I want to tell you something I wish someone had told me when I was losing weight: If you had a slip-up this weekend, you went off your plan, whatever, it’s not a moral failing. You’re not a bad person. You are actually doing exactly what you’re supposed to do.
In order to learn how to eat right, exercise and stay on your program, you’re going to have to make mistakes. You’re going to have to have times where you don’t do everything perfectly. It’s wonderful, because it’s a chance for you to learn and reflect on what caused the setback, so you can change it over time.
Remember, this is about building habits. It’s not about just dropping 20 pounds in 20 days. You need to see why you slipped up and make a plan to change it for the next weekend. If you never had these slip-ups, if you never had these setbacks, how would you know what was wrong, to improve?
There’s a reason you were the weight you were when you started this. It’s from all those behaviors that have been established. You have to change them.
Embrace the mistakes that happened. Don’t focus on them emotionally; focus on them logically and say, “What can I do to change this for next weekend? What can I do to change this so I can get to my goal?
I’m not a bad person. I’m going through the process of growing and changing, habit formation. There have to be setbacks in order for there to be forward progress.”
Remember, a setback is just a wonderful learning opportunity for you not to repeat over and over in the future.
Learn from it. Make a plan of action, and move on.