Are you tired of going all out for a few days, weeks, or months only to lose your motivation for just as long as you went all in?
Are you tired of starting over and losing the same pounds again and again?
Do you want to finally master consistency so that you can get and stay in shape this time?
Before you can overcome that nasty little saboteur called the all or nothing mindset, you have to understand exactly what it is and where it comes from.
The all or nothing mindset is the belief system that suggests that transformation results are only attained by going all out.
But doesn’t a good effort get results too? It does and it is way more sustainable than going all out.
So where do we get this all or nothing mindset in the first place?
My more balanced approach didn’t “wreck” my figure as I had secretly feared it would.
#1: Desperation
We have all been there- that place where you are totally uncomfortable in your own skin. None of your clothes fit. You can’t believe you have let yourself go this far and you want to reverse the damage and escape the embarrassment and discomfort IMMEDIATELY.
The extreme level of dissatisfaction with your current state can create a desperation that makes you willing to do anything- no matter how extreme or even unhealthy. When you are in this place of desperation, you are not worried about sustainability.
You mistake your “all out” approach for commitment or dedication but in all honesty, it is an emotional, knee-jerk response to your current discomfort. A moderate approach will get things moving in the right direction just as well as the all-out approach and when you hit a plateau, you actually have room to make adjustments because you didn’t start out with the hardest approach you could possibly stand.
#2: Misinformation
There is so much information available in books and on the internet that it is hard to know what really works. Many of the professionals and “gurus” that you trust to point you in the right direction have biased, outdated, or short-sighted philosophies of what it takes to get in shape.
Unless you take the time to do tons of research for yourself, it can be really hard to know who’s right and which way you should go. With plenty of gurus telling you it is all about creating a caloric deficit, completing a minimum minutes of exercise per day or burning a certain number of calories per week, it is easy to get sucked into unsustainable, hardcore practices. Accepting hardcore practices as the norm is the first step in the all or nothing experience.
#3: Lack of commitment to the transformation lifestyle.
This one may be a little hard to swallow but you may be trying to USE the transformation lifestyle for its benefits with no real intention of making a long term commitment. You are willing to do whatever it takes to get those transformation results because you have given zero thought to what happens after the transformation.
No carbs? Fine! No less than an hour of exercise per day? Sure! In the back of your mind you think that when you have your results, you will be free to resume your old eating and exercise habits or that you will easily transition into a maintenance approach.
There are two problems with this belief. The first problem is that our habits are what we fall back on when our willpower is drained. At the end of your transformation, you will have two sets of habits- off (what you were doing before the all-out approach) and all out.
To believe that you will suddenly possess the skill to be moderate is naïve and what will likely happen is that you will go back to your old habits because you will be completely burnt out from the all-out approach. When you go back to your old habits, the weight comes back (as it should) and it will likely come back more quickly and bring friends along. When this happens, it is easy to get into the desperation mode and you go right back to your all-out way of getting results. Thus begins the vicious cycle.
Do yourself a favor and commit to eliminating the all or nothing mindset. After all consistency over time yields way more results than perfection in a moment.
What did you think. Let me know in the comments below! And if you found this helpful or inspirational, be sure to share.
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