Two Faulty Mindset Patterns that are Ruining Your Health
True love is not fickle but acts of self-love in fitness and health are often inconsistent. When we don’t show consistent love to self it can seem we love ourselves one day and not the next. To treat yourself with love means you prioritize your health with good nutrition and fitness practices.
You prioritize what you love and what you want. Examine your mindset to shed light on when and how you think about those priorities.
Precision Nutrition (PN), a global online education and nutrition coaching company, highlights two faulty mindset patterns that may be ruining your health. The PRESS PAUSE mentality and ALL or NOTHING THINKING are sister mindsets and very similar in that they sound reasonable but actually keep us far from progressing and may prevent us from reaching our goals.
The PRESS PAUSE mentality is when we say, “I’ll resume my fitness routine after my trip this month…once I have children….after this holiday… when Mom is out of the hospital….in the new year….on Monday.” This sounds like good planning and seems reasonable to take a break. This is why 30-day crash courses, 10 day cleanses, and 90 day programs are so popular. Those programs may have wonderful merits but participants rarely make the shift to long-term application.
Hitting the pause button assumes that there is a better time or the “right time” to restart. It may seem odd to work out during some of these life events, but maintaining a regular schedule, staying strong and healthy and keeping up your energy is crucial for you and others too.
The trouble with pausing your healthy routine is because something always comes up to compete with your goals. It’s called LIFE and it will not change. Life is full of schedule changes, illnesses and interruptions. PN says, “Let’s accept the fact that life has no pause button!” If your routine is not doable during normal life events and interruptions then you need additional routines that work in all circumstances.
The ALL or NOTHING THINKING mindset is another common killer to your healthy routine. This mindset is based on the desire to have everything perfect or in place before we can do anything at all. Humans always want the perfect time, they want to minimize risk and to play it safe. Unfortunately, this all or nothing kind of approach usually leads to nothing.
See if you recognize these thoughts, “I’d love to go workout today, but I don’t have my tennis shoes with me.” “I just ate some chips. Oh well, I might as well have dessert too since this day is a bust.” “I’ll go back to the gym when my shoulder feels better.” “I’ll start working out when I can afford a trainer” or “when I lose some weight.” “I’ll eat better when I learn how to cook or when I can afford to buy organic.”
But there is no perfect time when we have enough time, enough money, enough motivation, enough information like we believe we need or like it appears that everyone else has.
The perfect moment is NOW starting with what you have and doing what you can. This may mean you don’t do the perfectly planned workout or have the picture-perfect gourmet meal. It may mean you have to dial down your workout to a lighter level or shorter time period using different tools than your previously best workout plan. It may mean you choose the best foods from the options you have rather than go all crazy with bad options.
You want to not get better at pausing your plan or waiting for perfection to START or RESTART. Even one small step moves you toward your best plan and gets you something. One moment of something then stacks on to more small steps and good moments. Before you know it you are in the habit of doing and achieving something and making progress. Jump in and start in the middle, it’s going to be just fine. Embrace your fear and recognize your resistance, then push through it for now.
Love yourself enough to prioritize self-directed acts of love like good nutrition, workouts and healthy lifestyle behaviors. Your productivity level, health and energy level for others will increase. Remember that love always wins!
Have a love-ly day!
Pam Owens
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