To Get Healthy, Embrace Imperfection

Guest Blog by  Sandy Getzky,  Associate Editor at ProveMyMeds

What’s the secret to successfully reaching health and fitness goals? Stop striving for perfection. Aiming to be be perfect might seem like a noble cause, but it’s ultimately a frustrating one that can lead to major setbacks. There are several good reasons to accept imperfection instead.

Maintain Realistic Goals
Setting goals that are focused on achieving perfection can backfire quickly. These are unattainable goals that most people won’t bother following through on. It’s more important to focus on setting realistic goals that take physical limitations or time constraints into consideration. This allows people to slowly and steadily work toward accomplishing their goals instead of giving up on them. It also prevents them from setting goals that they can’t achieve, like developing and maintaining an unrealistic body shape or following an exercise routine that’s too strenuous.

Accept Setbacks and Move On
Those with realistic health and fitness goals should realize that no one is perfect. Indulging in one unhealthy meal or snack every so often or missing a workout routine on occasion are bound to happen, even with those who pride themselves on having a lot of self-control. People who manage to achieve their goals don’t let setbacks deter them. Instead, they embrace these imperfections, shrug them off and move on with working toward their goals.

Use Rewards for Motivation
It’s ok for people to have a vice or two that they can use to motivate themselves. For example, watching a mindless show on TV or enjoying a small serving of fries or a sugary dessert as a reward for reaching one of their goals can help keep them going. The key to doing this is moderation. Watching TV or eating an unhealthy food isn’t going to do much harm, as long as it’s done once in awhile instead of becoming a regular habit. Being perfect doesn’t have to mean giving up every questionable yet enjoyable activity.

Don’t Try to Be Physically Perfect  Those who are working on health and fitness goals might have an image of what they consider physical perfection in mind. While this might provide some motivation, it’s also a good way to get discouraged. Everyone has physical flaws of some type, whether it’s a nasty case of nail fungus or discolored teeth. Some of these flaws can be corrected, but things like a person’s normal body shape or natural hip size, can’t really be changed.

ProveMyMeds is a public health and education startup focused on producing helpful resources concerning the treatment of common ailments.