QUESTION: HOW MANY TIMES?

Question:  How many times does it take attempting to restart this plan to get it right?  Is there ever a time where I should just realize that I'm not going to be able to do it?

Answer:  As many as it TAKES, and NO!  NEVER GIVE UP!

That is what I learned in what I term "The Lost Years" of 2008-2010.

You see, I had just gained ALL my weight back.  Yes, ALL of it.  And four MORE pounds to add insult to injury.  I weighed 272 pounds, after having weighed 128 at my goal the year before.  I was as large as I had ever been in my entire life.  I was as demoralized as I had ever been in my entire life.  And I still clung to hope.  I ordered "Medifast"..... again.  I tried to restart.  One day.  Fall down.  Day one again.  Fall down.  Half a day.  Fall down.  A third of a day.  Fall down.  Two days.  Fall down. 

Do you see a pattern here?  No, it is not the pattern of FAILURE.  It is the pattern of PERSEVERANCE.

You see 20 failed attempt to get back on plan.  At the time, I did too.  That is how I chose to look at it, but I kept trying.  I kept at it.  I may have had a Mis-Take 99 times, but on the 100th time it TOOK.

And I ran with it.  And I went a week!  Then I faltered.  Then I got up the next day and began the day ON PLAN.  Then I went two weeks.  Then I faltered.  Then I got up the next day and began the day ON PLAN. 

How did I finally line up enough on plan days to see steady losses?  To begin gaining momentum in my plan?  I read Dr. A's Habits of Health.  I started incorporating them into my life.  I stopped focusing on my failures and instead focused on the beautiful wonderful things that I could create, that I could bring IN to my life as a RESULT of this process.  I stopped hating myself.  I started believing that if I just did what was written in the plan, the Quick Start Guide, if I just stopped substituting my OWN judgment for that of the experts who wrote this plan, that I would achieve similar results as all those successful people who had done this before me.

And I did.  And it worked.  And the perseverance paid OFF.

So if you are on your 98th restart, I have 4 very important words for you:

DO.

NOT.

GIVE.

UP.

Rinse and Repeat!