The scale doesn't tell the whole story

In today’s article we will discuss how even small steps in the right direction are still steps toward progress. You never fail unless you never start!

As I was preparing to head out of town to take my family on summer vacation, I was lying in bed the night before I had to catch a flight and I was beating myself up. My mind was overthinking because I had a goal to hit on the scale before I took this trip. I did not hit that goal on the scale. I thought about each night I could have pressed my fasting further, I thought about every refeed meal and whether I could have eaten just a little less. When I wasn’t perfectly eating raw the entire refeed day. I began to feel down on myself and I felt the excitement of my vacation with my family slipping away from me. So many people look up to you and are inspired by you, “why can’t you just do things perfectly” is the phrase that hit me like a crash of thunder in a dark quiet room. Have you ever been here before?

Perfection is not needed but consistency is a must, the phrase I told myself that night and I sprung out of bed like a cat splashed with water! I noticed something… My back wasn’t bothering me and I felt nimble. In the darkness, I turned on my flashlight on my phone looked at my whiteboard, and saw all of the days completed. Out of the last 42 calendar days, I had fasted 31 days. The goal done perfectly would have been 36 fasting days out of the 42 calendar days. That’s 86% completion! I didn’t realize how well I had actually done. 86% of the goal I set out to complete was done perfectly but I wanted to focus on the 14%… Why do we do this to ourselves? Why do we focus on what we have not done instead of what we have done? My goal was for sure ambitious but I started to add up the benefits I’ve received and I found myself excited again. I had lost just over 25lbs, inflammation in my lower back had decreased, and my skin was looking and feeling calm and vibrant. The clothes I purchased for my trip fit me better, I felt more comfortable in my own body, and let’s not even talk about the detox I had done during that time. Benefits I had received that I will NEVER know the depth of all because I had an 86% Success to goal rate.

86% success is passing every day of the week, It shows there’s room for improvement, but can you imagine what you could accomplish if you succeeded at 86% of the goals you set for yourself? If you knew you’d have that much success at anything you put your hand at what wouldn’t you try? Would you change careers? Speak to that person you saw in Target because they were attractive. I mean most businesses fail and every day we see people starting a new business and investing time energy and resources into something that doesn’t even have nearly a chance at an 86% success rate. We will go into a goal for our wellness like fasting, changing our diet, or going to the gym and say “I’m gonna go to the gym 5 days a week all month.” We will have a day each week where we don’t make it to the gym and lose 10lbs and see no visible change and say we failed… No, you had an 80% success rate and you got stronger, you probably learned a lot about yourself and what types of workouts you like and don’t like, you learned some of your limits, how strong you are, and where you need work. You learned maybe 5 days is too ambitious of a goal to start and you should adjust to 3-4 days a week. You learned and grew a lot during that time. We need to focus on what we have gained and how we’ve grown THROUGH the process and stop looking at the final result and determining our success.

Every single day that we take a step in a direction that betters our health and wellness is an absolutely successful day! I will take 86% success any day of the week because if I wasn’t 86% successful I’d still be in the exact same place I was 42 days ago. As a matter of fact, I might be in a worse place. So you have a choice today… You can choose to be in the exact same place you are today in a month or two, OR you can be 86% successful in 2 months and you can be down 35-40lbs and be happier in your own body than you may be today… The best thing about this is that you have a choice and that choice is yours alone. Nobody can ever take that away from you.