Debunking the All or Nothing Fitness Mindset: Achieving Balance for Long-Term Success
Or is it…
This mindset is the downfall of so many people.
However, in my experience working with hundreds of people, it is the mindset almost everyone has when they try to get back into the gym, or when they try to eat healthier, or when they try to do any number of other health goals.
Let’s paint a picture of how this usually goes.
It’s late in the year, and all of a sudden you realize that the new year is just around the corner.
You start thinking about what you did over the last year with work, with family, with friends, unfortunately now with COVID, and with your health/fitness.
A realization comes over you. It’s almost the next year. You were going full force at the beginning of the year, signed up for a gym membership, maybe hired a trainer, started eating a salad or twelve, and you bought yourself some new work out gear. One month later, two months later, six months later, you stopped your crazy consistency. It became too much with work deadlines, family trips, and other priorities. Now instead of working out four days a week, eating two salads a day, and putting kale on everything… you’re in the gym twice a month, pulling the side salad away from your burger because it’s in the way, and gagging every time someone even references kale around you.
Now the new year is just around the corner, and it’s time to hop back on the wagon and make your New Year’s Resolution. But now you’re afraid that you will repeat what happened this last year.
Guess what.
Shit happens.
When you are not actively going to the gym for a long time, eating consistently in line with your fitness and health goals, and don’t have achievable goals set up, going balls to the wall in all of these is a terrible idea. Sure it works for some people. But not most.
Changing habits is hard. Think about how long it took you to get good at your job. There is an adjustment period, a training period, and you’re responsible for things you can handle. You aren’t handed the CEO job of Tesla your first day when you were hired as a factory hand.
The same thing applies to your fitness and health goals. This year, instead of trying to achieve all these goals at the same time, prioritize them.
Make your highest priority goal your first to achieve. Maybe there’s a big piece of a goal that you need to achieve before you can actually reach the goal, such as going to the gym consistently before you lose those 20 pounds you want off.
After setting up your goals and the structure you need, let yourself have some wiggle room! If your goal is 3x a week at the gym and you miss 2 of those one week, it doesn’t mean you fail. It means that next week you strive for 3x a week again.
Do not beat yourself up if you miss a session.
Do not beat yourself up for eating a burger instead of a salad one night.
Do not beat yourself up for beating yourself up about one of these things.
again… SHIT HAPPENS.
Fitness and health is a lifelong process. There is no end to this goal.
So stop giving up so soon. Something is better than nothing.
If you can’t make it to the gym, go for a 10 min walk.
If you don’t have groceries or the energy to cook, choose an option that is better for your goal than not. Remember, a steak and veggies is better for your goal than two boxes of Kraft Mac n Cheese.
