The All or None Attitude:

The Great Killer of Diet and Exercise Programs

Self improvement speaker and author Earl Nightingale described attitude as "The angle or bearing, including actions, feelings and moods," from which you approach a problem or situation.

That's a great definition. Although attitude is a mental phenomenon, there's no question it affects your life in every way.

Your attitude not only creates your environment and your level of happiness in life, it also creates your body and your health. Having the right attitudes towards your fitness endeavors is extremely important because a negative or destructive attitude can sabotage even the best-designed nutrition and training programs.

There's one particular attitude problem that kills the diet and exercise programs of thousands of people every year, and subsequently, their levels of health, fitness and vitality. It's called the "all or none" attitude.

Over many years in my personal training and nutrition coaching practice, I've seen at least five different varieties of the all or none attitude (but there are probably a lot more).

If you recognize any of these in your own life, then use the suggestions in this article for changing to a new positive attitude, and then you will see how true it is what William James wrote: "Human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind."

Here are the "5 Different Varieties of
The All or None Attitude."

"I don't have any time!" ... is one of the most common excuses for why people stop exercising or don't begin in the first place. It also creates an all or none attitude.

People may say to themselves, "I'm so busy I won't be able to follow the program completely, so what's the use in doing anything at all? I'll start later when I have more time to devote to doing the whole thing right."

The irony is that these people never will have more time to "do it right." Your schedule is always 100% full at all times. You will never have time to exercise until you create time for it right now by making it a priority and creating a space for it.

You'll never have enough time to do all the things you want to do in life, but you'll always have time for the things that are highest on your priority list.

You make a space for exercise - or anything else - by removing something of a lower priority that is currently taking up space in your schedule. That might be watching TV, reading magazines, gossiping with friends, surfing the web, taking long lunch breaks or even sleeping. I know hundreds of people who achieved their fitness goals by setting their alarm clocks 30 minutes earlier and starting their day with a short but effective workout.

To banish the "no time" all or none attitude, also remember that any exercise is better than no exercise. Keep in mind that there are more training methods and resources available today than ever before which focus on time efficient training methods for busy people.

Be sure to schedule your day tightly and sort and schedule time in smaller chunks. When you succumb to a "no time" attitude, you are often telling yourself that you can't fit exercise into your schedule because you are thinking about the workouts taking up your entire morning, afternoon or evening.

If you visualize and schedule your day broken down into small 30 minute or even 15 minute blocks, and imagine slipping a short workout into one of those small time periods, the task no longer seems so daunting.

What is ideal for maximum results and what is realistic in the real world may be very different and you may not be able to do the "ideal" amount of exercise for optimal results 100% of the time. However, if you don't set aside at least a little time every day to take care of the greatest gift, asset and possession you own - your body - then you'd better take a very close look at your priorities in life.

"I'm limited in what I can do because of this injury, so why do anything?"

The "I'm limited" attitude occurs most commonly when someone gets injured. It never ceases to amaze me how something like a foot injury can lead someone to believe that they can't do any exercise at all, or even more bizarre, that they can't follow a healthy diet either.

Naturally, some injuries can lay you up completely, and you should always follow the advice of your doctor. However, many common injuries are localized. For example, knee, shoulder, ankle or elbow pain may prevent activity around those joints, but not necessarily in the rest of the body.

Local pain or injury often leads to an all or none generalization such as, "My right foot hurts so I can't work out at all." Well, provided your doctor hasn't told you to avoid all exercise, then why do you believe that? What about your abs and core? How about your upper body… shoulders, biceps, triceps. Upper back? What about your other leg??? Research has even shown that working the uninjured limb can help lead to strength increases and faster recovery in the injured limb!

What's even more damaging is the all or none attitude when all exercise truly is restricted (doctor's orders) and you tell yourself, "Oh well, no sense in starting this diet since I can't exercise for the next 6 weeks."

The truth is, if you cannot exercise at all, then nutrition is even more important, isn't it?

The remedy for this version of all or none attitude is "possibility thinking," which means you think in CANS not can'ts. Ask yourself, "What CAN I do," rather than what can't I do? If there is a health or medical issue involved, ask your doctor the same question: "Ok, I know I can't do such and such, but what CAN I do?"

I've seen men and women in wheelchairs achieve remarkable success in every area of their lives, including outstanding health, low body fat and excellent upper body muscle development, so if they can do it, what's stopping you?

Always do whatever you CAN do, with what you have, where you are, right now.

3. "I cheated on one meal so my entire day is blown!"

Here's another classic and very common example of all or none attitude. See if this sounds familiar:

"Well, I already screwed up my diet this morning, so it doesn't matter if I pig out the rest of the day."

Strength coach Charles Staley often likes to use the flat tire analogy when confronting this attitude: "If you cheat, get right back on track," says Charles. "If you get a flat tire, do you get out of your car and slash the other three tires? Hey, you have one flat tire - might as well have four, right?"

There's a fix for the "fell off the wagon" all or none attitude - that is, give yourself permission for treats and reward meals by establishing a compliance rule. I recommend 90% compliance, although you should adjust that number according to your results.

When you understand that you can get usually excellent results from a good nutrition program followed 90% of the time, then you won't feel guilt about enjoying whatever foods you want the other 10% of the time.

Eating whatever you want 10% of the time is actually part of the program, so you'll realize that you never did fall off the wagon after all! Sticking with your 90% compliance rule is 100% success!

4. "I messed up so I have to start the whole program over again!"

I've lost count of the times that people have gone on 12 week before and after transformation competitions or begun bodybuilding competition training and dropped out mid way through, even after making substantial progress.

Why? Because they messed up a single weekend, a single day or even just a single meal, and in their minds, they believed that one bad day meant the whole 12 weeks was shot and they had to start at day one again. As a result, no momentum, physiological or psychological, was ever developed.

Don't get me wrong, short term goals are important, and 12 week programs give a perfect time frame to make tremendous changes in your body.

However, to avoid falling prey to the "start over" attitude, focus on exercise and nutrition as an ongoing process and part of your lifestyle rather than a "diet," "12 week program," or anything you go on and off.

5. "I didn't meet my deadline, so I'm a total failure!"

The fifth and final all or none attitude is the "I didn't reach my goal on time, so I'm a failure" attitude. This one is especially dangerous because some people will take a single negative event that could be viewed as an important learning experience, and not only call it a failure, but also generalize it to their entire life and self image.

One person might say, "I failed to reach my weight loss goal," but another might say "I failed to reach my weight loss goal, so I am a failure." If you've ever said that to yourself, then remember what sports psychologist Denis Waitley has been teaching for years, "Failure is an event, not a person." Failure is actually an essential part of success. Failure is feedback and the raw material for learning.

As a matter of fact, you don't have to accept your results as failure at all. You can reframe your attitude like this: If you don't reach your goal in the time frame you set for yourself - you didn't fail, you just underestimated your completion date. Set a new completion date and carry on.

It's helpful and important to have 12 week goals, but the minute these goals are achieved, you simply move on to the next goal. Your program doesn't "end" at a specified time - it's all part of a lifelong process of personal growth.

Another empowering way to tackle this type of all or none thinking is to say to yourself what a famous football coach once said to his team when the scoreboard showed them behind at the end of the fourth quarter, "We didn't lose, we just ran out of time."

Your Attitude Is Your Choice

Conclusion

Your fitness journey is not a black or white, win or lose, pass or fail situation. All or none thinking creates unnecessary stress and doesn't allow you to give yourself any credit for what you did right or to learn from your mistakes and experiences. With a simple shift in attitude you can change your entire world! I like to say that attitude is the "lens" through which you perceive your world. Two people can produce the same result or be faced with the same challenges and circumstances, yet each person can see something completely different, feel differently, react differently and attach totally different meanings to that same event. It all depends on your attitude… and your attitude is a choice that only you can make.

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The All or None Attitude:

The Great Killer of Diet and Exercise Programs

Here are the "5 Different Varieties of The All or None Attitude."

"I'm limited in what I can do because of this injury, so why do anything?"

Here are the "5 Different Varieties of
The All or None Attitude."