The Weight Loss Cafe - Motivation Boost: One Dent Doesn't Ruin the Car

Sherry slumped into the chair in my office. “What an awful week,” she moaned. “I totally blew it! I started out determined that I would stay on my diet, do my exercise and manage my stress. But every single day, things at work built up and got to me. By the time I would get home, I’d be upset and worn down from all the stress.

Before I knew it, I’d have a glass of wine in one hand and a bag of tortilla chips in the other. Once I’d blown it anyway, I'd figure I might as well wait and start my diet over tomorrow. So I’d eat whatever I wanted that night. Of course, none of it was on my diet plan.

I’m so discouraged. I’ve been trying so hard to lose weight. But instead of making progress, I’ve gained three pounds. Please help me figure out how to get a handle on this. Otherwise, I’ll never make any progress and by next year, I’ll be bigger than ever.”

As Sherry and I talked, she confessed that she often slips into saying “I blew it.” For example, last Friday night, Sherry and her friend arrived at a neighborhood steak house and discovered there was an hour wait for a table. So they headed across the street to a favorite Mexican cafe.

She said, “I just can’t go into that restaurant without having a margarita. Of course, once I finished it (as well as a bowl of chips and salsa) I didn’t care about my diet anymore. So I ordered a huge burrito loaded with cheese, sour cream and guacamole. And since I’d already blown it and I’d have to start my diet over the next day anyway, I ate the whole thing.”

What a shame! Instead of labeling an eating slip up as a minor event, Sherry allowed it to pull her off course entirely.

Whenever you say, “I blew it,” your brain hears, “That means I’m off my diet, so I might as well go ahead and eat more.” Then you decide that since your diet is a lost cause anyway, you might as well give up and start over the next day.

It’s time to stop the pattern of “I blew it, so I might as well eat.” Instead of giving up on your diet when you do unplanned eating, use these ideas to keep yourself on track.

One dent doesn’t ruin the car

If you back up into a post, you don’t ram the car backwards again and again to punish yourself for the first dent. So don’t do this with food either. Instead, when you slip up on your diet plan tell yourself, “OK, I did that. It’s over. Now I can go back to taking care of myself.”

Change what you say

Instead of referring to your eating problem as “blew it” call it a “pause.” Think of it as a brief rest in your day. Say to yourself, “OK, I had a little pause in my program. Now I’ll get back up and follow my plan again.”

Move forward, not backward

If you have a diet slip-up, don’t wait until tomorrow to take action. Simply ask yourself, “What’s next? What’s a healthy step I can take right now?” Then immediately do something to overcome the minor dent in your program. Take a walk, eat a piece of fruit, or do something else that affirms you are following a healthy pattern.

To read more, see Day 67: Never Say “I Blew it” in the book 100 Days of Weight
Loss.

And promise me that you’ll never again use the words, “I blew it” to describe a minor slip up on your diet.

©2007 Weight Loss for Life, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Reprinted with permission from Linda Spangle, RN, MA, Weight Loss for Life.
http://www.WeightLossJoy.com/
http://www.theWeightLossCafe.com/

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