How to avoid one slip throwing you off the wagon

We’ve all been there: you’re doing so well at eating healthy, and then you end up getting a pizza on Saturday night and you feel like you’ve completely failed. You get up the next day and eat all your favourite snacks, binge on unhealthy food, and lose all of the progress you’ve made over the past couple of weeks.

It feels like there’s no point in carrying on – but there really is. Here’s how to reset those thought patterns that end up with you eating far more than you should just because of one slip.

Keep your goal in mind

First of all, remember what your goal is. That goal is more important than anything else – than feeling ashamed of yourself, than cravings, than how hard it is to control your diet. If you focus on your goal and keep pushing ahead, you will keep moving forward in spite of the setbacks. If you lose sight of your goal, you will never get there.

Be kind to yourself

It’s easy to get really hard on yourself for missing a target like this. You feel like you have let yourself down, and you probably feel angry or upset. This means that you are more likely to end up falling off the wagon and eating unhealthily. Partly this is because you are upset and want to punish yourself, and partly this is because fatty or sugary food can give you a mood boost temporarily. It makes you feel good to eat badly – but only for the short term. Afterwards, you will feel even worse. Be kind to yourself and remember how well you have done, not how bad this one slip was.

Be realistic

No one is ever going to get through a weight loss journey without a few slip-ups. It’s absolutely natural – and when you think about the rest of your life, are you never going to eat unhealthy food again? So long as you restrict yourself to special occasions and blue moons only, you won’t suffer too much from these little slips. We call them cheat days for a reason – you’re expected to have them, and you don’t have to consider them a bad thing.

Next time you have a little slip, consider these points and pick yourself up. Keep going strong even despite the stumbles and you’ll get to where you want to be!