How to Stop Being All or Nothing with Your Fitness
How to Stop Being All or Nothing with Your Fitness
I know the cycle well. Workout like a crazy person for several months then hit a wall and quit everything completely. Eat correctly (no way would you eat something BAD for you) to binging on every food you've ever craved. It's an annoying cycle that isn't easy to stop.
Do you sit back and wonder why you do this? How does one go from squeaky clean to a train coming off the tracks? Well, it's because you were too strict with yourself and became obsessive with your goals. A lot of us can be guilty of this, but you need to learn how to stick with your fitness goals and not to let them consume your life. It takes effort and a lot of adjustments, but it's well worth it.
BEING WAY TOO OBSESSIVE
When you begin working out and eating "clean," all you can think about are your goals, what workout you're going to do next, what food you'll eat and how quickly you can reach your fitness destination. You never miss a workout, and you know every calorie you consume. Wow, you're really dedicated. That's great, but how long can you stick with this?
Eating correctly is not easy or fun. Yes, you can do it, but is it worth it? Working out every day or pretty close to it, can be daunting. You may even be driving your loved ones insane because you're missing out on some pretty amazing things with them.
Ease up a little bit when going at your goals. You're going to get there, but being overly obsessive is unhealthy. Learn to relax, and you'll be pleasantly surprised by how much happier you are at sticking with your plan. Trust me; you'll thank yourself. Life is short and being happy is the ultimate goal you should have.
PERFECTION OR DISASTER
If you're one that goes either PERFECTION or a complete DISASTER, there's a straightforward trick that will solve both of these issues. CONSISTENCY. Yep, that's it. Stop being so perfect when it comes to your workout schedule or tossing the towel in and not working out at all. Restricting your diet or gorging on food just because you gave up. You're dancing on complete opposite ends of the spectrum.
Both sides of this can be exhausting, and neither will leave you feeling happy. Dial down your efforts a bit and concentrate on CONSISTENCY, ending the cycle of "ALL OR NOTHING." As long as you're consistent with your workouts and diet, everything will fall into place. Being overly restrictive or being self-destructive will lead you nowhere but a dead end road. CONSISTENTLY show up to better yourself.
YOU NEED A PLAN
Blundering around without a well thought out plan will lead to lack of motivation. Having a program doesn't mean following it to an exact T. Don't get caught up into this trap, either way.
Follow the program as it's laid out, but go into it knowing that you may miss a workout and you WILL enjoy a dessert. Of course, you want to get results. You will, by being consistent with your plan without going overboard with the "all or nothing" mentality. Programs aren't meant to create obsessiveness in your life. They're there to guide you and give you the tools you need to reach your goals.
“Balance is not something you find. It’s something you create.”
BALANCE
Reaching your goals or sticking to your goals can be hard to do. Find a balance so that you can enjoy the process all while enjoying your life. If you're one that obsessively workouts every day, try working out harder a few days and rest on the other days. Skip a workout all together and choose an active rest day to go hiking or skiing with your family. Find something that keeps your body busy but allows you to spend time with your loved ones.
Instead of burning out of your workout regimen, narrow down your workouts. If you were going to the gym five days a week, hit the reset button and shoot for two days a week. Doing so will allow you to feel like you've accomplished your fitness, but won't overwhelm you with doing it all of the time.
If you're restricting your diet and you feel miserable, add a couple of hundred calories to your daily intake. Your body will get better results than you burning completely out and resorting to eating everything in sight. If you're currently eating endlessly, switch one meal out a day to something healthy. Maybe even start smaller than that. If you're eating a burger and fries all of the time, switch the fries for veggies. Leave the rest alone for the time being. Baby steps will work best for you to ease back into getting fit.
Finding BALANCE will help your mind and body. Doing anything drastically will ultimately end in failure. You don't need to be "all or nothing" with anything in life. Life will throw you curve balls, and there's plenty of potholes along the way. If you find balance, you'll gracefully hit the walls and keep moving forward.
THERE WILL BE POP-UPS
Being a human, we will suffer setbacks from time to time. Illnesses, divorces, injuries, kids, and careers will come in between our goals. It will happen, so you need to prepare yourself mentally. These issues should not completely throw you into a tailspin, that you cannot recover from.
Being an "all or nothing" person, you're susceptible to this. If you miss one workout, your life is ruined. If you cave and eat that cake at your family get together, forget it, you might as well eat three pieces. Sound familiar?
Know going into any plan, things will happen. It's ok. You need to get back up and move on from it. You'll eat cake; you'll miss workouts, and sometimes you'll feel unmotivated. You're human. Don't get stuck in this perfection or disaster mode. Shake it off and start over again. Sometimes, your body and mind need a break, and it's a way to reset yourself. It's not always a bad thing to fall off the wagon. The sad thing is not brushing yourself off once you land.
TO GET INTO SHAPE, IS TO STAY IN SHAPE
Is your goal to lose ten pounds? Ok, what do you do once you hit that milestone? Do you just quit or do you keep going? You worked so hard on shedding those ten pounds and then you reach it and go right back to where you were.
Did you eat perfectly for three months and then got tired of it, so you went right back to your old eating habits? You're probably an "all or nothing" person. Learn that reaching your goals is great, but you need to learn to enjoy the process, so you're not continually starting over again and again. Once you start enjoying getting fit, it'll become a lifestyle, not just a fad.
You'll reach one goal and move on to the next. Getting fit is an ever-evolving process that you'll continually be reaching new heights. If you're always in the "all or nothing" state of mind, you'll see this process as an uphill battle that you can't win. Don't set your final goal at ten pounds. Start the process as a lifelong commitment that you can enjoy and stick with. Those ten pounds will come off along the way, but the other benefits might surprise you as well, goals that you didn't even think of.
KNOWING YOUR WHY
You don't want to get hung up on the transformation of your body. Yes, that sounds great and completely doable, but you have to know your WHY. Having a fit body does not guarantee you happiness. It will not bring you the answers to all of your problems.
Instead, focus on WHY you want to get fit. It could be to feel better, have more energy or be able to play with your kids for more than two minutes. Transforming your body will naturally come by setting goals to enjoy life.
Maybe you have a family history of poor heart health. Your WHY should be that you want to build endurance to strengthen your heart and avoid health issues. In the meantime, you will lose weight, gain muscle and all around feel and look better.
When you focus just on what the mirror shows you (which is generally distorted by ourselves), you fall prey to quitting your journey. The body may not react as quickly as you'd like; however, the other benefits may go unnoticed if you solely focus on external results. Knowing your WHY will keep you going and on track.
Being "all or nothing," you'll want and need results and entirely ignore how you feel. This will lead you one of two ways: either quitting entirely or being obsessive and pushing your body even harder. Either way, you're punishing yourself. If you're solid on WHY you want to become fit, you'll stay motivated to stick with it.
Getting healthy is not easy, but if you can find balance and consistency, you'll be pleasantly surprised at how much smoother the process is. I know you want results and you feel awful when you fall off the track. It happens, but it doesn't mean you have to stay there. Finding small ways to dial in your "all or nothing" ways, will lift a heavy burden from you. It doesn't need to be this way. You're going to do really well at times and then not so great at other times. Expect that and realize that it's part of the process. It's completely normal. However, being self-destructive is not going to help you in the long term.
So workout when you can, eat well most of the time and allow yourself to indulge in something you love. Take a nap, eat a brownie or enjoy dinner with your loved ones and be ok with the fact that you're not perfect and you will skip your plans once and awhile. The more emphasis you put on the "bad" things you do, the more you will repeat them. Permit yourself to be a human. Pat yourself on the back when you do make good choices. Take note of all that you DO accomplish, not solely focusing on the things you didn't do correctly. It's all ok. Consistency is your key to success, my friend. That's all you need to focus on.
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Hugs & Love,
Aimee
The Purely Fit
Aimee Schwinabart is the founder of The Purely Fit—online workouts, nutrition, and fitness coaching that actually work! She specializes in short (super effective) daily workouts combined with customized nutrition plans to help real people shed excess fat and reveal toned, lean muscles. The Purely Fit approach to looking and feeling great prioritizes small, steady, super efficient workouts and nutrition upgrades to help you stay with it once and for all!
