December is tough.
Really tough.
I think it officially all starts on the 1st when the advent calendars come out.
I remember when I was young (when I were a lad!) we never had chocolates behind those secret doors.
Just a boring old picture of a Christmas Tree.
Now Lindor do advent calendars and my son has one – did you know each one of those little Lindor
chocs contains 79 calories?! – WTF!
Then there’s Mince Pies. It’s almost like there’s an invisible force that’s drawing us to those little
boxes of 6. I looked on our kitchen table last night and was greeted by 2 boxes – one from Budgens
and one from Tesco.
“I’ve bought them for the kids” – yeah right!
Every workplace up and down the country is then scattered with ‘celebrations’ or ‘heroes’ (Roses and
Quality Streets have been nudged out by these new players – although there’s no way I can walk past
a box of Quality Street without picking out that ‘Purple One’!)
What about drinks?
Mulled one at Christmas Markets.
or a nice Hot Chocolate because it’s cold out.
or a Starbucks or Costa Christmas special.
Meeting up with friends for Christmas drinks, Christmas parties, Christmas Day, Boxing Day New
Years Eve……..and on and on.
Calories, calories, calories.
…and it’s all spread out over a whole month.
Little bite of a mince pie here and a purple quality street there and then a nice Hot Chocolate (only one)
…and before you know it – it’s January 1st and you jump on the scales to assess the damage and are
horrified / surprised that you’ve put on 10lbs since you last weighed (which was back in November)
“I NEED TO JOIN A GYM”
Damage Limitation
There are a lot of articles that get written this time of year that talk about how to stay trim over Christmas.
Magazines are full of them.
But they’re all very …….boring.
..and we’ve heard it all before.
- Chew some sugar free gum instead of eating those chocolates.
- Make your own mince pies and use almond flour instead.
- Go for a run every day – this is a really dangerous one by the way as normally it involves people eating even more.
- Offer to drive.
- Don’t buy the stuff in the first place – if it’s not in the house then you can’t eat it.
The Problem
The problem with the above is that it’s hard to buy into. You kind of feel like you’re missing out and then
start to resent missing out and then this leads to a proper rebellion binge eating chocolate fest!
On the surface we all know what we should be doing, but unless our reasons for doing it are literally
at the forefront of our minds the whole time, we kind of just think “what’s the point”
The Solution
Here’s the real solution.
You jot down in the notes section of your phone what your main goal is by a certain date in January.
eg. I will be a size 12 by 19th January 2016.
Then (this is the really important bit) you jot down in the same notes section the 10 reasons WHY
this is such an important goal to achieve.
eg.
- I want to feel more confident
- I’ve seen a lovely size 12 dress that I want to fit into
- I’m fed up with feeling fat and horrible about myself.
- It’s my birthday weekend and we’re going away
- I want to prove the doubters wrong and that I CAN do it
- I want to make 2016 the year that I finally get healthy
- We’re off to center parcs and I want to keep up with the kids
- ……..etc.
Your reasons will be very personal to you – and you only.
Then you remind yourself of these reasons every morning when you
wake up and every evening when you go to bed.
…..and every time you are tempted to pick at a mince pie or have one extra
glass of wine at the Christmas party.
As long as those reasons why are strong enough you will happily
choose the healthy option each and every time.
When in Costa rather than opt for that 600 calorie cream covered Christmas Special
you just go for the standard americano.
Does This Mean You Have To Be Healthy The Whole Time?
NO.
But it puts you firmly in control.
You factor in that Christmas Day will be quite indulgent and a higher calorie day
so you cut back a couple of days beforehand with just high protein and veggies.
What it does though is it helps you to take away the temptation to get sucked into the whole
Christmas binge eating / drinking culture.
…and you do it without any resentment as the reasons for you making healthy choices are
much stronger and mean more to you than the reasons for making unhealthy choices.
Before you know it, you wake up on 2nd January and while those around you are
panicking because they’re feeling unhealthy and still hung over
, you’re bang on target to achieve your goals having lost fat during December.
Ricky