Messed Up Your Diet? Quitting Is the Only Mistake

For instance, if you're at a neighborhood gathering where everyone brings an hors d'oeuvre or dessert and you suddenly find yourself nibbling from the nacho platter, try to remember that it's a mistake that cost a few hundred calories. That's not a huge deal. And it certainly isn't a free license to gallop from dish to dish turning that few hundred calories into a few thousand before the night is through.

When You Miss a Workout

The same approach goes for missed workouts. If you blow off your workout one day, that doesn't mean you should compound the problem by remaining motionless and sedentary for the rest of the week. On the contrary! You should find a way to work in those missed exercise minutes to the remainder of the week's workouts.

Keep Newton's First Law of Motion in mind: "An object at rest remains at rest. An object in motion remains in motion." Put simply, the more often you ditch your workout, the more likely you are to ditch it again. So if you have to skip your exercise, don't just mentally promise yourself that you'll do a little extra the next day. Take real action. Call a friend and schedule a walk together. Write down your extra workout time in your organizer or in the refrigerator. Ask your neighbor, mother, spouse, or babysitter to watch the children while you take a class at the gym tomorrow. Set the alarm half an hour earlier so you can sneak in some lunges, push-ups, crunches, and jumping jacks before everyone gets up.

Be Realistic

Trust us: It won't be easy to make up for those lost minutes, but you'll feel so confident and capable when you do. You'll realize that you have the power to control your calorie intake and expenditure. Even if you waver from time to time, you'll realize that ultimately, you are in charge. So do it.

The bottom line is this: If you mess up, be a big girl and own up, but whatever you do, don't give up!