Why a Fail isn't FAILURE

As part of my weight-loss journey to losing 100+ pounds, I know keeping the correct mindset is imperative. My eating plan consists of 6 completely healthy food days, Monday-Saturday, and ONE cheat meal on Sunday. Well, this past Sunday I overdid it. The kids chose Red Lobster for dinner and I ate some of the appetizer, my main dish (the half portion but still), and *two* biscuits. Then we went to the drive-in theater to see Pete's Dragon and I ate some popcorn.

Before we even got home, I knew I overdid it. I tracked everything and saw that I went almost 1,000 calories over my typical 1200. Sure it was a cheat meal...but I turned it into a cheat evening.

HOWEVER, returning to the title of this blog, I made a huge decision after my cheat evening: I wasn't going to allow this ONE fail to turn my whole weight-loss journey into a total failure. I woke up Monday morning (yesterday), put on my tennis shoes and went to the track. I got my 10,000 steps in before noon and had almost 20,000 steps by dinnertime. I ate perfectly and tracked it all.

And you know what? I realized I'VE NEVER DONE THAT BEFORE.

In all the years of yo-yo dieting, I've never slipped up, held myself accountable by tracking all of my food anyway, and then woke up the next morning and got right back on the wagon. NEVER...NOT ONCE. In fact, yesterday I was thinking, "I can feel that sodium from Sunday and it just wasn't worth it." I made a kind vow to myself that this Sunday, I'll be wiser. Other that that thought, I was back to my healthy business as usual.

I think this is huge for me because I'm so used to screwing up and then promptly giving up. Which inevitably leads to a period of overindulging and gaining weight until I find another short-term diet to adopt and then fail. NOT THIS TIME.

I realize that life isn't perfect. I won't be able to eat perfectly every single day of the rest of my life, and that's okay. What matters is not turning this one little fail into a huge failure.

I deserve to be healthy and to . And I will.