What? I Can’t Start my Diet During the Holidays!

Yes, the holidays are coming.  In the next few months you will be frolicking in piles of turkey, stuffing, pies, chocolates and fruit cakes.  Why oh why would you start a diet now when you just know you are going to eat your way through November and December?  Doesn’t it just make sense to indulge now, and start over in the New Year?  After all, you only live once.

Well, in the spirit of the ghost of Christmas past, let’s go back to last year and take a peek.  Sure, you might have wonderful memories of drowning in egg nog and Hanukkah gelt with friends and family.  The question is, do you remember how you felt?  There are the memories of wanting to take a nap at 3pm every day as you crashed from your sugar high.  There was that uncomfortable feeling of your pant button pushing against your stomach.  There was the indigestion for the third time in a week.  There was the insecurity that maybe that outfit didn’t look as good as it did a month ago.  There was that haunting feeling that maybe you weren’t in control because you overate yet again.

Then January came and, holy crap, you were 10 pounds heavier than you were in October.  So you went on the first crash diet you could find.  By February you thought, ugh, all this deprivation and you are not even back to the weight you were in October.  If you were like a lot of people, you said “screw this” and went on a binge of leftover candy canes from your Christmas stocking.  The few extra pounds that lingered were a constant reminder of the holiday fun.  No wonder there is such a let down after the holidays.

Now lets look forward to this holiday season.  What if I said you could be part of the celebration, eat and still lose some weight without gimmicks?  “That sounds like a gimmick!” you scream.   Ok, hear me out.   A good diet shouldn’t be about deprivation.  It should be a slow process of learning how to eat to feel good.  It should be about finding nutritious foods you love and balancing them with the comfort foods that you don’t want to give up.  It should be about creating new habits.  This might mean bringing a dessert to the party sweetened with raw honey or stevia.   It might mean drinking lots of water so you don’t create a complete imbalance when you have a glass of wine.  It might mean having a scoop of stuffing, but balancing that with a scoop of freshly steamed vegetables.  Diet change should be about being good to yourself body, heart and soul.