I was always an all or nothing girl. In pretty much every respect, but especially from a health and fitness point of view. My mum used to say I had the will of steel – if I wasn’t eating chocolate, I didn’t eat chocolate. Period. If I was going to do 50 sit ups every morning, I did them. I’m the sort of person that would impulsively sign up to a half marathon…and do it. If I said I was doing Dry January, by God I would do it. Failure was not an option!

This is a personality trait – lots of us are like this. The perfectionists of the world. People with high standards and used to achieving in many areas of their life so when it comes to achieving fitness goals – they are all in! They go hard or go home.

This sounds positive doesn’t it?

Well it can be – until something happens that knocks you off your path. Think of Little Miss All or Nothing who is following a well designed half marathon training plan. It’s all going well, motivation is high and Little Miss All or Nothing is very pleased with herself and her progress. She is going to smash this!!!! Then suddenly there is a really busy couple of weeks at work which means that the training plan falls behind. Then Little Miss All or Nothing gets a cold, so another week doesn’t go to plan. This is where Little Miss All or Nothing might decided if she can’t do the race as well as she wanted, she might as well not do it at all. And she gives up.

And there are loads of other examples of where the All or Nothing approach can undermine your health and fitness efforts.

How many people start a strict diet on Monday – stick to it rigidly for a few days, then by the weekend, the willpower has gone? So you give in…and vow to start again on Monday!

How many people start Dry January, compared to how many complete it?

How many people with the best intentions join a gym at the start of a fitness kick, go three times a week for two weeks…then twice…then once, and by three months they don’t even know where their membership card is anymore.

So what is the alternative? Well these days I am trying to become an “All or Something” kind of girl. Just doing something, even if it’s not exactly what you set out to do is way better for your health and fitness than just packing it in when things don’t go to plan.

It applies to your diet too. Eating 100% healthily 100% of the time is just not sustainable. If you try to do this, you will fail. Eventually. Instead, accept that you will at times want a treat – and that it is not going to ruin your healthy diet. There will be occasions you want to let your hair down and, as long as this is not every other night, that’s fine too. Just don’t sack off the whole week/month because of it.

Don’t get me wrong, I haven’t cracked this yet. I still battle with my inner perfectionist and can be hard on myself when I give into the evening snack attacks. But I am getting there. I don’t try to be perfectly healthy, I enjoy a glass of wine some evenings. I eat chocolate but don’t go mad. I have the odd takeaway but watch my portions. And when I don’t have time to do the run I’d planned, I’ll either go for a short walk, or do a “better than nothing run” – even 15 mins is better than not bothering at all. And this will all add up.

Make small changes, stick to them, allow yourself the odd blip, then pick up where you left off.

Break that “All or Nothing” cycle and stop beating yourself up. Switch to “All or Something” and you will most likely get better results in the long run that will be much easier to stick to. And life will be much more tolerable and enjoyable along the way.