I played a trick on myself and it's working!

I've been struggling with compulsive exercise/exercise bulimia. It's been going on for close to a year really but got really bad in March and April.

At the end of each month, I have a monthly check-in I do with myself (did I meet this month's goals?) and set goals for the next month. And each month I was making the new goals more challenging than the previous (daily step count, number of gym sessions, always something). Once I've set the goal, my mind just cannot accept the possibility of failure, or changing the goal, so I feel locked in. It's so dumb.

Anyway, the trick i played on myself was to set my May goals to a much lower, reasonable daily step count, to reduce sets/reps at the gym, reduce weekly workouts, to sleep more, rest/relax more, and that the focus this month is Rest & Recovery. I've written it everywhere so I can see it and have already found, one week into this, that because I want to meet the monthly goals, I'm deliberately stopping when I feel I could do more.

My body feels so much better already. I barely need painkillers, many of my aches and pains are subsiding, and I have so much more time to do other things now! Will I revert in the future? Hopefully not. I'm feeling so encouraged right now.