[00:00:00] Welcome to the UTA podcast, hosted by Emily O'Connor and Jordan Rudolph. The UTA podcast brings you a surprisingly fresh take on everyday topics in health, fitness, and everything in between. We want to open the door to explore new information and new solutions in a way that's easy for you to understand and apply to your own life.
Let's get into today's episode.
Introduction and Episode Overview
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Hello everybody. Welcome back to the UFFDA! Podcast. I'm Jordan Rudolph. And I'm Emily Morris. We are happy to be back with you on season four, episode 43.
Yep. And today we're talking about boring stuff. We're just keeping it boring all the way through. Boring stuff. Hopefully you guys will be entertained by, [00:01:00] uh, and learn something from the boring stuff here, but if not, it might just be one would say Our most boring episode. Yes. Boring indeed.
The Allure of New and Exciting Trends
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So, while you're falling asleep talking, while we're talking about this, the, the reason why we brought this up is because people are always looking for something new, exciting, and ex and sexy.
Uh, especially when it comes to nutrition fad diets, and there's also a lot of, um, interest around this through exercise. Uh, there's a lot of people that see different things on social media and they think that they want to do them next, or do them like, oh, that looks fun, or, wow, look at what, look at what my favorite pro golfer was doing.
I should be doing that. Um, and, and it can, it can, it can be fun. Um, it can be exciting, but what's the real benefit? Mm-hmm. Outta that, aside from saying like, oh, I'm doing what other people are doing. I'm doing what New [00:02:00] York Times said was, I'm doing what, uh, has been clinically shown to I'm doing what my favorite person does.
Like all those things are cool, but as soon as that's done, you're already looking for the next thing. Mm-hmm. And. That doesn't make you really good at any one thing, including just keeping it simple, keeping it stupid simple like we've said before. Right. And essentially we get a little bit lost in the, in the quote unquote work.
Mm-hmm. Well, and it can feel that excitement, that new, that different can feel like we are doing challenging work. But in hard work and pushing ourselves, but that might also not be moving the needle forward towards our overall goal. Right?
The Power of Routine and Consistency
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If you've listened to. Probably most other episodes of this. You know, we like to program from the end and work our way backwards, right?
What is the end [00:03:00] outcome? What are we looking to achieve? And then how do we get there? It's not random for random sake, and a lot of these times when we bop around, it becomes that random for random sake. Even though we have the best intentions of trying to do the next newest, best, different thing, oftentimes the next newest, best different thing is the same thing we've been doing all along.
We don't need something new. We simply need to continue to execute on what we are already doing, and that can become a little bit monotonous. It can become, like the title says, don't say routine or boring. I was gonna say boring, but routine is a good word because it should be routine as well. So like what?
Success Stories from the Drop Two Sizes Challenge
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What people I, I think so we just got done with our drop two sizes. Challenge round one. Mm-hmm. 2025. We say round one because there's been so much excitement about it because of people getting these crazy results. First of all, we were stupid not to keep running this thing over the last five years. We should have just kept it going [00:04:00] anyway.
People are going bonkers of online working because of the results that we've got. We, we knew about these results before we, we were even done with the challenge because people were fitting in their jeans two sizes down six weeks into an eight week challenge. So they were, they were going out of outta control.
Well, we're running it again. And if you're listening to this, whether you're a member online somewhere or not, we're doing it April 14th and we take online people for this. Mm-hmm. So there's our selfish plug that you're going to hear it again later. Also, even if you're not a member, anyone online Yes.
Anywhere. You don't have to be local. Yes. Anywhere in the world. Doesn't have to be a member. Um, we, we were going through our process of, of, of this, and. Essentially what's happening now and what we were hearing more like the language of every single participant, we had 18 people. It was changing from what we were hearing the first one or two weeks, maybe even three weeks, to what we were hearing the last one or two weeks, and it went from, wow, this is difficult.
Wow. There's a lot of change. Wow. I cleaned up my whole kitchen. Wow. I have to think about this. While this is work, while this is [00:05:00] hard. Uh, I don't think that this is gonna work. I don't know if this is working. All of these things to this is easy. This feels like routine. This is kind of boring. I don't have to think about this anymore.
This isn't work. This is my new lifestyle. I just do it. It's just part of who I am. 180 degree turn. Of what we heard. Every person, everyone. It is fricking crazy.
Embracing the Boring for Long-Term Success
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And one of the things that we were talking to them about is like, it's okay, like you didn't see anything sexy in here. Like I know you were underwhelmed when we went through our kickoff party and you were reading our habits and the guidelines of what they were getting into, and they're like, this is it.
This is seriously what I have to do. Mm-hmm. And they were, they were not as excited, but we had to make them excited. Now that we're at the end, they're like, we're excited. We fit into our jeans. We're feeling better, our workouts are better, our lives are better. I'm going to clothes shopping this weekend to find new clothes.
Um, but they, they're like, what do we do next? Like, you just keep doing what you're doing. Like this is it. Like we, we work in this until it doesn't work. And right now it's still working so well [00:06:00] like, just keep it boring. Hmm. My point to all of that backstory is, and Emma, I'll flip this over to you, is when we were first starting the D two s, the drop two size program with these people back in January, late January, end of January, yeah.
Like last week of January. Mm-hmm. Um, a lot of people, all 18 were coming from a different lifestyle, different habits, different behaviors, different routines, different circumstances, different lifestyle. Okay. And we essentially brought them together by following some core principles, and there are some of 'em that we introduced to people a little bit faster, some regardless, they have guidelines that they were following.
They were all kind of following these principles that that led to these results. Well, they were fighting their old habits and behaviors, and they were looking for something sexy, but they were actually going against their old routine. Their brain didn't wanna work anymore. They were actually doing boring stuff prior to D two s.
D two s was such a change for them [00:07:00] that it created a little bit of excitement, but it created a little bit of work and the brain had to work for this process. The brain grew, got better, the person got better through this, and now this is their new thing. So I said, Hey, you started this challenge 'cause you were being bored, like you were boring.
Finish this. Continue being boring just in a new level. Mm-hmm. Well, it, it becomes, instead of the brain recognizing the novelty of it, it becomes those themes that we just do. And that's where it can be easy. The brain likes to kind of recognize the novelty. As humans, we're trying to seek out the different and notice the different, right?
We don't notice the routine where our keys are always in the same place. 'cause we put 'em in the same place every day. But when our keys are not in that place, we notice immediately. Right. Or if there's the whole, like you move the couch six inches to one side, right? And the dog's gonna run into the couch on the six inches you moved it into, right?
They don't recognize that right away, and then they recognize it in a big way. This can kind of be [00:08:00] similar in the fact that once we start working, we find the boring. We then don't recognize, or it's challenging to recognize everything that we are accomplishing within that. Right? Leveling up in terms of.
Our food choices, making it easier for ourselves, less work for the brain, right? Like, I don't know about anyone listening to this, but less work towards that actually sounds like a better goal than trying to work harder and harder and harder and harder. Especially when hard is not required of us. Right?
When Well, it, it, it's weird because people, they don't want to work hard. Mm-hmm. To get to their goal, but it all requires a little bit of work to not work hard. Mm-hmm. Is that, am I saying that right? Yeah. Right. Did I say that? Yeah. Everything. Everything requires the work. It's where you put the effort and the emphasis into whether that be something that takes more or less of your energy perhaps [00:09:00] to accomplish.
And a lot of people don't see the work that you're doing. Okay. So I'm just thinking of like. Different circumstances right now in my head, but just in terms of the nutrition, like not everybody needs to know and see everything that you're eating. Okay. And, and not everything that you're eating needs to be made a big deal, either.
Whether it's awesome, great looking at a certain restaurant or poop, right? Um, but it's gonna require some form of work. Like anything you want is going to require some form of work in some capacity. But when we think about the people who maybe you're thinking about as the listener, I. As our listeners are thinking about him, uh, there's probably several people out there that, that base some of their own stuff off of people that they know that feel like they don't have to work towards anything to be X, y, or Z.
Mm-hmm. And that part of that might be true from certain circumstances, but people [00:10:00] probably worked or do some sort of thing to help manage, maintain, or be as they are. And that to them does not require work anymore. It's not work. Like I, I, I think you would take our 18 people and, and the anxiety levels were tremendous at, at the beginning of this, at the end, they were high from excitement because if they get to try their jeans and they all fit, and I think the other thing is, is like, oh my gosh, like how am I gonna do this on my own?
And it's like, well, we just, that last eight weeks we're to prepare you for this. Right. Mm-hmm. Like you already were, we were just giving you journals on the feedback, on the, on the guidelines that you already had. So to not do the work and to be boring, I feel like, like you don't have, you don't, um, you can be boring when you're doing the work.
Like it doesn't have to be sexy, and it doesn't have to be game changing. Like, I mean, it just doesn't, the whole thing can be boring. Yeah. One, I feel like one of the most [00:11:00] common.
Personal Routines and Meal Prep Insights
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Questions that I'll sometimes get asked on nutritionist, like, well, what do you eat? Right? Like, what do you eat for lunch? What do you, perfect.
It's gonna go this, right? What did you have for breakfast today, Anne? Yeah, no, exactly. Well, my breakfast is different, so a bad day to ask me that question, but almost every day for lunch, for the last six years, plus since I've worked here, I have eaten chicken thigh broccoli and sweet pUFFDA!To for lunch. I can confirm.
And I asked her if she's okay, if she brings something else in, like what happened? Yeah. Like it's so routine that it's. Obviously nUFFDA!Ble when I eat something different, right? So it just becomes that thing that I do because I know exactly how much to buy. I know exactly how long it takes me to cook it. I don't have to think about it.
It's easy. But to someone else, they might be like, oh my gosh, you meal prep your lunch every day. That takes so long. I have to think about this. I have to, you know, putting up all the barriers that we think of when we start to do it. To me, it's become routine. It's become easy. It's become the, quite honestly, [00:12:00] easiest thing that I make and consume on a weekly basis, probably other than water like that.
It's just routine and it's just what happens. And for somebody that's on this other side of it, like don't think for a second for somebody gained 10 pounds in a month, that they didn't do work to do that. Mm-hmm. It's a different type of work. Mm-hmm. And when we talk about boring, then somebody else that you probably know would talk to that person, they would say they were boring.
But boring works really well because it just keeps you focused. It helps you understand that there's a routine part of this, a discipline part of this, an accountability part of this, a responsibility part of this, a behavioral part to this. It doesn't have to be sexy, shiny, and new all the time. Those things help get you started.
They do not help you get, keep you going. So there's a two separate, there's a separate thing there. Those are two separate things. The the new, the exciting, the honeymoon phase, the dating phase that we all go through with different things. Those things do not keep you going. That goes away and then you [00:13:00] realize the true colors or you realize what's really working or not working behind it.
But boring works. Mm-hmm. Boring works really, really well every week for the past probably 10, 12 weeks, maybe longer. Longer, actually. I know it's longer, probably 20 weeks. Three pounds of grass fed, ground beef brown up in a container and I can use it with rice and beans or anything else that I want to, that has been a, I eat it at least once a day when we make it.
That is boring. I can put it in rice, I can put it in tortillas, I can put it in salads. I can put it in a sweet pUFFDA!To. I can have it with pUFFDA!Toes. I can have it on bread. I can put open face bread sandwiches on it if I want to. Omelets, whatever you wanna say. Not for omelets for me anymore. Kenny Ds. Um, but like boring works and boring gets results.
It's just understanding that you don't need to make this thing any bigger than it has to be. Mm-hmm. It doesn't have to match what you see on social media. It doesn't have to match what you see other [00:14:00] people doing. It has to work for you. People ask this stuff to Emily and all I all the time. It's boring as hell.
Like, you really, really wanna know what I eat like this. Actually, I took a, I did a whole documentary of this. I, I actually should show that on my social media soon. I took, uh, last week I took pictures of every meal that I had to show people what I ate. Yeah, it was oatmeal, uh, with water, berries, cinnamon pecans, and a splash of ma pure organic maple syrup with a protein shake for breakfast.
It was a smoothie with bananas and protein powder. Uh, PE and peanut butter powder, whatever for like it was mm-hmm. It was the simplest thing in the world. Like what? Like that's all you eat. Like Yeah. Yeah. Boring, right? Like it, and my sisters joked about it. Oh gosh. A long time ago. They're like, every, everything you post is just chicken with a different seasoning.
Like, well, I like chicken, right? Like cool. And sometimes I'll mix it up and make it Turkey or mix it up and make it beef, but it's, we're almost grilling season here. Yeah. [00:15:00] I will have chicken dies the season. Every week until that grill either breaks or it, like Mandy says, we're not grilling anymore. Right.
But it it is. It is gonna be every week. Mm-hmm. Chicken thighs, three pounds of chicken thighs. My grass fed beef will essentially switch over to that a little bit. Yeah. And I can't freaking wait. If you ask my dad, who I know is probably listening to this, it's always grilling season. Don't let the weather hold you back.
We, we, we grilled Tim. We grilled As long as we grilled longer than we ever have this year and that, that grill might open today. And the time of the recording, this, what is it? 26th, 27th? Yeah. 27th. 27th of March. It'll be the earliest. We've grilled since Mandy and I have lived together, so I'm, I'm getting closer every year.
Um, but yeah, we're we, we didn't even put the grill away this year. That's how close, that's pretty, that's how close we are. Yeah. That's why it's gonna happen. Yeah. But the boring stuff, getting back to this, like, yes, there's a little bit of work because it's the change of your routine. Mm-hmm. It's the change of your behaviors that you're fighting against.
You're not fighting against looking at boring. You [00:16:00] might think you are. Just change your routine up a little bit and do the work to do it, and let the boring happen as long as it's working right. Yeah. And if it's not working, that's where we can look into changing and it's, you know, spoiler, probably not as big of a change as you might think it needs to be in order for that to work.
But that's probably a whole other podcast episode in and of itself. So, but if it's working, just keep doing it. Yeah. Keeps executing on it. Keep crushing it. Ride the wave. We don't, yeah, we don't need anything different. Ride the wave.
Final Thoughts and Conclusion
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As always, thank you guys so much for tuning into this week's episode of the UTA Podcast.
Share this with someone who you think will find it valuable. Leave us a rating or review, subscribe. Download all the things that help us to grow organically, and we'll catch you in the next episode. Bye everybody. Thanks everyone.[00:17:00]
