Progress not perfection

There is a saying, commonly attributed to Voltaire, that states “the perfect is the enemy of the good”. There is also the principle generally referred to as the law of diminishing returns which, simplistically speaking, states that the amount of time, effort and energy put into achieving a task or outcome will have less and less impact, the closer you get to the outcome – the amount of time and effort put into achieving perfection is effectively wasted.

In our attempts to diet, loose weight, get fitter and otherwise manipulate our bodies we often set incredibly lofty (unrealistic?) goals both around the outcome – I will loose 10 kg in 5 weeks – and how we will achieve it – I’ll exercise 7 days a week and eat only 1200 calories a day.

This perfectionistic or “all or nothing” thinking sets us up for failure. It’s the mechanism that turns missing one day at the gym into missing a whole week and eating one piece of chocolate into eating the whole block. If you’re not going to meet your goals you may as well blow them completely out of the water – right?

In giving up dieting I’ve tried to let go of this mentality. Accepting my body as it is has been a big part of that. Refocusing my goals has been essential. I also now know that I can have a piece of cake whenever I want because I know that one piece of cake wont undo all my progress and I don’t “have” to eat the whole cake today because I wont be “allowed” to eat any tomorrow.

It’s hard to let go of this mentality though. Saturday is the last session of group and as this milestone has been approaching I’ve found myself trying to force my progress towards being “fixed”. I’ve been making rules about how many treats I should have and on what days I should have them. I’ve had bad body image days that have made me think about counting calories (while still eating intuitively?!) and getting the scales out again. I’ve tried to turn intuitive eating into another diet – something that has to be done perfectly. I’ve been stressing about if I’m full or hungry or somewhere in between, or if I’m eating too much chocolate or if I will put on 1,000 kg because I often still eat my dinner in front of the TV. All of this pressure was starting to make the thoughts about binging kick back in.

I started reading The “fuck it” diet blog last week and it clicked for me – I’d been letting the perfect get in the way of the good. It really doesn’t matter if I eat in front of the TV – the fact is I haven’t had a binge in months. What does it matter if I still overeat occasionally? I can trust my body to adjust my next meal time accordingly. How often do “normal” eaters take 5 deep breaths before they start eating? Getting in tune with your bodies signals is good, turning it into one more thing you have to do perfectly is bad. It denies you the ability and chance to learn how to really trust your body. It takes up time and energy that could be spent doing something more worthwhile.

I’m giving up on perfection. I’m giving up on food rules. There is no such thing as the perfect diet, perfect health or a perfect way of living, eating or moving. I’m just going to do more of what feels good and less of what doesn’t. Will you join me?