Unexpected surprises

It's snowing. I love waking up to a beautiful, soft snowfall. I love it until I have to go outside, that is. I don't like the cold. Anyway, back to the positive aspect of winter... a soft, beautiful snowfall. The kind of snow that sticks to your nose and eyelashes. But that's not what I want to talk about today.

Yesterday I was so bummed out about how I have been doing, and this morning I had an unexpected surprise (along with the wonderful snow)-- I lost 4 pounds since my last weigh in! My last visit to the scale was 9 days ago. 4 pounds, 9 days? That's pretty good! 

How did that happen? Really?! Thinking back through the last 9 days, I think I know where I went right when I thought I had gone so wrong. The first 3 days of my new adventure, I did really well. I ate well and exercised.  When we started our bathroom renovation is when my plan went out the window. However, I drank more water than usual, cut out soda, didn't snack between meals because I was busy, and I did move quite a bit (though I know it wasn't enough, at least I wasn't just sittin' on my caboose being lazy).

I guess this is a good reminder not to get so down on myself. There are going to be ups and downs. Beating myself up for a "bad week" is counterproductive. Instead of feeling guilty and upset, when I have a lapse, I need to evaluate it and find out what triggered the unhealthy behavior and how I could have handled it differently.  Learn from it.

Without failure, success would mean nothing. I'm raising my coffee cup (no creamer!) in a toast to a good day full of unexpected surprises, snow and lessons learned.