Let's face it, none of us are perfect. On our quest to be healthy downsizing individuals we get on the horse, we fall off the horse and then we get back on the horse several times. At the end of the journey I'll be happy if I can look back and mostly see myself at least trying to get back on the horse. Worst case scenario I'm just sitting around waving bye bye to the horse.

So what do you do to get yourself back up on the horse after a failure? What do you do to sidestep those obstacles that keep you down? My go-to motivators are:

- I stock up on hummus. I usually have lots of healthy things in the house but the moment I buy hummus it's like "let's do this!"
- I distract myself from hunger with a cup of green tea.
- I pull out my saved stack of health magazines and cut out some inspirational picture and work on my motivational board.
- I replace the motivational quotes around my close and on the refrigerator.
- I watch part of "The Skinny on Obesity" series on youtube and that makes me perk right up!
- I watch a fitness infomercial
- I think to myself "what is Gwyneth Paltrow eating for lunch right now?"

Watching extreme weight loss with Chris Powell.

I read lots on here, read articles in magazines and on the web about health and fitness.

Look at my charts of where I was compared to where I am now, if I really need motivation I'll look back at times I fell off track, great motivator for not going back.

The most important thing I've learned is to take it as a lesson, not a failure. In the past I would immediately give up and go back to all my bad habits.

I've only had a couple days where I really went off track since I started in March. One was when I was really stressed out about work and bought a bottle of wine and a frozen pizza but planned to portion it out and stay within my calorie limit. Lets just say that did not happen. Lesson learned, I do not have the self control for a dinner of pizza and wine yet, but I will get there.

I get on here.
I look at my weight charts.

Hmm, what do I do. Back when I lost 40 pounds a few years ago, I did so really slowly. I wasn't focused on weight loss. I figured that would just be the consequence of eating healthier. So I only felt like I failed when I ate way too much unhealthy stuff or huge portions. When that happened, I analyzed why it happened and tried to find ways to prevent it from happening again.

Now that I'm losing regain weight, I'm less serene. I want it off. From experience, I know what works for me. So when I'm not behaving that way, I make myself. Forcing myself to be on plan for a couple days puts my head back in the game. I don't wait for my mind to be ready before behaving right. I know that behaving right will make my mind ready.

I also like to research. If I'm dropping calories, I find it fun to do some menus on fitday to see how to pack my nutritional needs into a low calorie number. Yes, I enjoy getting my nerd on.

As soon as I find myself on 3FC, I know **** is about to hit the fan and it's time to be serious.

One of the other snacks that I tend to find comfort in when I'm motivating myself to lose weight is Laughing Cow light cheese wedges. If I'm snacking on other things like chips and cookies (occasionally fine, but not DAILY!!), then I know I'm not taking anything seriously.

If I've completely gone off the rails, eating junk at most meals, ridiculous portion sizes and my two major food groups are salt a sugar..... I fast.

I'll water fast for 3 days to a week. That completely resets my palate. Fruit tastes sweet again, I can taste the sodium in vegetables and I can discern when I'm actually hungry vs a craving. Like hitting cntrl-alt-delete on a pc.

I look up new recipes to get me excited and planning future healthy dinners, and I stock up on my rote, tried'n'true breakfast and lunch options to take thinking out of the equation for non-dinner foods.

I get rid of any offending food that I've been "trying to eat up so it's gone"

I arrange for some kind of healthy treat or splurge so I still feel like I'm indulging - if I try to go too ascetic "getting back on track," it doesn't work. (Lately it's been those silly greek yogurt fruit cups. Normally I'd say they're just sugar bombs and walk away, but eating one of those for dessert instead of cookies? Good deal.)

This is very good. I know sometimes I make the mistake of waiting for divine motivation lol before I get sick of myself and get back on track. But understanding that being off sugar/carbs makes me more sane I have to force myself to stop eating those full stop! After a few days I go from crazy monster to normal human again.

I get on here and start and myfitpal and log my calories. I also make a plan for the gym that week.

I eat a huge salad. I'm talking 16oz of baby spinach, mixed greens, carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers and broccoli slaw. Once I finish eating all of that salad, I'm stuffed. I couldn't eat junk if I wanted to and then I remind myself what a powerful weapon stuffing myself full of healthy raw veggies is. It keeps me full and on plan.

I do a little "through the years" photo safari tour through our digital pictures to remind myself why I'm making the effort in the first place.

Like you point out- we are all human and make mistakes- it's what we DO with side-steps (mistakes) is who we are to ourselves and and our own happiness.

When I misstep, I just remind myself, it took many years to get this heavy, so it will take a while and WORK to undo what I did to my body.

Thank you for your uplifting and mindful post!

-- throw away any food I have left of whatever treat made me derail (which is almost always what causes the derail; note I do not belong to the clean plate club )

-- read and post on 3FC.

-- exercise

Yep, I get out and go grocery shopping and start cooking so I have a bunch of no-brainer meals to eat.