A Rebel in my maintenance program decided to try an indulgence, which we teach you how to do in maintenance in a way that prevents weight regain IF you do it exactly the way I teach it.

But instead of following the maintenance rules around reintroducing foods, she didn’t get back on track, and regained a few pounds.

She KNEW how to get the weight off, or she wouldn’t have been in maintenance in the first place.

Yet she struggled to do what she already knows works because she was too busy beating herself up for messing up in the first place.

When you make bad choices, beating yourself up is a common response.

It’s also a complete waste of time and energy, for the following two reasons:

1) It’s incredibly exhausting, and sucks up bandwidth you could be using to find and implement a solution

2) You feel more and more terrible, which drains your motivation and sends you into hopelessness, which is an action-killer if ever there was one

My sister, Cari, said it SO well…

When you make a bad choice, regret it, and wanna get back on track, beating yourself up is about as helpful as buying a bag of clearance Halloween candy and putting it in a bowl on the counter.

Instead of beating yourself up, here’s what you do instead:

First, be honest with yourself. If you make a bad choice, “forgiving yourself” and repeating it is not being honest with yourself. You should forgive yourself, but not excuse the choice and make it again. THAT is just you lying to yourself.

Second, after you’ve been honest with yourself about the bad choice, what led to it, and what need you were trying to meet, go into problem-solving mode.

What measures can you put into place to ensure it doesn’t happen again?

What food boundaries do you need to put in place and follow to the letter to help you never make that bad choice again?

If this isn’t the first time you made that bad choice, and you did have measures in place, reevaluate them. Why didn’t they work, and what can you do to ensure they DO work next time?

Solving the problem(s) that led to the bad choice, and putting measures in place to prevent it from happening again, is a MUCH better use of your time and energy than beating yourself up. Remember that next time you catch yourself piling on the self-inflicted guilt and shame!

Have you created your free Code Red Lifestyle™ network account yet?

If not, here’s how to get your account!

1) On your computer, create your account at www.CodeRedLifestyle.com/App.

2) If you want the network on a mobile device, go to the App Store or Google Play Store and search for Code Red Lifestyle.