Getting past the "all or nothing" mentality

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  • tracie_minus100
    tracie_minus100 Posts: 465 Member
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    Thanks so much for the help and support!
  • tulips_and_tea
    tulips_and_tea Posts: 5,715 Member
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    I've given this example before, but it really clicked with me, so I'll share it again: apply the same thinking to other things in your life and you'll see how irrational it is. Example: if you get a speeding ticket on your way to work, do you just disobey every law for the rest of the day since you already messed up? Puts things in perspective, I think.

    Also, you don't lose weight and become fit from just one workout or one day of eating well. So one day of not working out or one day of not eating well will not ruin you, either.
  • WalkingAlong
    WalkingAlong Posts: 4,926 Member
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    It's a convenient mindset if you like to eat and dislike to exercise. "I'll start tomorrow because I'm not ON anyway..." Decide it's a lazy, enabling way of thinking you use to justify procrastinating. That helped me.
  • tracie_minus100
    tracie_minus100 Posts: 465 Member
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    It's a convenient mindset if you like to eat and dislike to exercise. "I'll start tomorrow because I'm not ON anyway..." Decide it's a lazy, enabling way of thinking you use to justify procrastinating. That helped me.

    That is spot on, really. Thank you.
  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,150 Member
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    You have to want to do it.

    When you want to, you will. Nobody else can make you want to do it. That has to come from within.
    ^ This!
  • SimaN2014
    SimaN2014 Posts: 23 Member
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    I second (third) the post that says to be less of a perfectionist.

    Try this... If you have (as an example) a target 500 calorie deficit, try mixing things up... Do only a 300 calorie deficit one day. Another day, enjoy those junk food things you love. Make it a 100 calorie surplus (I know, I'm talking crazy talk here). Usually exercise? Take a day off. Each time you do this, go back to your regular routine the next day. The point is not to follow the "perfect" diet to achieve the "fastest possible" weight lose, the point is to adopt a healthy enough lifestyle to get to where you need to be and to sustain it. You will have stresses, challenges, sicknesses, travels that will all be potential derailers. But if you have a longer term way of being, then you don't have to have an "ON" or an "OFF" to reach it. You just make a small adjustment and carry forward. Make it a habit to be less than perfect at least once a week for a while. Then you get used to making small adjustments to recover and it's not an all-or-nothing deal.

    If when you go "OFF", you really stop caring about the purpose of your journey, then maybe write up your inspirations now, and re-visit them if you switch "OFF", as a reminder to keep going the next day.

    Another thing would be to replace "OFF" with maintenance. Not at your goal, but need a break from the rigor of your new regime? Do maintenance for a few weeks, then keep going with your weight loss. You are on nobody's timeline but yours. You make the rules; it's your game to play.

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