Are you an all or nothing person? As in, you either give something your absolute attention or best, or don’t do it all. It’s a common misconception within fitness and wellness that you either put everything into it, or leave it alone.

That mindset is how we end up with millions of people who don’t do any exercise at all. It’s how we end up with millions of people who don’t eat a better diet. It’s how we end up with millions of people who feel like they can’t keep up, so why try.

It’s for this that #WYCWYC (pronounced wick-wick) was born. It stands for What You Can, When You Can — Healthy Living on Your Terms.

“The wycwyc way isn’t about changing your life overnight: it’s about knowing that the road to improvement is paved brick by brick, step by step, and by simply doing what you can, when you can.”

So what if you can’t get to the gym for an hour (or more) every day. So what if you had to fast food it instead of brown bag it. So what if you didn’t have time to make a perfect batch of cupcakes for the class party. You’re doing the best you can.

You’re doing … what you can, when you can.

The idea spread like wildfire in mid-2013 when Roni Noone and Carla Birnberg — strong, influential voices within the fitness blogging space — started wycwyc’ing. They were all too familiar with waiting until a situation was absolutely perfect to workout, eat right, or make time for themselves. They were also all too familiar with the power of small changes. Their commitment to living in the moment and doing the best they could when confronted with each choice took off and turned into a hashtag campaign on social media that has, as they say, gone viral.

In fact, the WYCWYC philosophy has garnered so much support and following that you can now pick it up in paperback; the What You Can When You Can book.

Their philosophy is about recognizing that you’ve done your best, you make compromises when you need to, and that ultimately that’s enough. It all adds up to big progress.

• Maybe you missed your step class? No sweat. Take the family for a walk after dinner.

• Perhaps you don’t feel like dragging yourself to yoga, but riding bikes to school with the kids will lift your spirits.

• Your family is seriously craving pizza for dinner. Go for it… just walk or bike to the nearest restaurant instead of having it delivered.

• Beating yourself for bingeing on half a season of shows on Netflix? So move while you watch. Triceps dips, jumping jacks, planks, push-ups, and so much more can be done right in front of the TV.

• The dinner party has rolls and chocolate cake; so you don’t take both. You compromise and leave the bread and splurge on dessert.

WYCWYC is for everyone who takes the stairs instead of the elevators, walks past people riding up the escalator, parks in the furthest spot in the lot, crunches on apples instead of potato chips, drinks water to cure boredom not hunger, and plays driveway basketball with the kids instead of going to spin class … and is OK with all of it.

When you join the WYCWYC movement, you give yourself permission to be flexible, to stop drowning in unattainable perfection, and to be a real life human.