Just because you’ve made a mistake or you ate a cookie on your diet doesn’t make you inadequate or undeserving. This especially doesn’t mean you can give up.
About 20 months ago I decided to become vegan. For about a month I did well but then I went to a leadership conference with my school. I saw croissants on the breakfast buffet and assumed they were made without milk and butter. It wasn’t until I ate like five of them and was home and until one of my friends told me they were made out of dairy products.
Did I give up veganism? No. Did I tell myself that I wasn’t a “true” vegan? Okay, maybe for five seconds. Here’s the thing, the whole point of slip ups is to push us to work harder. Slip ups also happen so we can learn to avoid them for next time.
And it’s okay if you pick up a brownie, or you indulge in four. Tomorrow, you wake up and do better.
I don’t necessarily believe in diets because dieting doesn’t work most of the time, but I know a lot of folks decide they want improve their eating habits. So they eat healthier, but that doesn’t mean their perfect. It doesn’t mean all of sudden their whole life is going to automatically embody a whole foods diet. Especially when someone has been eating junk for twenty years of their life. It’s hard. So, slip-ups can and will happen.
Tips for getting through them?
- Skip the regret. Eat the brownie and Don’t regret it. Remember that it’s part of the process.
- Carry around a sticky note or a reminder on your phone to not give up. Keep motivating yourself especially through temptations.
- Ask for support from your friends.
- Write about it daily in a notebook or your notes on your phone.
- Breathe and meditate.
See, a lot of people declare different diets, are recovering from drug abuse, or an eating disorder. It’s important, especially important to ask for support when doing so. It’s difficult to see something through when you’re going through it alone.
Learning how to cook? You will burn your first cake and that is okay. You just keep baking more until you find a golden brown. Maybe it’s dry the first time, you play around with the recipe until you can be fully satisfied you just created the epitome of a perfect vanilla cake.
You will not on the first try be perfect, unless you are, then good for you. I applaud you. Most people don’t. Everything you want to get through is a journey, and the first few steps are the hardest to climb over, so you just have to keep working through it.
I ate a croissant thinking it wasn’t made with dairy products. I was dumb. Twenty months later, and I had a non-vegan brownie. It wasn’t on purpose, but I’m not mad or upset. These things happen. You just have to remember to keep going and not stray from your end goal.
