What happens if you have a bad day?

Even with the best laid plans, a willpower of steel and numerous support structures in place, it can still go wrong sometimes. Sometimes life just gets in the way and despite your best organisation, the inevitable will happen and your healthy plans fall by the wayside.

So I was asked the question last week - how do I cope when this happens? Here are my top 'coping tips' when that happens:

1. Laugh about it - yes really. Try to lighten the load so it does not burden you down into more blips in your get fit, get well, lose weight plan. Laughing will put you in a better frame of mind to deal with the issue and to stay positive so you can move on to the next good day.

2.  Breathe - If you really can't laugh (and sometimes we all have a sense of humour failure when things get too much) then just give yourself a moment, a time out and take some deep breaths. That little bit of separation into a personal oasis will enable you to come back, re-focus and deal with the issue appropriately.

3. Re-group - Sometimes stuff happens that blows apart a plan so you feel that it is no longer possible. Usually it is possible you may just need to take a new, fresh approach. So try to laugh or breath or both and then think about how you can make a new plan of attack to your mission. Life is flexible and you need to be too.

4. Give thanks - By this I mean, think about all the positives that you have already achieved or that you have in your life. The idea is to bring yourself back to a glowing happy space and away from focuses purely on the event that has knocked you off course.

5. Be kind to yourself - Try to get some perspective on what has gone wrong. Eating one chocolate bar whilst on a diet is not the end of the world. See it for what it is - a momentary blip - and return to your plan. It has not be destroyed. Self-punishment will only make you feel worse and do more of the comfort eating behaviour that you are so upset about it. So why not try a new approach.

Remember - sometimes problems are not problems but they are opportunities for you to test yourself. You can explore a new approach to life and learn to look at things a different way. I wavered on my diet and had a dessert this Sunday - I regretted it instantly and as a result did not enjoy it. But I am not beating myself up about it. I have learnt that it is not worth the sabotage to my diet if I am not going to enjoy it so I will have a cup of tea next time and really savour it. It was simply an opportunity to think up a new approach to this dilemma at mealtimes.