Heyyyy all. I really love you, first of all. So there’s that. I wish your soul to feel light and happy.
Second of all, it’s time for another Coaching Note! And this one’s got to do with the Holidays, since it’s top of mind for me lately while I’ve been delivering this Live Holiday Workshop. :)
Just wanted to share a few thoughts.
When we are on our respective journeys towards healthiness and our goal weight, we can get a little lost in the shuffle and even off track when the holidays roll around.
We start getting caught up in the spirit of things, and we forget what “the spirit” of things really is…as it often turns into something that is generally not good for our health. What we have to do is focus every day on the reason why the Holidays are so great. Let me ask you: is it the food, or is it something else?
Do you really LOVE the food so much that you couldn’t possibly do the holidays without it? Here’s a hypothetical: what if everyone in the world were Nutritarian healthy eaters? What would the holidays mean to you? Do you think you would still enjoy them if it wasn’t about eating bad foods? Do you think you would love eating healthfully?
Duh, right? In fact, I think we all know that without the peer pressure and the bad foods on the holidays, we’d probably enjoy them so much MORE knowing we were celebrating AND feeling good all at the same time.
When we think back to past holiday events, let’s take Thanksgiving in particular, or Christmas Day works too…it’s interesting to note that we often don’t think about how the food was so much better than the year before, because typically the food is exactly the same as the year before, isn’t it?
Aunt Jean makes her pumpkin pie, Aunt Sarah makes the turkey, Mom makes the stuffing and cranberry sauce, Cousin Elizabeth makes that 7 layer dip and deviled eggs, Uncle Jake always cops out and brings chips and salsa…and everyone expects exactly the same meal as the year before.
Nothing ground-breaking.
Another thing: did you ever notice how QUICKLY everyone eats their meal? Thinking back, I think I clocked it one year, and everyone at the table was done eating their SECOND HELPINGS in less than 15 minutes.
15 minutes! That’s crazy!
So not only do we have the same exact meals every year so we already know exactly what it’s going to taste like, but all the build up and all the days of prep and hours and hours of cooking, not to mention the stressing, plus the grocery shopping in the crowds, etc…all leads to roughly only 15-20 minutes of eating.
Of course, if you count the rest of the grazing all day, the sampling while cooking, and the dessert time, it adds up to a lot more time than that, but the actual meal itself only lasts 15 minutes!
15 minutes of time to likely throw off your whole lifestyle diet plan. 45-60 minutes of grazing and eating food you know you really shouldn’t and will regret later, to only keep you off track for weeks after, because of leftovers and holiday parties and the same old things every single year.
Hmm, does it all even seem worth it? Wouldn’t it feel wayyyy better to just eat healthy like you often try to do every other day of the year? Wouldn’t it be amazing to live in a world where everyone ate healthy by default?
Sometimes putting ourselves in the mindset of what it actually feels like to do this, rather than the “spirited up” version of what our minds remember, is all we need to realize that we don’t really enjoy the eating part as much as we remember. And that we already know exactly what it will be like, so it’s not like it’s unique or surprising anyway.
Consider some these thoughts when you are planning your upcoming holidays…and the days surrounding them. And don’t get caught in that trap of thinking “oh I’ll just resume after the holidays” because we know it’s never that easy to do once we’ve been off for 2 months or more. Sometimes it can take us until July to get back on track!!
Just some food for thought. ;)
