Getting Through December

Four Tips to Stay in Control of Your Diet During the Holidays

We are not zombies who mindlessly engage in reckless or unhealthy behavior; rather it is triggered by a series of electric and chemical interactions in our brain; a.k.a. "thoughts" and "emotions." Understand what makes you tick internally and not only will you change your habits, but you will be in line with your inner self, not fighting it; making for an easier and happier time in the process.

That doesn't mean one doesn't need some practical advice now and then, and since the holidays are one of the more difficult times to maintain one's habits, it seemed appropriate to offer a few suggestions to help you navigate through this time of year. You will not find a collection of low-fat recipes or traditional diet tips forthwith; instead those shall be left to others who excel in that arena. Instead, this collection of thoughts and ideas will hopefully trigger inspiration on how to help your diet survive the remainder of the year.

1) Set realistic expectations

Losing weight during December is not the same as during January, when the national psyche shifts from "How much can I indulge?" to "How quickly can I get the weight off?" Expect it to be a more of a battle. Realize temptations are more obvious. That's not an excuse to consume an entire pumpkin pie or two pounds of Hanukkah Gelt but don't expect to find it as easy as it is other times of the year. (Of course, I'm not sure it's ever "easy" but you get my drift, right?)

One of the more common problems is expecting that if you lose, let's say, an average of one pound a week during the year, it will continue to be at that same pace all year long. However, during the other times of the year, you are not surrounded with Chocolate Santas and reindeer shaped cookies at every turn; in addition, most families do not deliver sugary treats to you during August or June.

All of these temptations make it more difficult to stay on track and one of two things happen:

1. You buckle down hard, sacrificing all favorite holiday treats, ending up at month's end feeling resentful and angry, and eating twice as much as you would have anyway, causing great harm to your diet
   - OR -
2. You have a few treats here and there, which does slow your weight loss a little (but that's OK). However, because unrealistic expectations kicked in, you thought you would still have same rate of loss you had all year long, and you consider this slower weight loss to be a failure. You decide, "I blew it! As long as I blow it, I'll start again later" and indulge the remainder of the month, hurting again your efforts.

Unrealistic expectations simply set you up for failure. Notice, even skinny people indulge during December; they just don't "go crazy" and they compensate for it. Plan for a few treat but set limits. And, most importantly, be gentle on yourself if you slip up, but don't give up.

2) Realize the holidays are not the entire month of December

Although it might feel like it, the "holidays" do not begin with Halloween and end on January first. In reality, there are only about seven to ten troublesome days during those two months. An excellent planning tool is to pull up a calendar and mark down the times that will be the most difficult for you, including days when you're traveling or have visiting guests. Once you actually see when the tough times occur, it relieves some stress about your diet. In addition, you can plan to compensate for those periods before and after they occur.

Without a complete overview of the time period, you can feel overwhelmed about how long you have to stay diligent and then give up, feeling overwhelmed by the perceived load. If you actually put it on paper in front of you, it becomes clearer that it's not as daunting as you might think; that gives you inspiration to continue and to plan.

3) WWW

OK, to be honest, these are three tactics under one umbrella: Walk. Water. Wait.

1. Walk before every meal. Find a buddy if it will help; you might think you're the only one trying to watch his weight, there are plenty of others waiting for assistance, and you'll be each other's role models. The activity doesn't have to be long, ten to 15 minutes if that's all you can arrange. If you can't do it prior to each meal, do it prior to the big meals (or even after). If you're out of town, walk everyday.
2. Water. Drink lots of it. When you sit down to a meal, whether at a restaurant or at home, start with a large (at least eight ounce) glass of water. This accomplishes a few things; it fills you up, and it keeps your body saturated. Both of these can help you maintain control and feel healthy.
3. Wait. Habits, by their very nature, are patterns of activity done without thinking. Excessive eating is a habit. In order to weaken a habit, one must slow down and think. Therefore, make a commitment to wait ten minutes before eating anything. You'll see the plate of frosted cookies on the coffee table. Your urge will be to dig in. Look at the clock. Promise yourself to stay busy for ten minutes, and then - walk away! (Don't stand there staring at the goodies!) If, at the end of that period, you still feel the urge for the frosty goodness of St. Nick, have ONE. What most people discover is that during the ensuing 600 seconds, they get busy and forget.
   
   Waiting might not stop the eating cycle, but if it delays it by an hour a few times a day, you're still reducing your caloric intake and slowing your weight gain. For example, let's say that each snack is 250 calories (not very much). If your delay caused you to skip only one snack a day, you'd save about 1750 calories a week. Since 3500 are needed to gain a pound, you didn't add 1/2 pound each week that you normally would have. Multiply that by the five to six weeks between Thanksgiving and January 2nd, and you cut your holiday weight gain from six to three pounds due to snacking! (Of course, if compensating for the treats, might actually prevent gaining but even a slower weight gain is a step in the correct direction.)

4) Realize no one is overweight because of the Holidays

We tend to think that we'd be thinner if it weren't for the indulgences of the holidays. Reality check: If the only time overweight people ate excessively was during holidays, we wouldn't be overweight. Assuming we indulge at every celebration (including those such as Flag Day and Admissions Day) we're still only counting about 30 days a year, less than ten percent of the time. The holidays don't throw us off; it's all that time in between holidays where we continue on our eating sprees. We say, "Well, as long as I blew it, I might as well start again when the holidays are over."

I don't mean to burst a bubble, but the holidays - at least those around this time of year - have been in existence for a few thousand years. They are not stopping anytime soon. However, with some forethought and focus, one can stop the yearly weight cycle and really have something healthy to celebrate in January.