144: Why Being a “Perfectionist” With Fitness Is Making You Inconsistent with Jordan Syatt
Why Your Perfectionism Is the Real Reason You Can't Stay Consistent With Fitness
You know what to do. You know you should lift. You know protein matters. You know walking is good for you. The information has never been the problem, so why does it feel like you're constantly starting over?
If you've ever blown your "perfect" week with one missed gym session and thought, well, that's ruined, this one's for you.
In Episode 144 of the Broads podcast, Tara sat down with Jordan Syatt, strength and nutrition coach to Gary Vaynerchuk and a five-time world record powerlifter, for one of those rare, no-fluff conversations that actually changes how you think about fitness. They got into the real psychology behind why so many women struggle with consistency, why walking might be the most underrated health tool you're not taking seriously enough, and what it actually takes to stop the cycle of falling off and starting again.
The Perfectionism Trap (And Why It's Keeping You Stuck)
Here's the uncomfortable truth Jordan drops in this episode: perfectionism isn't a personality trait, it's a permission slip to quit.
When you're operating from a perfectionist mindset, every missed workout or "off" meal becomes a reason to throw in the towel entirely. One skipped Monday turns into a skipped week. A weekend of eating out becomes "I'll just restart Monday." Sound familiar? That all-or-nothing thinking is the trap, and it's one of the biggest reasons women struggle to build lasting fitness habits.
The fix isn't more discipline, it's reframing what "good enough" actually looks like. A 20-minute walk counts. Showing up tired counts. Half the workout counts. Consistency isn't about perfect execution; it's about refusing to let imperfect days become excuses to stop altogether.
Walking Is Not a Consolation Prize
One of the most refreshing parts of this conversation is how passionately Jordan defends walking as a legitimate, powerful health tool, not just something you do on a rest day or when you're "too tired to really work out."
Walking consistently is one of the best things you can do for your long-term health. It supports cardiovascular health, reduces stress, improves sleep, aids recovery, and contributes meaningfully to your overall daily movement. For women who feel like they're not doing "enough" because they're not crushing intense workouts five days a week, this is genuinely freeing. If your schedule is chaotic right now, a daily walk is not a downgrade, it might be the most sustainable thing you can do.
If you're looking to start building a fitness foundation, check out ourfree Gym Starter Guide at broads.app/gym-starter-guide, because sustainable always beats perfect.
What Your Blood Work Tells You That the Scale Never Will
Tara and Jordan also dig into why the scale is such a poor measure of health and progress, and what you should actually be paying attention to instead.
Blood markers, things like fasting glucose, triglycerides, blood pressure, inflammation markers, and cholesterol ratios, give you a far more accurate picture of what's happening inside your body than your weight does. The scale fluctuates based on water retention, hormones, digestion, and a dozen other factors that have nothing to do with fat loss or muscle gain. Your blood work, on the other hand, tells you how your body is actually functioning.
They also touch on DEXA scans and why body fat percentages can do more harm than good for a lot of women, particularly because the focus on a number can feed right back into that perfectionism trap, making you feel like you're failing when the data doesn't match a goal pulled from the internet.
Maintenance Isn't Failure, It's a Skill
This is one of the most underrated reframes in the whole episode: stop calling it "maintenance" and start calling it "momentum."
Holding your results, especially through a busy season, a vacation, a stressful few months, is genuinely hard, and it's a skill that deserves credit. When women don't see the scale moving or feel like they're not progressing, they often interpret that as failure. But staying consistent during life's messier moments? That is progress. That's momentum. And it's the thing that eventually snowballs into the long-term results that actually stick.
If you're currently in a season of life where maintenance feels like survival, it counts. It more than counts.
Motivation vs. Discipline: You Actually Need Both
One of the most common fitness takes floating around is that motivation is useless and discipline is everything. Jordan pushes back on that, and it's a perspective worth sitting with.
Motivation and discipline aren't opposites. Motivation gets you started and reignites you after a hard stretch. Discipline is what carries you through when motivation dips. You don't have to choose one, you have to understand how to lean on each one at the right time. Waiting to feel motivated before taking action is a trap, but dismissing motivation as irrelevant misses the point too. Both have a role.
A Quick Note on GLP-1s
Jordan also gives a thoughtful, honest take on GLP-1 medications (like Ozempic and Wegovy) that goes beyond the usual weight loss conversation. There are real nuances here around how these medications interact with muscle mass, nutrition habits, and long-term health outcomes, and it's the kind of balanced perspective that's hard to find in the current discourse. Definitely worth a listen if this is something on your radar.
The Bottom Line
This episode is a masterclass in ditching the all-or-nothing mentality that keeps so many women stuck in the cycle of starting over. The real path to consistency isn't more information, more willpower, or the perfect plan, it's giving yourself permission to do less than perfect and keep going anyway.
Ready to start fueling your body in a way that actually supports your goals? Grab the freeMacronutrient Guide: The Balanced Plate Blueprint at broads.app/macronutrient-guide and take the guesswork out of eating for the body you're building.
Listen to the full episode wherever you get your podcasts, and share this with the friend who needs to hear that done is better than perfect, every single time.
What's one way perfectionism has gotten in the way of your fitness routine? Drop it in the Broads community, you might be surprised how many women are right there with you.
