The All or Nothing Attitude can derail the most noblest of weight loss efforts. Read Part 1 and Part 2 if you have missed Mary’s adventures.

A lot of people feel that they must have the perfect start when it comes to undertaking any worthwhile task. Weight loss is no less. Its like expecting all the traffic lights to be green before taking off.

Have you ever messed up on a meal when being on a diet. What about missing an exercise session. There are bound to be slip-ups when on a weight loss program. Things don’t always go as we plan. We are after all human.

One of the main excuses with most people is the lack of time.

“I am so busy that I cannot allocate the necessary amount of time for the gym. If I can’t allocate an hour every day, I might as well forget about it! I will start something when I have more time.”

Does this sound familiar. The perfect time will never come. Maybe one has to wake up an hour earlier to squeeze exercise in. What about spending 15 minutes each morning on some quick bodyweight exercises?

Then you have those who mess up on a single meal or miss an exercise session.

“I have already messed up my diet this morning! I might as well enjoy the rest of the day!”

They let themselves go for the entire day or even the entire week. I have seen with consistency that if someone does not exercise on Monday and Tuesday, there is a very high chance that they will not do so for the rest of the week. The chances of missing out the whole week are even higher if they also miss out exercise on Wednesday.

Strength coach Charles Staley often likes to use the flat tire analogy when confronting this attitude: “If you cheat, get right back on track,” says Charles. “If you get a flat tire, do you get out of your car and slash the other three tires? Hey, you have one flat tire – might as well have four, right?”

I heard a fantastic audio by Brian Tracy the other day. It’s called “FlightPlan”. An airplane that flies from NewYork to London is going to be off-course 99% of the time. The tailwind, headwind, sidewind and gusts consistently keep the plane off course. A modern jetliner is able to consistently correct course to ensure that it lands in London at the predetermined time.

Your weight loss program will be like the flight of a modern jetliner. You will be thrown off-track many times. There will never be a perfect start to your weight loss efforts. The best thing to do is to start now with whatever limitations that you have.  If you fall off the wagon, just pick yourself up and get going again. Expect to face problems and have a back-up plan. When you accept that you will inevitably face obstacles, your world won’t fall apart when one suddenly comes along.