Will I ever lose my fear that small deviations screw up my food and fitness efforts? Am I that wired into the mindset that perfection is the necessary goal and anything less equals failure?
I spent yesterday, a Sunday, doing things around the house. Sunday, the daily exercise routines with the program call for the Yoga Fix. Instead of Yoga, I did Tai Chi. I also walked the dogs and cleaned the pool. Between that and other things, I was still physically active.
I did not eat junk, but I didn’t eat on the same time schedule that I use weekdays when I’m at work. As part of my dinner, I ate some potato. It’s on my plan, but because, overall, the day felt a little wonky program-wise, I started emotionally obsessing over whether I’d “blown it”.
Once I start down that path, I really need to work to put on the brakes because my motivation and determination start to crumble under the pressure of negative thoughts. Negative thoughts as in:
“You blew it again.”
“Yousuck.”
“Whybother? You already blew it.”
“Might as well go pig out on something.”
“Get a cupcake it won’t do any more damage since you already blew it.”
“You’re destined to fail.”
My diseased thinking is absolutely rotten to me. If I heard someone talking to a friend like this, I’d give them a blistering talking to — a verbal bitch slap into next week. Thankfully, I did not give in to its suggestions that I go pig out on cupcakes or something else that would have made the situation even worse.
Even so, I woke up all annoyed with myself, walked to the scale like a condemned prisoner doing the green mile, and saw that I’d lost another half a pound.
My disease-oriented brain was, once more, dead wrong. I wasn’t perfect and rigid on my plan, but I didn’t damage myself. This is not a case of a narrowly missed close call. I was still healthy in my eating and didn’t overeat. THAT’s the lesson I need to learn, the distinction I need to make. Progress not perfection. Healthy eating does not have to be rigid. It just needs to be . . . healthy.
The perfection poison is destructive in the long run. It effectively manipulates my emotions and my mindset. Ultimately, it can undermine my effort instead of bolstering it and shoring up my foundations. Today I’m focused on diffusing its power.
I’m going back to Booyah in my attitude. Even though I’m still doing things around the house, I’ll stick to my eating schedule. This will help me to avoid the negative thinking. I have yummy, fresh food to enjoy and I will savor it. I have some projects to do around the house and I’m looking forward to completing them. I already took the dogs out for a walk and will do today’s cardio routine a little later this afternoon before I get ready to go to a friend’s house for a barbeque/birthday celebration.
I may not be perfect, but I won’t give into fear either. I got this!
Weighty Matters 
Don’t let perfection be the enemy of the good!
Perfection is really overrated, you know. Plus every perfection-obsessed person I’ve ever met has been a major narcissist with zero personality.
Recently I screwed up an experimental sewing project that I initially wanted to abandon; every time I looked at it I could only see that one (huge, hulking) mistake I made. It embarrased me; I should be better than that.
I know that with experiments come some failures, so I’ve made myself stick with it, and I should be finished in a couple of days. Instead of seeing something I messed up, I’m trying to see it as a learning experience — and I’ve begun focusing on the parts of it that I *do* like. It was a neat idea, and even if it didn’t translate from my brain to the fabric, I tried something new, and I can try again. I’ll never love it, but I don’t hate it any more. It’s okay to mess up.