‘All or nothing’, ‘black or white thinking’ is blowing up your health efforts – let’s talk about what to do instead.

The Extremes of Black or White Thinking

When we approach recovery with black or white thinking, it pushes us into 1 of 2 extremes.

We can either do this extreme on one end, or this one on the other end.

This causes us to miss all the nuance, freedom and grace that is found in the in-between space.

Black or white thinking is a survival method that keeps us in line.

It’s also the saboteur – that if you’re not perfect in being this way or that way then you’re never going to get better.

You don’t have to push yourself to extremes to experience full recovery, freedom and wholeness.

Rather than approaching our health from this all or nothing perspective, I want to other the idea of possibility and curiosity instead.

A Different Approach

In the second video below, I give the scenario of receiving a health diagnosis. In this fictional case, we’re using insulin resistance. There’s a high probability that your healthcare professional, or even Dr. Google will suggest to you that you need to cut out all carbs and all sugar.

I know that every case is different and there certainly are diagnosis that require immediate action.

However, that is not the case for all of them.

Rather than needing to take that immediate, extreme action of cutting out all of these particularly food groups, ask yourself : ‘How does this new finding fit within the context of other health indicators?’ and ‘How do I take on this new health diagnosis / finding without approaching it with an all or nothing mindset?’

Other considerations in your approach could be movement, medication or supplements, trauma-informed counseling, nervous system regulation, a felt sense of purpose, among others.

Truly an ‘all or nothing’ approach is not sustainable and will cause many to go back to bingeing and purging. It simply doesn’t help our health in the long-term.

I would like to suggest that a better approach would be incorporating subtle changes over the course of time that will support the new health findings that will be sustainable over the long term.

Dig deeper into this topic with the two videos below.