The Unf*ck Your Fitness Podcast

146. Unf*cking Your Fitness: Real Talk on What’s *Really* Holding You Back From Having the Body You Want

• Kristy Castillo

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Happy New Year!! I wanted to kick off the first episode of 2025 in true Kristy Castillo fashion with some #realtalk (I know those are your favorite).



I recently posted a question on my Instagram stories about what’s *really* holding you back from having the body you want. I received sooo many amazing responses, and I wanted to share several of those in today’s episode (thank you for taking the time to answer if you did)!



As I read through your responses, it became crystal clear to me that we ALL struggle, and honestly, it’s so much of the same stuff. From staying consistent and being ‘motivated’ to work out and eat better, to being addicted to sweets and alcohol, getting discouraged about how our bodies ‘look’, and everything in between, we all have insecurities, and we ALL struggle.


While it’s comforting to know that we’re not alone in feeling this way, we also can’t stay stuck here. So much of the time, WE are the ones holding ourselves back, and WE are the ones who are in control of changing things for the better! 



After you listen to this episode, take some time to break down what’s REALLY holding you back from having the body you want. Don’t spend another year doing the same shit - otherwise, you’re going to have the same body, the same poor health, and the same struggles.



I’m excited for some changes happening within my own life and business (I’ll be sharing more details, so stay tuned)! As always, I’m truly grateful to have you as a podcast listener and friend, and I LOVE hearing that this podcast has positively impacted your life. 


Cheers to more unf*cking your fitness in 2025!!




In this episode, we cover:

  • YOUR responses as to what’s holding you back from having the body you want
  • Realizing that we ALL struggle + have very similar insecurities
  • Why your focus, mindset, discipline, laziness, and need for immediate gratification are what’s actually holding you back
  • Taking steps to identify what’s *really* holding you back + how to change this for 2025



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. What's up? Welcome to today's episode.

Speaker 1:

My voice might be a little raspy, a little in and out today. I've been sick for the last few days, just really scratchy throat, and my voice is kind of hit or miss. So forgive me if I sound a little funky, but tis, this season it's winter here in Michigan and actually it's only snowed one time and not very much on the ground. It didn't stay hardly at all. So that's crazy. So I think it's just a little bit of funk and allergies and stuff like that. Anyways, that's neither here nor there, other than I might sound a little bit crazy. So I just wanted to let you know that I'm a little sniffly and a little sickly. So I hope you had a great time celebrating ringing in 2025, whatever you decide to do, I'm actually recording this on New Year's Eve, so I don't know what I'm doing. I don't feel the best, honestly, so I think I could just take a nap, but I wanted to kind of ring in this New Year podcast talking about what's holding you back. So I think it's important, as you all know, to unfuck your fitness, to really kind of deep dive into the things that really matter. It's easy to say, I'm going to work out, I'm going to do this, I'm going to eat better, I'm going to do that. All these things that I'm going to do, I'm going to do, I'm going to do, but we never do that. It's like you set New Year's resolutions and they never happen. And so I think diving deep into the self-sabotage and what's really going on and our focus, as I talked about last week, and those things are really, really important because it's easy to do maybe a little eight-week challenge or something Actually that sounds hard. Maybe a two-week, four-week challenge. It's easy to do something very, very short-term, but if you, you're going to keep it up long term, what does that look like? What does your focus need to be? Where does your energy need to be? So these are very foundational, fundamental things.

Speaker 1:

But I wanted to start off this new year talking about what is holding you back from having the body you want, and I asked literally that on my stories earlier this week and I wanted to read them to you. So that was kind of my plan in asking on my Instagram stories was to read them on the podcast. I didn't say that, though, on the stories, so I got a lot of really good answers and I thought I probably should have said I'm going to read through these on the stories and I wasn't going to address them in my stories. I guess I was going to kind of address them here. I wanted to talk about that because I think it's important that we say what's holding us back. If I were to say, right, what's holding you back from doing the things, that's holding you back from having the body you want, I did that in my stories and you guys answered, and so I want to say I want to read what you guys answered that question with, and I think it's important to say it out loud, so maybe you're listening and maybe you answered and you'll hear me say what you said back to you. I think that's important too. I will often do that with one-on-one clients.

Speaker 1:

What is holding you back? What is making you think you can't have the body you want? Or what's causing you to not get up in the morning and do your workouts, even though you say you're going to? If I say so. One of these, for example, is I like to eat crap and that's so true. It's good to say it literally. Just say it in the form of what's true, right, don't bullshit it, just say it. What's holding you back from having the body you want? I like to eat crap. And if you came to me really, really wanting to change and I'm saying, okay, so the only thing holding you back, or one of the things holding you back from having the body you want, is the fact that you like to eat crap, I mean, so do I? I have the body that I want currently and I eat crap. Some would say what I eat is crap Oreos and cake and pizza. Right, I don't know what everyone thinks is crap, but you know what I'm saying. So that, for example, I like to eat crap. Yeah, if you eat too much crap, you are over your calories. You won't have the body you want, but that also could be like that's not the only thing, of course, and also, you can still eat what you want't have the body you want because you like to eat crap. Is that a valid excuse? Is eating crap more fun to you than having the body you want? Is it more important to you, right? We can kind of banter back and forth and bounce ideas off of each other, like, okay, yeah, that sounds kind of crazy, or whatever.

Speaker 1:

Also, I want to read these things to you on this episode so that you understand and so that you hear them from other people and you think, oh yeah, I struggle with that too. I want us to realize that we all struggle with the same shit. We all have the same issues, we all have the same questions, we all have the same cravings. Okay, it's a struggle, and I want you to know that you're not alone. And I want you to hear these things from other people so that you can understand. Like, oh, yep, got it. Like that's what's holding me back, right? So these are all over the place, but I kind of just want to read them to you. So the question was what is holding you back from having the body that you want? And if you're listening on Spotify, you can go in and actually answer this too, leave a comment under the episode and tell me even more things, but one. I'm just going to kind of run through these and if I have thoughts on them, I'll kind of stop and give my feedback. If not, I'll wait till the end. I don't really know, I don't really have a plan. I just wanted to talk to you guys as your friend and kind of chit chat on this episode.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so the first one my will, my consistency with eating, mainly not pushing myself hard enough. So my will and my consistency right Like my will to do this, my want to do this, my consistency, is holding me back with eating mostly, which is common. A lot of people can do their workouts consistently, but it's this eating and getting that down track that's hard. And then not pushing myself hard enough. Yeah, I think we can all relate with that. Next one I like to eat crap. That one really caught my eye. It's simple, it's straight to the point. That one really caught my eye. It's simple, it's straight to the point I like to eat crap. Yeah, that will hold you back if you let it right.

Speaker 1:

The next one I realized when I quit my gym due to finances and started working out at home. I prefer working out at the gym. I think that is what that's supposed to say. It was a little confusing. So this person is saying that something that's holding her back is working out at home. She maybe doesn't have the equipment, she doesn't like it, she's not as energized, she's not as focused right, that's really important. So working out at home versus working out at the gym, I get that completely. I think if I only had dumbbells right now in my journey, that would hold me back as well, because I need progressive overload, I need to lift heavier and I need to be focused when I'm in the gym. So I get that.

Speaker 1:

Someone else says being a foodie and a pro cook. Yep, for sure. Someone else said depressive episodes, lack of motivation, bad living situation, life stress and, in all caps, excuses. I don't think these are excuses. Fyi, I think these are very valid reasons. Depressive episodes been there. Lack of motivation absolutely been there there right now. Bad living situation that's not an excuse, right, that's facts. And life stress I think that's.

Speaker 1:

Maybe you're just going through a rough time, but it's definitely like, okay, is this going to be lasting for a while? Can I still push through some workouts? Can I still track my food? Right? What can you do in that situation? What do you have at your disposal? What can you push yourself through while being in the midst of this kind of shit time? What can you still do right, but yeah, those are 100% valid.

Speaker 1:

Next one I act like it's 80% workout, 20% nutrition, when it's actually the opposite. Yeah, I think a lot of us do that. We focus 80% of our time on the workouts and really we should be focusing 80% of our time on food and 20% in the gym. A lot of what you're going to be doing and needing to focus on to get the body that you want and this is specifically getting the body you want. But that was the question what's holding you back from getting the body that you want? You're going to have to focus 80% on nutrition and 20% workouts, because to get in to the gym, do your shit, get out. That doesn't take as long as nutrition, right Tracking, macros, figuring out your macros, grocery shopping, meal planning, if you want to, all those types of things.

Speaker 1:

So someone else said LMAO myself, myself is holding myself back from having the body that I want. Yeah, yeah, I think, when it comes down to it, if we're being honest, a lot of these things that we and not these things here, some of them are excuses, but if we're just being honest, like, what's holding you back from having the body that you want me, I'm holding myself back, my choices, my lack of dedication, my lack of consistency. Right, it's me, it's me and my choices, so I think that's valid. The next one is no motivation. The next one is Buddha belly. The next one is sweets. The next one is jumping around with macros and not being consistent Consistency, yep. The next one is no idea where or how to start.

Speaker 1:

I keep finding myself wanting to go back to my beach body ways. Yeah, I remember being there and feeling like, okay, this is the only thing that works, or this is the only thing, I understand, it's mapped out for me. Feeling like, okay, this is the only thing that works, or this is the only thing I understand, it's mapped out for me. But if you're wanting to keep going back to beach body ways or any type of ways, that means you fell off, that means you quit, that means it's not sustainable, for whatever reason. So going back to it is only going to cause you to see results for a little while, feel like you're doing something and then fall off again. So keep that in mind.

Speaker 1:

Next, my belly is standing in the way of me having the body I want. But seriously, as you said, yeah, I get that and that's logical. I mean, that's true, that's facts, right, like you say it, like that's, my belly is standing in the way of me having the body I want dot, dot, dot. But seriously, but seriously, that's standing in the way, totally, get it. Next, I also feel like someone holding me accountable would help. While I'm not able to hold myself accountable. It would, absolutely, it would help you to have someone hold you accountable.

Speaker 1:

I have found that when I have someone to hold me accountable, when I've paid someone and I don't want to say a substantial amount of money, but substantial in the way that it's not like $10, right, I'm not paying for like a $10 program, because if I'm not doing it, I'm like, oh, I'm only out $10. If I pay a substantial amount, in the sense that I'm not going broke over it, hiring someone to help me, but I'm also feeling it like, okay, I want to put this money to good purpose, right, I feel like hiring someone you trust, having someone hold you accountable and paying, like having a little bit invested into it and being like, okay, I'm paying this person, I need to do what they're telling me to do if I really trust them. So, yeah, I think holding myself accountable. And also the same person said my lack of self-discipline stemming from my anxiety and depression. And then they also said I feel like someone holding me accountable.

Speaker 1:

When you're struggling from or with anxiety and depression, it's hard to hold yourself accountable because you don't care, you don't have the will, you don't have the desire, you don't have the drive, you don't give a fuck because you're too tired. You're stuck in a cycle of this downward spiral and it's hard. I had to reach out to different friends, therapists, different people to help me when I felt like I want these things for myself, but I'm struggling with anxiety and depression and I'm in this downward spiral, this cycle that I can't push myself through it. Yeah, to have someone holding you accountable during that time is absolutely crucial. Also, know that your self discipline while stemming from anxiety and depression is hard because, like I said, you don't have a will to care and you don't have the ability sometimes to care when you're deep in that anxiety and depression stage. So you won't have any self-discipline because you don't care. It's not there. So that can definitely be a cycle that would help to have someone to hold you accountable, to get out of Someone you can talk to, someone you can say I'm just not feeling it, this is what I feel like, this is what I'm capable of. Help me, but give me a little grace too, for sure.

Speaker 1:

Next, motivation to work out and giving into foods. Yep, that's absolutely common and motivation is not a thing. No one's motivated all the time, so I get that, but also, you have to do it anyway. Right, and giving into foods yeah, tis the season for that, for sure. Next, accountability Someone to kick me in the ass when needed and to cheer when warranted. Again, accountability is great because we have a cheerleader and we also have someone to say okay, are you really sick or are you just saying you're sick because you don't want to go get your workout in? What's the deal here? What do you want more? Someone to, yeah, kick your ass when you're down and to cheer you on when it's warranted, for sure.

Speaker 1:

Next, diet. Next, hatred of meal planning. Girl, I do not meal plan. I haven't done that in years. That's why I have staple foods. If you don't want a meal plan, freaking don't. So, if you don't want a meal plan, freaking don't. But you do have to track and you do have to figure out your staple foods. But hatred of meal planning. I heard that. I hear you for sure, and that was something that I was like. I'm not going to meal plan for the rest of my life, so how can I figure this out without meal planning? And that's exactly why I have staple foods and how I live now. That's completely on purpose, because of my own hatred of meal planning.

Speaker 1:

Next, my eating habits. I know what I need to do, but I find it so hard to not snack. Yep, that's a very big struggle. Understand that. Next, black licorice and all the Christmas sweets. Don't love black licorice, but I do love Christmas sweets.

Speaker 1:

Next, consistency Not sure why I can't get my weights workout in three times a week every week? Yeah yeah, consistency is definitely a thing. If you're not sure why you can't get your weights or your workouts in three times a week, ask yourself what is going on. Do I hate them? Am I just lazy? What's going on here? Do I not have time? Am I not making time? What is going on? What is going on? Are you self-sabotaging? Are you holding yourself back? What's going on? Because you said I'm not sure why I can't, you probably are sure why you can't. Just dig a little deeper in there.

Speaker 1:

Next one often very tired during the day from baby night waking. It makes it hard, yeah for sure, if you have a little baby and your schedule is messed up, that's hard, that's very, very hard. But I'm proud of all of you for just saying these things, right my lack of consistency, my hatred of meal planning. I'm freaking tired because my baby wakes up all night. Yes, I hope you all are going. Yep, that's me. Yep, that's me.

Speaker 1:

Next, my overeating. Next, my alcohol consumption. Yes, so these are all things. There are more, but I kind of want to stop going down this rabbit hole and kind of get back to a little bit of the point here.

Speaker 1:

What I want you to notice in all of these things again is that we all struggle. We all struggle with overeating, our hatred of meal planning, alcohol, having little kids, loving sweets, not understanding why the fuck I can't get my ass to the gym three times a week, my belly insecurities, right, different things that are causing us to not have the body that we want. No idea where to start. Wanting to go back to things that quote unquote worked and you looked really good or felt really good for a few moments doing it, but it didn't work. So you fell off right, jumping around for macros and not being consistent, consistent, consistent, consistent.

Speaker 1:

Having accountability, motivation, someone to kick you in the ass and say you're not going to feel motivated. Almost ever, if this is your lifestyle, you're not going to feel motivated to do it. I'm not motivated to put on my makeup, wash my face, brush my teeth, do the dishes, vacuum the floor, take my kids wherever the fuck they need to be. I'm not motivated to do any of the things that I have to do, really that I have to do. Right, I love going shopping. I love watching my kids play sports. There are different things about my life that I love, but being motivated to do those things, to be motivated to do the things that you have to do on a daily basis, it's not going to happen.

Speaker 1:

Remember that this shit is not optional. Just like you brush your teeth, you have to choose better foods. Just like you wash your face in the morning and at night, you have to take care of yourself physically. You have to hit the gym when you realize that these are just things that you have to do. Whether you're tired, whether you planned well, whether you ate well or not, you still have to go to the gym. Whether you went to the gym or not, you still have to track your macros. Whether your kids slept well enough at night, you still have to feed the rest of your family. Go to work right. Go to the gym. You still have to do these things.

Speaker 1:

And when you find a few things that aren't optional like eating your staple foods, hitting your protein, going to the gym, hitting your steps, hitting your water goal when those things aren't optional just like brushing your teeth, brushing your hair, taking a shower it all becomes part of your life and it's not really an excuse anymore, because it's just like I have to do these things. I have to go to the gym today. I have to go for a walk. It's like I have to go to the gym today. I have to go for a walk. It's like I have to do the dishes. I have to take care of my family. I have to do things. This is part of what I have to do, right?

Speaker 1:

So, when we think about it, all of these things are valid, 100% valid. I understand them, I've been there, I hear them all the time from clients and they're 100's valid. I would never say that any of these are bullshit or excuses because they're not. You spit them out and said this is the reason. This is what is holding me back. It is what it is. You're not wrong. That's what's holding you back. But what I want to turn that into is, if you think about it, what's actually holding you back in all of these answers is your focus, your mindset, your discipline. Your laziness is holding you back. Your immediate gratification is holding you back. These are the bigger things, right?

Speaker 1:

So we can say my hatred of meal planning and I could say that too. So I'm not picking on you, whoever said this. I could say that I don't like to meal plan. I'm not going to do it anymore. I'm not going to meal plan. I'm not going to meal prep. I did say that for a while I was like I don't want to do this anymore, so I guess this isn't going to work for me. What it boiled down to was I was lazy.

Speaker 1:

Right, if you need, if you are someone who needs a meal plan to succeed, if you have to have food prepped, your schedule depends on it, your whatever right If your macros depend on it. If you are someone who's like no, in my life I have to have food planned and prep for me in the fridge or I'm not going to do. Well, that's not me. I have realized that staple foods are actually better. If I plan something and I go astray, I feel like shit, I just wasted all this food. So I would rather have the stable foods that I don't have to really make and I don't have to plan. I can just say, okay, here I am for my macros for the day. I need 30 grams of protein and 60 grams of carbs. I can say, okay, this and this added together will get me that because I've done it long enough.

Speaker 1:

But if you're someone who has to meal plan and meal prep to get results and you fucking want results what it comes down to is you're being lazy and not planning and prepping, even though you hate it. I hate my workouts sometimes and I do them anyways, right. So I'm not picking on you, I'm just literally saying this is what's going on. I'm unfucking it for you If I were to sit here and say if you don't like meal plan, but you really need to, but it's okay, if you don't like, what do you want, right? So if you don't know where to start and you wanna keep going back to Beachbody workouts focus. What do you want? What kind of workouts do you like? Have you really really tried doing other things? Have you tried making this a lifestyle? You're eating food all day anyway. Food is macros. It's not like you're counting macros, that's not. You're doing it anyway. If you're eating foods, you're eating macronutrients. Track them in an app and figure out if you're eating enough of certain foods to get you to your macros right.

Speaker 1:

Is your mindset holding you back? Are you like no, I can't do this. I think I'm gonna fail. Maybe that's holding you back. Is your discipline holding you back? I can't get to the gym. I don't know why I can't figure out how to work out three times a week. You're not disciplined. You're probably on your phone. You're probably scrolling. You're probably doing other things. You're doing something with that time. Be disciplined. Get your ass to your workout area and lift some weights for 40 minutes. You got this right.

Speaker 1:

Your immediate gratification you like black licorice. You like alcohol? You like sweets? It tastes really good. I want it right now. I want it right now. Your immediate gratification is holding you back because you're not willing to say I is holding you back because you're not willing to say I'm not going to have this alcohol right now because I want to feel good, look good and have the freaking body I want. You're not willing to have the results in two weeks. You want the taste now. So what's holding you back? Your focus, your mindset, your discipline, your laziness, your immediate gratification? No one wrote those things down. No one typed in my focus on my stories. No one typed in I'm lazy, but that's essentially what we're saying by these things and that is okay. I just want you to notice that your love of alcohol and sweets same girl, same. That's my love of instant gratification and I need to stop that, because as soon as I eat it, I'm like what did I just do that for? I'm better than that. I want different things. Christy, you said you weren't gonna do that anymore and you did right. So I want you to really break it down this year. Ask yourself when you entered that into my story, when you typed X, y and Z. That's what's holding me back. If I were to ask you what's holding you back. Ask you what's holding you back when you say something. What has been holding you back from having the body you want in 2024? What were you doing wrong. Say it or write it down. Then look at it and break it down. Why am I doing this? What is going on right? Don't spend another year doing the same shit or you're going to have the same body and the same poor health and the same wants. Right, you have to change it. You go to work, you do the things for your kids in your home every day. Do something for you, change your focus, change your thought process, change your actions. And we got this right. So I hope that was helpful. Kind of a fun way for me to say like this is what you wrote in and this is what's holding you back. We can all relate to so many of those things, myself included. Sometimes. My love of sweets definitely held me back the last few weeks. I'm trying to think what else is on there that's been holding me back, but a lot of those things have held me back in the past, every single one of those things I've struggled with and I'm now on the other side. But I want you to know that these are very, very common things, because I'm sure a lot of you struggled with a lot of the things that I said. Right, they're very, very common. But I want you to see it for what it is. I want you to see it for your lack of focus, your poor mindset, your lack of discipline, your laziness, your immediate gratification and you can keep filling in the blanks, your self-sabotage right. I want you to see it for what it is because it translates itself very physically into I'm lazy, I can't get to the gym, I love to eat, right. Those things are immediate gratification. Those things are definitely holding you back. But it's a bigger form of those issues is what's really really causing that? So definitely do a little deep dive on yourself the beginning of this year that you can change things and move forward. I personally am really excited about this year as far as the podcast, as far as different programs and things that I have coming out. I am really focused on doing things very, very practically. This year. I want to get back to doing nutrition audit calls. I want to go back or actually want to create a program that's not just my typical one-on-ones, because a lot of people just need a really in-depth call with me, like a two-hour call with me, where we go over all the things what are macros, what should you be doing? I create a plan for you and send you on your way. A lot of clients need handholding and need that me to walk right along with them. I'm someone who's like tell me this is what I want. If I can go to someone and tell them what I want for my business or what I want for my body and they say this is the plan, go do it for two months and get back with me, that's perfect. I don't want handholding, I don't want accountability. Really I'll do it myself. So I want to create something like that. Where it's like I really want to just have these in-depth chats. You ask me everything, I tell you everything, we come up with a plan, we get really focused on what's not working and what is working and I send you on your way if that's what you need, and you can message me again later on we can have another call. But I would love to create different programs this year. I'm going to create I'm in the midst of creating different programs this year that will help you in different ways. I think that's different than what a lot of other coaches are doing, because I really firmly believe that everyone needs something different. So a cookie cutter approach just doesn't work. But I digress from that. I'm excited for this year. If you could do me a favor, please, please, please, take two or three minutes of your time and go leave me a rating on Apple Podcasts and a review on Apple Podcasts. Pretty, please, and go leave me a rating and just a comment over on Spotify. It would actually mean the world to me, and I don't mean that to be corny or cheesy. I love reading them. Sometimes they make me cry. If you send me a message and Instagram, I love that too and then maybe just go over and sneak me a message too on Apple, just to leave me a review so that other people can read through those and really understand what they're getting themselves into if they start to listen. But I appreciate you all. 2024 was an amazing year for the podcast. I feel like I just gained so many friends and I've gotten so many messages saying that this podcast has changed your life, and that was the number one goal for the podcast. So I'm really excited about what we've accomplished so far in the podcast and I couldn't have done it without you. So thank you for being here and I'm excited for what's to come. All right, I will talk to you next week. 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.