Today I have been thinking. Yesterday my blog was about the apparent failure I had when I went to MacDonald's for dinner. I am now beginning to regret thinking that and there are a number of reasons why.
Firstly the word itself: failure. The Oxford English Dictionary declares that to fail is to "be unsuccessful in achieving one's goal." So then I ask myself, did I fail yesterday? Obviously the answer is ambiguous. Yes, I failed to eat healthily at one point during the day; and no, I am still trying to eat healthier and I haven't given up on the journey. I have picked myself up, brushed myself off and kept going. So I haven't actually failed.
Additionally, I am still losing weight. Last week I lost 2lbs and am 2lbs away from having lost a stone since the beginning of my journey. There have only been two weeks where I have maintained and one week where I gained; I wouldn't classify that as a failure.
I have also joined a gym to ensure that I exercise regularly and am walking a considerable amount each day, something I was not doing before Christmas. So have I failed? Again...no.
Along the way, I have had takeaways, I have had alcohol, I have had sweets and crisps but all in moderation. None of the aforementioned junk food has stopped me from wanting to continue my journey nor has it made me go back to eating and drinking the way I was before I started this. I am slimmer, fitter, less round and I no longer feel I need a bra to hold in my, what once were, ever-growing breasts (eke moobs).
Because of this, I do not, nor have ever felt, like a failure. I have felt annoyed with myself, I have felt disappointed and a little down because I have sometimes succumbed to the occasional treat or junk food. In fact, if anything, I feel like a winner; well, like I am winning at the very least. I am doing what I set out to do and am continuing on that journey. I mean, for heaven's sake, I've written 63 blogs (if you include this one), lost 12lbs and am fitter and more energise than I have been in a long time.
So really, I have to take control of the words I use, because I need to stop telling myself each time I slip up one time or forget to do something, that I failed. I haven't. Eating a takeaway isn't failing, it's not eating healthily that day, it's a blip on a long road, it's a slight detour before I get back on the right track and continue down the road I want to keep travelling. If I tell myself I have failed, it's negating and removing all the positive things I have done over the last 63 days and may be something that derails me...and that is not going to happen.
So now I am going to watch my language (not in the profane sense of the idiom) and stop telling myself that I have failed. If I give up on this journey and go back to the way I was, then I will have failed. So long as I am on this journey, no amount of takeaways every now and again, no amount of alcohol in moderation, no amount of crisps once in a blue moon is going tome me a failure. Instead it is simply a pothole on the road to my eventual goal and something that I can fix and continue on my way. And so long as I keep doing that, I will be that healthy person in the end.
Don't let words make you down. Don't tell yourself you have failed. You haven't and it is a long journey. Expect potholes and craters in the road that sometimes you will stumble into. So long as you pull yourself out, dust yourself off and keep going, you have never failed!
Thank you journalgirl, for pointing this out yesterday (I think your word was 'hiccup'! Perfect!
Thanks for reading.
Stay strong. Stay honest.
Sean