When I find myself with a set-back like the one I’m dealing with now – ugh – that negative little voice inside my head asks, “What do you know, anyway?” “Why should anyone pay any attention to what you have to say? After all, look at what you did!”

Yep. Look at what I did. I gave in to cravings and ate myself 20 pounds up the scale. It doesn’t matter if the cravings were the result of medication, 70-hour physically exhausting work weeks, heartache, or moon cycles. Those things may have caused the cravings but none of them drove me to the grocery store. None of those things bought the Tastykakes that I stuffed into my gob. Nope, I did that all by lonesome. I did it years ago and I did it this time, too. I failed myself.

But, it ain’t over yet!

I lost 94 pounds four years ago and I know how I did it. I know what worked for me and what didn’t. I know how to do it again. Here are a few things that I know without a doubt:

1. I cannot buy bread. I can’t buy it because I cannot be trusted with it. I will eat it plain or with something smeared on it to make it a sandwich. I will eat a butter sandwich rather than make a nutrient-dense meal that my body needs. I can’t do that if there’s no bread in the house; thus, I cannot buy bread.
2. I cannot be trusted with a family sized bag of chips. I will turn into a family of one and eat that bag all in one sitting. If I treat myself to chips, they  must be in the tiny, single serving size.
3. I cannot open cans of mixed nuts while driving in the car. I will eat the entire can.
4. I am an emotional eater. I must deal with wayward emotions in another way, like going for a short walk, doing ten jumping jacks, meditating, or writing lists to figure out the source of the negative emotion. Eating to make it go away solves nothing.
5. I want the sugary snacks in the vending machines at work. Therefore, I must not take my debit card or cash to work.
6. I am a sugar addict. I must eat more fruit to combat the cravings my body assaults me with.
7. Each meal must consist of 75% vegetables.
8. I must move more. I don’t have to start by running a race. I can start the same way I did last time – by walking the dogs.
9. All food must be carefully measured, else the nine-serving box of cereal becomes a three-serving box.
10. Undocumented calories still count.
11. There is never undocumented exercise.
12. My food and exercise diary app is invaluable.
13. I deserve to have a body that functions properly.
14. I deserve to have a body I feel comfortable in.
15. I have way too many clothes in my smaller size to redo my wardrobe now!
16. I don’t want to redo my wardrobe.
17. I can do this.

So, as it turns out, I know lots of things. I just have to remind myself because there is a great, big, giant chasm between knowing and doing. And, yesterday, in setting a new goal in my LoseIt app and by logging all of my food and exercise, I began doing again.