Your assignment should you accept it.
Pearl One
I’m not shy about smart eating. I engage with this part of my life with total seriousness, but I have a little fun with it too.
When I face a group in any type of get-together, my plan is to get-to serving everyone else. In other words, staying busy and active is a huge part of how I navigate difficult holiday meals. If the party isn’t at my house, I work to help the hostess by assigning myself a job to avoid joining the “stretchy pants crowd.” Hey, the way I see it, it’s every eater for himself. If family and friends can’t resist the bounty, that’s between Thanksgiving-them and January-jeans-cutting-off-their-airway-them.
So along with staying helpful at the holidays, here’s how I roll from the U.S. Thanksgiving to January first:
- In the morning of a holiday event, I create a contract with myself that identifies the Obstacles of My Day and I write specifically about how I’ll soar over each one.
- As I’ve said, when my nearest and dearest collect, I feed the five million calories to everyone else while I load my own plate with the healthiest food available. Worst-case scenario I eat the nutrition-dense sweet potato casserole I brought from home. I’m never terribly hungry in the first place because I also ate out of my cold-tote on the drive over.
- A cousin to staying busy during the get-together, is when I’m the hostess I bundle up the guests with beautifully packed food that wasn’t eaten at dinner (I mean, who doesn’t love Thanksgiving leftovers?).
- In the past, I’ve said that attempting to lose weight in November and December is just plain being mean to ourselves and I still maintain my stance. I encourage you to use the holiday season for your highest good. Don’t push yourself to lose weight during November and December, instead maintain (I call it “holding”) through the season.
Giving ourself ample time to “hold” our weight in place is one secret sauce to nourishing our ultimate plan (a lifetime weight loss). Our mind and body need the time to acclimate to our new normal. I think one reason diets of old didn’t work is that we were always encouraged to lose in a linear fashion. Plateaus were seen as negative. Nobody realized that “holding” our weight in place for a month or more helps every part of us adjust to the new number.
- As I navigate the season, I keep a strong question with me at all times. When I see the variety of pies at Thanksgiving I ask myself, “Would I rather eat pie and trigger myself into eating my way through the holidays and wake up totally annoyed with myself in January? Or would I rather stick with my smart eating plan now and forgo most of the treats – not all, but most — and be thrilled to wake up in January feeling like I slayed it?” As you know, I run with the latter.
- So let’s say that you’re going to chow on Thanksgiving, end of story. Okay, to that I say “eat before you eat,” at the meal don’t overeat to the point of being stuffed, and if you’re still wanting to overdo it on the fudge get busy with everyone else: take a walk, work a puzzle, or play a new game (this is the one I bought for Thanksgiving this year. It came highly recommended by creator Tim Ferriss and is called Exploding Kittens Coyote. Don’t let the name throw you. It has nothing to do with hurting animals).
I carefully guard my strong habits all the holiday season long. Adhering to my plan of eating “smart and sane” throughout the holidays means I’ll wake up on January one feeling thankful to Thanksgiving-me who didn’t let herself get triggered into ruining our long game plan. ♥
Pearl Two
Our journal-writing prompt pearl!
- What if Thanksgiving wasn’t about food, but about protecting January-you?
- What tends to throw me off during a holiday meal? What can I do differently this time?
- What tiny win can I commit to that will make me feel proud of myself tonight?
- How will I “eat before I eat” if I’m the hostess. If I’m traveling to the big day what will I pack in my cold-tote?
Pearl Three
Sequencing is taken directly from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). The purpose of sequences is to help us move from reacting to circumstances to responding. I encourage you to do a sequence a day in your journal. Powerful stuff. Apply to your own life.
Initial Sequence
- Situation (be super concrete): Diane, 52, lives solo now that her last kid graduated college.
- Initial thought: “I’ve spent years dreading what is now a reality. The house is too silent and the quiet evenings seem endless.”
- Feeling: She misses being needed. She misses the chaos and fun of kids.
- Action: She mopes around assuming that her best years are behind her.
- Result: She stops caring for her home and it clutters up quickly. When a kid is coming to visit, she has to race at maximum speed to get the house in shape first. After her adult kid is gone she gets depressed again.
Chosen Sequence
- Situation (be super concrete): Diane, 62, lives solo now that her last kid graduates college.
- Chosen thought: Diane tells herself that, “Being sad is a normal part of kids growing up. I’m normal and my sadness is normal. Crying at times is totally acceptable. Now is also the time to be the author of my own life and write this new chapter.”
- Feeling: Supported, understood, and optimistic.
- Action: She journal-writes about her greatest passions in life. She writes about her favorite things throughout the coming months.
- Result: Diane gets the house in shape for the coming Christmas (when the kids are coming home). She volunteers at her favorite thrift store (benefits rescue animals), joins a Meet Up group with people her age, delivers homemade chocolate chip cookies to her town’s police and fire department (“they’re so appreciative”) and cruises solo always with a great book. ♥
Pearl Four
Books love us and want us to be happy!
This extraordinary story is a book-dessert of the highest order. Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust by Immaculee Ilibagiza. The book chronicles a young woman’s – Immaculee’s — personal survival story during the Rwandan genocide.
After her family is killed by Hutu extremists, she hides in a small bathroom (roughly 3×4 feet) for 91 days, along with seven other women, relying on prayer and inner strength to survive.
I’m so, so glad I read Left to Tell. I love learning about a region I’d known nothing about from a person who actually lived through this (terrible) time in her country’s history.
I stayed up too late reading. Phenomenal book-dessert. ♥
Pearl Five
In essence, if we want to direct our lives, we must take control of our consistent actions. It’s not what we do once in a while that shapes our lives, but what we do consistently. ♥
Tony Robbins
The holidays are roaring towards us and if you’re like me — always on the hunt for unique — affordable gift ideas — I thought you might like to see what I’ve discovered so far: I’m giving books like this Charles Dickens collection to one son and to everyone a body wash scent that matches each person’s personality from the Philosophy collection (like cinnamon buns, vanilla birthday cake and raspberry sorbet). Last year this advent calendar of little jams was a five-star hit.
Have a well planned week everyone!
♥, Wendy
You know the scoop: I’m an Amazon affiliate. If you buy from a link in my post, I’ll receive money, but the arrangement won’t cost you a dime.
Are you new to the Inspired Eater? Welcome!! This blog won’t make much sense until you first read the Aunt Bea post (and you’ll find Aunt Bea on this page to the right under my short bio). On your cell you’ll see it immediately following the first post. After you enter your email address, the Aunt Bea article will be sent to your email’s inbox. If it’s not there, you might check the spam folder. And given that computers can be so difficult, always feel free to ask in the comments below for Aunt Bea and I’ll get her right to you!
I am not an expert, doctor, surgeon, nurse, dietician, or nutritionist: the information within TheInspiredEater.com is based solely on my personal experience and is not intended to be used as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.
