Thursday, April 7, 2011

Recovering from Mistakes

If there's one thing I've learned throughout this weight loss journey, it's this: No matter how bad things get, no matter how much weight you gain or how out of shape you get, you can ALWAYS turn things around. I started out this journey at the respectable weight of a professional football player, with the small thread of hope that with hard work and time, I could turn things around. I didn't have much to base this hope on--only the amazing stories of others who started out like me. Others--like Beth, Andrea, Leah, Jen, and Lisa, just to name a few--who took a leap of faith, started monitoring their food and exercising, and, by doing so, transformed their lives.

This week, I re-learned this lesson, albeit on a smaller scale. On Saturday night, I screwed up. It had been a stressful week and a tumultuous start to the weekend. Not to get into too many details, but there had been a series of guy issues/ friend problems all combined with way too much alcohol, which left me feeling a little...off...Off enough to pig out on cinnamon raisin bagels, chocolate pudding, cookie dough--you name it. On Sunday, I woke up feeling stuffed and disgusted with myself, which led to EVEN more self sabotage, if you can believe it ;)

Which led to Monday, when I figured I had two options. I could continue to have a bad week and eat whatever I wanted and start over on Thursday (my weigh-in day) or I could get back on the wagon, knowing that my weekend of insanity would probably lead to a bad weigh in, even if I stayed on plan for the rest of the week.

Well, bizarrely enough, I took option two. I went for a jog on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and I made sure to stay within my points on those days as well. On some level, I guess I realized that my weigh-in wasn't the most important thing, and that seeing a gain wouldn't wreck my weight loss journey. All that really mattered was getting back on track--emotionally and physically--for the rest of the week.

And so I proceeded to dig myself out of my hole. I ran, even when my stomach gurgled from too much booze and bagels. I restrained myself from eating McDonalds, even when part of my brain said, "You've already screwed up, you might as well go down with a bam!" I forced myself to buy groceries, eat vegetables, and basically get back on track, even though I knew I was going to face a punishment on the scale on Thursday. I figured that gaining one pound was better than gaining three.

And, of course, you can guess what happened. I lost 0.4 at my weigh in =) I'm still on track to my goal, and I'm so glad that I didn't let the weekend's slip-up derail me from my progress. I think this week re-enforced an important lesson for me--you can always recover from mistakes. As long as you have faith in yourself, and are willing to work hard and accept that it may take time to recover.

6 comments:

  1. Good for you! It can be really easy to just stay in a less-than-healthy mode once you get into it, but once you go back to healthy-for-you, you'll stick with it.

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  2. Very proud of you Katie!! I always have to remind myself that one day of unhealthy eating is NOT going to screw up the rest of my week/month/life.

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  3. That is something to be proud of. It's hard to remember that we can change things with the next meal, but in truth, we really can. You showed you could do just that! It's great when we can prove to ourselves that we don't have to let food control us.

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  4. It's all about the big picture, Katie! Way to go!

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  5. Amazing post, Katie!!! (and thanks for the shout-out) :-)

    Congrats on picking yourself up, dusting yourself off, and getting back OP. That is the hardest thing to do. And you did it! Now you can look back on moments like these, and know that YOU CAN do it again! ;-)

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  6. Wow! That is impressive! It is sooo hard to get back on track after a bump in the road, but every single time you do it, it makes you stronger and more prepared for the next bump!

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