Is Perfectionism Making You Fat?!
posted on: July 06, 2017. posted in: Weight loss, Fitness
Do you start diets or fitness plans, fall off them, then beat yourself up for not being perfect? Then binge for the rest of the week because you'll "start fresh" next Monday? Meanwhile piling on more fat than you lost while you were "on it"?
Here's a little rant for all the perfectionists out there.
[warning: a gentle smattering of swearing in this one]
__________
I'd like you all to open your minds and come with me on a little journey.
It's December. It's the UK. It's starting to get a little bit chilly. And for those not from the UK, "a little bit chilly" means "seriously f**king cold".
You get up early. You get ready for work. You get in the car.....
And what's the first thing you do?
You crank the heat up.
Nobody gets in their car first thing in the morning on a cold, frosty, British winter's day and puts the heat on medium.
F**k no.
We whack it right up to MAX.
Why?
Because when we're cold, when we're uncomfortable, it is human instinct to want to get as warm as possible as fast as possible.
But answer me this...
10 minutes into your journey, when your car heating system is in full flow, blasting your legs and your face with scorching hot air, what do you do?
How do you ensure you don't go from freezing cold, to roasting hot?
It's simple people.
You turn... the heat... DOWN.
You might turn it a little bit down, half way down, maybe if you're really hot you'll turn it right the way down.
But what you do not do, and will never... ever... ever... do...
Is turn it to COLD.
Because not so long ago you were cold. You know and remember how uncomfortable that was. You knew when you got into the car that you didn't want to be cold.
So now that you're hot, you turn it down.
And find a temperature that is a bearable.
....but NOT COLD.
Training is exactly the same.
We all start diet and fitness plans feeling cold and uncomfortable. And that coldness and discomfort might be feeling fat, feeling low in confidence, feeling like you're losing control.
So we do what human beings instinctively do when we feel cold and uncomfortable?
We crank the heat UP.
We turn our dial to MAX.
Giving everything we've got to training for the first week or two.
But... like the car journey... there comes an inevitable point when we get too hot, when we train too hard, when we eat too restrictively and it becomes unsustainable.
Maybe we pick up an INJURY.
Maybe we pick up a BUG.
Maybe we get so HUNGRY it becomes unbearable.
Either way... we cannot keep going at max.
Too many people reach this inevitable point and make the fatal decision of giving up. Turning their dial to cold and returning rapidly to the discomfort... the coldness... that led them to get started in the first place.
They draw the illogical conclusion...
"If I can't train at max then f**k it, I might as well not train at all! I might as well give up and BINGE, then start fresh again next Monday!"
Bull.... f**king... shit... my perfectionist princess.
We all control the training dial of our lives. So at any one time we have the power to decide whether to turn it up or to turn it down.
When times are good, when stress is low, that's the time to crank it up to max and go for it. Hit the workouts hard. Keep your nutrition tight. Focus and go for the maximum gains possible.
But...
When times are bad, when stress is high, when the world and life throws obstacles in your path...
Don't turn it off.
Don't turn it to cold.
Turn... it... DOWN.
Adjusting. Tweaking. Turning.
Until you find the training level and intensity that matches where you are in your life right now.
This is the mindset of the lean person. This is the mindset of success. Just because you can't train at max doesn't mean you "f**k it" and don't train at all.
Focus on what you CAN do.
Even if that means keeping your training dial set to the lowest level possible. Because anything is better than off.
And anything is better than COLD.
Liam
p.s. If you're on and off diets and fitness plans, and would like to develop a more consistent mindset, for more consistent results, join us on the Summer Strip™ mission and we'll sort your head out!
