Go Again

So, you messed up.

You missed a day at the gym. And a few days of your physio exercises.

But its ok. You can get back on track. It will be easy.

Or not.

You did it again! No gym for 3 weeks. No physio exercises for the last 4 weeks.

Now you’ve officially RELAPSED.

You’ve failed to maintain all those healthy changes you put in place to better your health. And you were loving the results. But the holidays came around and you slipped up and then it was something else, and you never got back on track.

Now you don’t feel so good. Your lower back hurts and you’re having more frequent headaches.

You feel like a failure. You’re ashamed. You’re embarrassed. You feel guilty.

Truly demoralized. How could you let all that hard work go to waste?

If you’ve reached this point of self-doubt and self-depreciation, you may return to the precontemplation stage. Here you’ll be back to resisting the idea of behaviour change.

In a study by Prochaska and DiClemente, 15% of relapsers regressed to the precontemplation stage, while the remaining 85% moved back to contemplation and then preparation and eventually to action.

So, you ned a hand getting on track? Ask the team. And maybe it will be easier the second time.

Winston Churchill once said, “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”

Key word – continue. Remember change is not linear. You must keep going.

For most of us it is inevitable that at some point we will fail to maintain all the healthy behaviour changes we make to better our lives. Ideally when we do relapse it’s only for a few days or couple weeks at most. If you do miss a few days or couple of weeks, it is not the end.

#stagesofchange #health