Small Steps to Health

Moving Away from Guilt after a Mistake

April 9th, 2008 by asithi · 1 Comment

When it comes to a healthier life style people think that once they fall off a bit or something unexpected happens, they need to start over. That is not true! Life crisis happen. We are still ahead if we just pick up where we left off. We are only setting ourselves up for disappointment and guilt if we expect perfection in our approach to weight loss. When we mess up, it is natural to feel guilt. But we have a choice: do we let our guilt over one meal or one day turn into a cycle of eating and TV watching or do we figure what we can do to keep this from happening again?

Look for the exception.
No problem happens all the time. No matter how often we mess up, there are times when we do better than others. Why did you make the better choice? Were you in a better mood? Was there someone reminding you of your goals? How can you repeat these choices?

Do not restrict yourself even more.
What do you do when you cannot seem to loose the weight? Do you cut calories even more or workout longer than usual? Chances are if we have a hard time sticking to our eating and exercise goals already, making them even more restrictive is going to backfire on us. Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is insanity. Stop the insanity!

Find reason behind the “bad” behavior.
We rarely do the wrong thing because we want to or we cannot stop ourselves. There has to be a reason why we continue to overeat and under exercise when we do not like the negative side effects resulting from these two behaviors. Do not waste time blaming yourself or questioning your willpower. Ask yourself if it is simple pleasure, emotional comfort, or relief from boredom or other feelings that is causing you to continue with these behaviors.

I always have trouble resisting ice cream. Growing up, ice cream was a rare treat and a half gallon does not last very long in a household with four children. As an adult when I have it in the house, I keep eating it until it is gone. That was how we ate ice cream when I was a child. If you do not eat it when you can, it will be gone before you know it. Except now, I am the only one in the house that eats ice cream. My husband might have some, but he does not eat ice cream the way I do. I have come to the conclusion that I cannot have ice cream in the house. I can manage this treat when we go out for it. This way it ends up being 2-3 treats a month instead of a daily treat. At one point I was even sneaking in spoonfuls each time I was in front of the refrigerator. Do not ever eat standing in front of the refrigerator and expect to loose weight.

Predict success.
Bad habits are self-fulfilling prophecies. When we think about how we always done something, then that is what we do when we are in the same situation. Stop thinking that you always overeat when you dine out with friends. Instead we should focus on what we want to do and how to handle situations such as eating out with friends or going on vacation. Athletes do this all the time. They see themselves crossing the finish line or making the shot before they are even start the race or game. That is what we need to do. Imagine success, how we are going to get there, and what are we going to do when there is an obstacle in our way. We have no time for guilt.

Refocus and recommitment.
Like any new hobby or skill, a healthy life style is a learning process. There is bound to be missteps. When is the last time you were able to learn a new skill without asking questions or having to correct your mistakes? Return to the basics when you are lost and confuse. If your diet is too complicated or too expensive, it is time to re-evaluate it. Why make this choice to achieve a healthier lifestyle so stressful and tough? By making only one small change each month, you can change your lifestyle in a year.

There is no need to feel guilt for a mistake. We do not need to double our workout time today because we miss our workout yesterday. After all, it is not as if we are going eat 10 pounds of spinach today because we have not been eating them for the last year. Instead focus your energy on how to not make that mistake again.

Until next time and thanks for stopping by.

 

 

Tagged Emotional Eating, Emotional Eating, Motivation

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