Eating clean, training, drinking the water, and the scale still won’t budge? Liz and Becca get blunt about the real reason most women stall: they tiptoe in, judge too soon, and quit before their body has time to respond. Here’s what to measure instead, how long to give a change, and why your practitioner shouldn’t have the perfect plan on day one.

Full episode transcript

0:00Cold open: "I changed my diet and I started eating clean, and the scale didn't move in two, four, six weeks." "It has not been linear by any means. I am not in a linear right now. I am in a, I don't like what's happening right now, but I'm continuing to go forward because I know that that is how it works." "And then the biggest one that I think holds people back more than anything is this…"

0:18Becca: Welcome back to the Health Revival Show.

Why is tiptoeing the most expensive choice you can make?

0:20Becca: We are diving into some mindset today. We haven't done a mindset one in a while, and I actually was listening to a podcast yesterday and a couple of pieces hit me big. And I also— I know Liz posted on her stories about kind of feeling like you have to do it all. And so we have another one set for kind of more that side of the boat in terms of I think a lot of people that are Type A overachievers, it's never enough, and it can get really debilitating sometimes in that head space in terms of like you're not ever, you know, stopping. You're not ever pleased. You're not ever satisfied.

0:58Becca: But today, we wanna talk a little bit more around tiptoeing versus going all in because tiptoeing feels safe, right? Like it's— You're not— You don't have to fully commit. You kind of leave that back option there, right? And it's like I can fail safe there if I need to. But I think tiptoeing is the most expensive choice you can make because you pay the cost of starting, but you never get the payoff of finishing, finishing fully. Like the things that I am most proud of in this life, other than my children, not that like I did that, but like you know what I mean. I'm, I'm— love my family.

1:37Becca: The things that I am most proud of in this life are the things that I gave literally everything to. Like there was no questioning. There was no doubting. There was no I'm gonna smudge the line a little bit. It was like I committed 100% to this and I did not falter. And this is not like you have to be perfect all the time type of podcast.

What do successful people do that everyone else doesn't?

1:56Becca: But I think what we see consistently is that successful people are not brave. They are not more talented. They are not, you know, better than you. They just stay in the uncomfortable unknown longer and with more commitment than most people will, than the average person will. And I think that is the difference maker. They are willing to go where they have to have faith. They have to lean on God a little bit here and a lot and know that it might not work out and be okay with that 'cause that's a hard thing to like sit with. Be like I'm putting literally every ounce of my effort, my finances, whatever it might be into this and I don't know if it's going to work. And I think in terms of when you look at successful people versus unsuccessful people, there are many of them that will tell you, "I am not more talented than you, but I have continued to show up, and I've continued to push through the times that were really hard, really challenging, that almost broke me, where I wanted to quit, but I didn't.

3:06Becca: There was no plan B. I kept going." And I know that so many of you out there, you could apply this to any situation, honestly, in your life, that you want to achieve this outcome. You've seen other people do it, so you know that it is possible, but yet something inside of you, this inner critic, this imposter syndrome voice, right? Like, I've never— nobody in my family maybe has achieved this greatness. Nobody in my family maybe has an online business and steps out in social media, and so I'm kind of like the odd duck that just like shares my whole life. You know what I mean? Or whatever it might be. You are afraid and you let all of these doubts, not even just about what the people online might say about you, because that's a very true thing if that's, you know, what you're thinking about.

3:54Becca: But let's say, for example, you wanna change careers, you wanna go back to school, you wanna learn a new hobby. You're like, "Hey, I'm just kind of bored and I wanna do this." And other people, because they're not doing things in their own life, are naysayers, right? they're always gonna have something to say.

What do you do when the people closest to you say it won't work?

4:10Liz: And I think that it's really interesting when you look at the people who… For example, I'm just gonna use Liz and Becca here, right? Because this is our real life that we've experienced. It's been about a decade that we've been in business together, we've been partners together, and throughout this timeframe we've had a lot of shifts, I would say, in friend groups. I keep my circle pretty close, so I'm still very close with a few of them, but not all of them, that I was 10 years ago. There are people that are not in my life that I thought would be in my life forever. There are people, direct immediate family members, that said, "Business partners, it's not a good idea.

4:51Liz: Working with your husband, it's not a good idea. Going all in online, how could you ever make money doing that?" You know what I'm saying? And like, there's doubts, there's fears that these individuals have, and while maybe they thought that they were being wise in some way, it was really, for me, more of a I'm gonna prove you wrong, whereas other people it can be, "I can't do it." Right? They can let those fears that other people project onto them become their internal beliefs. And you're already battling… Every single person, no matter how successful they are, is already battling an inner critic, a question that pops into their mind, a doubt.

5:35Liz: This is normal. We call these automatic negative thoughts. There's things and situations that I would say if you look at the most successful people who actually share their life, that they've gone through and the experiences that they've learned from have helped them do better. Like I remember Leila Hormozi had a podcast on, I think it was like a $50 million job, project, you know, deal, whatever, she called it, that they missed the mark on. And imagine if you don't follow Leila Hormozi, you should. She's a brilliant mind. But the important piece that I love hearing from them, her husband included and their team, is that they use those failures as ways to learn and to grow and then to go crush a $500 million deal, right?

6:24Liz: That's the level of players that we aspire to be. And so if you were just gonna go back in time and look at where you were when you maybe had that idea, 'cause we've heard this. How many times this week I feel like we've heard this? "Man, I had that idea, but I didn't put it into action. I should be the one that is making all of this money off of that, but I chose to sit on my idea instead of go find the people to help me." And so I agree with you, Becca, in terms of when we're saying here, we sit in the uncomfortable, and we sit here longer. Yeah, we have a great business. We're really proud of our business. We're also far from where we wanna be.

7:02Liz: We're far from creating the things that we want to create, and there's a lot of fear around that. There's a lot of, still, people that are gonna be like, "You're gonna do what? You're gonna put out a poop chart?" And I'm like, "Yeah, I am gonna put out a poop chart. That's my version of the Bristol Stool Chart, 'cause I got a story to go with every single one of those types, and we're gonna make it fun." And I don't care if it's taboo. Everybody poops. All the successful people that you wanna be like that make the money that you have, they poop.

7:31Becca: Probably gut issues too.

7:34Liz: Probably horrible gut issues, especially the men. The level of stress.

Why do we make excuses instead of going all in?

7:40Becca: No, absolutely, and I think that a lot of people don't do things 'cause they, they justify, right? You, well, you guys, we are the best justifiers of our own actions ever. Just listen to me explain why I buy things. Like, I will justify just about any purchase so eloquently. But it is just an excuse, right? Like, protecting your identity. If I don't fully try, I don't fully fail, right? Fear of looking bad. Past burnout or failure or, you know, someone burning you keeps you from actually trying again.

8:12Becca: Waiting to feel ready. We've— Oh my gosh. When— You guys, if you wait until you're ready, you will never actually do anything, because by the time you're ready, it's far gone. The opportunity is missed. Like, when this— Like Liz was talking about with the building of the company, right? We almost stopped. I mean, Ed Mylett is someone that I listen to a lot. He's a great entrepreneur. He's worth millions and millions.

8:38Becca: He went through foreclosure. He lost his house. He had to repo his cars. Like, he went through the rock bottom, which honestly, most really successful business owners that at least I listen to that tell their story, they're, they've had multiple failures of businesses and then grow, right? Because they learn from them. They don't give up. They don't let that completely ruin them. And I think when it comes to, you know, for example, diet and exercise, right? A lot of people listening are either, you know, people that follow us for nutrition, health, functional health or practitioners, things like that.

9:11Becca: They eat better most of the time. But I won't give up that weekend thing. I won't give up, you know, this.

Is program hopping the reason nothing has worked?

9:18Becca: Or the program hoppers. This used to be me. When I was in CrossFit and I refused to accept that I shouldn't have a six-pack like all the other girls that I was competing against in CrossFit, I would go from coach to coach 'cause I was like, "This person's gonna give me something different. They're gonna tell me something that I haven't heard already that's gonna be the answer to what's going on." No, guys. No. I just kept being told the same thing. You need to eat enough to fuel the training.

9:44Becca: You need to manage your stress, which I didn't do. I wasn't looking at my ho- like, I didn't know everything at that point, but I program hopped. I went from practitioner or coach to coach to try to find a different answer when the answer was me. I was the person that would not fully get in and buy in to what was being told because I refused to accept that that was it, and I wouldn't go all in. And so, I think in those situations it can look like different things.

How long should it take to fix my health?

10:11Becca: And then the biggest one that I think holds people back more than anything is their timeline, the timeline that they create in their mind of, "This is when things should be fixed by. This is when I should feel this way, and if I don't, then this is the wrong process." Versus, "Maybe my body has more going on than I thought. I am just going to commit to the work in front of me and let the timeline play out how it should." So I, um… Oh, what is his name? He was a football player. He's very famous in the motivational speaking world. I wanna say- Shelton? No, it's not Trent Shelton.

10:45Becca: but he essentially had— He was, like, amazing college football player. He had a horrible injury where he essentially lost his arm. it, like- Gosh … the neck nerve, something happened to where, like, he basically doesn't have function of one of his arms anymore. And he told a story of When I went through rehab for it, they essentially told me it's a process, rehab, meaning we do not know if this is going to work. You have to show up five days a week, six days a week, do the rehab with the possibility that it will not work a year from now. And he's like, "Everyone I talked to basically told me, 'Don't do it. There's no guarantee.' There's no," you know.

11:29Becca: But he's like, "It's the process that is going to teach me more than anything, that is going to help me more than anything of working towards the thing." Because for us, you guys, I don't look in my mind how I want to look. In my mind, when I was like, "I'm gonna set out on this health journey, this is what I wanna look like." Do I look close to that? Of course I do, because I've worked really fricking hard at it, and I've gone through multiple periods of, like, there has been a lot of restriction, there has been a lot of work, there is going to be a lot of grind and frustration and ups and downs. It has not been linear by any means. I am not in a linear right now. I am in a, "I don't like what's happening right now," but I'm continuing to go forward because I know that that is how it works.

12:13Becca: Rollercoaster of life. If you are not in it for the lows, guess what? You ain't gonna get those highs. You are not going to get the other part of it because you will not commit to the hard pieces.

Why can't a practitioner build the perfect plan on day one?

12:25Becca: And so I think in the, you know, health space, a lot of people have in their mind, "This is what my progress should look like, and if it doesn't, then it's not working." When in reality, you have no clue if it's going to work or not. You have no clue what the layers of dysfunction your body entails, and sometimes you don't know… I actually had this conversation with one of our practitioners that were going through kind of onboarding and cases, and I was like, "You, you want to create the perfect plan for this person off the bat, like, just based on blood work and intake forms and all of that." And I was like, "But the reality is what we do is an art form, and you sometimes have to watch things play out in the fir-" Like, I don't truly know my clients until I'm, like, a couple months in, until I see how their body responds, until I see how their system works.

13:12Becca: Like, you start to pick up on things, and you can create the most calculated protocol off the bat, but guess what? You don't know how they're gonna respond to it. And so as a practitioner, you a lot of times have to be like, "Hey, we're gonna watch. We're gonna watch, and we're going to adjust, and we're gonna pivot, and we're gonna get you where we need to be, but I don't know everything right now because I haven't seen your body work. I haven't seen how things go." And so you never have all the answers, ever. You have to lean into the faith. It's just, you gotta step fully in.

How long should I try a change before deciding it doesn't work?

13:45Liz: Yeah, and I think the way that you could simplify this is to think about when you lay your head on your bed at night, are you proud of the choices that you make? Are you proud of showing up and putting in the work because you know that you did, and you can't control the outcome. But if you go to bed every night and you didn't do anything, right, then you know that outcome is absolutely true. Right? Negative, negative. Positive can sometimes be negative, but most of the time, over time, it's going to compound and you're going to get a net positive effect. So think about it this way, super simple that everybody can, you know, kind of process.

14:27Liz: If you are only drinking 30 ounces of water every day and you know you should be drinking 60 ounces of water every day because it's going to improve your bowel movement, it's gonna improve bloating, mental clarity, weight loss, satiation, skin health, all kinds of things. And you're just sitting there like, "Okay, I'm gonna go and I'm gonna increase my water to 60." But after two to three days, you didn't notice a dramatic shift, so you just kinda got lax again and you went back to your old ways. You have not collected enough data yet to say that it wasn't gonna work for you. Because ultimately, I'm gonna be honest with you're the problem because you keep giving up too fast. You don't have enough data to say this is… Like, you're judging it too soon, right?

15:16Liz: It could be the same thing with your nutrition.

What should I measure if the scale isn't moving?

15:18Liz: "I changed my diet and I started eating clean, and the scale didn't move," in two, four, six weeks even for some individuals. But you're also failing to look at all the other measures of success with your photos, your measurements, your biofeedback, how you're feeling, some of the other physical composition that you're gonna see visually in terms of maybe your lifting and your you know, building strength. That's kinda where I'm at right now. I'm like, "Okay, but look at the physical composition. Look at the strength and the progression that's happening here," and I'm able to maintain not entirely blowing up. Still put on a couple of pounds 'cause that's start of the pro- part of the process, but this is also too quick to judge.

15:57Liz: You cannot judge two to three days of drinking more water, changing your diet, lifting heavier. And this is where I think most people, it's kinda like social media. We saw this for ourselves. We've seen it for many other individuals. How do you have the platforms that you have? Girlfriend, sweat, grind, and tears. It's called reps. You put in the reps. Some of it absolutely sucked and tanked. Some of it we spent a lot of time on and we thought, "This is gonna be great." Programs that we built, "Yeah, that's gonna be, you know, awesome in terms of getting so many people into this launch." Flop.

16:34Liz: "Okay, now what do we do?" We go back to the drawing board. We go film some more reels. Whether we want to or not, this is where we embrace the suck. This is where we get into the trenches and say, "I'm gonna figure it out no matter what comes my way."

Are you as consistent as you think you are?

16:47Liz: And I'm not gonna be one of those people who is gonna be a victim mentality, because I'm gonna be honest with most of you listening to this podcast who are feeling this right now. You're gonna go back and you're gonna take a good hard look in the mirror, and if I asked you, "Did you check off all the things that you committed to for the last 30 days consecutively?" Maybe 2% of you are gonna be able to say, "Yes, I did." And I know this to be true because I am also human. I know this to be true because Becca and I have done 75 Hard, and in that timeframe it taught me a lot about what I really thought consistency was. You don't know consistency until you're up against the line of failure.

17:26Liz: And if you have something that you really wanna dedicate yourself to, get a calendar out, put 30 days on it, and every single day get a green marker and go up there and write a check mark. And if you miss it, but you won't 'cause you visually see it and that's your reminder, you put that red X. And if you're honest with yourself, after the 30 days, now you have some data and you can go back and be like, "Hey, you know what? I wasn't 100%, but I'm really freaking proud of myself. I only missed two days out of 30." And just by doing that action and taking that commitment beyond just something in your mind or your brain, "I'm going to," because you don't unless you track it. It's the same with your nutrition.

18:06Liz: What'd I text you about last night, Becca? Didn't complete the task list today. Didn't get all the food in today, right? I was like 300 calories short and I was, after pickleball, I had trained that morning and I was like, I'm just… I did my best with juices and I was delayed. I was behind. And so I have to do better in the beginning of the day. I'm learning from that. And I'm learning that even though I can eat my dinner and I can have coconut water and I can add all of these things in around that timeframe, it's still too late for me to make that up.

18:37Liz: So today, what did I do? I got up and my first thing is I just followed the plan to a T. And I'm just gonna keep following the plan to a T because that's what has to be done if you wanna get the outcome that you desire. And so I just think for most of you're giving yourself too many outs because you're not committed, you don't have accountability, you're not tracking things.

Why should you expect setbacks?

18:57Liz: I think a lot of you are expecting linear progression and you don't expect the dips. Expect the dips. Expect the scale to go up. Expect the frustration. Expect the challenge. Expect for your kid to get sick on day two. Okay? Expect that sh*t, especially if you're a mom, right? Like, these are the things that life throws you curve balls and you just have to pivot and you adjust and you navigate. Like, I just kind of think about, like, I loved Super Mario Kart as a kid, and I tell this story to Marcus about how I would always fall off the rainbow road, right?

19:28Liz: 'Cause I would overcorrect, and so he always like jokes with me about this. And so that's kind of how I imagine life to be is like I'm just trying to stay on the rainbow road, going towards my goal. But I'm dodging those… What are those big bla- bombs that used to try to come, those darts, right? And kill you in Super Mario Kart. Expect that. Expect the fatigue. Expect the imperfection. And expect that if you're trying to build a business, you're gonna have lows, you're gonna have days that you feel like you just… burn it to the ground. Burn it to the ground some days.

Should I track my actions or my results?

20:00Liz: And I think in the other sense, if you want to track anything, track your actions, not the progress. Like track, am I, you know, doing three workouts a week every week? Am I drinking the water every day? I'm now currently supposed to be drinking five liters of water a day, which is a lot more water than I normally am drinking. And so guess what? I had to look up again this morning how much water is in a Stanley, and I have to make sure that I fill this bad boy up five times a day. And so it is the actions that I go off of, not just the outcome that I am looking for, because I can track my actions.

20:36Liz: I can control my actions. I cannot control the timeline of the outcome. And then maybe you give yourself, I am giving this an at least amount of time type baseline. I'm giving this at least three months, at least six months. Do not do less than a month, guys. Absolutely not. Nothing worth having you will see any type of progress in less than a month. If you're talking body composition changes, like you're trying to build muscle, we're talking years. We are talking years of shifts and eating more and training hard and cuts and eating more again and training hard.

21:08Liz: There's, there is a process to that and it takes time. And so you cannot go off of your progress only because you will get frustrated. You will, and you will stop. And so go off of the actions and guess what? Progress is boring. Consistency is boring. Alex Hormozi has a great quote. He's like, "No one sees consistency unless they are also doing it." It is— You don't, you don't get to view consistency unless they are also doing it. So expect the unexpectable, expect the downs, know that they are necessary to get the highs and stop being the victim in your own life.

21:45Liz: We have got to stop tiptoeing and jump full in

Frequently asked questions

How long should I give a new diet before deciding it isn't working?

Longer than feels comfortable. Liz Roman of FitMom says two to three days of drinking more water, or a few weeks of eating cleaner, is not enough data to judge anything. FitMom's practitioners set a minimum window of at least a month, usually three to six, before calling it. Changing body composition, like building muscle, takes years of training and fueling cycles.

What should I track if the scale isn't moving?

Track your actions and the measures the scale ignores. FitMom co-founder Liz Roman tracks whether she hit her workouts, her water and her food targets each day, and judges change by progress photos, measurements, strength and biofeedback like energy and digestion, not the scale alone. You control the actions. You don't control the timeline of the outcome, so judging only by the scale sets you up to quit.

Is it normal for the scale to go up when I start eating better and lifting?

Yes. FitMom's practitioners tell women to expect it. Liz Roman put on a couple of pounds at the start of her current training phase while her strength and body composition improved. Progress in a healthy body is not linear, and scale weight moves with water, food volume and training. A temporary rise during a real change is part of the process, not proof it failed.

Why does my functional health practitioner keep adjusting my protocol?

Because no practitioner fully knows your body on day one. FitMom practitioner Becca Chilczenkowski says she doesn't truly know a client until a couple of months in, after watching how their body responds. Bloodwork and intake forms build the first plan. Your response shows what's actually going on underneath, so a good practitioner watches, adjusts and pivots. That isn't guessing. It's how layered root-cause cases get solved.

What does track your actions, not your progress, mean?

It means measuring what you control instead of what you don't. FitMom's Liz Roman tracks behaviors like three workouts a week, daily water and hitting her food plan, not just the number on the scale. Progress arrives on its own timeline and often dips before it climbs. Actions are daily and visible. Women who judge only the outcome get frustrated and stop. Women who track actions stay in long enough to see results.

Why do I keep jumping from program to program without results?

Usually because the plan isn't the problem. FitMom's Becca Chilczenkowski went from coach to coach during her CrossFit years looking for a different answer, and every one told her the same thing: eat enough to fuel the training and manage your stress. She didn't want to hear it. The answer was full commitment to the plan she already had, not a new one.

How do I actually stay consistent with a health plan?

Make it visible. FitMom co-founder Liz Roman recommends a 30-day paper calendar: a green check every day you complete your commitment, a red X when you don't. Seeing the streak keeps you honest, and after 30 days you have real data on your own consistency instead of a feeling. She says you don't know what consistency is until you're up against the line of failure.

What does tiptoeing into a health change mean?

Tiptoeing is half-committing so you keep an easy way out. FitMom's Becca Chilczenkowski calls it the most expensive choice you can make, because you pay the full cost of starting and never collect the payoff of finishing. Eating well on weekdays but keeping every weekend, or quitting a plan after a week, feels safe. It mostly guarantees you never find out what the plan could have done.

Key terms

Biofeedback

The signals your body gives about how a plan is working, such as energy, sleep quality, digestion, mood, hunger and cycle changes. FitMom uses biofeedback alongside labs and measurements, because the scale alone misses most of the picture.

Body composition

The ratio of muscle, fat and water in your body. Two women can weigh the same and look completely different. Body composition can improve while scale weight stays flat or even rises.

Linear progression

The expectation that results arrive in a straight line, a little better every week. Real health progress zigzags, with dips, plateaus and temporary setbacks along the way.

Program hopping

Switching diets, coaches or protocols every few weeks in search of a different answer, so no single plan runs long enough to work or to show what's actually wrong.

Automatic negative thoughts (ANTs)

The fast, reflexive self-doubt everyone has, such as “I can't do this” or “this won't work for me.” Becca notes that even very successful people have them; the difference is whether they act on them.

Bristol Stool Chart

A seven-type clinical scale that classifies stool by shape and consistency, used as a quick read on transit time and gut health. Liz Roman is building FitMom's own story-driven version.

75 Hard

A 75-day daily-discipline challenge that both Liz and Becca have completed. Liz says it taught her what consistency really means.

Tiptoeing

Becca's term for half-committing to a change while keeping a way out. You pay the cost of starting and never get the payoff of finishing.

Sources and people referenced

• Bristol stool scale (overview)
• 75 Hard, Andy Frisella
• Ed Mylett
• Alex and Leila Hormozi, Acquisition.com