Radical Acceptance

I learned a rather meaningful lesson yesterday concerning my body and my weight loss journey. It is just that a journey and like any other journey it is not only about the destination.  I was in tears on more than one occasion because I had a set back in my journey. I was telling myself that I let myself and "everyone else" down, when the fact of the matter is I did something human. I was less than perfect. I made some choices that were less than wise over the past couple of weeks, for a variety of reasons, I was on a date and wanted to appear "normal", I felt like treating myself, I did nor bother to read a food label.

When I was busy beating myself up and degrading myself. Going so far as to minimize the great progress I have made on this journey; starting with little knowledge of how to work out , to working out seriously now three days a week and changing over to a healthy vegan lifestyle. I would have been much better off if I had made to choice to use the skill of radical acceptance. This skill is just what it sounds like, you radically accept what is so in your life. in this case it looks like this:

I gained 8 pounds
I am not happy about it
I do not find it acceptable
I definitely do not like it

So I have a choice to make ( life really is all about the choices we make)

1) I can get upset, beat myself up, have a really bad attitude, have a bad day, and give up
2) I can accept what is , I do not need to like it to accept it just acknowledge the reality of having gained 8 pounds, and the fact that nothing is going to change the fact that those 8 pounds have been gained. Repeat the process as needed.
This is in no way giving up , you can move on and lose those 8 pounds, and as many more as you choose but the fact remains that those 8 have been gained.  This is Radical Acceptance.
None of that I accept this but....
or I cant accept this because that means I think its okay stuff just I accept the fact that 8 pounds have been gained.
I tell you folks this stuff works if you let it.  What it does is it takes away excuses, blame, and any need to try to change the reality of the situation around whatever it is that you need to accept and move on , in this case a weight loss setback.