All or Nothing

I see so many people struggling with an all or nothing approach to life, and I am certainly guilty of it too. Everyone knows you're supposed to do everything in moderation, but we don't! How many times have you woken up on a Monday morning and said, "Today, I am starting [XYZ] diet, and I am going to stick with it for [X] months, and lose [X] pounds!" You may have a strong start and stick to it for a couple hours, a couple of days, or even weeks, but inevitably that extreme lifestyle change is difficult to maintain and you "fall off the wagon."

I guess we naturally try and protect ourselves from failure or disappointment. If I'm not even trying, then I can't fail right?

I would stick with something for a while, and when it became challenging or I felt like I wasn't going to be successful, I would go to the other extreme of complete debauchery. I picture a pendulum swinging wildly from one side to the other: side A is exercising every day, eating very restrictively, and focused only on losing weight. Side B is just throwing every healthy habit out the window and sabotaging myself over and over again. This is the classic yo-yo dieting scenario.

I did it with exercise, too. Either I was convinced that I had to do an hour of spinning or run at least 3 miles every single day, or I was a complete couch potato doing absolutely nothing physical except cleaning the house.

So what's the solution? Slowly, the idea that I could find balance started creeping into my awareness. I made it a point to try and internalize the idea that I could really focus on good health and consistency, rather than this all or nothing approach. This did NOT happen overnight.

The first big step was allowing myself to completely forget about calories, fat, carbs, etc., and just try and eat really well. The goal of making half of what I eat every day be vegetables seemed impossible at first. But once I found several recipes that I knew I could make and I really enjoyed, I found success. I'm not just munching on raw carrots all day--I eat a variety of really yummy things that make me feel really good. And naturally, that leaves less room for other things that may not be so healthy, like junk food, sugar, meat, and dairy. I do have to spend more time in the kitchen, but cooking natural healthy foods for myself and my family is so darn satisfying. It really excites me to make something great that we all enjoy.

The next big step was to really understand that extreme exercising was not serving my body well. I started to get some really painful problems in my legs and feet, and was forced to slow down. And, much to my surprise, I did not gain any weight and the earth did continue to spin. As much as I wanted exercise to be the answer to my weight issues, it just wasn't. I have learned that while exercise is very important, 90% of weight gain or loss is controlled by what you eat.