Why I Made the Bold Decision to Eat Fruit 3 Days A Week

I have to form the habit

Habit formation is not easy, and it takes time.

Trying to form my habit

Perfection is a problem for me. I don’t try to be perfect now, but I have in the past. I am an all-or-nothing person. In the past, if I started something and I wasn’t 100% on target, I would give up completely.

I didn’t want to give up. I wanted to be perfect. So I started over. Every time I missed a day, I started over. Starting over became a habit. Any slight change in the plan, I started over. So I never progressed beyond a certain point.

If I was on an eating program, and the day didn’t go well, I would binge. I would stop my program if I was off by several calories or ate something I should not have. Then I would start all over again.

The problem: I couldn’t handle moderation.

I started over too much. You can start over to have a clean slate. I don’t think you should start over because you’re trying to be perfect.

As I read and watched many “I did this for 30, 60, 90 days” stories, I began to focus on the wrong thing. Instead of focusing on my journey and making the right choices little by little, I focused on consistent perfection for 30 days.

During the journey, there was always something that came up where I couldn’t be perfect in my plan. So I always felt defeated and gave up.

It’s great to write a goal, “I’m going to eat fruit every day for two months”. It’s completely different to go to the store, buy the fruit, bring the fruit home, and prepare the fruit. And repeating that process consistently so that you never miss a day of eating fruit. (All that made my head hurt.) That’s going to be hard if you don’t eat fruit and you don’t go to the store that often.

That’s why it’s important to set reasonable goals.

Simple or complex habit

We need to look at how simple or complex a habit is.

It is possible to develop a simple habit with minimal effort. It requires little to no preparation. It’s in your home and you’re in control of the situation. It’s something I can do at home whenever I want.

A complex habit may need external resources and other dependencies.

In my case, eating fruit, this habit requires movement, the ability to pay for something and preparation. I have to go out, pay for the fruit, and bring it back to the house. Therefore, it’s a complex habit for me.

The solution: I am learning moderation and building slowly.

The change

I want to block myself from this behavior. To do this, I will not go all in. Not this time. I know myself. I have made a conscious decision not to pressure myself. No more frustration with ‘missing the bar’. I have two choices, number one, learn moderation and know that it’s okay if I’m not perfect in my daily tracking. Number two, remove the ability to get frustrated and quit.

I won’t force myself to do something I can’t do every day. I won’t set a goal that I know I can’t achieve.

I want to be consistent, and I want my consistency to last. How do I do that? Little by little. If I can eat fruit three times a week with no problem and without making a big deal of it in my mind, I will increase to one more day. Slowly, I will build a lasting habit.

I decided to write this as a follow-up to my story, Eat Fruit 3 Times a Week My Goal for 2024, to answer the question of why I chose to eat fruit only 3 times a week. I hope this was helpful.

Key Message: Start small, learn as you go, and you will grow. It’s not about perfection, it’s about moderation and progress.

Until we meet again, Keep Living!

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