Monday, December 19, 2011

Resolution Series Day 9: Burn your Pigeonholes!


12 Days of Resolutions.  12 resolutions that will help steer you towards a healthier lifestyle, whether you've got weight you'd like to lose or not.  12 resolutions that are each in and of themselves extremely straight forward and doable.  Some might involve doing, others simply thinking, and if any of them don't seem useful to you, skip on to the next.
Day 9:  Burn your Pigeonholes!

People sometimes lock themselves down.

Either they always have to be "perfect", never straying from some restrictive ideal, or instead they pigeonhole themselves into some dietary regime or strategy.

This year resolve to do neither.

Striving to be perfect is a sure way to first "fall off the wagon", and then "not get back on track", because who wants to be on an impossible track.

My thinking is that rather than try to be perfect, do your best, remembering of course that your best will vary, and some days, compared with others, objectively your best won't look very good, despite the fact that subjectively it's actually your best.

Pigeonholes are dangerous too. Declare yourself a staunch anything food wise (low carb, paleo, vegan, low fat, etc.) and suddenly you too have that many more opportunities to let yourself down - and if let yourself down often enough, you're liable to quit whatever strategy it is that keeps making you feel guilty.

Sure, if you want to advocate a particular style of eating, go for it, just don't beat yourself up if you're not perfectly adherent.

Don't strive for perfection, and don't live a pigeonhole, instead do and eat your best, and rather than worry that your best isn't perfect, worry if it is.