You attended an Eat By Design seminar and left thinking, “Man! That just makes so much sense. Everything I have been doing up until this point has not helped. I’ve had sugar cravings, gained weight, had low energy levels and chronic headaches. I am ready for change!”
So you dive right in.
When you get home you clean out your pantry of all cereals, oatmeal, bread, pasta, canned beans, cookies, chips and frozen pizzas.
You hit up your local grocery store or Farmer’s Market and re-stock your fridge and pantry with By Design essentials. Coconut oil, apple cider vinegar, olive oil, butter, spice mix… and of course, meat, fish, veggies and fruit.
Maybe you were even brave enough to leverage a food prep day so that all your meals are ready to go for the entire week.
You bring your lunch with you to work every single day that week (you even pack healthy snacks for your kids) and are able to avoid the box of donuts in the break room, the vending machine in the hallway, and the featured latte at Starbucks.
It’s Friday and you are running on five hours of sleep. You wake up with a headache so you give yourself an extra twenty minutes in bed. But that means you’re rushed and you forget your lunch in the fridge.
Ten a.m. hits and you are starving! You are tired, irritable and craving sugar. It may have something to do with the fact that your body is physiologically switching from burning sugar as fuel to burning fat as fuel. (Hey, you knew it was possible that this would happen!)
You get up to make yourself a tea, hoping that will help, but on your way you walk past the break room and that box of donuts that is sitting there every single day is calling your name.
You walk up to the box, grab one, and inhale it in about four seconds.
“Ok good, no one saw me do that!” you say in your head.
So you grab just one more, and eat it too before walking back to your desk.
As you sit down at your desk you think, “Wow, I can’t believe I fell off the wagon after only five days of eating By Design!”
It’s at this point that you have two options:
- Beat yourself up, slide down the slippery slope and continue to eat off track the rest of the day, feeling sorry for you and calling yourself a failure.
- Or, get back ON the wagon ASAP.
Because the reality is that we all fall off the wagon (yes, even me.) It is what happens AFTER that makes or breaks your success.
You had an idea that when you started eating By Design that it was going to be challenging at times. So please remember that no one is holding you to perfection. We want to see you strive for progress, not perfection.
Remember your reason for starting to Eat By Design in the first place? Remember how frustrated you were that you constantly had sugar cravings, low energy, headaches and weight gain?
So giving up because of one off-road experience is holding you back from all of the amazing benefits of eating By Design: better digestion, clearer thinking, better focus, improved sleep, less sugar cravings, balanced hormones and clearer skin.
If any of this sounds familiar, and you want to know what to do after you fall off the wagon, read on…
- Accept that it happened. Acknowledge that you ate off track and take responsibility for your actions. It does not mean that you have to like yourself for it or be proud of the fact that you secretly just downed two donuts in the break room, but you do need to accept that it happened. But remember too… that this does not make you a failure.
- Revisit your goals. If you have not set any yet, that’s ok. Choose one goal to work towards and make sure that it is S.M.A.R.T (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-bound). Next, ask yourself why this goal is important to you and what you will gain from achieving this goal that is even greater than the goal itself.
- Get back on track. If you ate off track, instead of throwing the towel in for the rest of the day or even week, make sure your next meal is 100% By Design. Or, even better, do this but also go for a walk or train or journal. Do SOMETHING to get the momentum going.
Save this post and re-read it every time you do go off-track. You will be surprised how this simple reminder can make a world of a difference and prevent you from beating yourself up.
For more simple By Design recipes why not pick up your copy of the Eat By Design Cookbook. I’ve created it in the form of a 28-day meal plan (plus grocery lists!) so you don’t need to think about what’s for breakfast, lunch or dinner for the next month. Or you can grab the first 7 days FREE by clicking here.