Falling off the Wagon

I know it's been a while since I've had a new post, and I'm sorry. Things have been crazy in my life recently and I'm hoping to start posting more often. Anyway, this topic is very important to me since it is one of the issues I personally struggle with.
It's always easy to start off strong and go for a few weeks or even a couple months, but eventually we all reach a point that we feel like we've had it with our diet and exercise program and just want to give in to temptation. This happens to me quite often, sometimes I get weak and do give in, and other times I stand my ground. And I've learned that it is okay to have a slip up from time to time. But the important thing is to not let these "little slips" become major setbacks. It is so easy to have one bad day where you overeat or eat the wrong kinds of foods or miss your workout, overpower all of the progress you've made and slip back into the old habits that got you fat in the first place. But don't beat yourself up or give up completely. This is the time when you have to put things in perspective. Yes, you didn't do things the way you should have, but it's not the end of the world. You have to pick yourself up by you boot straps and jump right back on track. The more you dwell on your mistakes the easier it is to give up. Stay strong in your efforts and realize you can keep going. You deserve the better life that you've been working so hard for, but nobody can do it for you.
There are a lot of different methods that people use for making it a little easier to stay on track. I have two that I have used over the past year that really help to keep me going.
  Let's face it, most of us will not say "I will never eat (a specific food) again." For me, that's not realistic. However, when I first started I allowed myself one day off a week that I ate whatever I wanted. It worked very well because I knew that I still had to work hard the other 6 days in the week to be able to enjoy that 7th day and still manage to loose the pounds. This doesn't mean to go hog wild 1 day and week and eat everything in sight and as much as your body can stand. It means to just relax and enjoy what you're eating and not stress out about how much fat, or carbs, or calories are in it. Just ENJOY it.
 Now I still follow this method, but instead of an entire day, I try to limit it to my dinner on Friday or Saturday. I still get to enjoy a nice meal with my family and not have to cook 2 separate meals, but I do have to stay on course for the rest of the day.

It is important  to find what works for you. If it is too hard to do it once a week because it makes it too easy to give up, then do it once a month. You have to know yourself and the "food demons" that you have to battle and develop a strategy to deal with them. The most important thing is to just never ever give up on yourself. If you fall off the wagon make sure you hit the ground running after it.