It's Not About The MistakesBut How You Recover

s you go about your weight loss program, there's no question that there are going to be at leasta few hard times. No one should ever expect absolute perfection from themselves as this issimply just not going to happen.

Instead, what you need to do is prepare yourself for the chance of making mistakes and then figure outexactly what you're going to do to keep yourself on track again.

The biggest reasons why people fail to have success with their program is actually not because they didthat or didn't do something else, rather, it's because when they had that slip-up, they lost control anddecided to just throw in the towel.

It's not so much about the mistakes that you make as you progress through the program that will hinderyour progress – they may influence progress slightly, there's no question about that, but it's how yourecover from those mistakes and how quickly you're able to move right back onto the plan that's reallygoing to determine whether or not you see the success you're looking for.

Those who are able to recover very quickly and snap right back into it will move on and hardly noticethat tiny glitch in their progress.

Those who sit there and dwell on the mistake though and let the slip-up impact them for hours or evendays are much more likely to struggle overall and to eventually just fall off the program entirely.

If you want to beat this issue and be able to recover quickly after a mistake is made, you're going toneed a game plan for how to do so.

Let's go over a few of the important tips that you should know about how to recover like a champ andget right back on that weight loss program again.

Recovery Tip #1: Anticipate Potential Problems

The very first thing that you should be doing to improve how well you can recover when you encountera problem is to first anticipate those problems in the first place.

Before you even get started with your weight loss program, take some time to come up with a list ofissues that may arise as you progress through. Don't hold yourself back during this process either –think of absolutely everything you can that could cause the potential for error.

This could be as simple as sleeping through your alarm and failing to get in that early morning workoutor being stuck in traffic without a snack on hand with a rumbling tummy.

Whatever you think will be a problem for you and could cause you to move away from the programplan, write it down.

A

This is going to help accomplish two things. First, just by writing it down on paper it gets the idea outthere. Now you can see some of your potential obstacles and often, you may find that they really aren'tthat bad at all.

Sometimes we make things to be much more than they really are and that can prevent us from tryingfrom the start. We may believe there are too many hurdles that we'll have to overcome on the road tosuccess, but once you've identified these hurdles, you might just be feeling quite a bit more confidentabout your chances to make it through the program.

Second, the next benefit you're going to get comes from the second action step that you have to take inthis exercise. Once you have those potential hurdles listed down, the next thing that you're going to dois come up with a viable solution for how to overcome them.

For instance, let's use the hurdle of sleeping through your alarm for instance. If you do happen to sleep20 minutes late and can't get to the gym on time before work starts, consider having a back-up circuitstyle workout that you can turn to that can be performed right in your very own living room.

You can easily get in a full body circuit in under 15 minutes so as long as you do still have a few minutesto spare, this doesn't mean you have to forgo your workout entirely.

Have this workout already pre-planned and ready to go so if you do find yourself waking up late, you'realready to go with your stand-in solution.

If you sleep so long that you're late for work already, then you can just turn to this solution later on inthe evening when you get home. Most people should be able to fit a fifteen minute workout into theirday if they do want to reach their goals bad enough.

Right now try and come up with two to three different solutions for each hurdle that you identified. Thisis the second benefit that listing those hurdles provides you with – an easy way 'out'. Now, what usedto be a program mistake simply becomes a change of direction. You put your solution into action andyou're right back with the program.

When you have a solution like this ready to go, it'll also help to keep you from dwelling on the mistakeas instead you'll be putting your focus and concentration on that solution itself.

Recovery Tip #2: Use Self Talk To Get Back Into The Game

Now, the second tip that you can use to improve your recovery from any program slip-ups that do occuris positive self-talk.

Think back to the last time you made an error on your diet or skipped a workout session. What kind ofthoughts were running through your mind? What did you tell yourself at that point about how you wereprogressing onwards?

If you take inventory of what you typically tell yourself, you're very likely to find out that it's anythingbut positive.

Rather, you're completely degrading yourself and may even be taking a shot at your self-worth.

Do this often enough and now not only are you feeling horrible about yourself, but you're less confidentabout your ability to continue.

If you want to instantly move past this hurdle and recovery quickly, instead of saying negative self-statements, focus on the positive.

This could be statements about what you're going to do to get right back on track. For example, let's sayyou just ate a piece of cake at dinner that you shouldn't have.

Instead of telling yourself that you're a moron who can't follow a diet if your life depended on it, tellyourself that you made a mistake but are even more motivated now to eat right tomorrow.

This instantly switches the mindset you have from focusing on the past mistake to focusing on the futureand making sure that the future is more positive.

Or, this self-statement that you use to change around your focus could be on something else that youhave done earlier that did follow the plan.

Using our cake example from above, rather than berating yourself for indulging in that piece of cake,remind yourself of how well you ate at lunch.

While this isn't meant to excuse the behaviour of eating the case, it is meant to simply show yourselfthat you can follow the diet as intended when you put your mind to it. By bringing the positive back tothe top of your mind you will boost your self-belief in your ability to move forward.

Self-talk does play an extremely large role on how fast you can recover from a program mistake so donot underestimate. You may feel a little silly thinking about having conversations with yourself, butthose who do this see better results because of it.

Recovery Tip #3: Visualize Success

Another key technique that you should be doing as you go about your program to help you recoverquickly from any hurdles that you may face is taking the time out to actually visualize your success.

Now, you can do this in two different ways. What some people will prefer to do is to actually visualizethe mistake happening and then visualize themselves overcoming it with ease.

This then increases the confidence that you have in your ability to overcome obstacles and stay thecourse of the program. Those who take this route tend to feel much more capable of handling anythingthat life throws their way and thus feel less tentative about the whole process in general.

Or, the second method you can use with your visualizations comes immediately after the hurdle occurs.When you're feeling down because of the mistake that happened, take a moment to visualize yourself inthe same situation but succeeding. By doing this, you immediately reframe your mind and again put it ina more positive place.

Visualize what it will feel like when you do achieve the long-term goal that you have set so that you canthen also fixate on that feeling of success.

This should be enough to get you instantly motivated again so that you can move right on forwardrather than dwelling on that past mistake.

You must come to realize in all of this that you cannot change the past but you can change the future.Visualize yourself succeeding will help you do that.

Recovery Tip #4: Immediately Take Corrective Action

The fourth tip that we have that will help you recover very well from any slip-up that does occur is totake corrective action immediately. This is applicable to those who are at the point of realizing theymade the mistake and have come to terms with the fact it happened.

As soon as you acknowledge that it was made, also acknowledge that corrective action should be taken.This is a very good way to ensure that you don't let that slip-up impact your progress.

For instance, let's say that you failed to stick with your diet and had a mid-afternoon snack of a bagelwith cream cheese. You should have had your yogurt with an apple but that bagel was just calling yourname.

Now that the damage is done, take corrective action to undue it. Rather than just chalking it up as a badmove and continuing on as is, instead, do something to overcome that mistake. Cut out thecarbohydrates that you had scheduled in the next few meals and you will have easily made up for thatdiet slip-up altogether.

Those who can start doing this and not only get past the mistake but then also overcompensate formaking it will really boost their chances of success because then the slip-up will not effect them hardlyat all.

Obviously this is easier said than done and it will take some practice getting into the habit of makingthese corrective changes in your program but once you get the hang of it, it'll be easier and easier.

Some slip-ups also may be too great to overcome and can't be reversed and that's fine too. You shouldjust attempt to correct any mistakes as much as possible. Once again, don't expect perfection fromyourself but do expect a hard effort.

Everyone can put in a hard effort when they are striving for a goal that they really want to reach.

Recovery Tip #5: Get The Support You Need

Finally, the last recovery tip that you should keep in mind as you go through the program so that thosemistakes don't completely take you out of the program altogether is to make sure that you are gettingthe support you need.

In some cases it may be underlying emotional reasons that are causing these slip-ups to take place.

For instance, if you are constantly eating late at night because you are depressed about your currentwork or love-life situation, you have a very strong tendency towards emotional eating.

Or, maybe stress is causing you to overeat late at night and it's the only way you know how to seekcomfort.

In a situation like this, one of the best ways to improve your recovery rate is to actually turn to someoutside help. Often it won't be until you can get whatever these emotional issues that you're dealingwith under control that you are then able to put these mistakes behind you.

Instead, they'll just keep occurring and occurring and slowly, it'll begin to wear on your self-esteem.

Likewise, perhaps the mistake you're making of never getting to the gym is not so much that you aren'tmotivated to exercise, but more that you are embarrassed to go because you don't really understandwhat you're doing and are worried what others will think of you.

If that's the situation at hand, that's a very simple quick fix – book a session with a personal trainer whocan show you how to do the exercises properly and you'll be well on your way.

Help is there for you to use if you need it and it's vital that you realize this for success. Sometimes weneed that outside support to get us through the hard times and when we finally do get it, we overcomeour hurdles with no problem at all.

Rather than sitting there and dwelling on the fact that you keep slipping up and will never achievesuccess, take the action steps you need to do so that the hurdle doesn't occur again.

Many of the diet and exercise hurdles you face are preventable with a little effort in how you'reapproaching your program so finding out a better approach to use will very often completely removethat particular hurdle from happening.

So there you have five key tips that you should remember so that you don't let a little diet or workoutmistake throw you completely off course.

Never forget to reward yourself for your effort either. So many people are so quick to beratethemselves on any little small mistake that is made but then will completely overlook all the good thatthey are doing.

If you can find that nice balance where you are proud of what you're accomplishing and feel good aboutthe direction that you're moving, you'll find that these slip-ups that you do have don't impact you nearlyas much.

You'll still feel good about how you've done so far and you'll realize that this minor mistake is really atiny speed bump on the path to success.