Weight Loss Wednesday — Volume 9
One bad meal didn’t ruin your diet. What you did after it might have.
I think one of the most destructive mindsets in weight loss is the idea that if you can’t do it perfectly, there’s no point in doing it at all. You ate pizza for lunch, so dinner becomes a free-for-all. You missed Monday’s workout, so you’ll start again next week. You gained two pounds on vacation, so somehow that turns into two months of abandoning everything that was working.
I’ve done versions of this myself, and I think most people who have struggled with their weight probably have too. But think about how ridiculous that logic would sound anywhere else in life. If you get a flat tire, you don’t get out of the car and slash the other three. Yet that’s essentially what we do with our health all the time.
A bad meal is just a bad meal. A missed workout is just a missed workout. A bad weekend is just a bad weekend. None of those things have the power to undo months of progress unless you give them that power.
I’ve maintained a significant weight loss for 15 years, and I can promise you I haven’t eaten perfectly for 15 years. I haven’t exercised perfectly. I’ve traveled, celebrated holidays, eaten desserts, missed workouts and had days when my choices weren’t what I wanted them to be. The difference is that somewhere along the way, I stopped believing every imperfect decision required a restart.
There is no restart. There’s just the next decision.
That’s a huge distinction. You don’t need to punish yourself for what you ate yesterday. You don’t need an extra two hours at the gym. You don’t need a cleanse, a fast or a brand-new diet beginning Monday morning. You need to make the next decision a good one.
Because the people who succeed long-term aren’t necessarily the people who stumble the least. They’re often the people who recover the fastest. Perfection is an impossible standard. Consistency allows room for being human.
So enjoy the birthday cake. Take the vacation. Miss a workout when life legitimately gets in the way. Just don’t turn one decision into a week, a month or a year.
You don’t have to start over. You just have to keep going.
