Episode 6 - The Progress Project Roadmap

In this podcast episode, the speaker discusses the long-term approach to the Progress Project membership. They explain that the first 12 weeks focus on building positive habits and routines, such as tracking food and increasing physical activity. After that, there is a "level up" stage where members can increase their workouts and focus on more advanced training. The speaker emphasizes that this is a lifelong journey and that progress continues beyond the initial 12 weeks or 6 months. They encourage members to set big goals and embrace a fitness lifestyle for the long term. The speaker also mentions upcoming podcast topics, such as creating a running plan and balancing family, work, and fitness. Hello and welcome guys to episode number seven, I believe, of the Private Members Podcast within the Progress Project. So today's topic is something a little different and one thing that kind of sparked it was just a few members asking sort of what's the sort of long-term approach because a lot of people maybe sign up originally for a two-week period or a six-month period and there's maybe that thought of like well what happens at the end of that like what's the next step so I wanted to kind of run through the roadmap or the typical member journey within the Progress Project. So starting from when you first come on board whatever sort of programme length you originally start with that is typically the initial phase like that doesn't mean things just finished in because what you guys will sort of realise, a lot of the members that have been on here for a long period of time, guys on the programme that have been here for over 12 months, 18 months, these guys will tell you that six, 12 weeks, even six months goes by really really quickly. We can achieve a lot in say a 12-week period in terms of body transformation but you're really only scratching the surface of what can be done and obviously I'm not expecting people to be part of the Progress Project for the rest of their lives like if you want to then amazing great but I know that that's probably not going to be everybody's plan but in terms of the sort of roadmap so everybody's going to come in at different points so I'm just going to start from a typical member coming on board who's really not done a lot recently with regards to their health and fitness. They've fallen away from it all or they just want to start getting back into things, getting back into a bit of a routine, dropping a bit of body fat, improving their health, improving their fitness, starting to see some physique goals that's typically where we're at and if you're in that place when you first come on the first 12 weeks is all about really nailing some positive habits, starting to develop those routines, getting used to things like tracking some food in MyFitnessPal, picking off at least three workouts per week, like walking, pushing your steps up to close to 10,000 steps a day, making sure we're drinking enough water, like some a lot of quick wins and positive habits that we want to build in at the start. At the start we're not going to come in and say right in 12 weeks time you want to be doing a bodybuilding show, you want to be doing a half marathon, like it's normally the case of the first 12 weeks we will be building the positive habits, really start to see those changes, feeling good, making progress across the board. So that first 12 weeks you can really see some great changes from these new positive habits, you'll see your physique change, you'll see your body fat drop, you'll feel your energy improve, your mood improve, everything like that. Then beyond that 12 weeks we then typically move up to what I call the level up stage, so the initial 12 weeks is like the kickoff, this is where we are building the positive habits, then once we start to have cemented a bit of a routine over the first 12 weeks, we then move up onto the level up sort of stage as I would call it, and during that stage that's when we're starting to take things up a level in the sense that we'll maybe increase our workout because we've got into that good routine so we'll maybe do four or five sessions a week, then we'll maybe do some less tracking on MyFitnessPal because we've started to gain that knowledge so we don't need to be like tracking absolutely everything for seven days a week, we're starting to master the nutrition a wee bit, so then on top of that we're looking at starting to maybe some more advanced training protocols, so maybe when you first started you were in the machine-based workouts, maybe just starting to do a few like jogs or runs, that sort of thing, whereas in the next stage in the level up we're then starting to implement some more advanced lifts, maybe we're moving on to some squats, some deadlifts, maybe we're starting to maybe focus on our running goal rather than just getting into running, maybe we're starting, maybe we're pinpointing a 10k or a half marathon that we're going to try and specifically train for, so this is like the level up phase where we're then just taking things up a level and that's when you're really going to start to see some amazing progress, so as I said, first 12 weeks we're kicking off, we're getting into the positive habits, the next 12 weeks, so taking us up to six months mark is when we're levelling up and we're really starting to see progress, the habits and the fitness lifestyle starting to become our identity and we're really starting to get to a point where we can't really imagine ever going back to what we were before, that's the difference of say a six week challenge or something like that or a four week challenge that you might go on just to try and drop a lot of body fat before a holiday, you might well get a result from that but it's not long term, you're not going to be developing habits, you're just going to stop that when it finishes and you're just going to revert back to where you were at square one, so this is when we're trying, when we're getting to that six month stage we're really starting to ingrain these habits, ingrain these routines and just embrace this new positive lifestyle that we've got, we're starting to change our identity, then the next stage for me is lifelong progress, so this is from sort of six to 12 months, realistically I think a 12 month period on a programme such as The Progress Project is like a really, really good time that you can see some big, big progress and between the six and 12 month stage, that's where I'd be expecting you guys to complete a big event, whether that be a photo shoot, a big running event or maybe you've had a wedding that you've been working towards, like a big event there that we can be saying right, this is a big, big goal, a big, big challenge, it's getting us out of our comfort zone, maybe you come on and be a member of Spotlight, maybe you come on to one of the hot seats on the Monday Map Out calls or on the podcast where you chat through your transformation, you're going to have an amazing physical, mental transformation at that point, we're going to potentially be like intuitively eating, so we don't even need to be tracking, when we might get to a stage 12 months down the line where you're like, I don't really need to be tracking now because I've been tracking my fitness palette, I know exactly what I'm doing and this is when we're starting to get to that stage of lifelong progress, we've worked hard for 12 months, we've really ingrained the positive habits and it's a case of if you did then decide to move on from the programme, then you'd be really, really well equipped in terms of, it's very unlikely for you then to just go, oh, I'm just going to do nothing now, like, which would happen if you were doing maybe a four week intense challenge, the likelihood is you would just stop that, whereas if you've been doing this for 12 months, 18 months, then you decide to sort of, let's give it a go on my own, you're a lot more likely to succeed because this is your new identity, the habits are in place, the routines are in place and we've really got to that lifelong progress stage. As I said, that's the kind of typical journey, some people will come into the journey at different stages, some people might already be at the level up stage and may just want to take things to a new level, they want to do a big event, they want to do a marathon or something like that, which is great, but this is just kind of describing the typical journey from doing not very much to really lifelong progress and changing your identity and for me, that's a minimum sort of 12 month period and the reason I'm just saying that is because there has been a good few questions of maybe people signing up and saying, oh, well, what happens after the 12 weeks, is that it just finished? And I'm like, the 12 weeks is just an initial phase, the first 12 weeks, first six months, that's an initial phase, like, you guys can be part of the progress project for as long as you want, nobody's going to be kicking you out the door, but just to kind of get the expectations there in terms of, if you signed up and expected lifelong progress within 6 to 12 weeks, it's not really going to happen, you're going to see amazing results and some of the guys on the programme can testify to that in terms of if you stick to the programme and tick the boxes, within 6 to 12 weeks, you're going to see some big, big changes, but not life-changing, not lifelong results, that's when we get to the 6 month, the 12 month period where we've then not even just got results, we've changed our identity, we're now somebody that trains regularly, that eats well the majority of the time, that embraces fitness, is healthy and has these habits for life, like, that is the ultimate aim, this isn't a quick fix programme that you come on and just say, right, here's insanely low calories so that you can drop 10 kilos in the next 6 weeks to go on your holiday and then we'll see you later, that's not what it's about, this is the progress project, we're talking about progress across the board and all areas of your life for lifelong, it's a lifelong journey and we're hoping that you're going to be equipped with the tools to do this for life, like, fitness isn't a 12 week stint, like, your life, your health and fitness is your life, it's the most important thing in it, if we're not healthy, if we're not fit, like, all the things we want to do and enjoy, we can't, so it's just really, really important, I just wanted to run through that sort of roadmap and how I see the journey, like, starting and where it can get to, like, there is no limits here, like, you can really push hard, loads, you guys have been pushing yourselves out of the comfort zone lately, which has been amazing to see and that's what we want, we really want you guys coming in, maybe not really in much of a great routine, but then we start building that, we build these habits, we then start levelling up a bit and then we're taking on challenges and doing things that we never thought was possible and, as I said, it doesn't need to be a specific event, like a marathon or a high rocks or a photo shoot, things like a big holiday or a big wedding and things like that are just as important, but it's just to explain that that's the typical sort of journey, it's a lot longer than a 6 week or 12 week period in terms of my vision for when you come on board, so just so you guys are clear that there is a roadmap, there's a future there, there's a lot that we can be ticking off, like, fitness has been a massive part of my life for years now, over a decade and I still feel that I'm nowhere even near touch the surface because there's so many more events and challenges and things that I want to do, again, as I said, not everybody wants to do big events and challenges, but it just shows you, though, that even training regularly and eating well for more than 10 years of my life, I still don't feel like I'm anywhere near the, I've not completed it, mate, like, that doesn't happen, it's a lifelong journey and that's what we're looking for within the Progress Project, guys, so just wanted to go through that roadmap just to kind of outline and make it clear that there is future beyond the first 6, 12 weeks, like, there's a lot that we can be doing and, yeah, there's a lot of excitement there, so if anybody was unsure on where things were leading, what they were doing, if anyone's unsure about their current journey and they feel that they don't have that vision or that future, get on a call with us, like, drop a message in your Progress chat, get on a call and we'll run through everything and we'll get some big goals set and we'll get that roadmap laid out for you personally and so, yeah, hopefully that made sense, guys, we've also had a few questions this week within the check-in, so what I'm going to do is I'm going to go and actually create these topics within, like, next month's podcasts because they're really good topics, one of them was regarding how to create a running plan, like, what's the difference between long runs, tempo runs, interval runs, all those sort of things, so that's probably enough for a podcast on its own, that question, so I'll definitely go through that in detail in the next month, just the fact there's a lot of guys on the programme doing a half marathon and doing a 10k coming up, so it's quite a topical one, so I'll go through that and then the other one was a question on balancing family, work, gym and how it's really just a real struggle sometimes, how something will happen that was unexpected which creates that to be more of a priority than the other thing and how do you juggle it and to be fair, it really is a balancing act, it's a tough, tough task, it's a juggling act and sometimes unexpected things will happen that knock you off course and maybe don't get to tick off all your workouts that week, but it's just about recognising and accepting that and getting straight back to it is the main thing, but if we can be as planned and prepared as we possibly can, we're giving ourselves a real head start, there's going to be, as I said, there's only so many units of energy that we have, we can allocate so many of it to our family, so many of it to our work, so many of it to our fitness, so many of it to our social life and there's going to be times where the needle's pushing more in one direction, maybe you've got a busy week at work and the priority's mainly there, so most of the units of energy are going there, so you have to accept that maybe your social life that week is going to be a bit less or you might need to scale back the workouts slightly, like you just need to be aware of it and I think just having a look ahead, planning ahead is the key thing to manage that because you can look and say, right, okay, this is what the week is looking like, this is where my energy's going, this is where I'm prioritising, this is what can happen and then that just means you're going to give yourself the best chance. If things are unexpected, sometimes there's things we can't do anything about, but if we've got that plan in place and if we're accepting that things might change, then we're going to be halfway there, so yeah, it's a very tough juggling act and it's just about being as prepared as we possibly can and making sure that your programme is realistic, that you've not got unrealistic expectations and goals that have been set and if you do feel that you're struggling and it's adding stress, let us know, but yeah, it's a constant, constant balancing act, but yeah guys, hopefully you enjoyed this episode, a bit different and over the course of this month, we've got a multitude of episodes coming up, I think we've got when to adjust your calories is coming up this month, also me and Raymond are going to be having another chat as well towards the end of the month, so drop a message, drop a comment below if you have listened to this and let us know, as I said, in your progress chat, how you're feeling about the future going forward, how you're feeling about your current goals and we can have a wee chat about it, but yeah, hope you enjoyed this one guys and I'll speak to you on the next one.