If this thought has never crossed your mind, you are a very rare person.

"No matter what I do, it's never good enough."

When this happens, first ask yourself, "Good enough for whom?"
Who are we trying to please? Who gets to judge whether or not we are good enough?

If your answer is "the world, the universe", then you're right
because there's nothing we can ever do that will please everyone.

The only person we have to be good enough for, is ourself.
So, if the standards I have set for myself are impossible to meet
because I require perfection of myself at all times, then I need to lower my standards.

It is important to stop expecting to be perfect, stop thinking that I know everything,
and open my mind to learning and moving forward in that ever changing process.

When something I'm doing isn't working, I need to change what I'm doing.
I've learned in maintenance, that doing what I've been doing doesn't work forever,
because the body adapts.

When we become fitter, we have to push ourselves harder.
When we become thinner, we have to lower our caloric intake.
When we get older, we have to lower our caloric intake.
Doing the same thing we've always done really isn't good enough.
We have to accept that we must continually evolve to keep making progress.

Good enough is not perfect.
There is no such thing as perfect.
There's only a little better than before.

Ask Grandma: Episode Forty-eight
Your online Grandma answers questions from her Grandbabies.

 

 Recently it has taken a lot of effort (internet problems) to get the message out,
and this has affected the quality of the contents of my message here in DietHobby.
Getting and keeping the system running has been using up most of my energy,
and it takes the rest of my energy just to deal with the practicalities of eating at maintenance level.
Frequently, I find that when I sit down to write about dieting and maintenance concepts to post here,
I'm coming up empty.

Actually, that's a concept in itself.
Something that happens to all of us.
Our lives get busy. We become absorbed in some individual problem, 
involving our work, our family, our friends,
and our dieting and maintenance efforts get shoved to the side,
because there's only so much personal energy available to us
and we direct that energy toward our highest priorities.

The days, weeks, and months pass, and when there is a break between those Life Crises,
not only have we not lost weight, but we find that we are heavier and less fit than ever. 

 So, what's the answer?
Somehow, we need to shift our priorities.
We need to place more value on what we eat and how we exercise.
That's really what the concept "Lifestyle" means.

The way we nurture and care for ourselves and our food
needs to become a strong thread running through all of our lives.
We need to develop individual ways of dealing with food that become habit.
and allow habit to take over during those times when we are distracted by those Life Crisis situations.

How?
There we have the individual question that each of us must answer for ourselves. 

Ask Grandma: Episode Forty-seven.
Your online Grandma answers questions from her Grandbabies