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Health Isn’t All-Or-Nothing

By Mary Radovich

Most of us know what we could be doing to be healthier, but feel stuck or don’t know where to start. The problem is, a lot of our ideas of what we “should” be doing are not based in the realities of our lives. Comparing goals to celebrities with nothing but time and money to dedicate to changing their bodies, or even our own past experiences with diet or exercise plans (that didn’t stick) can lead to feeling frozen- either waiting for the right moment of motivation to hit, or feeling overwhelmed by all the work ahead of you.

What if it didn’t have to be like that anymore? What if you were able to see health as less black-and-white? Healthy habits shouldn’t be so much of a burden that you can only fathom doing them for a specified amount of time (i.e. diets that last until an event, or a fitness challenge for X number of days). The reality is life will always happen, so if the health habits you are striving for are so fragile that stressors are going to send you reeling the other direction, you might be fooling yourself that those are actually habits you need to be engaging in. Examples of this include not being able to weigh your food portions on vacation so you just throw healthy eating out the window, or work schedules getting too hectic to get all your planned workouts in, so you stop exercising altogether.  

Think about what the basics are that you can expect to reasonably accomplish: is it eating one vegetable a day? Walking 20 minutes twice a week? Those things might seem so small they could be perceived as “pointless”- as in “if I can’t eat a salad for lunch every day, I might as well just not even try to eat well”, or “if I can’t make it to the gym every day this week, I might as well skip working out altogether.” Sound familiar? This type of all-or-nothing thinking can keep you stuck and prevent you from doing anything health-promoting. It can also lead to feelings of shame and decreased self-worth.

How do you begin changing your attitude about healthy behaviors? First, get realistic with yourself. You know yourself best, so be honest about what is actually going to be possible and sustainable. Next, stop comparing yourself to others or even to your past self. Work on taking small steps instead of going all-in, which leads to a quick burnout. Do this, because the perpetuating cycle of extreme diet and exercise measures is counter intuitive to the happiness you are seeking.

Mary Radovich is a registered dietitian at Elle who can help you start thinking about health differently and make positive, sustainable changes that will last a lifetime. Mary is now accepting new clients who have Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance.