doesn’t help you fix the knee, most programs don’t look at the physical and emotional reasons you overeat, they don’t address why you may be feeling fatigued all the time and they rarely look at reducing the debilitating stress in your life, so you are better prepared to tackle the huge challenge of a new healthy lifestyle.

Otherwise, just like when you keep trying to climb that mountain, unprepared and with a dodgy knee, you might have to turn back. And the problem with turning back, or giving up, is that you’re often left feeling very negative and probably not all that excited about climbing the mountain at all.

The good news is that it doesn’t have to be this way.

We take a different approach in our programs, using our Burnout to Badass framework and you can easily apply that to your life too.

Rather than a program, the Burnout to Badass framework is more of a comprehensive guide to help you to climb to the peak of your mountain of health and happiness, even if you’re completely stressed out and struggling right now.

And there are six things you can use from the Burnout to Badass framework to increase your chances of reaching the top of your mountain.

1. Train for your climb

When you climb a mountain, you need to train first with smaller challenges to build up your strength and fitness so that you can take on the big climb instead of rushing up the mountain unprepared.

This is why our clients all start with small, easy hacks that better prepare them for the bigger challenges, for example by increasing their energy, kickstarting their motivation and reducing their sugar cravings.

You can grab our absolutely free 10 most essential bitesize hacks to take the same first steps that our clients enjoy on their climb to their best fit, fired-up and fabulous self.

2. Choose your own route up the mountain

After all this is YOUR journey. You need maps and guides that show and describe ALL the routes, so that you can better choose the one that works for you instead of finding yourself scaling a steep cliff when you’d much rather take the slow, winding route!

And your health journey is much the same – you need to choose the pathway that works for where you and your body are at right now. So, you need science-backed information on what diets and exercise programs work, why they work, how you can adapt them and what challenges you’ll face, so that you can select the best option for you.

A big part of that is being clear on where you WANT to go right now -this self-identity component in the Burnout to Badass framework is so often overlooked. But not everyone wants to follow the same route and that’s OK - there is a path for everyone. But choose yours BEFORE you start climbing, because if you’re not clear who it is you want to be and how you want to show up in the life of YOUR dreams, you’ll waste your precious time and energy following somebody else’s path or climbing somebody else’s mountain.

And unfortunately, most diet and exercise programs point you towards a mountain that somebody else chose, which means there is a good chance you’ll be following a path that is not right for your body, mind or soul and so you will probably never stick to it.

3. Assess any Obstacles in your Path

Before you start climbing your mountain, you also need to know what challenges and obstacles lie on the pathway and how to overcome them, for example, slippery rocks or bad weather.  So, you read everything you can, get local weather forecasts, talk to others who’ve just climbed the mountain or perhaps hire a guide.

Similarly, on your health journey there is a LOT that can hold you back, including work or family responsibilities, eating out, certain friends, detox symptoms, sugar cravings, fatigue – we call these things Kryptonites in our Burnout to Badass framework and just like you need to know what lies ahead on your path up the mountain, you need to know what’s holding you back on your journey, how to get over it or around it - or even how to push it out the way!

4. Pack the right Load

When climbing a mountain, you also need to know what to pack, but without making your pack to heavy, right?

However, if you’re like most of the people I help, then you’re carrying a very heavy load up your life-mountain - work and family responsibilities, a social life, financial and health worries and a myriad of other stresses that come with today’s hectic lifestyles. 

It’s almost like you’ve filled your backpack with a whole heap of heavy rocks, which does nothing but slow you down.  You might even be carrying a rock so heavy that you have to shove it up the mountain in front of you.  And it won’t be long before you reach a point where you just can’t go on.

So, before you rush into adding MORE rocks to your backpack in the form of a rigorous new diet and workout regime, work on emptying some of the rocks in your pack and lighten your load.  This is exactly what the Burnout to Badass framework helps you do, because lightening your load gives you more energy, more motivation and even more time to spend on what you truly want in your healthy, happy life.

5. Find Fellow Trekkers for the Journey!

Because a journey is always better when you do it with friends or share your experience with others who have gone before or are even those following in your footsteps. 

Just like the knowledge, support, motivation and guidance of others is crucial to help you up the mountain, it’s crucial that you have a support community around you on your health journey.  Spend more time with friends who also value their health, or make new friends through a healthy past-time.  Or jump in our free Facebook community, Easy Bitesize Health Hacks.

Everyone progresses SO much better when they’re part of a safe and supportive community, all exploring, strengthening, healing and constantly moving forward together.  So make sure you have like-minded people to share your journey.

6. Love your Journey

But what I want for you, most of all - more than anything - on your journey up your mountain from Basecamp Burnout to Summit Badass… that you LOVE the journey.

Because sometimes we don’t reach the top – you may have to turn back just before the end because of weather or injury or any number of reasons.

And if your only goal is to stand at the top and every step you take towards that goal is soul-destroying hard work and grind, then you have allowed the goal, or your failure to reach that goal, to define you… and you have lost the journey.

How could it feel if, instead, it is the journey that defines who you are, so that it doesn’t matter where you end up, because you are already living your best life, climbing that mountain?

Learn to explore… to discover the pathways to secret caves and beautiful picnic spots, to enjoy the climb up the mountain as much as the end result.  Take time to stop and look back at the view, to pause and smell the flowers and savour every moment of this climb… because that’s how you’ll get to the top of your best Fit, Fired-up and Fearless life.

If you enjoyed this article, then you might like to be part of the Fit, Fired-up and Fabulous Tribe!🎉 The Tribe isn't just another wellness program; it's a comprehensive transformation journey for your mind, body, and soul.

Whether you're battling burnout, struggling with weight gain, or feeling lost in a sea of unhealthy habits, the tribe is your roadmap, guide and travel buddies to rediscovering your health and happiness.