Thursday, August 20, 2015

Refusing to Fall Off the Weight Loss Wagon

Hello.  My name is runnergirl and my biggest fault is that I am a perfectionist.

But not in that clichéd way of attempting to turn what is usually seen as a positive into a negative when forced to respond to the common interview question, "What is your biggest weakness?"

I am a real perfectionist.

And it has been destroying my life.

OK. OK.  Destroying may be a bit of an exaggeration, but still.

When I set a goal for myself, my standards are ridiculously high and I'm unable to cut myself any slack.  I am my own worst enemy because of it and in the long run I end up sabotaging my efforts.

I find it next to impossible not to have an all-or-nothing attitude.  When I set a goal of doing something, like say drinking eight glasses of water every day in August, as soon as I miss a single day I end up thinking I may as well just quit because my goal was to drink the water EVERY DAY, and even one slip up renders my goal unreachable.  I can't help but see my attempt to reach a goal marred by failure when I slip up, and wondering why I should bother continuing.

Stepping back, I can obviously see how ridiculous this thinking is.  The real goal is to be healthier by consuming more water.  Even if I miss a few days out of the month, I'm still better off than I was when I started.  But even though I can logically think this through and see the bigger picture, I still have a hard time keeping myself on track as soon as I allow myself to miss one day of whatever I am trying to achieve.

I've missed a few days of drinking my water the past week or so, and I haven't exercised every day like I wanted to, AND I fell off the healthy eating/weight loss wagon for a few day.  Normally this would be enough to derail me and I'd just give up, telling myself it was too late to succeed and I'll try again next month (which really turns into more like 6 months before I give it another go).  But I REFUSE to do that this time.  I really really want to get healthier and lose some weight and start running again.  So I'm fighting my internal perfectionist and plodding ahead, even with black marks on my record.  I can (and I will!) do this.

Here's to (eventually) losing those damn 10 lbs!

1 comment:

  1. Never give up!!! You can do it!! Everyone takes a break whether intended or not from exercising or eating healthy. Maybe you should try planning a day every week where you "take a break" or have a cheat day. It may help you keep going.

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