Do you find yourself an ‘all or nothing’ person when it comes to diet and exercise?
Eating perfectly, gyming regularly, and generally feeling like an angel..
Then ‘falling off track’, eating everything and pretending your fitbit died when really you’ve just barely moved all day?
We set ourselves up for failure when we go into ‘Diet mode’ and try to do things perfectly all the time.
You’re either ‘on plan’ or ‘off plan’ and when you’re off plan…
As soon as you decide you’re off plan, everything is (in your mind) ruined, and you may as well continue to eat and drink all the things you’ve been missing out on, then start again on Monday.
But…
Instead of all or nothing, and all these plans and tracks, try being all or SOMETHING (you don’t have to be ‘all’ anyway but this concept might help).
In any situation where you feel like the choice you’ve made, or are about to make, is less than ideal, you can still do SOMETHING to give yourself a win.
Really want that piece of cake?
Have it, enjoy it, and maybe swap your carbs for extra veggies at dinner.
Hungover?
A short walk rather than a whole day on the sofa is a win.
Halfway through a box of chocolates?
You can still stop there, put the rest away and feel proud for doing that.
You don’t have to be ‘on plan’ or ‘off plan’, and you haven’t ruined anything with one ‘bad’ choice, meal or day.
The only thing that ruins your progress is thinking you have and proceeding to make it worse.
It’s that analogy… ‘oops, I dropped my phone on the floor. I might as well smash it until it breaks!’
As soon as you feel a little off track, focus on finding one small positive action you can take right now to change things.
Sometimes it could just be cutting yourself some slack and deciding your next meal will be a healthy one.
The key to successful weight loss is building momentum and creating regular wins for yourself.
Doing something when you would previously have done nothing (or all of the things that won’t help) is a win. Making your next choice a healthy one is a win. Small victories lead to big results.
Keep calm and carry on.