Building Mindset and Fitness with Karen Broda

William Curb: I think mindset's a great place to start with things, cause it's so important with how exercise works because it feels like there's the idea that mindset is just like, “oh, that's just how you do things” but it really affects how what you get out of something.

Karen Broda: Hundred percent. It's funny how this term mindset we know it's really important yet.

I think it's just so such a general term that like, oh, mindset. Sure. It's important. And we don't really realize what it all is under this topic of mindset. Cause mindset is - it could just be like changing how you frame something, you know, calling exercise movement instead of exercise, it doesn't sound as fun.

It can be mindfulness where you're trying to become more present and be like, okay, why is my brain all over the place right now? And can I feel into my body and go to semantic type work? So it's really breaking down mindset of what is that and how, why is it so important? And I think it's giving people a bit more or a better idea of what falls under that.

If that makes sense.

William Curb: Yeah. I mean, and the more I've been learning about mindset stuff, I'm just like, oh, how you think about things directly relates to what your results you're going to get. It's not like the idea of like, oh yeah, I just gotta push harder in the gym. It's like, no, if you think that you're not making progress, you're not gonna make as much progress as if you do think you're making progress.

Karen Broda: Have you heard the, I guess the standard formula that your beliefs create your thoughts, your thoughts, create your actions, your actions create results. And we can just will ourselves to think differently, but that's really hard to do in your conscious state because it's your thoughts, or you can't really control them half the time, but if you can start to change your beliefs and that's the work I do, where you're going into this subconscious you're really diving deep to be like, what do I believe in my core? What have I been told or saw modeled growing up as a child, even into like later teens and even into your twenties that I, to my core still believe, and maybe don't even notice it consciously and it can be a belief of ”if I'm fat then that's bad” “if I have extra weight, that means and fat, and fat's a bad word” or “being skinny means I'm obsessed with my weight.”

And those are just beliefs. And that can cause us to self-sabotage because if you held the belief, that being then means I'm obsessed, especially for females. Well, then you're always gonna somehow get in your own way to avoid, to be thin if your goal is losing weight because that's this belief you hold deep down and it shows up in different areas of your life through different actions that you take or don't take.

William Curb: I mean, and as you said, it's really hard to change that it's not just something where you go, okay, well, today I'm today, I'm gonna have a new mindset. It kind of is in some ways, cause you go, you have to have that, the mindset that your mindset can change, but it also there's underlying things you have to do as well.

Karen Broda: I like to think of it as a muscle, like cause we're taught on the topic of fitness and exercise. Like any muscle, you need to strengthen it consistently. Otherwise you'll lose the muscle or you won't see progress. You need to like consistently go to the gym. It's just like mindset work. And that catch all term.

You kind of need to do it daily or ongoing to build that muscle. If you always have this belief from say, when you were five years old, you have the same belief that if I'm thin, that means I'm obsessed with my weight, then that's gonna take a really long time to change if you've held that for so many years, cause you saw that modeled in your life.

So it's consistently putting the work in through different methods, working with a coach, you can do hypnosis work. You just do conscious is journaling and starting to question that belief for yourself and start to have a new belief and just try that new belief. And consistently try that new belief in your life until it starts to feel normal and feels good.

William Curb: Yeah. So thinking about this as well, like how can we start really applying it to exercise? Because it is something where, exercise is super important for ADHD, but it can also be really hard to implement because where we have of that mindset that, oh, this is hard to implement. I can't do hard things and I don't know how to get started.

Karen Broda: Yeah. This is great because I always say mindset is this thing that you consistently need to do. It's the underlying component of everything it takes work, but we also want people to start moving their body like now, because it's this instant dopamine it's gonna help you refocus. It's gonna make you more intentional with your day. It's gonna help with stress sleep like so many benefits to it. So while I look at mindset as this underlying thing, like the foundation that a house would sit on and the house is the system or the habit, if you will, of making exercise consistent. And then the furniture in the house is the tips and tricks and kind of little things that you personalize it to make it work for you specifically.

So start with mindset, do that ongoing but get started right away with exercise by starting to create this system for yourself or a habit and systems are really, really powerful for us because what they are, they help us automate a task. So we're not always having to try and remember, it's not on like a to-do list that's never-ending. It doesn't feel overwhelming cause it's just the same thing we do every day. Most importantly though, it builds trust in ourselves. So if you made a promise to yourself, you're like, I'm gonna go move my body for 15 minutes today, by going for a walk. And you do that, you just made a promise to yourself that you kept. And like if a friend made you a promise and they kept that, that builds a lot of trust. And if you just consistently do that just three days in a, you build a lot of trust in yourself that you can do this. And it comes from this belief that most of us are probably told or saw modeled in most of our life that, oh, we're not good enough we can't do this. We don't stick with things. We fall off the wagon or we do too much and get injured, but just starting to build that trust gives you real-life proof that, Hey, I am sticking with this, even if it's just for three days and to make that easy, you create a system, which yeah, let's talk more about systems today. I think that'll be really helpful. Yeah.

William Curb: And with that also is just making me think of some of the functional ways I've been like implementing more movement into my life. Like I walk my daughter to school every morning and it's like a mile there and a mile back and it's like, oh, that just creates this base level of movement that I have in my day, every day, regardless of what else I also plan to do.

Karen Broda: Absolutely and I love reframing exercise, working out as movement because as soon as we take that label awake and start to change your beliefs. Cause when we think working out, we're like, oh, it has to be hard. It has to be in the gym. I have to suffer. I have to do it for an hour. So many days a week. Or if you think of doing a certain workout, you're like, it wasn't good enough because it wasn't the one I saw on Instagram.

But if you think of, I just need to move my body in ways that feels fun. That feels like a compliment to my day. You're gonna be more inclined to challenge yourself with it, which is key. You're gonna do it consistently. You're going to want to do it. You're gonna remember a little bit easier to do it, and that's all that's needed is just moving your body in ways that feels fun. It challenges you. So like you said, like walking, you know, walking to school, that's great. Maybe one day you walk a little bit faster, even better.

William Curb: Yeah. And it's because it's just what we do in the morning. It makes it really easy. I mean, I personally love doing it for myself, but I also know that I'm like instilling all these great habits into my daughter being like, Hey, you can just walk to school and have, I mean, and every morning she's like, this is so much fun to do. Cause we get to sing songs and we walk through a little four and she gets to run in the trees and create this idea that, Hey, this is a fun thing to do. Not just something that you have to do.

Karen Broda: Yeah, you hit the nail on my head where he said, this is just what we do. And that's the work I do with clients.

It's like, how can we make this? Just what you do, just who you are. Right. And that's the beauty of a system where like every morning we just walk to school, that's just what we do. And if we can start to label that as like that's perfect that's movement that is winning, that is keeping it promise to yourself.

And if it's fun, like. Walking through the forest, running through the forest, you're gonna be so inclined to do it even on rainy days when it feels like it kind of sucks to walk to your daughter to school, but you're like, Hey, it's still fun. We're still moving. This is okay. It's what we do.

William Curb: Yeah. I mean, there, there have been like the day when we had freezing fog, I was like, let's not walk down the slippery path. I can drive you today. But that was the exception rather than the rule. And so for me, this was like a really easy thing to implement, cause I'm like I can walk to the school. I know how far away it is. This is. I have the time in the morning to do it, but what are some other ways people can think about implementing some of these systems?

Because as you say, it's important to do that reframe away from, oh, I'm just gonna go run on a treadmill for 20 minutes and that sounds awful.

Karen Broda: Yeah, totally. The biggest thing about creating a system. Cause I could tell you all about how to create a system where you can build trust in yourself and feels natural, like a natural part of your day. But the first thing, and maybe we'll kind of take a detour here is finding movement you love. I tackle this everywhere. That, if you don't thorough enjoy what you're doing, it is gonna make every part of the system that much harder to stick with. And it's just gonna suck. And on those days where you're tired, you've had a bad day, you're just completely scattered and can't for the life of you even, you know, get anything done, you're not gonna go work out because you're not enjoying what you're doing.

And the biggest thing misbelief is that we need to do something that sucks to get results and that's not true. So find movement you love like a task I give to my clients is list all the activities you've done in your life that you've stuck to for like a couple months, like write them all down. Which ones did you love? Highlight those. And you've never stuck to anything. Just write the ones that you've maybe tried as a one off, but are really, really fun or ones that you're intrigued to try, write them all down and use it as you're starting off point of finding some sort of movement that is going to excite you and intrigue you, and have you wanting to challenge yourself with it, wanting you to do more of it.

And then from that list, a lot of times people are like, this actually isn't feasible. Like I really wanna go rock climbing, but I have like no rock climbing gyms in my area. So how can I do this? Well, take everything you listed and then underneath it break down what aspects of it that you loved? So say you ran in a running group for like six months when you lived in a different city and the reason you like that was, well, the camaraderie there was maybe you had beers after, like that's really great. You, it, there was no pressure on running fast far. It was just getting out, enjoying nature. Maybe you ran through of beautiful trails. You're like, I really like being outside. I like nature. I like being with friends. I love the social aspect of it. Like great. Okay. Now, now brainstorm, like what other activities embody all those things, maybe it's joining a team sport or like a rec league or, you know, finding another running group.

So then sort of see what other activities could I do that embody these aspects that I loved in the previous activity and just go try it like you can't screw up by just trying something. You never know what you'll fall in love with. And if you find activity fall in love with implementing a, system's gonna be so easy to do and to stick with.

William Curb: Yeah. I used to play a lot of ultimate Frisbee and just that social aspect. I mean, when I moved, I knew I was gonna need to do like some different exercise things to fill in that void, cause I wasn't gonna be as close and able to do it as much. But I didn't think about like, oh, I'm also losing a huge social chunk too. And I was like, oh, I have to fill that in too. And it filled so many boxes for me. If like, oh, I'm getting out and being outside, I'm getting exercise. I'm getting social.

Karen Broda: Yeah, I think that's great. When I feel like our brains, we always wanna do all the things, right. So if we're like, I need, I know I need to get outside. I know I need to do this and move my body and visit with friends. But I also have to do all these things, like get to the store and walk my daughter to school. It's like, how can you combine stuff? It's not about adding more to your, your plate or to-do list. Like how can you combine some things? So I talk about moving your body, first thing in the morning as part of your system, it's super easy.

Get out, move your body, but that could look like. Just dancing around your kitchen or your house, listening to music. I mean, music is really good for us moving our body. First thing in the morning, just getting in tune with that and tapping out of our head is really beneficial. And maybe you're doing that with your daughter or your son or your dog.

So you're already having some quality time with your family. Like, it can be as simple as that, just to start to move your body consistently and start to like, create that promise and keep it with yourself. And how'd that feel good?

William Curb: Yeah. So it was also really funny. Last month had been doing some workout and I was really sore afterward and it occurred to me that I really the like delayed onset muscle soreness. From a sensory-seeking way. I was like, I can feel my body all the time and I like it.

Karen Broda: Yeah, that is so cool to hear. Cause I do not like it. I did body only for seven years. I hated being sore, but to be able to tap into your body. Yeah. That is so powerful. So that's a good cue when the sensory of like, oh, I have a body. Okay, cool. I can feel my body. I'm not just my head. okay.

William Curb: I did not enjoy being sore. I enjoyed the sensory experience of being sore, which is very weird. Oh, I enjoy this part of be this experience, but not the whole experience.

Karen Broda: Like sitting down on the couch hurts. I don't like this, but it's cool. I can feel my body.

William Curb: Yeah. I mean, I remember when I first started working out and the first like time after where I was really, really sore and I'm like, I can't do anything today. This is not a good experience.

Karen Broda: It's terrible. You're like, well, I thought I did a good workout. Obviously I did because I can't even function right now. And you're like limp being around your house. Yeah. I've been there.

William Curb: It's not fun. And I think that's also an important thing for people to know about ahead. Like, Hey, you don't really need to push yourself that hard. It's that's not the point. ,

Karen Broda: It's the consistency really? There's two. Well, I guess three things you need to stick with exercise and get results.

It's the consistency. And that's not once a week here and there. It's like having a plan and doing that same plan. Day in day out or every second day, having it challenge you. So make sure it's challenging and have it be fun. Now, if it's fun and you're enjoying it, the challenging doesn't have to suck. It's usually you want to challenge yourself. It feels good to challenge yourself. You know, it's. Hard and you're like pushing yourself, but it feels enticing and then you'll want to consistently do it. And if you pair that with a fitness system, which maybe we can talk more on, or we can, can definitely send a video in the show or put a video in the show notes, and then you have the mindset piece going on, but you're all set.

All you need.

William Curb: Yeah, I think it would be great to talk about more fitness systems, but also I know one thing that people are gonna want to know is like every time I do anything about exercise people, like how much should I be exercising though? And it's such a hard question to really answer.

Karen Broda: Yeah. So I dive in deep with this on with clients because I mean, I came from a very long history of body building, personal training and just all very much engrossed in the science of it when you're like, how much did I exercise?

Well, it's not black and white. So would that be mine? It's like, what do you wanna achieve? You're like, I want to lose X amount of weight by this date. Cool. Okay. Well then we can create a set plan because we can look at the signs and what's gonna get you there. Majority of the people I work with, like most of them and most of the people I talk to it's like losing weight. Yes, absolutely. I wanna look and feel good naked. But I really just wanna stick with exercise. Have it feel good, just feel confident in that and what that looks like it's creating a system that feels good first versus what needs to be done on paper. So that could be health benefits. I say, move your body at least 20 to 30 minutes a day with maybe it's a walk. Maybe it's a jog. Maybe it's yoga, something. But turns also what you're, where you're at now, if you're already walking every day, it's like, okay, can we do it something that's a bit more challenging. So find something you love and then see, like, okay, how can I continually do this every day? How can I make it a little bit challenging every time? Just a little bit. So I know I'm getting better and it still constantly feels good that I'm excited to go back and do it again. The next day. And that's a great place to start. It's really getting intuitive with it and using your system as your foundation. Yeah.

William Curb: I mean with ADHD too often, we're all in. And then it's, we start with too much. We, we just like, okay, well I read that I should exercise for two hours every day. I'm gonna double that and it would be perfect.

Karen Broda: so, so you all don't second. Guess this here is what you're gonna do. You're gonna move your body for 30 minutes a day. If you're ready doing that go for full 45 minutes.

And if you don't have 45 minutes, Just make those 30 minutes a little bit harder. Just feel your heart rate, beat a little bit faster. Get a little bit sweatier. I think you're on the right track. Yeah.

William Curb: So, yeah, I guess now we can really dive into those,

Karen Broda: Fitness systems we've teased it so much.

Okay. So a fitness system, like I said, it's automating everything around your workout and even the workout itself. And the goal is not to be a robot in your workouts, but it's to know that trust in yourself that you're telling yourself, yeah, I can do this. I'm building the habit. So you have a foundation to then be more intuitive down the line.

So the very first thing you need to do is work out at the same relative time every day. And I'm gonna say movement instead of workout. So if you're like, well, I went to the gym Monday. I don't wanna go to the gym again, Tuesday. That's fine. Every day means just moving your body. In that same time block of your day, relative time means buddy it up with something else that happens.

So it's like maybe every day before lunch, you move your body or every day before supper or every day as you walk your dog, that's when you move your body. I always talk about first thing in the morning, because before you can start are to get distracted by everything you have to do and get overwhelmed. You're like, I just have to wake up and go move my body. You always know what you're doing. First thing in the morning, and we know exercise gives you dopamine. It's gonna help you focus and be intentional for the rest of your day. So I always promote that. I mean, depends on the person, of course. So same relative time. So first thing in the morning, and again, that can be a walk. It can be something more like, like weightlifting. It can be taking an exercise class. It can be down here in the kitchen, whatever your movement is, same time every single day.

Now I say weekends are sometimes different. You can have your weekend system, or maybe that's always in the evening, like before supper, you move your body and maybe the weekdays it's always first in the morning. The key is to keep it the same as much as you can. So you don't have to consciously remember to do it or when you're gonna do it. So that's the first thing.

The second thing is to do the same type of movement or workout every. I'm gonna say every like Monday, every Tuesday, so every Monday you'll do the same thing. Every Tuesday you'll do the same thing every Wednesday. You'll you'll do the same thing. So maybe you always swim on Mondays. You always rock climb Tuesdays. You always just dance in your kitchen on Wednesdays. Have the same thing. So, you know, already like three weeks in advance, you're like, I know what I'm gonna be doing Tuesday.

And that just further helps you automate this whole thing. It helps you build trust in yourself and it helps you reserve that time in your day. For you. She was like, well, I always do this this day. So I'm just always gonna have that block in my calendar. It just helps that whole process.

Now the third thing you need is what I call your workout mood. So creating this mood essentially for how you're going to, or around your block of time. This is very, very helpful if you work out at home. So that can be always eating or drinking the same thing before you go move your body, it can be always putting the same song on before you start to move your body or having the same playlist.

It can be. Just the changing of clothes is I always change into these clothes or work up clothes. When I go do my 30 minutes of movement. One of the things that I find so, so helpful, especially if you're working out at home is to change rooms or change your environment. So if you're inside. Go outside. If you're in one room, go into a different room that just signals our brain. That something's different. It's an easy way to test switch when our environment's different. So go into a different room. You're like, okay, right. I'm different environment. Now I can switch onto moving my body again, doing it first thing in the morning, it just makes it all easier because you can just wake up and just start going and, and you don't have to worry about that task switch if you do it, do it midday.

And that's it.

William Curb: I think one thing to also remind people is that yes, do the same thing, but you don't have to do it forever. I often get stuck in my mind. Like I have to find the perfect system because I'm going to do the system forever. And it just doesn't work like that. I, I haven't done anything forever.

Karen Broda: And, and trust yourself that. You will know when it's time to change. I always say, do commit to this fitness system, create it, find some movement you love for two weeks. That's 14 days. I know you can do it for 14 days, a hundred percent. Then you're allowed to change it. You can do whatever you want.

And ideally stay with the same thing for 12 weeks, like gives you time to build trust in yourself. And that remember building that trust in yourself. Is gonna allow you to be more intuitive later on, like, I don't follow much of a fitness right now. I kind of do, but I'm a lot more intuitive, but I've also been doing this for a long time.

So trust the system is gonna help you long term. And if you're like 12 weeks or 16 weeks seems really big, just two weeks, then you're allowed to change it two weeks. Give it a try.

William Curb: And you can go be like, Hey, I'm this is my fitness plan for winter. This is my fitness plan for spring.

Karen Broda: There's no rules you really need to follow. So ignore everyth out out there. That's telling you need to go to the gym Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and work out for two hours because yeah, there's. That will get you in shape, but that does not sound fun at all. So don't do that.

William Curb: Yeah. I mean, I've done the whole wake up at five 30 thing to go to the gym and did it consistently enough, but I didn't enjoy it. And so I was just like, okay, that's not, that's not the one.

Karen Broda: No. And people often say they're like, I don't wanna wake up early to work out. I was like, Yeah, no, don't, I would never wake up early to work out, but can you have five minutes of some sort of movement, first thing in the morning to at least get that dopamine to at least feel into your body, find some more clarity and focus for your day.

And then maybe you're having a more focused movement session or workout later in the day, because that's what works in your calendar. So try and still move your body first thing in the morning. Cause there's so many benefits to that. And may, maybe you only have 20 minutes in the morning and you can do a full. You know, workout in that time in the morning. That's great too, but don't cut out sleep. We need sleep.

William Curb: That's very, very evident to me that how, how powerful getting sleep is to doing all the other things.

Karen Broda: Yeah. Sleep first and then worry about the workout.

William Curb: Yeah. And I do think it's yeah, the importance like. Yeah, do something small in the morning, but that doesn't have to be her whole thing cause I, yes, I walk my daughter to school in the morning, but that is hours after I get up. So that is not the first thing in the morning that I do.

Karen Broda: Yeah. And that's okay. It's the last part of what I call the mindset method. You have your mindset, peace you of your system is the tips and tricks. It's like, how can you personalize this to you? If you're like, I. I have to walk my dog at this time. I wanna move my body first thing in the morning, but just this doesn't work for me. That's totally fine. It's taking all these pieces and being like, okay, I know this will work, but I need to customize it to my lifestyle.

But I also encourage everyone to kind of question what their day looks like already, because sometimes, we can't fit anything else into our day. But you can combine stuff or maybe you can get rid of stuff. Right? If you're walking your dog, that can be your movement time. Or like you said, Will like walking your daughter to school, or maybe you are doing something in your day that you're like, oh, I don't even need to do that. Like, that's not actually not important to do every day. And that frees up 30 minutes of my day.

William Curb: Yeah. And I, I do like how that's built too, that the foundation's mindset, then you add your system and then you add your tips, trick hacks kind of thing, because it's really easy for us to get really stuck in those small details. So it's like, you know, like, this is how I'm going to lift something or it's like, that's not, you need to have, if you don't have the other stuff first, it's not gonna matter.

Karen Broda: Yeah. Think of the tips and tricks as the. Googling stuff or looking on TikTok or Instagram for workouts. If you find you're consistently doing that to find the perfect workout, you know, you're on the tips and tricks part, and you need to come back to the mindset and the system first

William Curb: there's no perfect workout.

Karen Broda: Never, whatever feels fun. Has you doing it consistently? And you want to challenge yourself with that's your perfect workout for that time?

William Curb: Yeah. Whenever I get like, what's the best workout. I always reminded the one that you're gonna do.

Karen Broda: I love the phrase and it never gets old. And also if you are second guessing what your workout should be, or you just need some ideas. You can go to my YouTube. I have follow along workout videos. They're all under 30 minutes for ADHD. It's like an easy way to just be like, okay. I'm just gonna put this on. I know I'm done in 30 minutes. I just gimme lots of sarcastic comments and I try to make some jokes, so I try to make it fun.

William Curb: Yeah. I mean, I think that sounds like a great plan too, cause it doesn't have to be a really long thing.

Karen Broda: Not at all.

William Curb: Do 20 to 30 minute workout. That's great. That's better than not doing one.

Karen Broda: Exactly. It's all about movement, right? How can you find movement in your day? That feels good. You can do it consistently and challenges you, that's all you need.

William Curb: All right. Well, I think that about covers it. And I think that was just packed with stuff. People are really going to enjoy it. So you just mentioned your YouTube channel. Do you wanna just give people a few places that they can find you and how to, how they can do that?

Karen Broda: Absolutely. So my YouTube is Exercise Nutrition and Mindfulness for ADHD. Pretty easy to find if you Google those keywords and I have full length follow along workout videos, plus tons of videos about this mindset thing.

So if you're like, I still don't get this mindset thing. I don't know how to get started. I have a whole playlist on how to get started with mindset. Plus lots of exercise tips, and we go, I go deeper into fitness systems and finding movement you love. You can also find me on Instagram, which just my first stop, last name.

So Karen dot Broda and I post all the fun stuff there. It's a great way to connect with me. So I wanna hear about your fitness system and what exercise or type of movement you're gonna do when you're gonna do it. And I'd love for you to drop me a message on Instagram, and I can support you that way. And I have a freebie for everyone we can put in the show notes.

It's a free 15 minute, morning and night routine for ADHD. And it works for me. I use it with clients. So you're welcome to grab that. We can just put the link in the show notes. And lastly, I want everyone to make sure they subscribe. And leave a review for Will for the hacking your ADHD podcast, because this is such good information that he's sharing with everyone for late diagnosis, ADHD. And I mean, really just subscribing the mean review helps out so much. So go to

William Curb: that. Thank you for the, the kind words and thank you so much for coming on. I think there's a lot of people can get out of this.

Karen Broda: Thanks so much for having me well, this is fun.

This Episode’s Top Tips

1. We can think of our mindsets as a muscle and like a muscle, they need to be exercised. By working on our mindset consistently we can work on overcoming some of our limiting beliefs.

2. Reframing exercise as movement and movement that we enjoy doing is a great way to get yourself introduced to doing more activity in your day.

3. A great way to find more ways to incorporate movement into your day is to break down the activities you already like doing and figure out which parts of those you love and where you can find those same aspects in other activities. It’s just about finding things that you can do to move your body consistently.

4. The three components you need for building an exercise system and getting results with it are: First is consistency - next is having it challenge you and thirdly crafting a positive mindset around your routine.

5. Make sure to first build your mindset and then your systems once you have those set you can build up your tips and tricks. Don’t let yourself get bogged down in the little details before you create your foundation.

Mentioned in this Episode

• Find her on IG @ Karen.Broda

• YouTube @  Exercise, Nutrition, & Mindfulness for ADHD for follow-along workout videos & her best free content:https://bit.ly/karensyoutube

• Get your FREE 15 Minute Morning & Night Routine for ADHD: https://bit.ly/adhdmorningnightroutine

• Work with Karen, book a Free 15-minute clarity call: https://calendly.com/karenbroda/coachingcall