Ep #170: Breaking the On-Again, Off-Again Cycle of Healthy Habits

This is the Strong Is a Mindset podcast, Episode #170. If you feel like your habits are on a constant on-again, off-again cycle, let’s talk about how to break it.

This is the Strong Is a Mindset podcast, where you’ll learn how to build both a strong body and a strong mind by eating, moving, and thinking. I’m your host Physician, Personal Trainer, Certified Health Coach and Certified Life Coach, Carrie Holland. 

Hey, how are you? What’s new? What’s good? So, what’s good here? Today, we’re talking about the roller coaster. It is a pattern that I see all the time when I’m working with clients who really want to change their lifestyle. And I’m guessing that you may have experienced this roller coaster too. And here’s how that roller coaster looks. You start out on track. So that means you’re exercising, eating mostly healthy, getting sleep. You’re basically checking your boxes.

And then, something happens. So maybe work blows up, or maybe your kids or your parents get sick, and they need more from you. Maybe you’re traveling, whatever it is. It’s enough to make your plan go out the window. So then, you stop working out. You stop paying attention to your food. You avoid the scale, and you tell yourself you’ll deal with it later. Until eventually, you hit a breaking point. And that’s when you get frustrated and say, that’s it, I’m done. I’ve had enough. I can’t do this anymore. And that’s when you are on the downhill swing of the roller coaster.

So then you get super strict, you go all in, and you tighten the reins. But that level of intensity cannot last forever, and before you know it, you’re back to falling off again. And then the whole cycle repeats itself. So, if this sounds familiar to you at all, keep listening. If you’ve been riding the roller coaster that I just described, let’s talk about how to get off it. Today, I’m going to break down the anatomy of this on-again, off-again cycle, why it happens, and most importantly, what you can do to finally get yourself off that ride. All right? So, let’s go.

So, to get started, let’s really break down this cycle. Or you can even think of it as a pendulum swing. Because when I describe this to clients, their heads start nodding before I even get halfway through. So, the cycle typically starts where you’re on track with tight control, and you are dialed in. That might mean workouts are happening, your food is prepped, water bottle is with you wherever you go, and you’re getting 7 to 8 hours of sleep at night.

Maybe you’re tracking your calories and your macros, or at the very least, you’re being super intentional about what goes on your plate. And it feels good, right? There’s a sense of pride in being on track, like you’re finally doing it. You’ve got momentum. You’re organized. You are on. And this is the part where your inner high achiever kicks into gear. You love the structure. You love checking off all the boxes, and you love feeling like you’ve got it figured out.

And then comes the trigger. And here’s the thing to know. Triggers, they are not optional because life will always throw something at you. And for a lot of my clients, that trigger is work. So maybe you’ve got a brutal call week, or a new project, or a new case, or a deadline that blows up your schedule. Or maybe your trigger is travel, kids, sports, illnesses, or maybe it’s just the constant curve balls of your daily life. Whatever it is, something interrupts the well-oiled routine that was keeping you totally on track just a few days ago.

And the more tightly you were holding it all together, the more disruptive that trigger will feel. And then comes the drop off. And this is where your habits start to really slide. So maybe you miss one workout and then another. And before you know it, you haven’t worked out for 4 weeks. Or maybe you grab takeout on your way home from work because you didn’t have time to cook dinner, and before you know it, that becomes your new normal.

And you find yourself eating whatever’s easiest instead of eating what you planned. So it’s not necessarily one big crash, though for some of you it might be, but often it looks more like a slow unraveling of what you built. And what’s important to notice here is that your drop off doesn’t feel intentional. You’re not actively choosing to let it all go. It just sort of happens during all that chaos.

And after that drop off comes avoidance. So this is the sneaky part of the pendulum swing because once you’re off, you start hiding from it. So that usually manifests as you avoiding the scale, when before, you were weighing yourself regularly. Or you stop journaling your food. You skip your check-in with yourself because you don’t want to face the reality of how far you’ve drifted from being on track.

And in a weird way, that avoidance feels like relief. You get a break from the mental pressure of journaling or logging or being disciplined. The pressure’s off. But at the same time, in that relief, you’re also disconnecting. You’re checking out from yourself. And the longer you do that and stay disconnected and avoid the things you know you want to be doing, the harder it feels to turn it around.

And eventually that relief wears out and frustration sets in. So maybe you notice your clothes are fitting differently or your energy starts tanking, or maybe you just notice a low-grade irritability that comes from not taking care of yourself. I call that feeling twitchy. When you’re not doing the things you know you need to do, and that comes with a mix of frustration, guilt, hopelessness, stuckness, it feels twitchy.

And as this happens, often the negative self-talk ramps up along with it, and you may find yourself saying things like, “I can’t believe this is happening again. I know better. Why can’t I just do this?” And ultimately, as you continue being off track and avoiding the work that will get you back on track, all the while feeling frustrated, eventually, you hit a tipping point. That point when shame and irritation get so loud that you decide enough is enough. You cannot stand it anymore.

And so, your response is to swing hard in the other direction. And that’s when you declare a new plan. You clean out the pantry, buy the workout program. You might even make all kinds of rigid rules like no more sugar, no alcohol, no eating out. You create a workout plan that is 5 days a week, 45 minutes per day at 5 in the morning when the week before you were doing zero minutes and sleeping in. It is a huge pendulum swing.

But at the same time, that declaration to start anew and that overcorrection, it feels exciting at first. It feels like you’re doing something to finally get control back. But here’s the problem. Your version of control after hitting the tipping point is often super extreme, meaning it’s all rules and zero flexibility. And it might work for a while, but your overcorrection is not built for your real actual life. But despite this, you keep pushing, following a super strict routine that is not sustainable until eventually you hit a wall.

So that means your plan is too strict, your energy tanks, or life throws you another curve ball. And when you can’t keep up with the level of intensity that you’ve established, you’re back on the roller coaster. And you slip up, then you stop all together, and then you avoid. And suddenly, you’re right back where you started, off your plan, waiting for the next tipping point to surface. And that’s the burnout, the constant swinging from one extreme to the other that leaves you drained, frustrated, and stuck in a loop that feels harder and harder to escape every time.

Okay, so now that you know the components of the cycle, let’s talk about why this even happens. So many of you, you already know this pattern. You know the cycle, but yet, despite knowing it and seeing it and living through it, the cycle still repeats itself. So why is that?

Well, first, the most glaring reason for this repeat cycle is pressure. Many of you listening are high achievers. You have big jobs. You’re lawyers, physicians, executives, leaders, and parents. You are wired for achievement. You’ve built careers and lives around pushing harder, being reliable, saying yes, and showing up for everyone else in your life. And the world rewards you for that. Maybe you get recognition or promotions, raises, pats on the back. People notice when you answer your emails at midnight. They notice when you take on the extra project, or when you cover the shift no one else wanted, or when you volunteer to coach the team. Those things get you approval.

But here’s the hard truth. When it comes to taking care of yourself, no one is handing out grades or gold stars. You don’t get a pat on the back for skipping donuts in the break room. No one claps when you get to bed early instead of staying up to finish one more chart. And when you cook dinner at home instead of getting takeout, there’s no boss telling you great job, keep it up. So taking care of yourself happens quietly. It’s essentially invisible to everyone else. And because it often goes unnoticed and it doesn’t come with external reward, it’s often the very first thing that gets pushed aside when the pressure turns up.

So think about it. When work is going down the toilet, what is the first thing you cut out? You don’t cancel the meeting with your boss. You don’t skip your rounds with the team. You don’t tell your client you’re not showing up. No, you cancel your workout. You stay up later and sacrifice your sleep. You skip lunch or eat whatever’s easy at your desk. You put yourself on the chopping block first because you know you can get away with it. And on some level, you might have even taught yourself that you’ll always make up for it later.

And that’s why I say this. When the pressure is on, the first thing to go is usually you, your body, your mind, your well-being. And if you’ve been living like this for years, you know the cost. The pendulum swing is not just about habits. It’s about a lifetime of putting yourself last and telling yourself it’s sacrificial and it’s the right thing to do, when in reality, it’s totally depleting you.

Okay, so another reason for this repeated pendulum swing is that oddly enough, it’s comforting. Both extremes of the pendulum can feel good, at least in the moment. Hear me out on this. Being very strict with yourself, it feels safe. It removes decision making. When you’re in a strict phase, there’s relief in not having to negotiate with yourself. The rules, they are crystal clear. Eat this, not that. Work out every day, no excuses. Hit your step goal, check the boxes, move on. It is very routinized and regimented.

And that kind of certainty can feel like freedom because there’s no gray space to wrestle with. You don’t have to stop and ask, hmm, do I really want this? Do I really feel like working out today? You’ve already decided. No dessert, yes workout, done. And for a while, that feels powerful. It feels like you’ve got it. And for a stressed out brain, that kind of certainty, it feels like relief. You don’t have to think anymore. You just follow the plan.

But then there’s the flip side, and that’s the checked out part. That’s the other side of the pendulum swing. And in its own weird way, that has relief too, because you let go. There’s no meal prep, no mental checklist, no weighing, no journaling, no wondering if you’re good. You just eat what’s in front of you. You pour the glass of wine, you order the pizza, you collapse on the couch instead of going to the gym. And that also feels good in the moment because it gives you a break from the pressure of doing everything right.

So, in its own way, both ends of the pendulum swing offer comfort. Strictness feels safe because everything is locked down and comfortable. And checking out feels soothing because there are no rules, no effort, and no expectations. So both give you a temporary escape from pressure. And your brain learns to love both ends of the spectrum because both feel familiar.

But there’s still a downside, and that is neither phase lasts. Strict mode eventually feels suffocating, and checked out mode eventually feels disappointing, and neither end is sustainable. And every time you swing back and forth on that pendulum, your brain is just going to the extremes it already knows. It thinks it’s protecting you by reaching for comfort on either end, but in reality, those swings are exactly what are keeping you stuck and exhausted.

All right, so another reason for this cycle is about reward. The rewards you get from work versus the rewards you get from taking care of yourself, they are very different, and they are on totally different timelines. Okay, so think about your job for a minute. You send an email and it’s done. You sign the chart and it’s closed. You show up for the meeting, and by the time you walk out, you can cross it off your list. There’s immediate payoff. And you get a little dopamine hit of completing something. And sometimes if you’re lucky, you even get outside validation. Maybe someone thanks you or praises you or notices your effort.

So, not only does your brain feel good because the task in front of you is complete, but you’ve also got an external reward in the form of someone noticing. And that reward is fast, it’s tangible, and it’s gratifying. Okay, so now compare that to your health. So, say you go and lift weights today. And sure, maybe you feel a little proud after you walk out of the gym, but that does not mean suddenly you wake up tomorrow with jacked arms.

Or, say you eat balanced, healthy meals for a full week, but your jeans don’t magically feel different at the end of that week. Or, you go to bed earlier for a few nights, but you may still feel groggy in the morning. So the payoff here from taking care of yourself right there in the moment, it is subtle, like super subtle. The real payoff is delayed. So the real major rewards, like better energy, more stamina, stronger, leaner muscles, those rewards show up in weeks or months or even years.

And so here’s what happens. When you’re under pressure, your brain defaults to wherever the payoff is faster. And that’s why you’ll answer emails at 10 p.m. instead of going to bed, or why you’ll stay at work late to finish a project instead of heading to your Orange Theory class. It’s not because you don’t care about your health. It’s because your brain is wired to chase the thing that feels rewarding right now. And wellness rarely gives you that immediate hit that you’re looking for.

And so this mismatch between your effort and your reward, it’s sneaky because over time, it slowly trains you to treat your health like an optional part of your life instead of the foundation. And every time you treat your health and wellness as optional, you reinforce the pattern that urgent work comes first, long-term health comes last. And this goes on and on until one day you wake up and realize that you’ve spent years giving all your best energy to everything but yourself. But by then, it’s too late.

All right. And the last reason that this pendulum swing between on again, off again is so common is because of your brain. So, remember, your brain is wired for efficiency, not for growth. So your brain’s number one job is to keep you alive using the least amount of energy possible. And so that means it will always, always, always choose the path of least resistance.

So, once you’ve skipped a few workouts, the easier choice is to skip the next one and keep missing your workouts. Once you’ve stopped logging your food, the easier choice is to keep avoiding your food journal. So every time you repeat a behavior, even if that behavior is not helping you, you’re making that path more familiar, and your brain loves the familiar. So when you’re tired, stressed, or overwhelmed, your brain does not pony up and say, hey, let’s do that thing that requires a whole lot of effort now for a payoff that comes way later. No.

Instead, your brain tells you, do what’s easiest, stick with what you know. And if what it knows is swinging between strict control and totally checked out, that’s exactly where it will go. And it is not because you’re lazy or because you lack discipline. It’s because your brain is doing its job, choosing comfort over effort and uncertainty. And the problem is those familiar choices, like skipping workouts or zoning out with your food, swinging back and forth, those choices are not getting you where you want to go. Those choices are keeping you stuck in a loop.

And unless you see that clearly, your brain will keep offering you the same options. You either clamp down super hard, or you let go entirely. And that’s why the pendulum swing feels so automatic, because your brain thinks it’s protecting you when really, all it’s doing is repeating what it knows.

Now that we’ve broken down what this pendulum swing looks like and why it happens, let’s talk about how you get off the ride. If you’ve been hearing this so far and you’re nodding along thinking, yep, that’s me. I live on this pendulum. Let’s talk about how to make the swing stop. Because the goal is not to stop being human. The slip ups, the disruptions, and the busy seasons, they are always going to happen. But knowing that, the goal is to stop swinging so wildly between extremes and instead create a steadier rhythm that you can actually live with. Okay, so here are some ways that you can do that.

So first, you can shorten the slide. And here’s what I mean by this. Right now, maybe when you fall off track, you might stay there for weeks. You avoid the scale, you stop exercising, you eat whatever, and you keep telling yourself you’ll fix it Monday. And before you know it, a month has gone by. Shortening the slide means you don’t tumble all the way to the bottom before you start working again. You catch yourself sooner.

That might mean catching yourself after two skipped workouts instead of 10. Or noticing that your meals got looser over the last few days and deciding, okay, time to clean it up instead of waiting for weeks until the frustration boils over. And the key here is that you see the drift happening, but instead of being carried by it, you intentionally decide, okay, time to turn it around now. So even if you do slide, which if you’re human, you’ll do, you stop the drop sooner.

And here’s why this matters. The longer you stay off, the more energy it takes to come back. So think about it like pushing a car. If you stop it at the top of a hill, it only takes a small nudge to get it moving again. But if you let that car roll all the way to the bottom of the hill, now you’ve got to push with all your might in order to get it going again. And habits work the same way. The longer you practice them, the more automatic they become. But the longer you abandon them, the more rusty they get, and the harder it feels to get them started again.

So when you shorten the slide, what you’re really doing is keeping the habit alive. You’re keeping the groove worn in your brain so it’s easier to step back into it instead of having to carve out a brand new path all from scratch.

All right, the next tool to get you off the pendulum swing is to set floor habits instead of ceiling goals. So, what exactly does that mean? Okay, so most high achievers I work with set their goals way too high right out the gate. Five workouts a week, 10,000 steps every single day, cook every meal at home, no sugar, no alcohol, no slip ups.

And on paper, that sounds awesome. But in real life, that is not sustainable. And when you can’t hit that bar, a few things happen. Some of you set the bar even higher than it was to begin with. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve been in a client session, and my client will set a goal of something like three 30-minute workouts per week. Then I’ll see her the following week and she got one workout in. And she’ll beat herself up about it and then make a new goal of five 30-minute workouts in the next week. I’m not even kidding. And this, this does not work. It does not make sense to raise the ceiling even higher, and it does not work.

And the other thing I see is that you set the bar too high, and when you can’t hit that bar, you decide you failed. You make your missed workouts mean that you are the worst person on the planet. And because of that guilt and shame, you let the whole thing fall apart and keep skipping your workouts. And so here’s what I’m suggesting. Instead of aiming for the ceiling, I want you to set a floor.

A floor is your minimum. It’s the baseline that you will not drop below, no matter how crazy your life gets. So maybe that’s a 10-minute walk because that’s all you’ve got time to do. Or maybe it’s one serving of protein at every meal. Maybe it’s turning off the lights by 11:00, even if your bedtime isn’t perfect. And none of these are huge wins, but it doesn’t matter because they’re steady.

And the power of setting a floor is this. Your floor keeps you from going all the way to zero. Your floor gives you something to stand on when everything else around you feels like it’s falling apart. And that matters because it’s usually that drop to zero that does the most damage. So one skipped workout does not matter. One night of takeout also does not matter. But what does matter is when one skipped workout turns into 6 months off. What matters is when one night of takeout turns into never cooking at home again.

So, setting floors stops you from free falling. They make sure that even when you can’t give 100%, you’re still giving something. And that something keeps the wheels turning. It keeps the habit alive so you don’t have to start from scratch later. And over time, holding your floor consistently matters way more than hitting your ceiling occasionally. It’s that floor that keeps you consistent.

All right? So next, another tool you can use to stop the pendulum swing is to build routines for your messy weeks. And so here’s what I mean by this. Most people plan for their best weeks. When your calendar is good, you’re caught up on sleep, nothing unexpected is happening, and you actually have space to breathe. And it makes sense that during those weeks, it is a whole lot easier to stick with your workouts, cook meals at home, and do all the things.

But if we’re being really honest, most of us don’t live our lives in best week mode. In fact, most of us live our lives in messy week mode, and you know what I’m talking about. Call weeks, big case weeks, deadline weeks, travel weeks, the week when your kid wakes up sick, and then the other kid wakes up sick, or you’re home late from work every night, or everything just feels harder. Those weeks tend to happen pretty often for most of the women I work with. It’s always something.

And here’s where so many people get stuck. You’ve only got one plan, and that’s your ideal week plan. But when life doesn’t look ideal, that plan is useless and goes out the window. And that’s when the pendulum swings because instead of scaling back, you throw your hands up in the air and say, forget it, and let everything go.

So, I want you to try this differently. Create a messy week plan. And so that means decide ahead of time, what counts as a workout when you are short on time? So maybe it’s 15 minutes instead of 45. What is your go-to dinner when you don’t have time to cook? So maybe that’s a rotisserie chicken and a bag salad. What is your sleep strategy when you know you’ll be up late working? And maybe that’s shutting down your screens as soon as you walk in the door so you can squeeze in a little extra rest instead of doom scrolling.

And the point here is that messy weeks, which happen fairly frequently for most of us, are not an excuse to abandon yourself. In fact, messy weeks are exactly the reason you need a backup plan. Because if you only have a strategy for when your life is perfect and tidy, you are setting yourself up to swing really hard every time life gets chaotic. Your messy week routine will help keep you grounded. It gives you something to fall back on so things don’t completely unravel.

Another tool to get you off the pendulum is to look for patterns instead of punishing yourself. So this here is another big shift. Most women I work with are pretty mean to themselves when they fall off track. Their self-talk, it is not something I would repeat in front of a small child, okay? And all that does when you beat yourself up is keep you stuck longer.

And that is because shame does not create momentum, okay? Really hear that. Shame does not create momentum. So instead of punishing yourself, try zooming out and looking for your patterns. Every time you fall off, there is a reason. Maybe it’s that every time you’re on call, your workouts fall apart. Or maybe every time your kid has a sports tournament, your eating goes down the toilet. Or every time you’ve got a big deadline, you stop sleeping.

So please know that these are not moral failings, okay? They are your patterns. And once you name your pattern, then you can plan around it. So, let’s take the example of work getting busy because that comes up all the time. When things get crazy at work, that’s the time when many of my clients fall off their eating and working out, and that’s when the pendulum starts to swing.

So then, once you see that clearly, the question becomes, what will I do differently the next time work ramps up? Because you know it’s only a matter of time before things get crazy again. Maybe your answer is having a busy week workout plan that’s 20 minutes instead of 60. Maybe it’s planning and prepping a few go-to meals so you don’t rely on takeout every night. Maybe it’s protecting your sleep by setting a hard cutoff for emails at 10 p.m. even during a deadline season.

And the whole idea here is this. The point isn’t to make busy weeks disappear, because that’s not realistic. The point is to go into your busy weeks with a strategy instead of waiting until you’re already underwater and trying to figure it out, which generally does not go well. All right?

And then here’s one last tool. This is the last piece, and honestly, this is the one that ties all of this together. If you want to stop the pendulum, you have to stop treating your identity like an on-off switch that flips on and off depending on how perfectly you are following your habits. So this is what I hear from clients all the time. When I’m on track and working out and eating well, I feel like I’m healthy. But then when I stop, I feel lazy. I’m inconsistent, and then I’ve got to start all over again.

And here’s the problem with that. You’re letting your circumstances decide who you are. You’re treating your identity like a light switch. On when you’re strict, off when you’re not. But remember, identity doesn’t work like that. You don’t stop being a parent when your kids go to school. You don’t stop being a physician when you leave the hospital or a lawyer when you leave the courtroom, right?

You don’t stop being a leader when you take vacation. Those roles, they stay with you through the ups and downs. And the same is true for your health. So, if you are someone who takes care of herself, that is true whether you worked out five times this week or you worked out once. It is true whether dinner was grilled salmon or scrambled eggs. It is true whether you meal prepped on Sunday or just grabbed yogurt and fruit before your day of meetings started.

The behaviors might look differently depending on the season you’re in, but the foundation, your identity, that stays the same. And here’s why this matters. When you start to see your identity as steady instead of conditional, you stop swinging to extremes. You stop thinking, I’m on, I’m off, I’m good, I’m bad. You stop making your habits mean something about your worth. And instead, you start asking yourself better questions.

Like, how does a woman who takes care of herself show up in this particular season? And that question, it really does change everything. Because instead of abandoning yourself when life gets messy, you adapt. Instead of deciding you failed, you adjust. And instead of flipping your identity on and off with every swing of the pendulum, you stay anchored in who you are, even when the execution is not perfect.

And that is how you finally step off the roller coaster. You stop letting the cycle define you, and you start letting your identity carry you through the ups and downs. Huge difference. All right.

So now that you’ve got a bunch of tools in your tool belt, let’s pull this all together because this part is key. If you’re really going to get off the pendulum of on again, off again with your habits for real, I want to invite you to rethink what progress actually means. Most of the women I work with think of progress as a perfect streak. They want the chart that shows the workouts checked off every day with zero misses. They want the food log to look pristine from Monday to Sunday. They want the trend of the scale to move straight down without any blips.

And the second those things don’t happen, the story becomes, I blew it. So, I might as well keep blowing it until you are back at square one, rinse and repeat. But that is not how change works. So progress, as you know, it is not a straight line. It’s not a perfect record. And instead, I want you to consider progress as being measured by how you recover. So really think about that for a minute. Imagine what your life and your wellness journey in particular would look like if you measured progress by how you recover.

Here’s a way to look at it. Progress means the lows don’t last as long and the climb back up isn’t as hard. So it’s not about never slipping because that’s unrealistic. And instead, it’s about making the slips smaller when they do happen and getting back up sooner. If you used to fall off for a month or more and then you start catching yourself after a week, that’s progress.

If you used to spiral after one bad meal, but now you reset at the next meal instead of next Monday, also progress. And to be fully honest, that is what real progress and real consistency look like. It is not flashy and it’s definitely not perfect. It’s not something you’re going to post on Instagram. Instead, it’s the quiet work of noticing the slide sooner rather than later, bouncing back quicker, and saving yourself the mental and physical energy of a full-on reset.

And here’s the best part. When you measure progress this way, you take away the drama. You stop telling yourself you’re good or you’re bad. You stop throwing away weeks of effort just because one day didn’t go as planned. You stop swinging so hard between extremes. And instead, maybe, just maybe, you start to see every slip as part of the process instead of proof that you failed.

So let me say this again, loud and clear. Success is not a perfect streak. Success is your ability to recover faster. And the more you practice that, the less power the pendulum has over you. All right?

So here’s what I want you to take away from all of this. The pendulum swing is common, but it’s not inevitable. You do not have to keep living on the roller coaster of being all in one week and completely checked out the next. And your job is not to prevent every slip. Instead, your job is to shorten the slide, or set yourself a floor so you’re no longer starting from zero, or create a messy week routine so you’ve got a plan when life gets hectic, or look for patterns instead of punishing yourself.

And remember that your identity does not flip on and off like a switch with your circumstances. It carries you through them. So that is how you break the cycle. That is how you get off the swing, not by white knuckling your way through stricter rules, not by waiting for the perfect season or the perfect schedule, but by building a sense of steady during your messiest times.

And when you start to see progress as recovering faster, not as never failing, you give yourself so much more freedom. You stop wasting energy beating yourself up, and you start using that energy to keep moving forward. And that shift totally adds up. And that is where your consistency lives.

So let me leave you with this. What’s one thing you can do today that keeps you from starting back at zero? Maybe it’s setting a floor habit. Maybe it’s a messy week plan. Maybe it’s as simple as catching yourself mid-slide and deciding to reset now and not later. Whatever it is, do that. That is how you get off the pendulum. All right?

And if you want help with this, if you’re tired of the roller coaster and if you’re ready to build habits that actually stick without the extremes, let’s talk. This is the work we do in coaching. We get you off the roller coaster and into a rhythm you can keep. So head to www.CarrieHollandMD.com/contact, send me a message, and let’s get to work. All right?

Thank you again for hanging out with me, and I’ll catch you again next week.

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Thank you for listening to the Strong Is a Mindset podcast. If you want to learn more about how to build both a strong mind and a strong body by eating, moving, and most importantly, thinking, check out CarrieHollandMD.com.