How to manage a relapse so it doesn’t become a collapse!
Let’s talk about how to manage a relapse so it doesn’t become a collapse. You can watch the video I made on this below or keep scrolling if you prefer to read the full blog.
So you’ve been making some changes to your eating habits. Maybe you’ve also been making changes to your exercising habits to. Things are going well, you’re ticking along with those changes. Then suddenly you have a slip up! Maybe those new habits start slipping or maybe the old habits are creeping back in again.
Maybe it was something specific, like you overdid it at the Christmas party. Or maybe you’ve been away on holiday. Or you’ve had a weekend where you’ve just forgotten all the changes you were trying to make. You’ve overdone it, you’ve overeaten, maybe skipped an exercise class. So you feel like you’ve blown it!
When you’ve been dieting forever, it’s easy to get into that ‘all or nothing’ mentality.
It’s too easy to think you’ve completely failed when you have a slip-up. You think you might as well give up. Especially if you’re used to dieting. When you go on a diet, you follow the plan and you’re ‘doing well’. But then if you go off plan, you think you’ve blown it coz you’ve not stuck to it. Might as well forget it all!
Sound familiar? Don’t panic – a relapse doesn’t have to be a complete collapse.
You haven’t failed, you haven’t blown it! It’s all about what you do long term. It’s not about that little relapse, it’s what you do next that makes the difference. Here are some of my tips to help you with this:
1. Recognise that relapse is normal
A relapse is a normal part of making changes to behaviours. Human beings are creatures of habit – we like to do the same things day in, day out. We don’t actually like to change. So when you’re changing your behaviours and trying to do something different – it’s really hard! And that’s an understatement! A slip-up is completely normal, it’s something to expect. Try to be prepared to relapse; expect it and plan for it. Think about how you can work around it. Relapse is inevitable when you’re trying to change, it’s not something to be frightened of, but it’s something to plan for.
2. Draw a line under your relapse
Draw a line under whatever’s gone on. Obviously it’s important to be honest with yourself – recognise when those new habits are slipping or when the old habits are you sneaking back in. Don’t ignore it, notice what’s happening, but observe it without beating yourself up. There’s no need to feel guilty, like I said relapse is just a normal part of behaviour change. Draw that metaphorical line under it and move forward. You can’t change the past, you can’t change what you’ve already done. You can’t take it back, all you can do is learn from it and move forward.
3. Figure out how to get back on track
Then the next thing to think about is how you can get back on track. What’s your first step? What’s the one tweak that you could make that would make the most difference? The thing that would help you to get back into that routine that you were in previously. So for me it’s always sleep! If things have slipped for me it’s usually linked to going to bed late and then it kind of snowballs from there. So if I can get an early night, I get a better night’s sleep, then I know I’m more likely to eat better. Then I’m more likely to do the exercise and feel better. So then it’s like a positive cycle.
What’s your first step to getting back on track? Then have a think about what you can learn from the situation. So what could you do differently next time to help you avoid having a relapse in the first place. Or what would help you to plan to get back on track as soon as possible after the slip-up?
Just to recap:
- Relapse is normal; it’s just part of changing behaviour.
- Draw a line and move forward – you don’t need to feel guilty about slipping up.
- Figure out how you can get back on track. What’s that first step to getting back into your routine?
Also remember you don’t need to do it all perfectly. This is something that holds you back and it’s just dieting mentality, thinking you’ve gotta follow everything perfectly or you’ve failed. That ‘all or nothing’ way of looking at things doesn’t help you.
Get in touch for more help with this.
Remember a relapse doesn’t have to be a collapse – it’s all about what you do next.
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My Weekly Round-up! AKA; what I’ve been up to recently…
- Tea of the week has been Lady Grey – only really been having one cuppa most days. Of course along with my coffee first thing in the morning!
- I’ve done loads more walking this week, but then my little exercise routine has slipped. Only done it once so far this week. Aiming to do it a bit later today and also tomorrow morning, but it’s been one of those weeks! How fitting when I’m talking about relapse right?!
- We put up our Christmas tree this weekend. It feels way too early for me, but mainly because it still feels like we haven’t had November yet! I let Genevieve help me decorate the tree – it was a real lesson in patience for me! Couldn’t help encouraging her to try to spread things out a little more, but I’ve resisted the urge to rearrange things and it looks pretty good. Genevieve was chuffed to have her very own tree in her bedroom too. She decorated that all by herself, mainly with decorations she’s made over the years!
- Had amazing Japanese takeaway from a local vegan restaurant ‘Itadakizen’ at the weekend. Including a Bento box, which is one of my favourite things – it’s like a mini buffet, yum!
- I managed to get to the library again too – finally! Picked up a couple of books, but haven’t finished the first one yet. So I still haven’t completed my little challenge ’22 New Books in 2022′. If I get a move on then I might have managed 23 new books in 2022…
- Bird Nerd Report: It hasn’t been a great week for bird spotting. The weather has gone all wintery, which is really pretty with all the frost. But that means it’s been too cold to stand still for long. I did see a treecreeper this morning though. Then the other day as I was walking across a bridge over the brook there was a goldcrest tweeting around the side of the bridge really close to me – it was soooo cute!
