All or Nothing?

With weight loss clients, one of the basic principles of my Today’s the Day plan is the 90-10 rule. Even this isn’t set in stone – it can be 90-10 or 80-20.  Often clients feel if they don’t follow the plan “perfectly” or if they are unable to do everything “right” it will ruin all their efforts. Nothing could be further from the truth.

This 90-10 or 80-20 principle applies to any health or lifestyle change you want to make. I thought it was important to highlight this since January is typically the time we all try to lose weight, get healthy and improve our habits. What I am suggesting is that if you eat cleaner – making the best choices available to you 80 or 90% of the time, the other 10 or 20% will not derail all your hard work. Consistency and balance the keys here. Do your best most of the time! But don’t be overly harsh and legalistic with yourself. Be realistic and flexible – you are a human being and there will be good days and bad.

This is why when people get all worked up over eating cookies and special foods over the holidays that are not on their “diet” I say – it matters more what you do between New Years and Thanksgiving than what you do between Thanksgiving and New Years!

The same holds true for exercise. Try to stick to your routine and plan most days of the week. There will be times when an unexpected appointment or something else happens and you miss. It’s ok. In fact, you should take a day or two off a week to allow your muscles to heal.  Over training causes injuries and inflammation which, as I have said before, is the root of all illness.

You can apply this to all areas of your life and if you do, I believe you will benefit greatly.  Getting stressed about it is the most destructive thing you could do. Make it an enjoyable process rather than a stressful one and you will experience success so much more quickly!

Are you strict and inflexible with yourself – an “all or nothing” person? As Dr. Phil would say, How’s that working for you?

Want to see more articles like this?   Subscribe to this blog (just click on “Follow”) and get each new post delivered to your email or feed reader. I just did an interview with The Iron Jen and we talked about how to lose weight and stay healthy during stressful times – as well as the importance of being flexible about it! You can listen here.