How to lose the "all or nothing" mentality?

Get comfortable with failing. See that you're still here the next day. High Five self. Win next time.

I saw this post yesterday and I think it may help.....

For those who are struggling with bad becisions or losing weight.....

Here is the best advice I've EVER read. I got this from nerdfitness.com (a freakin awesome website that you should go check out right after you read this)

Yes, it is a bit long, but it's worth it. If you need encouragement, take the time to read it all. You won't regret it.

(quoted from nerdfitness.com)

Have you ever told yourself:

“I’m an idiot. I ate like total crap today.”

“Why am I so lazy? Why did I skip my workout this morning?”

“I have no willpower, because I couldn’t stop myself from eating those M&M’s.”

Every day, people trying to get healthy have tiny moments of weakness, and absolutely berate themselves for being “bad.” Then, they allow that one fleeting moment to absolutely derail any success they’ve had by making additional bad decisions because “it’s too late at this point.”

I’m going to teach you a little trick today to instantly stop this behavior and allow you to continue down your path towards a leveled up life.

It’s called the “Get the **** over it” rule, and it’s sweeping the nation.

Get the **** over it

If you are working to improve your life, you WILL hit speed bumps along the way.

We are all works in progress, which means that we will all make mistakes. Want to know the path to progress? Setting priorities, learning from our failures, and taking action…not self-sabotage, guilt-trips, and getting down on ourselves.

So let’s put the “get the **** over it” plan into action! Let’s take a look at those previous examples:
•“I’m an idiot. I ate like total crap today.” Get the **** over it! Eat f***ing phenomenally tomorrow. Deal? Deal.
•“Why am I so lazy? Why did I skip my workout this morning?” Get the **** over it! Go outside right now, run a mile and then do 30 push ups. Like, right now.
•“I have no willpower, because I couldn’t stop myself from eating those M&M’s.” Get **** over it! Throw the M&M’s away so you’re not tempted anymore, and move on.

Here’s the truth: One bad meal, one missed workout, or one day of overeating cannot undo weeks of hard work. It’s physically impossible – your stomach would explode before you got to that point. However, that one bad meal or one missed workout can mentally undo weeks of hard work, if you LET IT.

When you eat poorly for a day or two (probably loading up with carbs and sodium), you can step on the scale MUCH heavier than before…but it’s temporary. You might see a number on that scale that can absolutely demolish you if you let it. However, if follow up that one meal with a few days of clean eating, you can get right back on track.

It isn’t this mistake that matters…It’s the next one.

When you skip one workout, the next workout quickly becomes the most important workout of your life. One missed day becomes two days, which can become a week, which can VERY easily become a month. So never miss a workout two days in a row. No excuses. You have enough time – make it a priority.

Here’s another gem for the day…

Just fix it

I’m going to guess that you probably didn’t win the genetic lottery, which means you have to work hard to be healthy and look good.

You’re going to struggle with it. You’ll have days when all you can think about is eating candy. You’ll have mornings where “poking my eyes out” would come before “any sort of exercise” on your list of preferred activities.

When you screw up, skip a workout, eat bad foods, or sleep in, it doesn’t make you a bad person.

It makes you human.

Welcome to the club.

There’s like seven billion of us.

You’re going to have moments where you screw up or slow down. You’ll spend a week exercising properly and the scale doesn’t move. And you’ll see other people effortlessly losing weight and talking about their success while you’re still struggling to lose that first five pounds. You have two options at this point:

1) Most people choose to complain very loudly: They’ll tell anybody that will listen how bad their genetics are. And how busy they are. And how eating healthy doesn’t work for them. And how they just can’t seem to lose weight. Sure, it doesn’t produce any results, but it makes them feel better about not being honest with themselves.

2) choose to do a few key things:

•Stop comparing yourselves to other people – you only see their results, without seeing their years of hard work and struggle.
•Stop complaining about how unfortunate your situation is, and understand that everybody is dealing with their own personal baggage. Play the hand you’re dealt, or in nerd terms…play the character you’ve rolled.
•Stop complaining about how you eat healthy and can’t seem to lose weight, and instead spend a few days actively figuring out if you really ARE eating healthy. Are you stuffing your face with “heart healthy whole grains,” sneaking M&M’s, and counting corn (a grain) as your only vegetable for the day? Be honest with yourself, listen to your body and find out what works best for you.

If you are not happy with how you look or feel, fix it. Do your research. Track your calories. Cook your own meals. Go to bed earlier and exercise more. Make small changes, but MAKE CHANGES.

The game of life is tough, amigo – nobody gets out alive.

So when you have a bad day, get over it. When you feel like complaining, instead, make changes.

The silver lining

Amidst the tough love, there is a silver lining to all of this.

You are an amazingly advanced piece of machinery.

Yes, you. You are capable of greatness. You can seriously become whatever you want if you’re willing to work for it.

What you did five minutes ago is done and cannot be changed. What you do five minutes from now, however, is completely up to you.

You are NOT your past.

You ARE your future.

Your destiny isn’t set in stone, so feel free to create your own.

Stop berating yourself for mistakes. Stop playing the “woe is me” card. Stop comparing yourself to those around you.

Smile and be thankful that you woke up today!

Quietly and consistently work towards building a better you.

Stop worrying about where you’ve been and put your focus on where you’re going.

Go. Start. Now.

-Steve

Try reminding yourself of your goals. You won't be able to reach them if you're constantly writing off your day because you made one "bad" choice. And maybe, instead of thinking of your choices as bad, think of them as just choices. Choose to eat better, choose to make time for exercise, choose to have control over your cravings. When you crave sugar, eat some fruit or a little honey in tea. It doesn't have to be a lot of honey to where you can taste it, but just a little to shut your craving down. Tell yourself that YOU are in control, and take control. When you don't get to your pre-planned exercise for the day, just do some jumping jacks, lunges, high knees - anything to get your heart rate up and using your muscles. Even do it while you watch TV or during the commercials. You'll feel better that you did and it will make you WANT to make time to do your other exercises the next day! You can do it! And you'll be so much happier for it in the long run.

THANK YOY FOR POSTING THIS!!!! We ALL need this.

I saw this post yesterday and I think it may help.....

For those who are struggling with bad becisions or losing weight.....

Here is the best advice I've EVER read. I got this from nerdfitness.com (a freakin awesome website that you should go check out right after you read this)

Yes, it is a bit long, but it's worth it. If you need encouragement, take the time to read it all. You won't regret it.

(quoted from nerdfitness.com)

Have you ever told yourself:

“I’m an idiot. I ate like total crap today.”

“Why am I so lazy? Why did I skip my workout this morning?”

“I have no willpower, because I couldn’t stop myself from eating those M&M’s.”

Every day, people trying to get healthy have tiny moments of weakness, and absolutely berate themselves for being “bad.” Then, they allow that one fleeting moment to absolutely derail any success they’ve had by making additional bad decisions because “it’s too late at this point.”

I’m going to teach you a little trick today to instantly stop this behavior and allow you to continue down your path towards a leveled up life.

It’s called the “Get the **** over it” rule, and it’s sweeping the nation.

Get the **** over it

If you are working to improve your life, you WILL hit speed bumps along the way.

We are all works in progress, which means that we will all make mistakes. Want to know the path to progress? Setting priorities, learning from our failures, and taking action…not self-sabotage, guilt-trips, and getting down on ourselves.

So let’s put the “get the **** over it” plan into action! Let’s take a look at those previous examples:
•“I’m an idiot. I ate like total crap today.” Get the **** over it! Eat f***ing phenomenally tomorrow. Deal? Deal.
•“Why am I so lazy? Why did I skip my workout this morning?” Get the **** over it! Go outside right now, run a mile and then do 30 push ups. Like, right now.
•“I have no willpower, because I couldn’t stop myself from eating those M&M’s.” Get **** over it! Throw the M&M’s away so you’re not tempted anymore, and move on.

Here’s the truth: One bad meal, one missed workout, or one day of overeating cannot undo weeks of hard work. It’s physically impossible – your stomach would explode before you got to that point. However, that one bad meal or one missed workout can mentally undo weeks of hard work, if you LET IT.

When you eat poorly for a day or two (probably loading up with carbs and sodium), you can step on the scale MUCH heavier than before…but it’s temporary. You might see a number on that scale that can absolutely demolish you if you let it. However, if follow up that one meal with a few days of clean eating, you can get right back on track.

It isn’t this mistake that matters…It’s the next one.

When you skip one workout, the next workout quickly becomes the most important workout of your life. One missed day becomes two days, which can become a week, which can VERY easily become a month. So never miss a workout two days in a row. No excuses. You have enough time – make it a priority.

Here’s another gem for the day…

Just fix it

I’m going to guess that you probably didn’t win the genetic lottery, which means you have to work hard to be healthy and look good.

You’re going to struggle with it. You’ll have days when all you can think about is eating candy. You’ll have mornings where “poking my eyes out” would come before “any sort of exercise” on your list of preferred activities.

When you screw up, skip a workout, eat bad foods, or sleep in, it doesn’t make you a bad person.

It makes you human.

Welcome to the club.

There’s like seven billion of us.

You’re going to have moments where you screw up or slow down. You’ll spend a week exercising properly and the scale doesn’t move. And you’ll see other people effortlessly losing weight and talking about their success while you’re still struggling to lose that first five pounds. You have two options at this point:

1) Most people choose to complain very loudly: They’ll tell anybody that will listen how bad their genetics are. And how busy they are. And how eating healthy doesn’t work for them. And how they just can’t seem to lose weight. Sure, it doesn’t produce any results, but it makes them feel better about not being honest with themselves.

2) choose to do a few key things:

•Stop comparing yourselves to other people – you only see their results, without seeing their years of hard work and struggle.
•Stop complaining about how unfortunate your situation is, and understand that everybody is dealing with their own personal baggage. Play the hand you’re dealt, or in nerd terms…play the character you’ve rolled.
•Stop complaining about how you eat healthy and can’t seem to lose weight, and instead spend a few days actively figuring out if you really ARE eating healthy. Are you stuffing your face with “heart healthy whole grains,” sneaking M&M’s, and counting corn (a grain) as your only vegetable for the day? Be honest with yourself, listen to your body and find out what works best for you.

If you are not happy with how you look or feel, fix it. Do your research. Track your calories. Cook your own meals. Go to bed earlier and exercise more. Make small changes, but MAKE CHANGES.

The game of life is tough, amigo – nobody gets out alive.

So when you have a bad day, get over it. When you feel like complaining, instead, make changes.

The silver lining

Amidst the tough love, there is a silver lining to all of this.

You are an amazingly advanced piece of machinery.

Yes, you. You are capable of greatness. You can seriously become whatever you want if you’re willing to work for it.

What you did five minutes ago is done and cannot be changed. What you do five minutes from now, however, is completely up to you.

You are NOT your past.

You ARE your future.

Your destiny isn’t set in stone, so feel free to create your own.

Stop berating yourself for mistakes. Stop playing the “woe is me” card. Stop comparing yourself to those around you.

Smile and be thankful that you woke up today!

Quietly and consistently work towards building a better you.

Stop worrying about where you’ve been and put your focus on where you’re going.

Go. Start. Now.

-Steve

You need to challenge your thinking. Ask yourself two questions about your thoughts. 1) Is is true? 2) Is it beneficial to me?
So when you blow it on one meal is it true that you've ruined everything and ruined all your progress? No, of course not. What you've done is what all of us have done. You're no different than anyone else. Let it be in the past and move on. Don't torture yourself over it because it doesn't benefit you or help you reach your goal.

It might help you to plan a cheat meal that includes something you really love. Eat light throughout the rest of the day, get your workout in, and enjoy your meal without guilt. It can be hard to stop having negative feelings about food but you can do it. Look at question #1. If it's not true, don't let yourself believe lies. And for #2 it's not helpful to expect perfection from yourself. Accept that you are human and you will make mistakes. It's OK. Nothing crushing and horrible happened because you ate four brownies or whatever. Life goes on and all we can do is learn from it. You can learn to stop putting so much pressure on yourself.

Also, if you are not allowing yourself enough calories you are more likely to binge. You'd be better off eating more to allow yourself the foods you want so you won't feel so deprived.

I love this! Thanks for sharing!

I used to be the exact same way. I have no idea exactly what changed it, but the last couple weeks I don't see it like that anymore. I don't have "bad days" when it comes to food, sure I might eat more then I would like to occasionally, but I adjust the rest of my day accordingly and move on. Even if I were to have a whole day of eating junk, I don't let it ruin anything. One day is not going to set me back on my weight loss journey if I get right back on track. Also, it helps to think of this as a true lifestyle change. Not a diet. Yes, I'm watching my calories and trying to lose weight, but it's not a diet. I eat what I want within reason and am losing weight steadily doing so. One more thing I've been thinking is it's a journey, not a race. That really helps my mindset. If I want to grow and accomplish things on this journey, I need to change. That means not throwing away all my hard work just because I ate a little too much. Perfect example is I thought I didn't do so great last week but thankfully I kept going and stayed within my calories everyday and even though I didn't make the best food choices all week, I still lost 3 pounds. Really proved to me its not all or nothing!! Hope that helps a little.

This!!!!!!!!! I could have written this word for word. I realized I'll never be perfect. But? I can be a LOT better than I've ever been before, and if I don't give myself the chance to do a good job *most* of the time instead of *all* of the time, I'll never feel better