Part 4: Nurture the Body
What is the most important day of any diet or exercise plan?
According to Jon Acuff, and I think he’s right, it’s the day after perfection. You splurge on one meal, so you abandon the whole plan. Or, you miss one day of exercise, then you fall off the wagon. When perfection is lost, you may tend to throw out the proverbial “baby with the bathwater.” (Where did this terrible metaphor come from anyway?)
“The problem is that perfectionism magnifies your mistakes and minimizes your progress,” Acuff explains. Give yourself some grace. Start again. The day after perfection, just do something!
Perhaps one of these ideas will help you regain the power to persevere by nurturing your physical strength, no matter what your physical limitations or prowess may be:
- A little bit of something is better than a whole lot of nothing.
- 10 minutes of walking, lifting, stretching, etc. is better than 0 minutes because you planned to do 60 minutes.
- Every meal or snack time is a new opportunity to truly feel good about what you put in your body.
- Cut your goal in half.
Today is a new day. So is tomorrow. Grab some low hanging fruit and then build on it! When you are nurturing your physical strength by doing whatever you can do, you are contributing to the power to persevere!
Worth Repeating
Strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle.
-Napoleon Hill
