I read a secret to success today that, I think, completely summarizes the place I am in right now. It basically said that when you fall off the wagon, you need to ease back into it and not expect to be able to tackle everything right off the bat.

Being a perfectionist, I'm often of the "all or nothing" school of thought.

If I'm not eating well, exercising and drinking water in tandem, I'm failing.

Or at least that's what I thought the past couple of weeks. But with some encouragement from my SparkFriends, and a little reflection, I'm starting to come around to the fact that life simply doesn't allow you to function that way.

Sure, I might have had a week where everything went just right and I dropped 3 pounds... But that's not the norm, and thinking that it should be is only going to drive me crazy. It's like biting the forbidden fruit - I got a taste of what it was to be so on top of it for a week and how successful I was, and now I can't help but feel discouraged because it seems that I will never be able to pull it off again.

I can see so clearly how I want to use my time and what I want to accomplish, but it's just so darn evasive! It seems like the harder I try to stick to a certain way that I think I should be, the more irritated I get when it doesn't work out.

It's like quicksand; the harder you thrash, the quicker you sink.

So my new plan is to try to teach myself how to adapt.

How to not become discouraged or derailed when the unexpected changes my plans.

How to hold myself accountable while not stressing about little, inevitable slip ups.

How to make this goal of mine, which I know is so important to me even when I'm really flubbing it up, work into my life.

In other words, I am training myself to become a fitness NINJA!