It's not about how many times you fail, but how many times you get up again.

Now, I'm not new to losing weight. Like so many others I have done this countless times before. I have succeeded and I have failed. A couple of times I have managed to keep the lost pounds away for a while, but I have always gained it back eventually. The last few years I have been caught in the vicious circle of yo-yo dieting,

Sound familiar? I'm sure it does, we have all been there.

It's very disheartening to think that I have always failed before. My mind insists that I'm just not strong enough to do it, so why even try. Usually when I finally get myself to start dieting again, I do so with scepticism, wondering how many weeks it'll be this time before I fail again. In other words, I'm setting myself up to fail before I have even started.

That just won't do. If I believe I'll fail, I'm not even giving myself a chance. I'm refusing to do that this time, so I had to find a way to silence that little voice in my head whispering about past failures. Simply ignoring it wasn't going to do the trick so I needed a strong counter-argument. Then I realized that it wasn't the truth in the first place. I have not failed. The old wisdom "it's not about how many times you fail, but how many times you get up again" applies to losing weight better than anything. I have not failed. As long as I'm still trying, I have not failed. I have stumbled, I have gotten astray, I have slipped and I have gone back to the starting point and even beyond, but as long as I haven't given up for good, I have not failed.

That thought filled me with optimism and determination. I accepted the fact that my past attempts at losing weight hadn't gotten me where I wanted to be. I also stopped blaming myself for being weak and started thinking what actually made me fail instead. I let go of the frustration I had harbored and decided that past failures don't determine my future success. Having made mistakes in the past doesn't mean I'll repeat them but instead makes then easier to avoid in the future.

This time I won't be starting over with the weight of past failures on my shoulders, but rather with them as my strength, as an ace up my sleeve.

I'm ready to go again. *^-^*