Overcoming All-Or-Nothing Thinking to Get and Stay Active [Podcast Series]
[:55] Dr. Bantham introduces her guest, Dr. Michelle Segar
Dr. Michelle Segar is a University of Michigan Behavioral Scientist and Health Coach.
[1:15] Defining all-or-nothing thinking
“And pretty much whenever people have come to me as their coach to do this process with me so they can learn how to sustain physically active lives, almost everyone—I don't want to say 100% but it's pretty close to 100% of people—come to me, come to this conversation about exercising with this post intentional all-or-nothing thinking, which is, if I can't do it right, quote, unquote, right, if I can't do it exactly as planned, it's not worth doing at all, right? Doing it as planned is success. Any deviation from the plan is failure. So why bother?”
[5:42] Prevalence of all-or-nothing thinking in the fitness industry
“Anyone who works in the fitness industry, my experience shows, when I talk about all-or-nothing thinking with exercise, they shake their heads because they have seen it in client and patient upon client and patient for decades. So the fitness industry knows about all-or-nothing thinking and lives it every day.”
[8:07] Public health impact of all-or-nothing thinking
“And then what happens is that when people don't do their full plan and they choose not to do the something instead of nothing, they feel like failures, and oftentimes it only takes one miss to go, Ah, I'm done. I'm just, I'm not athletic enough, I'm not disciplined enough. And it absolutely derails the whole, the whole plan and routine. And that's the opposite of what we need to create a more physically active society.”
[12:55] Rigid criteria as the foundation of all-or-nothing thinking
“People didn't have the same set of rigid idealized criteria. They all had their own like for one, for someone, it could be, I have to go to the gym for 60 minutes. For another person, it could be, I have to walk with my friend outside. For another person, it could be, I have to be active for at least 30 minutes doing anything and, in fact, high intensity exercise for 15 minutes doesn't count. So people have their own definition of what was the all, and this created the foundation of what led to all-or-nothing thinking.”
[19:44] Real-world impact of all-or-nothing thinking
“So life is this sea of ever changing needs and priorities and goals, and if your standards for exercise, if there's one way to do it right, and it if that one way bumps up against a sick kid or an urgent work deadline, well, Sorry Charlie, there's no way to go.”
[25:55] Targeting “unsuccessful intenders”
“We targeted people who had tried to exercise but found they couldn't stick with it, which is the majority of the population. Why are we targeting them? Because A, the majority of the population and B, they're the ones who need the help.”
[28:55] Explaining Quitter’s Day
“And if the motivation for doing it is not deeply compelling, or it feels like a should, or people feel self conscious or ashamed when they're in a certain environment and it's rigid and perfectionistic, while that is the soup, if you will, for dropping out.”
