I started fighting my weight problem two months ago. Yes, my weight problem actually started years ago. But, I hadn’t started fighting it yet until I finally made up my mind.
I was mentally charged with losing weight and taking it off for good. What I didn’t think about was the days to come. Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas are that deadly combination of days that make a weight loss program very difficult.
Halloween Trick or Treating brings home a plethora of candy and assorted goodies that are so hard to deny. But, I have a daughter. Trick or treat is required. A month later almost every day comes a great day of eating that has no mercy.
Thanksgiving is the day to gorge yourself to death and sit miserably on the couch. The day was actually designed for overeating. Not only do you feel miserable because you ate more food than you normally do in a week, but you know you just screwed up your diet. You gained more weight on that day than you lost in the last two months working on your diet.
Now, Christmas is ahead. That’s not just a day of eating. That’s a whole month. Wherever you go, there is a party going on all month long because people are trying to get you over for Christmas and get you out of the way before Christmas day finally arrives. People want to spend Christmas with their families, so they invite their friends over at the beginning of the month and fatten everyone up just so they can say they thought of you during the holidays.
If you’re not ready to meet the holiday season, you may feel the need to ditch your diet and waste even more time battling your weight until you reach the image you have of yourself in your mind. So get ready. You have to be mentally prepared and you have to make sure your body doesn’t get confused.
First of all, don’t let your mind beat you to it. If you can’t lose weight during your vacation months, you can at least set a goal of maintaining your current weight. That’s good enough to keep you motivated until the holidays are over. Make sure that when you step on the scale you never read more than you did the day before. It is not a step backwards. It stands until the dust settles. You’ll have more time in the future to get back on the extreme diet, as long as you don’t make it harder for yourself when you do.
Maintain your diet between the Christmas festivities. Just because you messed up your diet one night doesn’t mean you can’t get back to it the next day. Do it again as soon as possible. In fact, make sure that the next meal you eat after enjoying a night of bliss is highly focused on only the foods that are supposed to be in your diet.
When you’re visiting a friend’s house and find a huge buffet in the dining room, don’t worry. Cut your portions in half. Take a taste. Don’t eat the same amount of food you normally eat when samples are all you need. You can still enjoy the food. Just not so much.
Commit to getting a little more exercise. Walk more. bike more. Dance even more! If the holidays are going to be a festive occasion, get more active and hit the dance floor. Any activity that comes your way is your chance to burn some calories. Go sing Christmas carols. When it snows, find a good hill to go sledding. You will go up the hill every time you go down it. Shovel the snow… help the neighbors. Play a soccer game. You get the idea.
The most important thing is to remember that you are trying to lose weight and that you are not going to let the holidays ruin it. You can do physical activities that help you burn calories. You can monitor how much you eat and make sure your weight doesn’t gain back. But, the main thing is that you keep it in mind.
The battle of weight loss is fought and won in the mind. The battle may be over before it begins. But you can prevent that from happening if you stay focused. Accept calculated vacation losses. Do what you can to make sure that you at least maintain your weight. Fight every day for every calorie.
Remember Al Pacino’s speech from any sunday which is so famously called “Inch by Inch”.
“I don’t know what to say really.
three minutes
to the biggest battle of our professional life
it all boils down to today…
inch by inch,
play for play
until we’re done.”
In your mind, in your own battle, it’s about calories. Every calorie counts. And when the holidays are over, you can look in the mirror and wonder what happened to you. Wouldn’t you rather be able to say that vacation was fun, but you’re still in the fight? You’re not going anywhere. See you at the goal line.
