 Brace youself for holidays
I know, I know, I’m not ready yet either, but ready or not, here they come. I see pumpkins, bags of candy and scary costumes. It’s that time again, the holidays are rolling out.
If you’ve been eyeing the signs as well and are still lamenting (or working on reversing) your weight gain from last year, don’t worry, there’s still plenty of time to create a successful battle plan to navigate through this year’s holidays.
The good news is that you still have about six weeks until Thanksgiving. You can use this time to get prepared.
Remember the math: 3500 calories equals a pound of weight. That means that if you can cut 500 calories from each day starting now, you can get about five pounds off between now and Thanksgiving. Okay, breathing a little easier now?
Before we get to Thanksgiving though, we need to get past Halloween.
Here are some tips:
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Wait until the day before or even the day of Halloween to buy candy
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Buy things that you don’t like.
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Open one bag at a time.
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Give away or return whatever you don’t use.
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Separate the stuff that your kids bring home into two piles: what they like and what they don’t. Keep the stuff they like – they’ll do a fantastic job of monitoring that stash for you. Do whatever you need to do to get rid of the rest; don’t leave the temptation lying around.
My plan for Thanksgiving is always to just enjoy it.
Enjoy does not necessarily mean over-indulge. I eat all of the things I like; I eat them slowly and enjoy their flavors. I do not waddle away from the table but I do leave it feeling quite satisfied.
Planning for this ahead of time helps me to turn down a lot of other little indulgence opportunities that will come my way between now and then. When I feel drawn to the cookies in the grocery store, I just remind myself about Thanksgiving and that I can have a few more (much tastier) treats guilt-free on that day if I resist temptation today.
One of the hardest challenges that I run into at Christmastime is the impact that all of the time spent shopping has on meal planning and prep. This year we’re going to start shopping earlier (around Nov 1st) so that we can spread it out more evenly. This way it won’t affect our routine so heavily that we end up eating out several nights a week.
Another Christmas challenge I have is that all of the baking I do tends to leave a lot of temptation lying around the kitchen. This year I will be creating a plan that doesn’t allow for a lot of extra goodies to be left around the house. I will determine how much we need for gifts and how much we need for leftovers and will bake accordingly.
Pick and choose any or all of the above for your personal game plan. I’d love to hear any of your own ideas about what works for you. Most of all, though, be sure to enjoy the season and be kind (and if necessary, forgiving) to yourself.
Until next time, stay healthy and be happy. |
