November 15, 2021: Letting Go Of The All-Or-Nothing Mindset

Diet culture ruins so much more than just our relationship with food, exercise and our bodies. At the core of diet culture is this idea of *perfection* - it traps us in all-or-nothing thinking.
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For instance:
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👉🏼if I don't have X amount of time to exercise, why even bother
👉🏼if I can't make it to this specific workout class, it's not worth it
👉🏼if I don't burn this many calories, it doesn't count
👉🏼if I have one bite of this *bad* food, I ruined my entire day of "healthy eating"
👉🏼if I break any food rule, the rest of the day is spoiled
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Diet culture conditions us to be in this pendulum of all-or-nothing thinking. There is no in-between. We're following the rules or rebelling. We're exercising all the time or never.
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It's a toxic trap.
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And the really annoying thing is that this all-or-nothing, perfectionistic thinking ends up infecting most areas of life.
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🗣 We don't speak up if we can't do so perfectly
🤷🏼‍♀️ We don't apply for the job because we don't think we're good enough yet
💃🏻 We don't audition for the musical because we're not the perfect singer
🧶 We don't pick up the hobby because if we can't do it perfectly, why do it at all?
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And, we end up expecting perfection from other people, too.
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If they don't do something or say something EXACTLY how we think they should: they're written off.
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But here's the thing: what we're really doing is dehumanizing ourselves and others.
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Perfection doesn't exist. Perfection isn't human.
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So when we demand perfection from ourselves or others, we're dehumanizing them.
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So ask yourself today: what might change if you were to let go of the all-or-nothing mindset? What might you do? How might your days change? Your life change?