Yesterday I wrote the NPPA, or National Professional Practice Assessment. This is a test for HR people to determine if they have the judgment and skills necessary to be Certified HR Professionals, or CHRPs. I feel like I passed it, but with multiple choice, I’m never really sure.

But in keeping with my recent themes, that’s not really what I’m here to talk about. 

Friday and Saturday I returned to my old eating habits, very, very quickly. I was eating whatever I could get my hands on that would be tasty and wonderful and satisfy my stress of having a huge test tomorrow that I’d dropped a lot of money to write. In ways I expected this, but I was also amazed at how quickly I dropped back into those bad eating habits. I thought those were behind me, they were dead and gone.

But no. They’re not. Just below the surface, they lurk.

That’s not the end of the world, though. Cause I felt generally crappy, physically on Friday and pretty horrible on Saturday. I actually thought to myself “I used to eat like this?” Because really, Saturday would have been a perfectly normal day for me a few months ago. Fried foods and crap in general. I felt horrible; I had a stomach ache, a head ache and just could not do anything. I came home, mumbled a few words to my parents and collapsed in bed.

Today I’m worried. As of this Monday I was 1/4 of the way to my weight loss goal, down almost 14 pounds. Now? I may have gained 1 or 2 back and part of me wants to freak out at that. I won’t, though, because I learned something great yesterday.

As much as old eating habits can come back, I’m already at the point where they don’t come back as easily and I can recognize how bad they are. In ways, it’s not always about whether or not you have an unhealthy meal, or an unhealthy day. There may be set backs, you may have trouble, but really, it’s about what you do before and after that counts. I had been good for most of the week leading up to Friday and Saturday.

And today, I had a healthy breakfast and I’m going to yoga.

I am the Tallahassee* of habit-fighting.

* That’s a Zombieland reference. If you haven’t seen it, go see it. NOW.