On the road to reach my health goals (any goal really) I can find myself slipping back into familiar habits or sometimes (like this past week) life throws me some unexpected challenges that I need to work around (or not).

At the end of last week:

• I crashed on my bike. Leaving me beat up and SORE but OK.
• Attended several unplanned social outings involving food and alcohol
• I ate meals out 4 out of 3 days
• I was HUNGRY

I did some reading up on how to handle setbacks. I learned that the critical part of setbacks is to not let them derail you.

Re-Evaluate and Re-Commit

I asked myself; why did I set the goals that I did? Are they still the goals I want to work toward? What can I do different to ensure that I am successful?

I acknowledged that I needed a bit of down time, but that I am still committed to my goals and mentally all in again. Just because I missed a few days doesn’t mean the journey isn’t worth it or that what I’m trying to accomplish is “too hard” or “too much”. It’s up to me to decide – do I want it? YES! I do.

I did keep up with my food journaling even though I had to write down a few less than healthy meals, snacks and beers.

I realized from this “set-back” that I need to make sure I have rest days built into my week and that I leave room for impromptu invitations of all kinds. When I go out, I need to make mindful choices that match my goals and my lifestyle. It’s silly for me to think that I need to compromise what I am working towards in my fun time too.

Half-Way Mark

This week we are mid-way through our BRIK session. This first part of the week we can check-in on measurements (the old me wouldn’t have checked). I made my goals public, so I knew I had to find out where I was and if I needed to re-evaluate my goals based on reality.

I thought I knew what this check-in would reveal – that my weekend had wrecked my goals. What I learned was that I was exactly where I started 3 weeks ago. I had imagined a worse scenario. I can live with this minor set-back and keep moving forward toward the health goals I’ve set. Meeting the truth head on helped me realize that what I had imagined as HUGE digressions really aren’t that big of a deal – just get back on track!

Later this week we will do a fitness self-assessment to compare with week 1 results. I’m looking forward to finding out how I’ll do!

Resources:

Does Working Out More Really Make You Eat More

3 Ways to Stay Motivated When You Experience Setbacks

3 Ways You Can Get Back on Track After a Major Setback (and still reach your goals)