Lose Weight – Overcome All-or-Nothing Thinking: Part 1

When you want to lose weight, developing new fitness habits is a task where many people procrastinate indefinitely. We may intend to sit down and schedule new workout routines, find healthy recipes, create a perfectly balanced meal plan… but somehow it just never happens. Days, weeks, and sometimes months and years go by while these items sit on a to-do list; and we are no further ahead.

There will often be a reason why it’s “not the right time” to begin. For whatever reason (usually we blame a lack of time), it would be impossible to do it “right,” and so we wait for a later, better time. This of course implies that if you aren’t doing everything you think you should do, you might as well not do anything at all; and this kind of black-and-white thinking can keep you from ever beginning to move in the direction of your goals. And it can keep you from ever achieving them.

Do You Take an All-or-Nothing Approach to Fitness & Weightg Loss?

Do You Take an All-or-Nothing Approach to Fitness & Weightg Loss?

If you aren’t happy with your current state of health or your fitness level, but aren’t doing anything to change it, there is a good chance you are falling into this trap. If you feel you would like to change your weight or your level of fitness, there is no sensible reason not to begin improving, bit by bit, now. We really don’t need to think it must be ‘all or nothing’.

All you need to do is select one thing that you feel would have a positive impact on your fitness and begin doing that. Cut your regular desert size in half, use half the mayonnaise you usually would use in a sandwich, take the stairs instead of the elevator once a day; there are innumerable tweaks that can be made to your routine to peel a pound or two off over time. But don’t get onto the track of trying to do them all, just pick one and go with it for a while. After a week or two, pick another.

You can also have a look at our free 7-Secrets to Getting Fit and Losing Weight – Fast! report, pick any tip that you think would be easy to fit into your life, and get started on it. Today. Not tomorrow, not on New Year’s, not next week. Pick something so easy that you can start it right now. These changes will add up quickly, and their effects are often more permanent than attempting to completely overhaul your habits.

By now, you might hear your mind whispering “But, if I wait until after the holidays/until my vacation/until this work project is over, I can work on all 7 secrets, or work on every single habit that I want to change. That will be so much more effective. I will be a picture of fitness and self-discipline. Yes; if I wait, I will be able to do it right. And it’s only worth doing if I am going to do it right”.

This is no more than black and white thinking, and it is sabotaging your plans. If you’re like me, you may have noticed that these perfect moments when we will have time to carry through our perfect plans in their entirety never seem to come. Some new point in the future replaces the old one and the cycle goes on.

But let’s give the thought that soon everything will change the benefit of the doubt. Let’s assume that you will make these changes all at once just as soon as some specific moment in time comes. Will you be hurt by the fact that you will have already lost 2, 3, 5, 10 pounds in the meanwhile, increased your strength, or improved your cardiovascular fitness through earlier efforts? Will you be cursing the moment you reach your goal because you got there just a little sooner? I somehow doubt it. So, while you’re waiting for that perfect moment, you might as well make a few tweaks in preparation for it.

So, every time you here yourself saying “I will… when…” in relation to your fitness goals, ask yourself if you really must wait, or if there is something, anything, you can do in the meanwhile to get things rolling. Then, begin doing it that day, that very moment. And you might find that when your “when…” moment comes around, you will have already reached all your fitness goals.