It’s been a while since I’ve seen this schtick, but it was quite common back in the ‘50’s and 60’s, especially in jungle movies and western movies. The usual victim was a bit actor with lots of disheveled hair, beard, wild eyes, etc., who would unwittingly wander into a bog of quicksand. He would usually yell out “quicksand” and then would begin sinking slowly into it. Occasionally someone would throw him a rope and pull him out with a horse, but usually our actor was left to slowly but surely sink out of sight into the quicksand, never to be seen again. One such scene left only the guy’s hat, floating on the quicksand as an eerie reminder of what had happened!  Well, much the same thing happens to some would-be BFL’ers from time to time. Usually, the “quicksand!” yell comes about 5 dreadful days after a free day around  week 5 or 6. The free day became a free weekend, then an extended weekend, and by Friday, as the next free day approached, our disheveled BFL’er is slowly but surely sinking into the quicksand with terrified eyes and a mouth full of chocolates!    What happened was just like in the movies. They didn’t know how easy it is in the midst of a successful challenge to suddenly begin sinking, to stop working out, to keep eating nothing but junk, and to literally act like a drunk on a binge! I’ve seen this happen so many times to people who have been on the guestbook that it almost makes me ill to see the signs coming again! It happens, the quicksand syndrome, because our fearless BFL’er didn’t really do everything he needed to do to avoid failure. He didn’t make arrangements to protect his workout times throughout the challenge. He decided to fly by the seat of his pants. He didn’t do everything to inform his friends that he wouldn’t be drinking and gorging with them after work every night—he thought he was strong enough to resist!  He also didn’t take seriously the fact that a free day is over in one day, and that all those free day foods need to leave the house right after free day is over.  Last, and most importantly, he let the early and good results lull him into a false sense of security.  So, when he began to really screw up, he was too ashamed and bewildered to reach out to anyone to get him out of the quicksand!  Well, the only good thing about this BFL quicksand, versus the real stuff, is that you don’t really die—you just feel like you did! And, it’s not too late to extract yourself yet.  Here’s what you need to do. Take the next right actions that are in front of you. (I don’t care if you don’t feel like it either!) That means go work out; clean the junk out of your house; update your journal; confess to everyone you can think of how bad you’ve been; and then finish the challenge. Under no circumstances should you “start over.” That never works.  Right actions will produce right attitudes and confession will rid you of the shame and guilt you feel about your failure!   Let’s get this done! The thought of a body for life hat floating on a puddle of quicksand just weirds me out!