Yesterday Hazel and I flew to Salt Lake City so I could get my hair done. (When your hair is as complicated as mine, you’ll go out of your way to find someone who does it right. 😂)

Our return flight was delayed multiple times, so we had to kill several hours, which we did by walking around the airport.

We’d been up since 2:30 AM, we were tired, and Hazel was getting a little stressed.

It didn’t help that she hates those airport pet relief areas, so she wouldn’t go potty.

Still, everything was going fine…

Until a group of girls on skateboards came sailing past us, chattering excitedly and loudly.

“BOO-WOO-WOO-WOO-WOO!!!” Hazel suddenly bellowed as the skateboard girls blew by.

“Hey! Quiet!!” I yelled, startled.

But there was no shutting her up.

She loudly barked at the skateboard girls in full-on Malinois mode for about twenty seconds, and no matter what I said or did, she would NOT stop.

Of course, once they were gone, she settled right down. It was like nothing had happened.

But the damage was done.

Everyone nearby stared at us in disgust, including one particularly offended older lady, who shook her head and glared.

Next thing I knew, the airport manager was marching up to us. “Hey, are we going to have a problem here?” she asked.

“No, we don’t have a problem,” I assured her. “We’re just really tired. It’s been a long day and skateboards aren’t her thing. She’s afraid of them, and they startled her, and she barked.” 

After that, it was finally time to board our flight, so Hazel and I walked onto the plane with the other passengers in our zone and got settled in our seat.

Suddenly, the captain appeared in the cockpit door and made a beeline for us. “Hey, we heard about what happened with your dog. Are we going to have a problem?” he asked.

“No, we’re not going to have a problem,” I replied, and repeated what I’d said to the airport manager. It seemed to satisfy him.

So while we were not actually kicked off the plane…it was a close call.

What you may not realize is that Hazel has been on forty-seven different flights with me across the country. We’ve been to airports in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Louisville, Minneapolis, Denver…and we’ve been to Salt Lake City dozens of times now.

And in ALLLLL that time, Hazel has never done anything like what she did yesterday when those skateboarders raced by.

Plus, she had to be put through rigorous testing to even be approved to fly with me, and she passed with flying colors.

I’ve even trained her multiple times to ignore skateboards (I knew she was afraid of them), and she’s gotten better and better.

But thanks to ONE bad experience (no one was hurt, but she scared a lot of people), I’m not sure if I’ll be able to keep flying with her. We’ll just have to see.

It’s too bad that one bad moment can sometimes completely derail everything you’ve worked for.

Sometimes those bad moments are partly – or completely – outside our control. (Seriously, who rides skateboards in the airport??)

But other times WE are the ones who take one bad moment and turn it into another, and another, and another.

I see this a lot with people who struggle to stay on track.

They eat too much, or eat something we avoid in weight loss mode, or eat late.

Then they tell themselves, “Well, I’ve already messed it up, I may as well eat what I want all weekend and start over on Monday.”

Then Monday comes around, and it’s, “Well, I’m already off track, so I may as well wait until next Monday. Besides, it’s my granddaughter’s birthday this week and I want some birthday cake.”

On and on it goes.

Another thing you may not realize is that turning one cheat into one hundred cheats is the thinking of someone whose identity is at least, in part, “someone with a weight problem”…

Whereas putting the brakes on that thought and getting right back on track is the thinking of a person who does not struggle with their weight (or is in the process of transforming themselves into someone who doesn’t struggle with their weight).

In both cases, it’s about your identity.

When you believe, deep down, that you’re someone with a weight problem, it will feel easier to think and act like someone with a weight problem.

When you believe, deep down, that you’re someone who comfortably stays at a healthy weight, it will feel easier to think and act like someone who comfortably stays at a healthy weight.

So if doing what it takes to regain weight (or stay where you’re at) feels pretty darn easy to you, odds are that at least part of your identity is “someone with a weight problem.”

Next time you catch yourself wanting to go into your old patterns, recognize that it’s your “fat identity” talking, and honestly ask yourself: “If I were someone who gets and stays at a healthy weight, is this really what I would do?”

I think you’ll be surprised by the answer.