If you’ve been with me for any length of time you know I am on a weight loss healthier lifestyle journey, you may also know that my 29th birthday was last week. To celebrate my husband, our kids, and I went to Chick-Fil-A on my birthday and I got a bottle of my favorite wine! Then the Saturday following my birthday we invited a few family members and close friends over for s’mores to celebrate and on Sunday night we celebrated again with my husbands family at family dinner (which consisted of lasagna, salad, bread, strawberry pie, and Dutch apple pie-my favorite)! Needless to say, my healthier eating habits went out the window. I gained 4lbs back after busting my butt to lose 20lbs by my birthday. If that wasn’t a set back I don’t know what is.

At first I was VERY sad about my gain, then I got angry (like REALLY ANGRY) at myself. The truth, no matter how much I hate to admit it, was that I had no one to blame but me. I chose to eat those unhealthy meals and drink that wine. Literally, I requested Chick-Fil-A, the s’mores, and the family dinner meal. I had no one to blame but me.

I spent multiple days being so mad at myself. I even reprimanded myself by not eating anything but dinner and 1 glass of water for a day (you read that right and yes, I know that’s not ok). I worked out twice as much as normal with no water for days. Then, I woke up one day realizing that I always encouraging those that had a “bad week” and gained a few pounds but I wasn’t being even remotely nice to myself. I gave grace to everyone but me.

So I stopped. I stopped hating myself, I stopped refusing my body the fuel it needed to keep going, I gave myself grace. I refocused and I stopped stressing. Then weigh in day came around. I hadn’t gone back to the weight I had been at (189lbs) but I came close (190lbs). I wasn’t extremely happy but I wasn’t as mad as I had been.

I decided to get back on track, no matter how challenging. I came up with 5 ways to stay motivated:

• Talk about it! Telling others about my goals will hold me accountable!!
• Do a workout program. The kind that have a certain amount of days in them (Clean Week, 21 day fix, 100 Morning Meltdown) and check the days off as I go.
• Give grace (this one is huge for me). Not every day will be an A+ day and that’s ok.
• Compete with who I was yesterday!
• Take progress pictures! I am a super visual person so SEEING the difference in my body and how my clothes fit are HUGE for me.

I would be lying if I said that in the last week I’ve gotten my mind back to where it should be. For many reasons, right now my mind is fighting my heart and body when it comes to working out and eating right but I made a commitment to myself to show up every day and do my best. Some days my best is going full beast mode in my workout but other days I’m in literal tears (not due to pain haha!) during my workout. It doesn’t matter how you show up for yourself, it matters THAT you show up for yourself.

I had to remind myself that my setback is not my failure. My setback is an opportunity for an amazing comeback! Failure would be if my setback became permanent. If I had decided that I wasn’t important enough to keep trying then I would’ve failed. But I didn’t.

Have you had a setback? Let me know about it in the comments and how you’re showing up for yourself!

Much Love, R