Plan for failure.\u00a0 Hey — don\u2019t panic!\u00a0 I didn\u2019t say \u201cplan to fail.\u201d\u00a0 You are planning to win.\u00a0 But along the path to the finish line there will be many stumbles and falls.\u00a0 You will lose some battles on the way to winning the war.<\/p>\n
So get ready for the temporary defeats so they won\u2019t become permanent ones.\u00a0 Decide how you will deal with lapses from your plan.<\/p>\n
One book I read recommended setting a weekly weight loss goal — say two pounds. If at the end of the week you haven\u2019t lost two pounds, you go into extreme mode until those pounds are gone.\u00a0 He recommended eating only nuts, seeds, and vegetables — a sort of modified fast — until you are at your goal. Then you go back to the regular plan.\u00a0 You might want to do a juice fast, or even a water fast, to get you back on target.\u00a0 If you have a bad week, you make up for it.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t think that will work for you?\u00a0 How about an extra exercise regimen?\u00a0 If you eat a dessert, figure out how many calories it contains.\u00a0 A piece of chocolate cake might have 500 calories, for instance.\u00a0 It takes 25 steps to burn 1 calorie for most folks.\u00a0 So you would need to add 12,500 steps to your regular total to make that chocolate cake go away.\u00a0 Too much for one day for you?\u00a0 Break it up and add extra steps each day for the next week until you have 12,500 extra steps logged.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a lot of work — but it will make you appreciate what that cake means in terms of calories alone.\u00a0 That\u2019s without considering the effects on blood sugar and the whole chain of negative hormonal events that happen when you eat it.\u00a0 It will also make you think twice before you eat another piece when it is offered to you.<\/p>\n
The most deadly thought pattern is, \u201cOh well, I\u2019ve blown it now. I might as well pig out.\u201d\u00a0You drop into a \u201cfail\u201d pattern. Each time you go there, it\u2019s harder to get out.\u00a0 So don\u2019t go there.\u00a0 Plan to get up again immediately.<\/p>\n
One of my favorite verses is Micah 7:8,\u00a0 \u201cRejoice not against me, O mine enemy. When I fall, I shall arise. When I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a good motto!\u00a0 I recommend that you make it your own.<\/p>\n
Eating to live and living for Christ,<\/p>\n
Susan Jordan Brown<\/p>\n
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Plan for failure.\u00a0 Hey — don\u2019t panic!\u00a0 I didn\u2019t say \u201cplan to fail.\u201d\u00a0 You are planning to win.\u00a0 But along the path to the finish line there will be many stumbles and falls.\u00a0 You will lose some battles on the way to winning the war. So get ready for the temporary defeats so they won\u2019t…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":423,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[505,4,62,506,11],"class_list":["post-1711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-helpful-tips","tag-chocolate-cake","tag-diet","tag-failure","tag-fast","tag-steps"],"yoast_head":"\n