Everywhere we look, we are inundated with marketing schemes for quick solutions to health and weight loss – diet pills, fitness gimmicks, fad diets and weight loss surgery; we’re constantly being fed the message of finding the quickest, easiest way to reach the body of our dreams. However enticing these options may be, transformations that happen over a longer time period through the focus on building sustainable habits are much more likely to be successful, rewarding and permanent.

Ultimately, what separates someone looking for a quick fix and someone looking to make a real change is their mindset. You can either have an all-or-nothing mindset or a continuum mindset.

Having an all-or-nothing mindset means that you are either in or out. It means you are in one of two modes: striving forward ruthlessly towards your goals, or you are mindlessly drifting through life, often distracting yourself with things that gratify you in the short-term. If you have an all-or-nothing mindset, you are attempting to sprint a marathon – trying to make as much ground as possible today with no concern for pacing yourself for tomorrow.

Someone with an “all-or-nothing” mindset will likely be:

• Training too hard, too often
• Eating with too large of a calorie deficit when dieting
• Getting insufficient recovery, poor immune system resulting in sickness
• Pushing through using sheer willpower, often burning out
• Susceptible to emotional eating
• Fixated on fast results (yo-yo dieting, restrict-binge cycles, weekend/night-time overeating
• Mentality of perfection or a mentality of “nothing matters, eat everything in sight”
• Near impossible to maintain over the mid-long term

Having a continuum mindset allows you to see health and wellness as a life-long journey. It recognises that for as long as you are breathing, taking care of your health and fitness will be not only relevant, but important. It becomes about developing a healthy relationship with food, exercise and your own body and mind, while not getting overly caught up in slip-ups here and there. It’s about recognising that it’s a long game and using mistakes as lessons learned for the future.

Cultivating a continuum mindset will lead to:

• The ability to enjoy the process
• Less restrictions; less mental and physiological stress
• Healthy self-image
• Health relationship with food
• Being in touch with your body (internal hunger cues, pain)
• Focusing on longevity and health, as you become in tune with signals your body sends you
• Mistakes don’t get you down as much but are simply lessons/data for the future you
• Better results, a healthier mind and body, and more energy

Living with an all-or-nothing mindset can be restrictive, stressful and anything but helpful. Expanding your perspectives will inspire, encourage and motivate you to become better, and will allow you to live a richer and more vibrant life. Here are some things that you can do today to start expanding your all-or-nothing mindset.

1. Separate your self-worth from your performance. You are not your results. Look more towards your values and qualities that are firmly rooted within, rather than defining yourself by how much you’re achieving at the time.
2. Focus on behaviour-based goals that you can see yourself maintaining well into the future rather than being fixated on results. Celebrate evenly, both the wins of sticking to your behaviour-based goals (walking every day) and also results (dropping 3cm from your waist) for a more balanced approach.
3. Use the word “and”, instead of “or”. Instead of “I had a great week or a terrible week”, consider “I had some great things happen this week and some difficult things”. Using the word “and” helps us become more understanding and less judgemental of ourselves and others.

Mindset is a core pillar of Real Fitness Training, and we are constantly reshaping the way our clients think about their health and wellness journey through coaching sessions, seminars, and conversations at the water fountain. No matter where your starting point is, we want to work with you to transform the way you think, look and feel by coaching you every step of the way. If you want to find out more about how you can start your journey with us, get in touch with us here. We look forward to hearing from you.

In health and wellness,

Coach Chris