1. Remind yourself of your goals – Refocusing on your long term goals helps you to see your diet break as just a small bump in the road. You should also acknowledge the progress you’ve made and how far you’ve come, because progress is measured in many ways. Each time you make a better food choice, be active, or tackle stress with a walk not a chocolate – you’re making progress!
2. Give Yourself a Break – Weight loss is a marathon not a sprint, and everyone makes diet mistakes from time to time. If you eat something you shouldn’t or don’t go for your daily walk, don’t beat yourself up about it because feelings of disappointment and guilt could lead you to just give up. Acknowledge a diet lapse, but don’t let it get out of control.
3. Get back on track right away – Don’t let a diet break today become a week of diet failure. If you ate something you shouldn’t have, don’t focus on it, instead plan your next meals with your food intake back on track. If you didn’t go walking today, make sure you schedule extra steps in tomorrow.
4. Be kind to yourself – If you break your diet, talk to yourself the way you’d give kind support to a friend! Instead of thinking “You are such a failure, and you’ll never succeed” – you should think “Yes you ate a donut this afternoon because you were feeling tired, but don’t worry! Let’s go for a longer walk this afternoon to burn off the extra calories”
