Last week I wrote about how my weight loss resolutions made me hate myself and my body even more, and that my resolution was going to be to love and accept myself for who I am. I'm sure many of you have made New Year's resolutions, and the first few days have been great: you have been sticking to that diet, or checking Facebook less often, meditating more, etc. And you are feeling good! You feel proud of yourself for sticking to your New Year's resolutions. But for most people there comes a time when they have a slip-up...
It's not the end
So, you slipped up. You ate that brownie, or skipped a workout, maybe even spent two hours on Facebook, but does that mean that you can't accomplish your resolution and that you are a failure? No! You are human, and humans make errors and mistakes, and although you may want to be, you can never truly be perfect all the time. Just because you had one bad day doesn't mean that the whole year is shot, it doesn't mean you failed or that you are doomed to fail in all other goals you try to meet. It just means that you made one little slip-up, and that you can get back on track, because your slip-up was not the final page to your resolution.
Get back up on the horse (metaphorically)
The hardest part of slipping up is getting back up, and not letting you attack yourself and wallow in self-pity and self-defeat. For instance, say I had a brownie even though I started a strict diet, and now I have a few options: I could eat more brownies and more junk food because I already ruined today, I could enjoy that brownie and let myself indulge once in a while during this diet, or I could beat myself up and call myself a failure for eating one little brownie and feel as though that since I had that slip-up, it means I can never achieve my resolution. Which one sounds the most rational? The second one, right? Don't let yourself fall victim to the other options, because you deserve more than that.
Treat yourself like you would a friend
If your friend made a resolution to lose weight, would you call her a failure, weak-willed, and fat because she slipped up and ate one brownie? Probably not. You would never say those things to a friend or think less of them for indulging once in a while. So why would you do that to yourself? Try to treat yourself like a friend: when you slip up you are only human, and you are not less or weak or a failure, you are human, and you are still you. Just because you slipped up, doesn't mean that you will never reach your goals, it just means that you are normal and like everyone else. So the next time when you slip up, think, I am human, this is just one little thing, I can still do whatever I have set out to do.
