The Unf*ck Your Fitness Podcast

145. New Year, New Focus: How to Actually Achieve YOUR Fitness Goals in the New Year

• Kristy Castillo

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I can’t believe it, but…we’ve made it to the last episode of 2024!


As we gear up for 2025, you may be tempted to set a ton of New Year’s resolutions. I used to do this too; I would write my resolutions down, lose the paper I wrote them on, and totally forget about them all together!


Instead of going the whole ‘traditional resolutions’ route, I want to encourage you to do something a little different. When you’re thinking about the year ahead, I want you to find clarity on your ‘focus’, and get SUPER specific on what this is for you, because this can apply to all areas of your life!


And no..this shouldn’t look or sound like everyone else’s around you. When you think about your health and fitness, what is your focus, and WHY are you focused on that? Does that actually make sense for you, and what you want your fitness journey to look like? What is your environment like, and who are the people you’re surrounding yourself with?


What you focus on matters so, SO much. Learning to control your focus and being super intentional with this can lead to lasting change, and totally transform your life!


I hope you choose to focus on YOU, and what is truly possible for YOUR fitness journey. Let’s go into 2025 with laser focus, intentionality, and determination - we’ve got this!!



In this episode, we cover:

  • What I like to focus on instead of setting New Year’s resolutions
  • Getting super specific on your ‘focus’ for the upcoming year
  • Why your environment, the people around you, and what you’re telling yourself matters
  • The importance of focusing on YOU on your fitness journey + how to *actually* do this right now
  • What my fitness ‘focus’ is over the next 90 days
  • The power of intentionality + getting support with your fitness goals
  • Focusing on the path rather than the outcome for your goals



Links/Resources:

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Un-Fuck-Your-Fitness Podcast. I am your host, Christy Castillo, and I'm here to give you real talk and cut the BS so you can actually enjoy building a body you love. I'm a personal trainer obsessed with giving you simple action steps to take you from feeling stuck to feeling sexy. Let's go.

Speaker 2:

Hey guys, what's up? Welcome to today's episode. If you are listening, on the day that this episode is released, it is New Year's Eve, so happy new year. I can't believe that's happening. 2025.

Speaker 2:

I saw a meme or just like a quote, I don't know what they're even called. I saw something, a post on Instagram yesterday saying that we're almost to 2025, which means the big Y2K when 1999 was turning to 2000 was such this huge deal and it was 25 years ago. The fact that I remember that pretty clearly is crazy. So I don't know, some days drag by and the years fly by. I guess that's a corny quote that I've heard before. Right, like the days drag by but the years go so quickly. Whatever, it's true and cliche and corny, but all of the things, all of that to say 2025, what are we going to do with it? Right, I'm not a big New Year's resolution person.

Speaker 2:

I do like to kind of reflect on the last year, although the last few years I feel I do fear I feel since 2020, things have just been kind of a shit show, kind of crazy, kind of surreal. A lot has happened in my life and in the world and all the things my business. It's hard to reflect on the year itself. I feel like the last few years have been. They just kind of all run together for me and time just really goes fast. So I do like to reflect on the last year and kind of look through my photos and see what we did, but I'm not. I don't know. I don't like to reflect too much on the past and I don't like to. This is going to sound bad. I don't like to look too far or too much into the future. I don't like to set myself up for failure.

Speaker 2:

And yes, that may be a little bit of self-sabotage based on a couple episodes back, but I used to do a New Year's resolutions. I used to get out some paper and literally write New Year's resolutions at the top, 2016 resolutions, whatever and it was always like save more money, eat better resolutions, whatever. And it was always like save more money, eat better, lose weight, be a better mom, obviously all the things. But I would write them down and then I never had a plan to actually do those things, so it was just like I wrote down you have a spiritual goal, you have a physical goal, you have a financial goal, you have a personal goal, all the subjects and I did all that and there's nothing wrong with that. I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with that, of course. But the thing is for me that I never really saved more money, I never really got in better shape, I never really did the things on my list because I would literally write them down on a piece of paper and then lose the paper. I don't know. I was never taught to create a plan and do those things and I was always setting myself up for failure because I never. I don't even know if I really want it. Of course I wanted those things, but when I think about it, did I really understand what I was saying? Or was I just saying I wanted those things because of course I should want to be a better mom and lose weight and have more money and all the things? But those are all just so basic.

Speaker 2:

How did I expect to? If nothing changed in my day-to-day, if nothing changed from my hour-to-hour day-to-day, week-to-week, month-to-month? If I did everything this year that I did last year, everything's kind of going to look the same, right? So I'm not a big New Year's resolution person. What I am big on is kind of reflecting and just saying did last year go how I want it to? Did I affect as many people's lives? Did I affect their lives in the right way? Did I say things that I wanted to say? Did I post what I wanted to post? Are things looking how I want them to feel for my business?

Speaker 2:

Financially, did I meet my income goal? Did I donate? Did I spend wisely? Physically, did I meet my goals? Did I gain more muscle? Did I stay on the right path? Did I further help and improve my relationship with food? There are more substantial things and more individual things. If you've noticed, it's not just like lose weight and save more money. It's like did I help more people in my business and bring in more money than the year before? Yeah, I hope so. That's the goal. Did I build more muscle? Did I eat better quality food? Did I make strides in the right areas of my life to be able to get to the goal that I want? And that is what I want to talk about.

Speaker 2:

Is your focus? What are we focused on this year? And am I focused on just writing down New Year's resolutions and then losing the piece of paper because I didn't really have focus? I lacked focus or am I moving into this year saying, okay, I'm gonna focus on creating more podcast episodes, creating episodes around topics that I align with and that really, really help my clients and hopefully they will then want to work with me and I can help them even further, which will then increase my financial amount.

Speaker 2:

Right, am I going to better my relationship with food? Am I going to eat better quality food? Am I going to treat my body better? Am I going to show up consistently? Am I going to build muscle this winter and lose some fat in the spring and summer? Am I going to be focused on the day-to-day items that I have to do to get to my goal? If I want to make more money, I personally have to help more people, and I want to do that in a way that aligns with me and that makes sense and that actually helps people.

Speaker 2:

If I want to build more muscle and look better, feel better, I'm going through perimetopause, so building muscle is important. What do I want to look like? I do want to build more muscle. I do want to maintain my muscle. I do want to change how my body looks, or at least maintain. So if that's my focus, I'm going to have to get into the gym consistently and lift with purpose, and I'm going to have to eat better quality foods and I'm going to have to hit my protein goal. And I'm going to have to hit my protein goal and I'm going to have to hit my steps every single day. That's it. Do I want to be a better parent to my children? Yes, so that means I'm going to have to create time to spend with them, have conversations with them that really matter, be at their events and help them through things and really understand their life and what they're going through and who they are and how they think, so that I can refer to the things that they're going through and help them in the way that matters.

Speaker 2:

So, focusing on what you're going to change because of the outcome right, so that's what I really want to drive home here is to control your focus and to think about your focus. So, let's say, for 2025, our word is focus, and what is it? It might take you the first half of this year to figure out what is my focus. What am I focused on? Who am I focused on? Why am I focused on that? Does that actually make sense for me or am I saying, yes, I'm focused on building more muscle and changing my body physically, but your actions aren't proving that, then maybe you're not actually focused on that, you're just saying it. So think about your focus, control your focus. What you focus on matters.

Speaker 2:

Do you ever notice that if you find a car you like I love Mustangs. So if I think about it, I'm going to see a Mustang everywhere and be like, oh my God, there's a Mustang. Holy shit, there's a Mustang over there. There's Mustangs everywhere, right? If you're looking for specifically a red Ford Mustang, you're going to see red Ford Mustangs in more places than you did. You're going to see more of them probably this week than you did all last month, all last year, because you're focused on it. It's not that more of them exist or that they made more of them this week and more people bought them and are driving them around you. It's that you're looking for it. You're focused on the Ford Mustang, you're focused on the color red. You're focused on it and so it's going to show up, it's going to present itself. You're going to notice it. You don't notice things unless you're focused on it.

Speaker 2:

I know that when I'm pissed off, everything makes me mad. If I'm pissed and that's my focus like I am so fucking pissed off at so-and-so today. I don't know myself today, whatever Something made me so mad. Right, I'm mad through and through, like to my core. I am pissed off. From that point on, if I continue to be pissed off and just think about how pissed I am, everything is going to make me mad. Vice versa, if I'm very happy and something's going really well and I'm just so chipper and so excited and something good happened and I'm looking at everything like everything's so cute and everything's so good and everything's so happy because I'm happy. So when I'm pissed, everything around me looks like shit and I'm pissed off at it. When I'm happy, everything around me looks happy and everything's good. Right, but that's my focus. My focus is I'm either I'm pissed or I'm happy.

Speaker 2:

It's not necessarily that things around me change so much. It's that my attitude towards them changes, and this is not something you'll think all the time. I'm often pissed, I'll be honest. Perimenopause I've been kind of sick. Things are just. It's a rough time of year. I'll be honest, I'm pissed off quite a bit right now and that doesn't mean that everything around me is terrible, but it means that I view it in that lens and I don't stop and think like, okay, christy, you're pissed off right now, so just calm down, maybe I should. Sometimes I do that and I think I just need to go wash my face, I need to go take a shower, I need to go work out, I need to go for a walk, I need to chill the fuck out. But a lot of times I don't and I'm just walking around in that attitude, right, and we're all doing the same thing.

Speaker 2:

But your environment also matters. So your focus matters. But when you're surrounded with certain things that can change your outlook, that can change how you view things. Who you surround yourself with matters. So your environment matters physically and your environment matters personally. The things you think matter, the way you talk to yourself matters. So start to focus on all of those things in 2025. It's going to be.

Speaker 2:

What does my home look like? Is it messy? Do I walk in my house and instantly feel like, oh my God, these countertops. I just want to blow them right off because there's so much crap on my countertops. I just want to blow them right off because there's so much crap on my countertops. It stresses me out I'm saying that from experience, who you surround yourself with matters. If you look around your life and you're like these people aren't going anywhere. They're constantly negative, they're bringing me down, they don't want to go to the gym with me. They don't want to eat healthy with me. They make fun of me when I say I'm not drinking. Maybe change who you're hanging out with, right.

Speaker 2:

The things you think, think positively about yourself, the way you talk to yourself matters. Christy, you can work out today. You do have time. You can do it. You are worth it. Let's go right. So your environment, who you surround yourself with, the things you think, the things you say to yourself and other people, the way you feel, the things you say to yourself and other people, the way you feel, the way you outlook, your focus all matters. So, as far as your fitness goals, I would love for you to focus on you and to start figuring out what you want and then focus only on that. So, yes, since we are unfucking your fitness, this topic of focus can apply to your entire life, but let's bring it down into your fitness game. I want you to start focusing on you, especially as women. I can only talk as a woman. We focus on a lot of other things and a lot of other people.

Speaker 2:

I focus a lot on my work, the way my home looks and feels and, trust me, I don't mean to say that it's beautiful and magical and all clean, but it does. I want it to be clean, I want it to be picked up, and then sometimes I'm like you know what, screwed. I don't even have time for this today. It's a weird combination, right? But I'm always taking care of other people the laundry, the dishes, the cleaning, the groceries, the appointments, the kids, the husband, the dog, now the cat we have a kitten. Y'all Pray for me.

Speaker 2:

I'm always thinking about work and my clients and the podcast, and that's fine. That's what I do. I don't enjoy so much thinking about myself. I love to work out, I love to go for a walk, I love all of this health and fitness stuff, but when it comes down to it, I'll think of another thing to do, like, oh, I think the shower curtains need washed. I better start those and push back my workout 20 minutes Like, no, that doesn't need to happen. No, that doesn't need to happen. So I'm inherently focused on other things. I need to also start focusing on myself again, and this happens every year this time of year for me and I've told my clients this Right now a lot of my clients are also like I'm not finding time for myself.

Speaker 2:

I know I need to make time, I know I need to find time. I know it's not just going to fall from the sky and I'm going to have extra time, but I'm really struggling Right now. It's true, you will struggle with that right now At the beginning of the year. For me, it kind of starts over and I've heard a lot of people say this and I don't want you to just wait till January 1st and put all your shit to the side and think, oh, I'll just wait till then, even though that's literally tomorrow. You're listening to this when this comes out. I would never say in November like, oh, screw all your goals and wait till January. But something, it does get super busy and the time change and it gets colder and it's busy and you have holidays and there's the food and all the things. It is what it is. That's real life.

Speaker 2:

In January, things kind of reset for me and I think, okay, thank God, I put the tree away, I'm picking up things, the trash is finally out, all the Christmas. Things are in, all the old things are out. I'm ready to go and I kind of get this new life about me, and hopefully you will too. So with that, I don't want you to just say I'm going to start eating better quote unquote eating better and I'm going to start going to the gym all these vague things. I don't want you to do that. I want you to start focusing on yourself right now.

Speaker 2:

Today, tomorrow, the next day, one of these days within listening to this, preferably today, because it'll be fresh in your mind Think about you and focus on you and figure out what you want and focus only on that. No outside distractions, no outside thoughts, no outside opinions. No more shiny objects that you're going to buy for your fitness journey, no more fancy diet supplements. Okay, we are getting back to the basics and we're focusing on you. For me, what that's going to literally look like, and for you probably all of my clients and myself this is what we're looking like right now. January 1 isn't going to look like I'm just going to quote unquote eat better and quote unquote go to the gym.

Speaker 2:

We're getting very intentional with what we're doing, so the last few weeks have been a bit of a whirlwind with macros and workouts and everything's kind of crazy, right. So after this calms down, like right now today, new Year's Eve maybe you're going out, you're hanging out. New Year's Day might suck, you might be hungover, whatever. Okay, the following day, january 2, we are back in a groove. And I don't mean that everything starts on that day and your whole life changes. I mean you start writing things down.

Speaker 2:

What do you want for this year? Physically? You can do your financials, you can do your spirituals, you can do all the other things I'm talking about physically right now. What do you want For me? I want to start tracking my macros, I want to start hitting my macros and I want to have my macros set and my workout set for muscle gain period. That's it. The food that I eat, the workouts that I do and the supplements I take will be focused on muscle building period until probably the end of March.

Speaker 2:

Note, outside distractions. I don't care what anybody thinks about those goals. I'm not even going to. Well, I just told all of you. I'm not even going to tell anyone like, I'm not going to say this is what I'm doing now, that's just what I'm doing, moving forward, right, I'm not going to purchase any new workout equipment, any new workout clothes, any new workout programs. I'm not going to. I'm just going to be focused. I'm going to be doing my own fit club workouts, the workouts that my clients do, my fit clubbers do. That's what I'm doing and I'm having my creatine and I'm having my glutamine and I'm having my EAAs, like I do every single day, and my pre-workout and I'm having my college in. I'm doing the basics over and over and over, but I'm starting to kind of recommit to that because that's my focus right now. When my focus changes, my actions will change. But focusing on true health, you will see things differently. And focus on being very, very intentional with your goals.

Speaker 2:

Don't just say I'm going to lose weight and I'm going to save more money. Are you going to lose weight? Do you want to lose weight or do you want to completely body recomp? Do you want to build a little bit of muscle? Do you want to just look like a really skinny version of yourself? Do you want to cut out all your favorite foods? Do you want to starve yourself? And do you want to then get sick of that and stop doing all those things and put the weight back on again. If you do go for it, if not, figure out something, someone that can help you right? This is my goal, if you wrote it down I want to gain more muscle, I want to lose weight. And think about the whole year. You have a whole year and a lot more years to do this. Okay, but think about the whole year.

Speaker 2:

Don't think about it and like, oh my god, by the end of january I went on completely body recomp and look completely different. No, by the end of the year I want to look Like this. I want to have lost this much weight. I wanted to have gained this much muscle. Like I want to look. I want to look freaking good, right, I want to be able to eat my favorite foods, whatever it is. Write it down and then find someone that can help you do those things. But write it down.

Speaker 2:

If you're saying I want to lose weight, but you're also saying I'm not going to give up foods I love and I'm not going to change my habits at all and I'm, you know, my life's going to stay the same, my lifestyles are going to stay the same Well then you probably actually don't want to lose weight like in reality. So get your focus very, very strict, okay, control it. Focus on what matters. Figure out what matters and then focus on that. Also, focus on the path, not the outcome. Like I just said, by the end of the year. Right, I want to have lost this much weight. Or I want to lose weight and I wanna gain muscle, but I don't know that's what a lot of my clients say. I don't know exactly what I want my end weight to be, because who cares? But I do want to gain muscle and I do want to lose fat. I do want to learn to eat properly. You know, I do want to sleep better. This is what a lot of my clients say. Those are great.

Speaker 2:

So figure out, like by the end of the path, not the outcome, every single day. It's not going to be like oh my God, I haven't lost weight. Oh my God, I haven't lost weight. No, it's. Oh my God, I have to hit my macros. Oh my God, I have to go work out. That's it. That's the path, this is the work, this is the path, this is what has to be done. Right, you have to start focusing on the things that matter, because that's when you'll see the things that matter okay.

Speaker 2:

So if you're going to the gym consistently, maybe even at a certain time of day you go every single weekday at such and such time you're going to see people around you that you've never seen there before. You're maybe going to make some friends. You're going to notice things. You're going to see things. Maybe there's a trainer there that you really like you can ask questions about form and all the things. You have to show up consistently and be aware of what's going on. See people in the gym, see people on Instagram, see people in real life walking around that you want to look like and think, wow, they look really healthy. You don't just want to think they look super skinny.

Speaker 2:

I love when I see it would probably be me at the checkout my body is. I like my body. I love my body. I'm proud of my body. It's great. Would I choose to improve it? Absolutely always, but I love it and I love that I can stand in a checkout line getting groceries with my Unfuck your Fitness or Krista Castillo fit shirt, looking good in some leggings and I'm buying Oreos. There's nothing better to me than seeing someone fit, strong, awesome looking and I'm just like man. She works really hard for that. She looks great or he looks great, whatever. And I see them buying foods that people would think, oh my God, I would never think that you ate Oreos, I would never think that you ate that many calories, I would never think you ate McDonald's and I'm not saying you should eat that all the time or that you can't eat that all the time. You can't, you can't eat that all the time. But and maybe people think that I'm just buying the Oreos for, like, my kids or something, but do you know what I mean? Like I want to be that kind of person that can just be seen out and about and people are just like wow, I would have never thought she could eat that much food, god damn. Like that's what I want to be like.

Speaker 2:

I don't want to just be skinny, I don't want to just be little. I don't want to just be starving all the time. I want to be strong. I want to look toned. I want all of these things. I want to have a good relationship with food. I want to be able to enjoy my life. I want my kids to see me eating things that are healthy and I want them to also see me eating things that are processed sometimes and the joy and the interest that comes along with that. I want it all. So that comes with being focused.

Speaker 2:

I wasn't always like this. I didn't always eat foods I loved. I didn't always. I wanted to be strong, but I didn't always do this right. I always struggled with food. I always struggled with workouts. I was very, very lost and very confused on what to eat and how. These people looked like that and they were eating what they were eating. I was in a lot of your shoes years ago and my focus had to be okay. I don't necessarily want this number on the scale anymore. I don't want to be skinny anymore. I don't want to eat off of a food list anymore. I don't want to eat out of containers anymore. I want to learn how to track my food for health reasons. I want to learn to track my food so that I'm healthy and fed and fueled. I want to learn how to lift weights so I can do it correctly and so I can love my body and be strong. That was my focus when I shifted my focus to I'm not doing these food containers anymore. I'm not reading these food lists. I'm not doing these DVD videos anymore. I'm not reading these food lists, I'm not doing these DVD videos anymore. I'm not doing these programs. I'm doing this other thing now, where I track my macros and where I lift heavy and I do the same workouts week after week after week. My body changed so much, my confidence increased so much.

Speaker 2:

So you have to change your focus. So in 2025, let's go into this week or continue this week, controlling your focus. Think about it when you're driving around, look around and think. When I'm focused on maybe looking at a new house, looking at landscaping, looking at things, right, the whole world opens up and you notice houses and landscaping, you notice Mustangs, right. You have to change your focus into there's a whole new world of health, true health and true fitness and true mindset shifts and happiness around your health and fitness that maybe you're so narrow-minded, focused on the wrong things, that you haven't looked up and opened your eyes and focused on your actual goal.

Speaker 2:

So control your focus and focus on what matters to you. Focus on true health and fitness, focus on true health overall and really, really think about daily what am I focused on today? And really think, too, if something pops into your newsfeed, if something comes up in conversation like oh my gosh, I'm trying this new diet. You're out with your friend up in conversation like oh my gosh, I'm trying this new diet. You're out with your friend and she's saying oh my gosh, I'm trying this new diet plan. I just saw it on TikTok.

Speaker 2:

Think that's probably not going to help me get to my goals. Probably a diet you saw on TikTok is not going to help you. So let's control your focus and good for you, and maybe have that conversation, if you want to or maybe don't, and say I really don't want to, I really can't talk about that right now. I'm kind of doing me. I'm doing something else and promised I wouldn't get shiny objects, wouldn't get in my way. So I can't really talk about that right now. If you're not in the space, stand up for yourself or have that conversation and leave that conversation and think, yeah, that's not for me, I'm not doing this distraction, I'm not doing this shiny object, I'm not doing this shit from TikTok, and just move along. Right. So focus, focus, focus. That's the goal. All right, I hope this was super helpful. I will talk to you next week.

Speaker 1:

Thanks for listening to today's show. Go ahead and leave a rating and a review and, of course, follow the podcast so you don't miss out on any future episodes. And I would love it so much if you came to connect with me over on Instagram at Christy Castillo Fit. I will see you next time. Bye.