The Bit That Makes People Quit

The Bit That Makes People Quit

From The Emma Guns Show by Emma Gunavardhana

February 2, 2026 · 32 min

About this episode

Emma discusses the challenges of navigating the 'messy middle' in her new approach to diet and exercise.

In the previous episode, I talked about how my new approach to diet and exercise - working smarter, not harder - had been a challenge because things got worse before they got better. Many listeners wrote to me asking me to delve a little deeper into this uncomfortable phases so, in this episode, I'm talking about the 'messy middle'. Forget about the metrics, this 'messy middle' was more about the mental and emotional discomfort that started to show up. After years of being rewarded for control, I let go. I stopped restricting, I stopped over-training, I decided to let go of the idea that doing more would yield bigger, better and more impressive results and what I saw was - nothing. Actually, not nothing. I saw all my metrics going in the 'wrong' direction. Did I panic? Of course I did! Yet, when it would have been so easy to quit, to go back to those old behaviours that had always given me the quick result and felt virtuous in their doing, I held fast and even though I'm still learning and it's not as though I'm through the worst of it, I can now see signs that this new approach, which requires far less stress and strain, might actually be working... Let's chat about the 'messy…

People in this episode

Host: Emma Gunavardhana

Topics covered

  • diet
  • exercise
  • mental health
  • emotional discomfort
  • personal growth
  • messy middle

Keywords

  • diet
  • exercise
  • mental discomfort
  • emotional growth
  • personal development
  • messy middle
  • control

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