This time last year I shared with you the Positivity Challenge. It’s something that has truly changed my outlook on my life and my relationships. Trying to remember the positives in each day doesn’t always come easy, but creating the habit of focusing on the positives has overall changed my mental well-being for the best. A couple weeks ago, Alisha, the Director or Health & Wellness (and the person who challenged me to be more positive) at the school I work for, gave me some much needed tough love.

I started 2018 strong. I was walking 30 minutes a day. I was eating 3 cups of veggies a day. I was tracking my food. Just feeling great! Then I got hurt. I tried to start running and ended up giving myself plantar fasciitis. With every step I had a sharp pain in my heel, forcing me to lay off the walking and the little bit of jogging that I was incorporating into my 30 minutes a day. So, naturally, with my break from exercise came my break from veggies. Then my break from tracking my food. They say it takes 3 weeks to create a habit and only 3 days to break it. I think I broke mine in 24 hours!

Though I try not to focus so much on the number on the scale, I was pretty upset when I realized at the beginning of 2019 that I gained about 20lbs of my 25lbs lost back. I already knew that was the case, as I had to move back up a size in my work pants. All that hard work down the drain! Ready to throw myself a pity party (oh, did I forget to mention I also tried the Whole30 and lasted 2.5 days?), Alisha stepped up to the plate and called me out on my excuses.

She started by telling me that I need a plan for when things don’t go as planned or when I mess up. She continued, “How are you going to forgive yourself and move on? How are you going to have a better handle on things when something arises that you may not have complete control over?…One small slip-up doesn’t mean you just disregard everything you were doing prior to it.”

These were important questions. I have a habit of letting one small hiccup completely throw off my focus, causing my anxiety to take over and convince myself that I wasn’t good enough or deserving of living this healthier lifestyle. Alisha was right. I needed to forgive myself. I needed to stop defining myself by my hiccups. I needed to just take mistakes at face value. That’s all they were – a mistake, a hiccup, a bump in the road – they did not mean that I was a failure. My mistakes definitely don’t mean that I should give up on my goals.

To get back on track, Alisha suggested that I write down at least 5 goals. Simple, attainable goals that I can stack upon each other as I make my way through them. My initial instinct was to make my goals all food/weight related. “Eat more veggies.” “Cut back on sugar.” “Lose 20lbs.” But, I realized that food and weight loss was only part of the equation. In order to live a healthier lifestyle, I need to work on my own well-being (a common theme in many of my blog posts it seems). I also need to accept that I’m a work in progress and that’s ok.