Aug 19 ~ Starting Over

I have a proclamation.  It's about what I feel is the toughest, yet most important part of both weight loss and maintenance.

STARTING OVER AS MANY TIMES AS NECESSARY IS HOW YOU REACH YOUR GOAL WEIGHT, AND HOW YOU MAINTAIN IT ONCE YOU'RE THERE.

Nobody is perfect, and yet we all expect ourselves to be.  And yet if you look at the diet of Jillian Michaels, Tosca Reno, Jamie Eason, heck, pick your favorite buff celebrity, I bet they all have meals they wish they could undo.  If I talked to one of them and they said otherwise, I just flat out wouldn't believe them.

The difference between us and them?  They shake it off and move on.  They start over with the very next meal or snack.  They wake up with a clean slate in the morning and start over with a great breakfast.

But me, well, sometimes, I slip into the, "I've already screwed up today so what does it matter" pit.  Some of you probably do it too.  There's also the "I'm on vacation pit", the "This will cheer me up" pit and the "I give up" pit.

Today, I'm watching my best friend's little girls and I slipped into the "There's nothing else to eat" pit.  For breakfast, despite the perfectly presentable banana sitting on the counter, I had Skippy peanut butter on Ritz crackers with a few Chewy Chips Ahoy on the side.  What could I do, there was nothing else to eat.

So that means for lunch I should polish off the cookies and maybe make a grilled cheese on white bread, right?  NO.  I'm going to "start over."  I'm going to eat that banana and pilfer through the fridge and find something healthy like I should have done this morning.  I'm not going to let a pile of sugar and carbs rule the rest of my day.

All too often, a holiday, a rotten day or a special occasion comes along.  It's okay to give yourself permission to go off plan at those times.  But then, you simply start over.  Your next meal should be what you would normally eat.  Don't go all "monk" on yourself and eat crusts and drink water for three days, perhaps self-flagellating between meals. Go back on your plan and eat as you normally would, getting in your carbs, healthy fats and protein.

Don't worry about starting over.  Don't see it as a sign of failure - see it as a sign of success that you are strong enough to do that.  Start over every day if you have to, more than once a day if that is necessary. Just get back in the saddle and one of these days, you will arrive at your destination!