The gist of Leah's message is that many dieters sabotage themselves with an "all or nothing" mentality.Leah begins her video by reminding us of the Internet meme, "If you get a flat tire, don't slash the other three."
Then she asks:
"How many of you have ever gone off plan, had something not on your diet, and then just said, 'Screw it? I"m just going to blow it for the rest of the day. I'm going to have a pizza. I'll just restart tomorrow. Or, worse, I'll restart after the weekend . . . or after this birthday party . . . or at the first of this month....'"
"We've all done it."
Her point, of course, is that we give ourselves permission to go hog wild just because we ate or drank one thing that was not strictly OP.
We tell ourselves, "If we're not following our plan to the absolute nth degree, we may as well be fat for the rest of our lives," Leah says.
Her advice:"Go right back on plan next meal, next decision. Don't think you've just blown everything."
Leah points out that sometimes we may consciously choose to eat something off plan; for example, we're in a different city and want to sample a local delicacy. And that's okay.
What's important is to make deliberate choices and not eat something just because it's there. "There will never be a shortage of Peeps or Oreos or pizza," Leah says.
And when we do fall off the proverbial horse, we should be conscious of how it makes us feel.
Ask yourself: "Is it worth having a physical ill feeling, having the mental anguish and the feeling of defeat," says Leah.
What happens too often is "we turn to food again to comfort (ourselves) and it just becomes a spiral. This is a pattern we have lived through our entire lives."
"Changing your life is not a punishment," says Leah, "You're not being punished This is a choice It's a conscious choice.
"Every single step in the right direction is progress and success isn't a straight line. It's a whole series of twists and turns and mental gymnastics and taking one step forward and two steps backward sometimes.
"A meal or two out of your entire journey is not going to blow it. What blows it is when you just say, 'Screw it.'"
There's a lot more information and inspiration in Leah's eight minute video that I have not shared; so I encourage you to watch the video in its entirety to fully grasp the powerful message. Better yet, keep a link to the video in your favorites for those times when you slip up and are tempted to throw up your hands and cry "Uncle." I can totally relate to Leah's message and have reshaped my thinking to incorporate the reality that one does not have to be a Perfect Polly to be trim and healthy. "The perfect is the enemy of the good" is the motto that has helped me maintain my ideal weight since losing 35 pounds on Medifast over a year ago.
In other words, it's what we do most of the time that determines our fate. Eating one cupcake or drinking a piña colada will not make us fat unless we convince ourselves that our only choice is to be perfectly on plan or totally out of control.
More from Diet Skeptic:
Why I'm Addicted to Chia Seeds
Why Fat Head Pizza Is the Holy Grail of Low Carb Pizzas
The Shocking Truth About Imported Olive Oil
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Why WebMD Doesn't Want You to Get Well
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