Stop the Self Sabotage

Written By Heather Pritchett

What is self-sabotage? It's those behaviors and thoughts that stop or slow your progress toward your goals.  While you can experience self-sabotage in many parts of life (relationships, work, etc.) we're going to focus on self-sabotage related to fitness and nutrition.

Have you ever had any of these thoughts?

  • "I ate healthy all week so I'm going to live it up this weekend!"  

  • "I had a stressful day, so I'm going to treat myself to an indulgent dinner."

  • "I didn't do my scheduled workout today, so I may as well skip the rest of the week and start over next week."

Yep, that's self-sabotage.  It's super common, and here are a few reasons why this happens:

  • Morality:  You've attached morality to your fitness and nutrition goals.  You associate yourself and your choices as "good" or "bad" based on what you ate or whether you worked out.  

  • Lack of self-confidence:  You've not reached your goals when you've tried previously, which has led to a lack of self-confidence that you can do it differently this time.

  • Perfectionism:  You're overly focused on going "all in" with no errors.  One little setback and it's not good enough, so you throw in the towel.

  • Short-term focus:  You're overly focused on short-term goals.  If you set a goal to lose five pounds by vacation next month, then a few days "off track" will quickly make that goal seem out of reach, so you abandon all efforts and give up.

Here are a few strategies to break this self-sabotage cycle:

  • Eliminate the "good" and "bad" dichotomy:  Stop thinking of foods as good or bad.  Rather than "I was bad today" when you missed a workout and ate fried food, instead shift your mindset to "My choices today did not bring me closer to my goals. What can I do differently tomorrow?"

  • Be your best cheerleader:  Just because you've not reached your fitness and nutrition goals before has no bearing on whether you will this time. In fact, you learned from that experience and can take those lessons with you moving ahead. We can do hard things!

  • Don't let good be the enemy of perfect:  You missed your workout, but you can still go for a walk.  You went over your calories at lunch, but you can adjust dinner or pass on dessert. 

  • Think long-term:  Health is a LIFETIME journey, not just a few weeks or months. Getting sidetracked for one workout or one meal, or even one week of workouts or meals, won't sidetrack you for life!

Here are a few additional resources about overcoming self-sabotage:

Question for you to ponder: Do you self-sabotage? In what ways? Next time you recognize it happening, what will you do differently?

Heather Pritchett
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