Just Start Again

It’s January 4th , and I have already broken my New Year’s resolution.

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I took my own advice this year and set a really small, attainable resolution: A sugar-free January. I just wanted to spend the first month of the year reducing some of the holiday food damage that I put my body through. I don’t know about you, but the holidays kill me with the sweets…I simply can’t resist the pumpkin pie, the specialty chocolates and those dang cookies that my neighbor always drops on my doorstep.

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This December, my consumption of sweets was particularly out of control. So, I decided to take a month off of sugar to just reset a bit. Not a huge task really. I’ve done it before and it’s usually fairly easy and my body and mood are always grateful for the break. So, this year I started off great: January 1 st I consumed no sugar at all. Same with the 2nd and 3rd . On day #4 one of my kids went out to lunch with Grandma and then so very thoughtfully brought me home a chocolate brownie. I looked at that brownie and thought, “I really don’t want to eat this right now. It is going to blow my January-sugar-cleanse.” I looked at my daughter…she was literally vibrating with joy and pride and excitement because she was so thrilled with herself for bringing me a gift. I forced a huge smile, hugged and kissed her, praised her copiously for thinking of me…and I ate the damn brownie.

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What about my New Year’s Resolution?! What about my goal?! Yes, I ate the brownie and I blew my resolution by the 4th. What does this mean? Well, people, it doesn’t really mean anything. So what! Who freaking cares! It does not mean that I am a failure or that I can’t follow through with things, or whatever other rubbish I want to tell myself. Guess what, I can just start again. And I have. It’s the 5 th and I had no sugar today. What I did not do was use this “failure” as an excuse to dive head-first into a week-long sugar-consuming frenzy. I did not tell myself, “You’ve already blown it, what’s the point” and then polish off the pint of ice cream in the freezer. I did not let this minor sidestep completely derail me. Instead, I made the choice to just start again.

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When you were 9 months old and learning to walk, you fell down a lot. Learning to do something new is hard. When you fell down, you tried again. Sure, you were so frustrated you cried sometimes, maybe even threw yourself on the ground and had a full-blown tantrum. Nevertheless, you grabbed the edge of the coffee table with your pudgy little hands, pulled yourself up, and tried the walking thing again. And again. And again. And now, presumably, you know how to walk. You instinctively made the decision to just start again.

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This applies to just about everything. You missed a day of working out…start over tomorrow. You drank wine on Tuesday…don’t drink on Wednesday. You overslept today…set 2 alarms tomorrow. You ate a supersized cheeseburger with chili fries for lunch…eat a small salad for dinner. Just start again. As soon as you can. Giving up is really the only thing that guarantees failure. If you want something, if you are craving a change, don’t give up when you encounter a
minor setback. Don’t give up when you make a mistake. Don’t give up…Just start again.

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