Setting a certain goal like becoming healthy will change your life for the better forever. While it’s extremely beneficial to set this goal for yourself you should never consider it to be so important that you can never take a small break from it.
Achieving the goal will not only benefit yourself but also the people closest to you: your friends and family. If you implement activities that make you healthier you will be longer around for them and you will be more healthy and more capable of doing new activities. Focussing on your goals are great, however being obsessed about them to the level that you are impacting your loved ones negatively should be avoided. Because you are constantly eating healthy it’s not necessary that they do the same. Yes, if you are cooking healthy meals it would be awesome if they join you on the challenge. However if you for example focus on not adding to much salt on your meals or too many sauces it doesn’t mean they have to follow this.
Let your joy be in your journey – not in some distant goal. – Tim Cook.
If we determine what our goal is it’s tempting to consider when we reach the goal to be happy. While achieving the goal is great you should not wait for being happy untill finishing up your goal. It’s much better to enjoy the journey so you remain motivated and will not fall back in old habits because you finally achieve the goal and you want to end the suffering. Enjoying the journey may slow you down slightly, however it boosts the succes rate. For example improving your mental health requires to have plenty of time to rest and to recover from the stress in life. While it’s great to relax you will also have to work in order to provide the money that is required to survive.
A deload week is often implemented while following a certain fitness plan or setting up a plan for yourself. Focussing hard on your goal is important for the best progress, however it’s only if you avoid feeling pressured that you are able to strive for your goal in the long run. A small goal can be achieved without deloading, but from the moment we are going for something big you have to consider the long term. While you are deloading yourself you are also relieving the pressure on family members. It may seem like you are using your willpower alone, but your family is also influenced by it. So when you are taking a small break use the moment to enjoy it with family. For example you are going to take cheat meal but instead of taking it alone go for it when your family wants one.