Just the other day I was talking to a friend and he wanted to lose weight. He was over 40lbs. beyond where he wanted and needed to be.
The challenge for him was that when he only added a few pounds it wasn’t that noticeable, and he got used to it there. He knew with a few quick changes that would be gone, but didn’t fully get around to making those changes.
Then he added a couple more pounds, and got used to it there, and the process continued. It was a slow accumulation of weight, with limited action to fix, but when looking back he found it really added up. And now he was at a place that was much harder to come back from.
When I asked some probing questions to find out where it could have gone sideways, we narrowed it down to his all or nothing mentality. When it came to his fitness and his nutrition, he was either all in or all out.
This can be very beneficial when you’re all in with your health and fitness, often leading to immediate changes and noticeable transformations. But it is clearly not beneficial when you turn a blind eye, are all out, and begin careening backwards at a rapid rate.
I’ve been in the fitness industry for 15 years and this is much more common than it may sound. Working out consistently and eating clean are fast recipes for success, but when it’s not made sustainable, motivation wears out and temptations become more enticing.
Nobody is perfect and no one can go full focus forever. A middle ground of healthy sustainability needs to be found, so the right habits become part of your lifestyle.
If you’re all or nothing in your fitness, focus on these 3 things:
1. Limit your temptations:
Be aware of the biggest challenges for you and typically make you “fall off” the wagon, and do what you can to remove yourself from those environments. If a smoker is trying to quit, the last thing he needs is to hang with co-workers on their smoking break. List these challenges out, the solutions that help, and stick to them.
2. Reframe your mind:
While it may be hard to undo a lifetime of “all or nothing” mentality, it’s important to be aware that thinking this way often leads towards depression and away from success. Realize that you are not going to be perfect, you will screw up, and that’s part of the journey. Take a minute to think through the areas that would set you back mentally, and how you can keep them from derailing your progress. Getting ahead of this mentally helps you realize it’s part of the process.
3. Find your support crew:
Surrounding yourself with people who support you and are where you want to be is huge. They will keep you accountable, help you stay focused, and encourage you along the way. If you want to be healthier you need to do the things healthier people are doing. Ask a friend that goes to the gym when they are going and if you can join them, they typically love company!
Health and fitness is a lifelong journey and is not going to be perfect. If you take that expectation out of it and figure how to navigate it best for you, it can actually be pretty fun.