Find Your Movement Minumum

At Sleekgeek we’re always saying that you should be LESS “all-or-nothing”.

When you have an “all-or-nothing” mindset, then you always want to be perfect.

• Your meals have to be perfect, or they’re not good enough.

• Your workouts have to be perfect, or they’re not worth it.

• Your plan has to be super detailed, or it’s terrible.

• Your progress has to be exactly what you want, or it doesn’t count.

This can be a damaging mindset to have because very rarely do you get “all” and you almost always end up with “nothing”.

• You might plan to do 6 workouts per week and then – for whatever reason – skip one, so you decide that your routine is ruined and you’re just not going to do any other workouts this week. You’ll start again on Monday.

• Or you might not be able to order the perfect meal at a restaurant that fits your diet, so you give in and order the indulgent starter, the calorie-bomb burger, large fries, dessert and drink half a bottle of wine on top of everything. Plus 3 donuts for breakfast the next day. You’ll start again on Monday.

So what’s the alternative to “all-or-nothing”?

🏆 “Always something”:

Well, the opposite of “all-or-nothing” is “always something“.

Having an “always something” mindset means that you make the most of any situation. Even if it’s not perfect. In fact, especially if it’s not perfect.

• Maybe you can’t do 6 workouts this week, but you can do 5. If you can’t do 5, you can do 4. Maybe you can do a quick 10-minute workout rather than your full 60-minute workout. Something is better than nothing.

• Maybe you can’t eat the perfect healthy meal while out at a restaurant. But that doesn’t mean you’re going to throw your diet away and eat until you’ve undone all of your recent progress. You can still order something healthyish, skip the starter and order a coffee or some tea for dessert. You can still order a calorie-free drink rather than the wine. You can just do your best, because something is better than nothing.

What has this got to do with exercise minimum?

Exercise is all about:

• Moving around

• Getting active

• Breaking a sweat

• Getting stronger

• Burning some calories

• Getting the blood pumping.

It doesn’t have to be perfect. It’s not “all-or-nothing”.

• You might have a goal of IDEALLY working out 6 days a week…

• But 3 days would be more REALISTIC.

So that’s your range: Exercising 3-6 days a week, with 3 days a week being your exercise minimum.

Furthermore:

• You might have a goal of IDEALLY working out for 60-minutes at a time…

• But you know that you can STILL get a good workout in with just 15 minutes too.

So that’s your range: 15-60 minutes of exercise, with 15 minutes being your exercise minimum.

Heck, maybe if you just make it to the Saturday parkrun, you’re winning.

Or if you play with your kid on the beach. Or if you take your dog for a walk.

Don’t try and be a hero by setting the bar super high.

Rather, set the bar at a realistic and do-able level (even during tough times) so that you can do it consistently. Then, when you’re feeling good and life is going well, you can go above and beyond.

What to do next:

• ✅ Think about all of the times you’ve started a super-duper difficult plan when life has been going well… And then when things get messy the plan becomes impossible to follow consistently…

• ✅ Identify how much you would ideally like to exercise each week.

• ✅ Then, identify what your bare minimum might be if you had to scale that down to something more do-able and realistic (even when life is going badly).

• ✅ Share with us in the Sleekgeek Facebook Group what your “range” looks like.