COMMANDMENT 8. Six days shalt thou labor, but in the seventh day thou shalt rest.

FACT: It is okay to take a “diet time out” if you need it! Choosing to take consistent small steps is much better than falling completely down the staircase.

Everyone needs a break from time to time.
Dieting can be like babysitting a house full of kids—if you don’t take a mental break it can make you crazy! Going 24/7 is expected of the ambitious in every aspect of life today, but I believe mental play time is critical to our dieting success.

This may seem shocking to you, but it’s okay to take a break from this diet if you’ve reached your mental or physical limits. Why would a doctor write a diet book and then tell you it is okay to not follow the diet strictly? Because diets that are too strict cause people to burn out instead of burning calories. They retreat defeated and beaten by completely dropping the diet.

“Rome wasn’t built in a day”—and neither will your new and improved physique appear overnight. It takes substantial time and food to store fat and become fat, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that it takes some time to deconstruct it as well.

Choosing to be consistent over time is more important than choosing to defeat yourself with too strict a regimen.