Go Easy on Yourself

It has been said that eating is one of life's greatest pleasures. I believe that to be true. I think that is why we all struggle with eating well, because eating not so well is just so much fun!! One thing I have struggled with and I hear so many people struggle with is being mad at myself when I "pig out" or just go a week of eating a lot of junk. I have really had to work on not beating myself up over my lack of discipline. I thought I would share some of what I have learned.

According to Steven R. Covey in his book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, "Good families, even great families, are off track 90% of the time! The key is that they have a sense of destination. They know what the "track" looks like. And they keep coming back to it time and time again."

He says that when a plane is flying, they have a flight plan, but due to bad weather, turbulence, etc... the plane is not even on the prescribed flight path most of the time!! The key is that the pilot knows exactly where he is going, and in the end, he arrives at the proper destination.

It was so freeing for me to hear that it is NORMAL to be off track and trying to get back on track 90% of the time. I thought it was just me that was not 100% organized, disciplined, nice, etc... on a regular basis! Once I found out I was normal:) I was so much more free to mess up and then say, OK, so what, I messed up or I cheated or I just simply had a little more fun than I would like to have had. I'm normal (whatever that means), now I am going to get back on track. At that point I usually have to force myself to go to the gym and eat really well for 1 or 2 days and then I experience the postive impact of feeling so good that I am right back on that track to health.

I also have taught myself to step on the scale after a big weekend or week of not eating as well as I'd like so that I have some feedback about what the "damages" were. I used to just get mad and eat more because I had already ruined it anyway. I learned the "feedback technique" from an e-book called, Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle. It was brilliant. Messing up just gives you feedback and then you are free to decide if you want more of the same feedback or not and you can make any necessary adjustments as needed. A big part of eating healthy for me is that it makes such an enormous difference in my overall feeling of well being. I actually need more sleep when I don't eat well. I am less motivated. It can make me moody and those things all affect not just me, but my entire family. I think if you are only eating healthy to lose weight or look good, it is a lot more difficult to stay on track. Sheer will power usually fails. There really needs to be a greater motivation than weight loss, unless you are really motivated by that.

Set goals. Set weekly goals and monthly goals and a long term goal and tell yourself, when you fail the first time to achieve that goal, "OK, this is feedback." How can I change some things to do better next time? Don't beat yourself up. It only makes the attaining of a goal that much more difficult!! You cannot change the past, you can only make changes to make the future better.