Plan to fail!
 

I figured this might be a pretty relevant topic with Christmas quickly approaching and a time of year where we all naturally begin eating a rather large portion of food!

We had our office Christmas party on Thursday night - a really good night as 120 of us crowded into a hotel restaurant and drank the night away. On Friday this was followed up by a half a day fuddle of laughs and snack food.

I knew, before I even went out on Thursday night, that come Friday I was going to be eating as much junk as humanly possible during the daytime. I would be hungover, tired and lack any willpower. I was going to fail on Friday and that was fine. I wasn't going to beat myself up about it.

BUT, I had to have a way of getting back on track - for a process to kick in that meant I wouldn't feel guilty about it and could just move on happily. I came up with this rule last year after the same thing.

Last year, we went out, got drunk, I ate junk food during the day. But, when I got home, I was still tired, had cravings for more food, couldn't be bothered to cook so ordered takeaway. Then I finished up the remains of the takeaway the following day - felt a bit crap again and missed my weekend workouts.

All in all, I failed repeatedly over the course of the next week, struggling to get back on track and beating myself about it.

So, I made a rule for myself – to prevent this from happening again:

Never fail twice in a row.

Failing once is fine, it’s good. It means I’ve pushed myself to a limit. That’s awesome. Failing twice in a row, however, means I haven’t planned ahead and don’t know how I will get back on track. This can quickly lead to feelings of guilt and depression that I’m not good enough to succeed.

So, this year, I only wanted to fail the once. I was going to fail during the day and eat whatever I wanted. And I did. I didn’t have the mental capacity after going out the previous night to do anything else.

But, I wanted a good healthy meal when I got home – something I knew I wouldn’t cook for myself because I would be too tired. That’s why, on Thursday before I went out, I cooked then. Made it all up, stuck it in the fridge all ready to be popped in the microwave when I got home on the Friday evening.

Voila. Friday evening came and I didn’t order takeaway. I ate my healthy meal I had pre-prepared. Today, I felt better about myself and was able to do my Saturday morning workout. I’m already back on track because I planned ahead.

I wanted to share this rule with you. Let’s face it, we are all going to fail. We should be aiming to fail – failing is good. It means we’re taking active steps to improve our lives. Along the way we’re going to screw up. But, it is here we have a choice.

Either screw up, get depressed that it’s happened and screw up again. OR, plan for the screw ups.

Look forward to when you fail. Have a plan in place to get back on track straight after and prevent yourself failing twice in a row.

In terms of creating a plan for yourself, it could take some trial and error. If you’re like me, when you spend a meal stuffing your face full of junk food, make sure you have a healthy meal ready to go for whenever you need.

I spend an hour most Sunday’s bulk cooking a few healthy meals and sticking them in the freezer. Whenever I can’t be bothered to cook, feel hungover or ill, am short on time, then I can just crack one out, heat it up and away I go.

If I miss a workout, something else comes up and gets in the way, I write a new time immediately on the calendar when I will do the workout – then I put my workout clothes in the middle of the living room they are always in site and I’m reminded every time I walk past them.

My plan for next year’s Christmas party is to take it one step further and make myself a healthy lunch for the Friday in advance. Eat that before the fuddle and then avoid the snacks as much as possible (I’ll probably still eat them, but hopefully not as many!).

Never fail twice in a row. Make a plan now for the next time you fail. That way, when you do fail, you won’t feel flustered or depressed – you’ll know exactly what you need to do get yourself back on track.

Love your post! I have been having a really hard time getting back on track, and reading this made something click for some reason :) I will be on holiday next week and it will be difficult, but looking forward to coming back, and preparing/freezing meals as a way to get back on track.

Thanks for posting!

Thanks for the informative post :)

Nice~ Thanks for this!

I love this and such a good reminder...

Especially with the three Christmas dinners in a row I'm gonna be at. I don't want anxiety and to be bogged down by fear. I want to have fun and enjoy myself.

So I'm gonna start planning ahead now... Big dinner means a super healthy lunch! It means I can start now by eating much more conscious the days before and after.

Plan to fail...I like that :D

I can totally relate to this. I've lost 6 pounds and 5 days ago my brother had a birthday get together and let's just say I ate a little more than I should have...And for the past 5 days I haven't worked out and haven't eaten properly...

Never fail twice in a row cuz it'll just keep going.

Loved this!! :D

Thanks everyone!

Hope you all have a great Christmas! :D

Thanks for your sharing. We will have to try to accomplish his purpose

Very thought provoking post.

Thank you.

As a long term maintainer, who found myself on the stress side of struggling this summer. a big reminder!

Me first!

I agree that "plan to fail" is important, even if my application is a bit different.

This whole process requires being brutally honest with ourselves. That could mean a food scale and measuring spoon for accurate calorie counting, or it could mean just staying out of situations that you know good and well you constantly fail in. And once you know where you fail, figure out where you are strong and use that to build in some wiggle room.

I have to either eat very little at breakfast or skip dinner, because when I am at home, I WILL go over my calories for lunch. I fail at not grazing, fail so hard, every time, so I have mostly adjusted elsewhere instead of letting it ruin my plan over and over. I have the "willpower" (or whatever is going on digestive wise) to hold out first thing in the morning or in the evening, so I make sure I do that, even if I think I can spare the calories, because I WILL screw up multiple times a week at lunch.

Hey Jeminijad,

I agree that avoiding situations that can cause you to fail is a good step. Why put yourself in a position where you know you struggle. I suppose the problem could be that eventually you will find yourself back in that position where you do fail and relying on willpower alone is a setup for disaster.

What I'm wondering is, if instead of just avoiding a certain situation (not saying this is wrong - just not always possible) we learned what causes us to act in such a way when the situation arises. If we can understand the triggers of our behaviours, then we can learn to change the actions we take (slowly, but surely).


Love this bit. I think we all focus too much on the things we need to improve rather than looking back at our accomplishments and how much we've grown. This is even more relevant when we do fail - as usually we fail when we've pushed ourselves to change (which is good!).