How Perfectionism Affects Your Weight Loss

This is the third and final blog of a series. 

Here are links to the first: https://www.revolution-within.com/blog/revolutionizing-your-relationship-with-your-body

And second: https://www.revolution-within.com/blog/how-people-pleasing-affects-your-relationship-with-your-body

So what exactly is perfectionism? 

It is, according to Webster, “A disposition to regard anything short of perfection as unacceptable.”

Does that feel at all familiar?

How many of us have done something like this:

You have a stressful day and don’t stick to your “diet.” But instead of taking a few minutes to journal about and allowing yourself room for error, you throw up your hands in frustration, holler, “FUCK IT,” and dive face first into whatever your favorite “fuck it” food is.

Then maybe continue to fuck it eat for days, weeks, or even months.

I will fully admit to this behavior in the past. Fortunately with practice, patience, and persistence, this is no longer a habit for me.

All-or-nothing thinking isn’t just unhelpful, it’s downright destructive. It keeps us from making progress because we tell ourselves that 1% of effort isn’t good enough, it HAS to be 100%.

But I’m here to tell you the truth.

That way of thinking? THAT’S letting yourself off the hook. It allows you to not do anything at all because “It’s not going to make any difference unless I’m doing it exactly the way it’s supposed to be done.”

WRONG.

1% of effort IS good enough. Because it’s STILL EFFORT.

Five minutes of movement is better than zero minutes.

Ten minutes of strength training twice a week is better than not strength training at all.

Practice makes progress; NOT perfect. Perfect doesn’t exist. 

We’re human beings; we’re inherently creatures of habit, and it takes great effort to change habits.

And that’s okay! That’s NORMAL. 

Expecting ourselves to follow the “perfect diet” or the “perfect workout” or what have you isn’t realistic. We’re going to have days when we overeat or don’t eat as healthfully as we’d like to.  We’re going to get sick and only want to eat toast for five days. We’re going to have times in our cycle when we have higher cravings for sugar or salt.

If you accept that without judging yourself, then you’ll be empowered to make choices rather than feeling out of control. 

When you’re in control you can choose to eat chocolate cake when you’re craving it, and you won’t inhale half of it…you’ll actually slow down and savor one slice.

If you think that you’ve been eating better and you’re not seeing any positive changes, I suggest keeping a log of what you eat. You don’t have to measure everything, but keeping note of what you consume is good data to have. Looking at what you eat over a longer period of time, meaning over the course of a month rather than a day or even a week, shows where you’re making healthy choices and where you can tighten things up a little.

The key, though, is to practice all of this with self-kindness and WITHOUT JUDGMENT.

And if we can practice seeing the beauty and humanity in our own imperfection…it’s truly life-changing. 

When we get stuck on the idea that everything has to be “just right,” or the circumstances have to be perfect in order to be successful at our goals…well, this is what keeps our goals in the far-off distance.

The journey is in the mistakes. Life is in the mistakes. So go make mistakes and celebrate the wins in the effort you make.

If you’d like to get in touch, email me at dana@revolution-within.com.

Love & hugs, 

Dana