Consistency over perfection

One of the biggest challenges I see with those beginning a health practice is the need for consistency. There are two general categories that people often follow into:

1) "What?! I've been doing _________ for 5 days now and still no change??!!"

2) "Hmmm...why bother with ____________ it probably won't make a difference anyway."

The first person loses hope because results aren't instant. The amount of energy their efforts have required so far seems inordinately high and they feel like there should be results - NOW. For those in the first category, often the issue is that they are trying too hard to make big changes all at once. This drains their mental and physical energy and becomes unsustainable. The fact that results don't come immediately lowers their motivation and it all feels like a "waste of time - so why bother?" The balance between perceived energy going out outweighs perceived gains.

The second person is stuck with a mindset that things CANNOT and WILL NOT change no matter what they do. They may have lost weight before or gotten "fit" but have returned to habits and routines that didn't support the changes. They now have the belief that "nothing works anyway, so why bother?" They lack the belief that they are in charge of their lives and believe that they are victims of their body shape/size/metabolism etc.

Both of these individuals suffer from a mindset issue - a mindset that sees fitness/weight loss as an end point, rather than a consistent lifestyle. If you perceive something as a short term goal, consistency in the long term falls to the wayside because once the goal is reached old habits and routines take over. We forget that health, like most other things, requires maintenance. This is the reason that changes based on small habits practiced consistently over the long term far out performs short term, unsustainable dramatic changes.

Stuck in your health efforts? Start small. Choose something meaningful that you can reasonably do, day after day, most days of the week, without it costing a world of effort. Slowly add to these practices. Keep those that work well for you, eliminate those that don't and bit by bit, grow that healthful, sustainable, consistent lifestyle that leads you closer and closer to your health/lifestyle goals.