Consistency Over Perfection
If you're on a mission to lose weight, build muscle, up your fitness, or increase your overall health, one of the most dangerous things you can do is hold yourself to a "perfect" standard.
Trying to be perfect will kill your motivation and result in feelings of failure and defeat. When people feel defeated, they quit.
Health and fitness is a long game. It's a journey that will always be in your life.
Are you playing the long game? Or are you playing the perfectionistic go-hard, crash-harder game?
Missing a workout sometimes or overshooting your daily caloric intake is not the enemy here.
Perfectionism is the enemy.
Do not throw in the towel because you indulged in some late night tacos or ice cream one evening. Do not throw in the towel because you were having a difficult week and blew off the gym to take care of somethings in your life.
If you find yourself beating yourself up because you got off track and strayed from your perfect road to fitness, here are some things to remember.
Fitness Is A Long Game
One meal isn't going to sabotage your goal of losing 20 pounds, just like one workout isn't going to get you to your goal of losing 20 pounds.
What you're eating for most meals is more important than only accepting and loving yourself if you're eating "perfectly" (which, spoiler alert, doesn't exist and will most likely change over time for you).
Keeping an active lifestyle most days is more important than only working out if you have time to do the "perfect" workout. Some days your fitness activity may be going on a hike with your friends or playing frisbee on the beach with your family. Now that is a balanced, active lifestyle that can be maintained over a lifetime.
Consistency Over Perfection
Consistency is arguably the most important component when working to accomplish goals in or out of the gym.
Consistency allows for us to work on changing one habit at a time which will actually help us reach our goals even faster.
When we focus on consistency instead of perfection, we feel like we're doing a better job, making more progress, and our motivation stays higher for longer.
When we focus on being perfect all of the time, it's really easy to feel like a failure and be ready to throw in the towel.
Don't Forget You're Human
As much as we may wish that we can set specific macros and training plans and execute them flawlessly, remember that you're a human being experiencing a variety of input, emotions, situations, and things don't 100% unfold accord to plan.
If you feel like your soul is going to die without a little dark chocolate in your life sometimes, enjoy some chocolate!
Then forgive yourself, take the drama out of it, and keep moving along on your fitness journey.
So if you ever find yourself feeling like a fitness failure because you missed a workout or ate a donut, just remember that consistency beats perfection every time.
If you're looking for accountability and really determined to get back on track with a fitness routine, check this out!
For more awesome fitness tips and real talk, come hang out with me on Instagram. I'd love to connect with you over there. 🤗
xo
Lindsay