Road to 40: Post 11

Why the “110% or Nothing” Approach is keeping you from being Fit and Healthy

We’ve all been there, we’ve all had that moment. We’re passing by a mirror and do a double take, a friend or family member gives you the belly pat, or one of the kids remarks about how they love to cuddle with you because you’re so squishy. The proverbial GUT CHECK always leaves us in some form of shame and immediately sends us into the, “I gotta do something about this right now!” feeling. 

A favorite past-time of people suffering from this situation is to immediately change everything they are doing. You start our “clean eating” with salads and chicken, and create a rigorous exercise regiment; give up everything sweet, salty, and alcohol based, and starve ourselves to the point of constant hangriness that makes everyone around us steer clear around lunch time.  

We call this the All-or-Nothing mentality. The 110% method. It’s the approach that most people take and it’s the approach that people end up repeating over… and over… and over….  And over! It’s the surefire way to set yourself up to NEVER be able to achieve those fitness goals you set in that vulnerable moment that set you on this crazy, unsustainable path. All it sets you up for is burnout, injury, and disappointment.

Let’s talk about the problem with the All-or-Nothing Approach, the benefits of a Balanced Approach, how to avoid the All-or-Nothing trap and the power a proper mindset can give you to achieve and sustain those fitness goals. Let’s do this

The problem with the All-or-Nothing approach:

The first problem we run into here is that the decisions we make in this instance are often emotional and subjective rather than unemotional and objective. Something often sets off a negative emotional response about the way we look which then brings to light feelings you’ve likely been suppressing for a long time. Maybe you’ve gone up a few pant sizes, maybe your stomach is feeling more squishy than it used to be or maybe you can’t understand why your arms have gotten so skinny.

It’s not great but it happens! Stop me if this isn’t you - First thing you do is berate yourself for doing a poor job of keeping yourself in shape. Second, you make a monumental commitment to get yourself back into shape on a 7 day workout schedule, promise to give up every piece of junk food, go low carb, or do a juice cleanse because that’s what you’ve done in the past or your best friend’s sister’s mother did it and lost all this weight. Third, you implement this madness for a few weeks and then fall right off to only start the cycle again the next time you have the proverbial GUT CHECK.

It brings about frustration, fear of failure in the future, unrealistic expectations and leads to discouragement.

Next week I’ll chat about the benefits of the Balanced Approach and how to avoid the All or Nothing Trap.

To be continued…