Minimize Weight Gain this Holiday Season
Okay, so it’s half way over now; the month long eating fest known as “The Holidays”. You may already feel your waistbands narrowing in on you, and there are still more parties and dinners to attend!
All hope for a healthy holiday season is not lost, my friend. The way you handle yourself from this day forward can make a huge difference in the post-holiday waistline “clean up” that will inevitably require your attention.
You see, I believe all weight gain begins in the brain. In order to protect yourself from excessive holiday weight gain this year, you’ll need to change your brain’s holiday behavior default mode—and quick!
Reason with me here. If you go through this season with an attitude of: “Oh well, there’s no use in trying. I WILL overeat (time and again), and I WILL gain weight, but…I promise, I WILL go on a diet once the New Year begins”, then your plan WILL definitely cause you to gain weight, and probably more than you thought you would.
However, if you were to adopt this alternative, healthy mindset instead: “The last month of the year is like the Final Exam of my Get Healthy for Heaven’s Sake lifestyle commitment. If you begin with the attitude of “Yes, there will be temptation a-plenty, but I will thoughtfully participate in each meal and party by showing the same respect for my body (God’s temple) as I do during the eleven months that preceded this one,” then you will have installed a new default pattern which pre-wires you for self-control in the midst of temptation.
So why greet the New Year in distress, feeling bad about yourself, and needing to beat your overly indulged food cravings back into submission? If you will determine not to give yourself a “free pass” on your food consumption this month, then you will be able to view the special foods of the season as gifts to be sampled and enjoyed, rather than curses which lure you into overeating and then leave you chewing on a heaping serving of guilt come January.