All diets start on a Monday!
All exercise plans start on a Monday!
Start on a Monday and end on a what?... A Friday? Maybe even a Tuesday?
Every new week, every new month, every post-holiday used to be like that for me. A new opportunity to 'start again' and try a new fitness regime or a new diet.
And what happened?
I failed...in an ever decreasing space of time...and gradually got bigger and bigger and bigger with each failed attempt.
Because, when you 'fail' on a diet you don't just go back to 'normal' eating again do you? No - you go mad on all of the foods you've just told yourself you can't have.
You don't just decide to work out once or twice a week. If you are not going EVERY day then you're not going at all! Well and truly throw in that towel!
That 'all-or-nothing' mentality of mine, not only undid any of the progress I was making...and taking me in the opposite direction... but it slowly chipped away at my self-belief too.
Every time I 'started again' a little voice in my head would tell me that I'd never stick it out. I never had before, so why would this time be any different?
And, trust me, our actions follow our beliefs...always!
I didn't believe I could do it...and I couldn't!
My all-or-nothing tendencies ultimately landed me with an eating disorder in my 30s. Bulimia - the epitomy of all-or-nothing, I guess. Eating all and then purging to leave nothing. What a damn right horrible place to be in!
That disease had me crippled for about 5 years or so... not that many noticed at the time. To most, I looked healthy. Slim yes, but healthy. They didn't see the complete obsession that I had with food. The constant focus on when my next binge would be. The strategic toilet trips planned after every meal. They didn't see the guilt that was building up either - the guilt about what I was doing. That guilt that built up daily turned in to a hatred for myself.
I'll never forget the day that I asked for help. I was sat at the table after I'd eaten a load of rubbish and purged it all. I felt so completely exhausted... and deeply, deeply sad. Bursting into tears, I just sobbed my heart out, like I'd never sobbed before.
I could see my life just spinning past while I obsessed with food, weight, size. My boys were growing up and while I was with them physically, emotionally I was planets away. I made a vow to myself to change and sought help - proper, professional and medical help.
My path from that deepest pit to establishing a healthy relationship with food, my body, my health wasn't a quick one. It certainly wasn't a flawless one...it had blips. It sometimes went backwards. It went slowly and sometimes it stalled. But, it did, eventually, get me to a good place. Most importantly for me - and the answer to all of my previous issues - it got me away from that all-or-nothing mentality. The starting again - every bloody Monday!
It led me away from perfection I guess, but in my book - that is a wonderful thing! Perfection was always the thing that led me to start again - because any previous attempts weren't perfect. Nowadays, I'm far from perfect. But I'm good enough. I'm healthy enough. I exercise enough. I eat enough nourishing food. I move my bum enough.
I also have lazy days; eat foods the average PT might baulk at. But you see, when you do eat well MOST of the time and you do move ENOUGH - the rest doesn't matter...it really doesn't!
And, when you do enough constantly, you never have to start again because there is no diet to break; no wagon to fall off; no constant exercise chain to break. There's no catastrophe so there's no re-start. And when there's no diet, there's no cravings. When there are no 'banned' foods, there is so much less temptation.
It took me a good 5 years, and a lot of help, to get to my 'enough' point and it's my mission to help others get to their 'enough' point too!
Diets and the all-or-nothing mindsets are destructive. They destroy your progress, your self-belief and (ultimately) your happiness.
It doesn't sound cool, sexy or exciting, I know. But being good enough, most of the time, is all you need to be...for your health, your waistline, your weight, and (most importantly) for your happiness!
