I hated Pre-Calculus in high school. The teacher hated me. There was no way I could get an A so I braced myself to get a C.
My feisty mother did not buy into the above comments at all. I tried to explain there was no point to her, but she gave me the same look when I would I fall off my bike, miss a shot in basketball, or didn’t get something on the first try…the “well, you should try harder” look. She made me visit this awful teacher two mornings a week for a month. Needless to say, I ended up with an A in the class, ended up loving the teacher, and once again, my mom was right [sigh]
This past week, I along with several clients in our program started our 21 Days + 21 Foods Challenge. For 21 days, I only eat the healthy 21 foods I select. Its probably the easiest and most effective diet program I have done in all my years of training.
Five days in, I ate pizza. No, no, no, I inhaled the pizza this past Saturday night. I can tell you the millions reasons why I really had no choice but to eat it. They are all excuses and the insurmountable guilt consumed me the rest of the night. I didn’t have a healthy option ready for me to eat, therefore I took the easy route and ate 3 slices of pizza!
This morning when I woke up I thought about the dark chocolate chips in the pantry, I mean I already ate pizza so I guess this plan won’t work for me. Then I heard it, that voice in my head yet again to try harder. My usual 1 mile run turned into a 3 mile run this morning. I spent most of the afternoon prepping my food to make sure pizza is not my only option. I guess you can say I learned my lesson. I am ready this week.
We have all been there…the I already messed up so what’s the point. Let me be the first to tell you, we all mess up, its part of the learning curve. I think its what makes us better! Michael Jordan missed big shots in his career, Tom Brady barely got drafted out of college and I am sure somewhere in America a fitness expert might be eating some pizza.
Always ask yourself:
How bad do I want it?
What did I learn?
How am I going to make it better?
When I get to Day 21 and this pizza incident (or maybe a future dark chocolate incident) is my only slip up, I know I will be pleased with my results and the effort I made to try harder after I thought I failed the entire process.