I probably learn more from my losses than my victories.

Dang it, I was on a roll, here! But wouldn't you know it, 6 pounds away from my goal weight and my body decides to sabotage me. I gained 2 1/2 pounds this week. Boo! To be fair, it's not entirely my body's fault. I indulged on some amazingly yummy food this week, which probably put me over the edge. But I don't regret it. That's one of the great things about this lifestyle is that each week is a fresh start. It doesn't matter what happened last week, this week is new. My mistakes from last week don't have to carry over into the next week.

Growing up, I went to a lot of basketball games (gee, I wonder why!) and I remember hearing the phrase, "Shake it off!" a whole lot. A player would make a mistake and cause a turnover or foul or something and then, running back down to the other side of the court, they'd get frustrated at themselves for making a dumb mistake and end up making another dumb mistake (like putting the other team's point guard in a head lock...). Their heads weren't in the game, and because they were dwelling on their past mistake, they ended up making even more mistakes. I'd blame this problem on my less-than-stellar showing on the court, but I have a feeling that a huge lack of skills has more to do with it than mental wherewithall. You probably wouldn't be able to tell much difference between when my head was in the game and when it wasn't. Just doing my part to disprove the "all tall people are good at basketball" sterotype.

But I have had this problem in the rest of my life. There have been many times when I've made a mistake of some sort and my frustration at making such a dumb mistake has propelled me into making dumber and dumber mistakes. But we don't have to live like that! Every day is a fresh start. Every week is a new beginning. We can commit to getting our heads in the game now. So it's a new week now, and I fully believe that I'll lose those 2 1/2 pounds back next week.

Now I just need to get rid of those stupid pretzels! I'm learning from my mistakes, and I know now that pretzel sticks are way too addictive to be in my room. Man, just typing about them makes me want to go down to my room and get a few handfuls of them. I really like them! But now I know. No pretzels and no imitation Oreos. I'm learning. Surprisingly, chocolate is not that big of a temptation. Go figure.