Always planning but never doing

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  • pinuplove
    pinuplove Posts: 12,874 Member
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    Quit trying to plan and overhaul your whole life! There's a reason a certain athletic brand that shall remain nameless (given our current partners at MFP :tongue:) says 'Just Do It'

    Just wake up tomorrow and eat less, move more, and start making incremental changes along the way.
  • Nikion901
    Nikion901 Posts: 2,467 Member
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    What you describe about your weight loss innitatiion struggle sounds like me when it comes to housework. I've gotten into a terrible catch-22 with it over the past couple of years. It started with me getting behind. Then it evolved with me wasting time on making plans instead of doing the work. I think some of it had to do with having a hard time making a decision. And, there was so much that needed doing it was overwhelming. I knew it would take a lot of effort and a lot of time. Oh, I made rudimentary starts and gave it momentary effort, but nothing consistent.

    The end result is that I am still 'working on it'. And, I am still losing precious time I could be spending happily in my home surrounded by company I want to keep and doing things I am yearning to do ... but am not able to do, yet.

    The important thing is not to make too many copious plans. Not to try to make all the decisions at once, before even starting. It has to be like an onion, or a cabbage or head of lettuce ... it has to unfurl, one layer at at time. Then the deicisons come easier because they are just one of many, and are small instead of being a hinge-pin.

    That's the same with weight loss, for myself, and possibly for you. Just start. I'm not finished losing weight. It's been going on for a few years now. There have been set-backs and stagnations ... but the small life-changing habits I have replaced with new ones are enduring, and so is it is that today I find myself 17% thinner than i was when I started. I still have another 14% to go. It's like some advise my brother once gave me when I was unsure how to proceed or which way to go. He said ... "Ni, it doesn't matter what you do first ... just start. The next step will reveal iself."
  • Ariliz23
    Ariliz23 Posts: 13 Member
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    I'm finding that I feel I need to do it perfectly or not at all. That's a fatal flaw when it comes to this stuff.

    I'm going to screw up. I'm going to fall off the wagon - repeatedly. I'm going to be disappointed. I'm going to hit obstacles. The thing is to keep going. This past week I've fallen off the wagon after a disappointment. I need to start over. What I do is to just keep going and do something now. Go for a walk or make a pot of soup. Anything. But right now in this moment.

    Any progress is a step in the right direction. Each night I try to do a little check in about what I did right and what I want to try to do differently tomorrow. Today I went over on calories and had too many sweets (pot luck lunch) but I got in a lot of fruits and veggies, I met my protein goal and I had soup at lunch rather than a burger and fries, so that's good. Tomorrow I'll walk on the treadmill (I'll have to tell myself it's just for 5 minutes or I won't do it. Then I'll go at least 30 because I'm there already), eat fewer sweets and cook some meals so I have them ready to go on busy days.
  • wilsonsprom
    wilsonsprom Posts: 6 Member
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    Maybe think about perfectionism. Often I get stuck in this: not starting because it's all too big.
  • amtyrell
    amtyrell Posts: 1,449 Member
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    Pick one tiny habit. Start now. Follow that good habit for several weeks then add a second good habit ect.
    Start with logging everything before you eat it. Change now. Log everything best you can from now on. Once that habit is engraved add a second good habit like replacement of junk snacks with a healthy one. Just pick one new habit at a time that you can start immediately and stick with forever.

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