You don’t need to throw in the towel after one bad day.
We tend to look at dieting as if it’s an all-or-nothing thing. If our day isn’t perfect, we go into panic mode and think we’ve ruined our entire diet. Somehow, one bad day feels like it offsets every other good day we’ve had.
One bad day is never going to ruin everything.
We’ve all had bad days at work. Maybe you were just tired and couldn’t focus, or maybe you forgot to turn in an important report to your boss. It happens. It doesn’t mean you should quit and give it all up because you screwed up one day.
If you’re in school and you fail a test or completely bomb a paper, it doesn’t mean you should just give up and drop out of school. You simply try to do better next time- that’s all you can do.
Does having one bad day offset everything you’ve learned to this point? Absolutely not.
Dieting is no different.
You don’t need to throw in the towel due to one bad day. You WILL have bad days. You’re human, and life is never going to be perfect.
You might have days where you do overeat or you’re way off your macros targets, and that is perfectly normal. Just get back at it tomorrow.
Overeating in particular tends to send people into a downward spiral. If weight loss is the goal, eating too many calories one day immediately feels like everything is ruined.
Whether you had too many snacks at a party, went out to eat for dinner and ate too much, or simply had one snack too many before bed, we beat ourselves for having a bad day.
It’s okay- I promise!
It happens to everyone. There’s no reason to panic, skip your next meal, or give up completely.
All you need to do is get back on track. Recognize that the day didn’t go as you had planned, and that’s perfectly fine. You’re human. Now it’s time to just move forward.
Whether it’s work, school, the gym, your marriage, or your diet- bad days are going to happen. But one bad day is never a reason to completely give up.
Remember: there’s no finish line here. Sure, you might have a specific goal in mind, but this is a lifelong journey. Even if you decide “I want to lose 10 pounds by summer” is doesn’t mean that your journey ends come summer.
If you look at it that way, you’re setting yourself up to fail. Instead, focus on the long-term.
Even if you only lose 5 pounds by summer, but you’re still moving in the right direction. Keep going. You’re not suddenly finished just because you set an arbitrary deadline for yourself! Keep going.
This whole “health” thing is a life-long journey. You’ve heard the phrase “it’s a marathon, not a sprint” but that still implies that there’s a finish line. There’s not. It’s not a marathon, it’s a never-ending journey. It’s an adventure.
You can fall down. You can take a detour. You can even walk backward.
All you need to do is get back on track and keep going.
