A New Day

Happy Monday!  I hope you had a great (and on-plan!) Easter weekend.  If you did, congratulations!  I'm guessing it wasn't easy, but you stayed focused on your goal and figured out what you needed to do.  As a result, you're one day closer to your goal.

Perhaps you planned to take the day off, carefully chose the foods you were going to eat, and had a very controlled step off plan.  If that describes you, congratulations for making a plan and then working it.  By planning ahead, you stayed in charge and, even if the scale isn't encouraging today, you're back on plan and one day closer to your goal, too.

I'm guessing that there are a few people reading this who don't fall into either of the categories I just described.  This group intended to stay on plan, but when they got around some of their favorite food and were surrounded by family members and friends, they decided that a bite or two wouldn't hurt.  But the bite turned into much more, and you woke up today mad at yourself for going off plan, and the scale may even be up a couple of pounds :-(.  If I just described you, take heart :-).

This program isn't easy.  If you've read my blogs for any length of time, you've heard me say this over and over again.  The food part of the program is extremely easy, but changing how we think and emotionally relate to food is incredibly difficult. 

Holidays are a time when the best intentions of many take a tumble.  When we're surrounded by a lot of rich food, some of which may only be served once a year, and/or when we're surrounded by family members and friends, which may evoke a host of emotions, good intentions often don't stand a chance if we aren't clearly focused on our goal.   That may briefly explain the "why" of what happened yesterday, but now what?

If you ended up eating things yesterday you didn't intend to eat and are now dealing with Monday morning regret, it's a new day!  The only way that yesterday's off-plan eating will hurt you is if you allow it to influence the choices you make today.  What happened yesterday doesn't matter today, but the choices you make today will impact tomorrow.  I've seen people who've done really well on plan for months go off plan on a holiday, overeat, and begin a downward spiral that results in regaining a lot of their weight.  They were mad at themselves for going off plan, but instead of getting right back on, they allowed a host of negative feelings ("I'm so weak," "I shouldn't have done that", etc.) to get in the way of their goal.

If you "blew it" yesterday, welcome to Day 1 of the program!  It will take you three or four days to get back into the fat-burning state, but you already know the drill:   drink lots of water and hang in there :-).  Three or four days from now, you will be back in the groove, feeling great and I'm guessing the holiday eating weight gain will be gone and you'll be on track towards your goal again.

Don't allow a momentary slip to keep you from getting where you want to go.  You have the opportunity today to make choices that will impact where you'll be tomorrow and next month.  Choose wisely :-)