How to Deal with Off Again, on Again Exercise and Diet

OK... It's another Monday and that's the day when we all, at one or many times in our lives, say, "Starting today, I am going to try harder to eat right and exercise!" Everyone knows or has at least heard enough about how these two things are the keys to a better, happier and healthier life, but staying the course is quite another thing. Even if you have never had a problem with gaining too much weight, you still know that you have to eat healthier and exercise to remain healthy and have the best chance at staving off mental and physical issues.

The ability to maintain a healthier lifestyle on a continuous and ongoing basis is something that everyone wants to do, but the actual doing is really a matter of an individual's ability to focus. Most of us have periods of our lives when, for various reasons, we are able to concentrate and focus on our eating and exercise habits, but to continue this focus is very relative.

We all have issues, goals, unexpected events and even just going through the many phases of a lifetime, that effect what becomes our main focus. There is only so much that people are capable of doing and focusing on, and this usually depends on what is affecting us, emotionally, at any particular period of time. When unexpected events occur in our lives, especially if they are emotionally important or impacting, those events will become our main focus. If our lives are already filled and preoccupied with goals and schedules, a new major impacting event or issue will cause focus to be averted. Depending on one's reaction and length of time that this focus is shifted, will determine how long and if you are able to bring your healthier lifestyle back into focus.

When we realize that we have gained weight back and stopped our exercise routines, we begin to do a lot of self bashing as we find ourselves feeling guilty. This can begin a feeling of depression, as we realize that we have to start all over again to get back to a healthier state. At some point, we come to an awakening that we are no longer feeling happy and we remember that these lifestyle choices are what made us feel so much better, both physically and mentally about ourselves. Then we are able to begin again.

The bottom line is that we all need to stop condemning ourselves for losing focus and also to stop thinking that we can keep any particular aspect of our lives in absolute and perfect focus and balance, forever. We are human and we are not perfect. How we choose to react and proceed, as we deal with unexpected events in our lives, is what is important. Feeling better about ourselves and realizing the importance of being of help and inspiration to others is what will carry us through adversity.

As long as we continue to think, re-evaluate, re-focus, respect and remember, if we want to have the best lifestyle possible while we are here on Earth, we are doing the best we can, in all of the aspects and behaviors of our lives.