88- Stop Setting Goals You'll Quit by February: Real Talk for Women Who Juggle It All

New year, same struggle? If you're a woman in your 30s or 40s juggling a career and family, this episode is for you. Forget the all-or-nothing resolutions that fall apart by February. Host Kat breaks down how to build a fitness action plan that actually works with your real life—not against it.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why January 1st isn't magical (and when you should REALLY start your fitness goals)
• How to reflect on 2025 without guilt or shame—even if you "failed" every goal
• The three truths about fitness journeys that no one tells busy women
• How to identify YOUR season of life and set goals that match it
• The deep "why" questions that create lasting motivation (hint: it's not just about losing weight)
• A 5-step framework to turn your goal into an actionable roadmap with built-in flexibility

This isn't another "hustle harder" fitness podcast. This is real talk for real women who are done with unrealistic plans and ready for something sustainable.

Perfect for: Women over 35, working moms, career-driven women, anyone who's tired of starting over every January

Resources Mentioned

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Connect With Kat

Have a question or want to share your 2026 goal? I'd love to hear from you!

📧 Email: kat@kat.fit
📱 Instagram: @katfitstrength

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Transcript

0:00

The confetti has landed. The countdown is over. Resolutions made word of the year chosen goal set, and now the year has begun. But here's the truth I need you to hear right now from the start. There's nothing magical about January 1st. Absolutely nothing. You can start working towards your goal on a Tuesday in March, or on a Thursday in October, maybe after you finally recovered from the holiday chaos. Sorted out the new school semester or just caught your breath from whatever life threw at you. The calendar does not determine your success, your commitment does. This episode is all about asking the right questions, celebrating your progress, and building a framework that actually gets you from goal to action in 2026. We're going beyond just setting intentions. We're creating your roadmap, and we're going to be honest about what it really takes. To get there when you're managing a career, a family, and trying to keep yourself on that priority list. Whether you've crushed your goals this year or you feel like you're just starting from scratch, this episode will help you build an action plan that works for your life, your season, and your reality. So let's dive in.

Kat: 1:07

Welcome to MilesFromHerView, the podcast powered by KatFit Strength, where busy women like you find practical solutions to fuel your fitness journey with authenticity and resilience. I'm Kat, your host, a mom of two active boys, a business owner, and an ultra marathon runner and a strength trainer in her forties with nearly two decades of experience. I'm here to help you cut through the noise of fads, hacks, and quick fixes. This is a space where we celebrate womanhood and motherhood. All while building strength and resilience and reconnecting with you from a place of self-compassion and worthiness. Whether you're lacing up your running shoes to go out for a run, driving your kids to practice or squeezing in a moment for yourself, I'm right here in the trenches with you. Let's dive in.

1:55

Welcome back to MilesFromherView. I'm Kat, your host, and welcome to 2026. Full confession. Right now, I got. The cold that has been going around just before Christmas, and I'm at the tail end of it, so I do apologize if my voice is a little hoarse or if I sound very congested. I wanted to record a new episode for you because I don't know how you're feeling, but it is the new year and I'm in the industry where I feel everyone doubles down on. Their marketing of New Year, new you, massive transformations, all the things, and it can feel very, very overwhelming whether you have set some fitness goals or not. These questions and what we're gonna go over can help you with any goal you're entertaining because the biggest thing is taking that goal and bringing it into action. We're also gonna look at reflecting, and maybe you have reflected, but I do find myself, and I do have my clients where reflecting on what they've done, what maybe has been left undone can help you continue to establish that. Roadmap that plan for yourself. Reflection is the foundation of growth and only when we use it to allow for learning and not judging ourself. So that is the premise here is reflection is growth, and it is a way for us to learn and not judge yourself. Maybe you're right now someone who hasn't figured out goals or whenever you've had goals in the past, they've just never worked out. Maybe it's a gym membership that you barely used or you meal prep for a couple weeks and it just fell flat. But I want to shift the lens for a second challenge the thinking. What if instead of asking what did I mess up? Or only looking at what went wrong, you ask what did I actually accomplish even when things got messy? I think that second part is more important is especially in life when you're juggling a career and family, because here's what I've learned, showing up looks different when you're in. Different seasons of your life. Maybe you didn't hit the gym five days a week, but you took the stairs more often to work. Maybe you didn't meal prep like the Pinterest mom, but you kept healthier snacks in your car so you wouldn't hit the drive-through between meetings and soccer practice. Maybe you didn't run the half marathon that you were hoping to do, but you walked during your lunch breaks and actually felt better for it. See, those are all wins. They count, and even if it wasn't the original plan, they are still wins. So I want you to ask yourself, what achievements or progress are you proud of in 2025? Think beyond the scale and the mirror. What did you consistently even in small ways do? What challenges showed up? Because let's be real here. They always do. When you're managing everything. And what did they teach you about yourself when you did show up for yourself? What made that possible? Was it support from your partner? Was it finally setting a boundary at work? Was it deciding that 6:00 AM was your time before everyone else woke up? The best schools aren't just about ambition. They are aligned with the season of life you are actually in. So if, if you're a woman in your mid thirties or beyond with a career or family, you know exactly what I mean by season. And here's what I want you to do. Close your eyes for a second. Imagine it's December 31st, 2026, and you're looking back. On the year and you feel good, you feel proud, you feel strong, not just physically, but in your whole life. What does that version of you look like? How do you feel in your body when you're chasing your kids around or sitting in back-to-back meetings? What habits are automatic for you now? What did you accomplish? Okay, now here's the reality check, and I mean this in a very, very supportive way. Your goals have to match the season you're in. So maybe 2026 is your season for pushing boundaries and going after something big. You've got childcare, figure it out. Work is stable and you're ready to train for that 10 k or a marathon. Or you're finally ready to prioritize strength training. Or maybe it's a season where you're rebuilding. Maybe you're coming back from burnout, postpartum and injury, or just years of putting everyone else first. Maybe you are just trying to find consistency Again, there's no shame in either season, but you have to be honest where you are because if you're in a rebuilding season and you set goals. Like you're in a growth season, you're going to feel like you're failing and you're not. You're just running the wrong race. So for me, 2026 is a season of sustainable growth. I'm training for another ultra. I am also pushing my boundaries in going for a further distance. Yes, I'm also prioritizing recovery and family time and not burning myself out by chasing every shiny goal. My season requires balance, not burnout, and I know if I ignore that, I'll pay for it in every area of my life. So ask yourself, how do you want to feel by the end of 2026? Strong, energized, confident, less stressed. Start there. What's one primary health or fitness goal that would make the biggest impact on your life? Not your Instagram, not what everyone else is doing your life, and this is the goal aligned with your current season And is this goal aligned with your current season or, or are you setting yourself up for frustration? All right. A little bit backing up here. Before we get into really building that roadmap on how do we execute these goals, I wanna talk about what actually happens between setting the goal and achieving it because it's not a straight line and pretending like it is where you go from point A to point B in this nice, perfectly straight line is going to set yourself up for disappointment, especially when you're juggling a career, a family, and everything else. It's a lot. Here's the three truths that you need to accept right now. And again, this is not outta judgment. This is exactly where the three truths that I go over with myself because they are part of life and how goals are achieved. Nobody is immune to these three truths. We all are human. And even that. Fitness influencer that fit pro who is out there touting that goals are point A to point B with a straight line goes through this. They're just not acknowledging it on their social media. First. Truth, setbacks and failures will occur. Not might, will occur. Your kids will get sick. The week you plan to start a new routine work will explode and you'll be too exhausted to even think about the gym. You'll have a week where you eat takeout for four nights in a row because cooking felt impossible. You're going to miss workouts and you are going to fall off track. And here's what I need you to understand. This is not the end of your goal. This is not failure. This is life. That's being a human with responsibilities beyond yourself. The only way to fail is if you walk away completely. If you had a bad week and say, see, I knew I couldn't do this, and you quit, that's when you lose. But if you had a bad week and you say, okay, that happened. What can I do today? Even if it's just a 10 minute walk or drinking enough water, you're still in the game. Second truth, adaptation and flexibility are not signs of weakness. They're how you stay consistent. Okay. Your January plan most likely will not work in March when the kids' activities ramp up or change your Monday workout routine. Might need to shift. By Wednesday because your boss schedules an early meeting, a rigid plan does not bend, will eventually break and so will you. So real consistency isn't about doing the exact same thing every single week, no matter what real consistency is showing up in whatever way you can. It's doing a 20 minute workout at home because you can't make it to the gym. It's walking during your lunch break. Instead of your planned evening run because you're too tired by dinner, it's strength training twice a week instead of four, because that's what fits right now. Adaptation is consistency because it keeps you in the game. Third truth, stay curious, not judgmental. See, this one is huge, huge. This one, if there's one of the three you can do, this is probably the biggest one. And if you're a high achiever like me, this one really will help shift that mindset. Instead of asking yourself, why am I so bad at this? Ask, what happens if I try this differently? Get curious about your body, your capabilities, your patterns. You're not the same person you were at 25, and that's such a great thing. Your body is different, your life is different, your needs are different. What if you went a little further on your walk this week, what would that feel like? What if you lifted a heavier weight? Could you do it? What if you tried working out before everyone else woke up and set up after everyone went to bed? When you're exhausted? What if you asked your partner to take the kids on Saturday morning so you could have an hour to yourself? Curiosity opens doors. Judgment slams'em shut. Only you determine how far you can go and staying curious is how you find out. All right, we're gonna go a little bit deeper and when you've established this goal, and maybe you've heard this several times before. People say, if you know your why, it'll get you out of bed. Well, yeah, I mean, there's some truth to that, but knowing your why doesn't guarantee that you're gonna spring out of bed at 5:30 AM when you've finally gotten the baby to sleep at midnight. Some mornings, your why will feel very far away, but what it will do is give you clarity, parameters and something to anchor to when motivation is nowhere to be found. So I want you to ask yourself these questions, and I want you to really sit with them. So maybe grab a coffee or sit in your car for five minutes before you go into work, or take a few minutes after everyone's go, went to bed. Just don't just answer on the surface level. You need to go deep with these questions, and sometimes coming back and revisiting them multiple times will help you get deeper with it. These are not one and done questions. These are questions that you can perpetually come back to because you're going to have more self. Discovery, it can help you with that. Staying curious. It can help you with being adaptable. It can help you with knowing that failure and setbacks are going to occur and it will help you to continue moving forward. So that is the deeper and more broader sense and understanding how your why it is important, but just. It needs to be deeper than just a very surface level answer. Question number one, why do you wanna work out? And I don't mean to lose weight or get in shape, you need to go deep here. Is it because you want to keep up with your kids because you want to feel strong in your body again, after years of putting yourself last? Is it because you're watching your parents age and you want a different future for yourself? Because you want to prove to yourself that you're still capable of hard things, and then ask yourself, why does this matter go deep? There are no wrong answers to any of this. These are completely your responses. Number two, why is this important? Keep asking yourself why? Until you hit something that makes you feel something in your chest. That's your real why. Why now? What's different about this moment? Are your kids finally a little bit older? Did you hit a milestone birthday that made you think differently? Did something happen health wise? That was a wake up call. Why is this the time you're committing number three, why didn't it work out when you tried before? Be honest. There's zero shame in this response. However, honesty is where change can happen. What got in the way? Was it trying to do too much? Was it a lack of support? Was it guilt about taking time for yourself? What patterns showed up? What can you learn from that? Number five, what's different now? Has something changed in your life? Your mindset, your support system? Have you finally accepted that taking care of yourself isn't selfish? Have you set better boundaries? Do you have more help? Do you finally believe in yourself? Number six, what changes when your goal is achieved? Paint the picture. Really paint the picture here. How does your life look different? Are you less tired, less stressed, more confident? Can you hike with your family without feeling winded? Can you pick up your kids without your back hurting? Do you finally feel like yourself again? What becomes possible for you? Why is that important? Now, number seven, what happens if you don't get into shape? I know, I know this one feels heavy, but we need to answer this. What's the cost of staying where you are? This is not shaming yourself. It's about getting clear as to what is at stake. Are you modeling for your kids that a mom doesn't matter? Are you setting yourself up for health issues down the road? Are you missing out on experiences because you don't feel good in your body? Number eight, what if nothing changes? How does that sit with you? Does it light a fire or does it make you realize that this goal isn't actually yours? Maybe it's what you think you should want. See when I go through these and I don't wanna, like, my why is very deep and there's many layers and. For me training. I love running ultra marathons and strength training, but when I dig deeper, I train because I wanna feel strong as my body ages. I wanna show my kids what's possible when you commit to something hard. And I wanna show my boys that a mom matters. Her time matters. She can be strong and powerful, and. Be capable of doing intense adventures. That is part of my why, and it gets deeper than that. Now, once you've made it through there, we need to make it into an action plan. A lot of goals. Get written down, but there's no action plan, and your action plan is going to be different than anybody else's, and we're not getting into the nitty gritty of a structured workout plan that is bespoke to you. That is something that I can absolutely help you with if you are looking for coaching. So if you're ready to stop guessing and start making real progress. I'd love to help you. I'm currently accepting new clients for my online training program, and it's designed for women who have careers, families, and want results without everything else in their life being sacrificed. You're going to get personalized training plans that work with your schedule, nutrition guidance that doesn't require you to meal prep, like it's a full-time job and direct support from me to keep you on track no matter what season you're in. I work with women who are completely done with the all or nothing approaches and ready for something sustainable. Women who want to feel strong and energized like themselves again. And if that's you, go to the show notes, click on the link you can check out my website or directly book a call with me and I'd be happy to chat about your goals and see if we'd be a good fit to get work together. All right. The framework to get that goal into action. Step number one, you're gonna break it down. Take your big goal and reverse engineer it. So if you wanna run a 5K by June, what do you need to do monthly? Weekly. What's the very next smallest action you can take this week? Your roadmap should have checkpoints, milestones that tell you you're on track and make those checkpoints realistic for someone who has a million other things on their plate because you do. Step two, identify your obstacles. There are obstacles, so if you sit here and say, I have no obstacles. Amazing, but you have obstacles, what got your way last year? Be honest. Was it time childcare, a partner who wasn't supportive? Guilt about taking time for yourself? Work deadlines, write it all down because we're not ignoring these, we're solving them for now before they derail you. If childcare is an issue, can you work out at home? If your partner isn't supportive, can you have a conversation? Why this matters? If it's guilt, can you reframe taking care of yourself as modeling healthy behavior for your kids? And step three, build your non-negotiables. What one to three habits that if you did them consistently, would move you towards your goal. And I want you to be really honest here. What can you actually protect in this season of life? Maybe it's three 30 minute strength sessions per week while the kids watch a show. Maybe it's a lunchtime walk, three days a week. Maybe it's going to bed at 10:00 PM so you have energy to work out in the morning. Pick your non-negotiables and protect them fiercely because if you do not protect your time, absolutely nobody else will. Step number four, plan for adaptation. What's your backup plan? Because life will happen if you miss a morning workout because someone was up all night, what will you do instead? Can you do 15 minutes at lunch? Can you walk after dinner if your gym time gets cut short because you have to pick up a sick kid? What's the minimum, the viable version of your routine? Build flexibility into your plan from the start, because rigidity is the enemy of consistency when you're juggling everything. Step five, create accountability. Who's going to keep you on track? How will you measure your progress? Will you check with a friend who's also trying to prioritize their health? Will you hire a coach who understands your life? Will you track your workouts so you can see your progress? Will you join a community of women who get it? Accountability is not about shame, it's about support, and you need people in your corner who understand your fitness journey. It doesn't happen in a vacuum. We're gonna wrap this up here. Re-listen to this podcast. There's a lot in here. There's a lot of questions that will help you decode your goals, your why, and help you create that action plan. Bookmark it, come back and listen to it. Remember, your why isn't about answering the questions quickly, it's about revisiting it. Most importantly, there's absolutely nothing magical about January 1st. You can start your goal today, next Tuesday, or in three months from now when life calms down a bit, what matters is you start, you stay curious and you keep showing up even when life is messy, it will be messy because that's what life looks like when you're managing a career, a family, and trying to take care of yourself. 2025 may not have been perfect, and 2026 will not be either. But that's not the point. The point is showing up, learning, adapting, building momentum. One small action at a time. Celebrate. What did you accomplish in 2025? Honor the season you are in. Know your why, your real deep why that goes beyond fitting into your jeans. And prepare for setbacks, build flexibility into your plan. Stay curious and know I am here cheering you on every step of the way. Before you go, I have three quick asks. Number one, if this episode resonated with you, please take two seconds and rate and follow miles from her view on whatever platform you listen to podcasts on. It truly helps more people find this show, and I appreciate you so much. Number two, share this episode with someone who needs to hear it. That friend who feels stuck or overwhelmed about her goals, the one who's always putting everyone else first, send her this episode and tell her you're in it together. And number three, I'd love to hear from you. Message the podcast, send me a message on Instagram or shoot me an email and tell me what's your one big goal for 2026. What's your real why? I read every single one of my messages, and I truly love connecting with you. 2026 is your year to move forward with strength, purpose, curiosity, and a plan that actually works for your real life. Thank you so much for being here today, and I'll see you in the next episode of Miles From Review. Now go take that first step. You've got this.

Kat: 25:36

Thank you for tuning in to MilesFromHerView, powered by KatFit Strength. If this podcast inspires you, don't keep it for yourself. Hit follow or subscribe to stay updated on the new episodes, and leave us a review to help more women and moms discover this space. Your feedback fuels this podcast and I'd love to hear what's working for you or what topics you want to dive into Next. You can connect with me on Instagram at KatFit or share this episode. Road with a friend who is ready to embrace her strength. Remember, fitness isn't about perfection. It's about showing up for yourself and finding strength in every step of your journey. Until next time, keep moving forward one mile at a time.