I wanna do right but not right now!
The title of this column was taken from a line in a song by one of my favourite performers, Gillian Welsh and I think it sums up pretty well one of the main hurdles we face when trying to do right when it comes to weight loss or healthy eating. We do want to change, we do wanna do right, but right now isn’t the time.
This is especially true around this time of year. We may all have been doing really well up until mid -November or early December and then the Christmas social calendar kicks in. The children need to be kitted out for plays, your work-do is planned, your partner’s Christmas party is pencilled in the diary and before you know it, trying to juggle everything seems impossible. You’re right in the middle of the holiday madness, the seasonal good cheer is kicking in and you want to indulge for the whole month.
It can be easy to fall into the trap of thinking that any steps you take now to continue to eat well and healthily will amount to nothing come the 25th of December. After all, if you know you’re going to overindulge over Christmas, resisting the temptations around you seems like a drop in the ocean. So what do you do? You get back into the habit of your morning mocha and muffin. Your lunches are grabbed on the go and dinners are fast and loose. Maybe that tin of sweets you’ve bought for visitors gets opened as soon as you decorate the tree and you decide that a little evening choccie or two will be fine because it’s Christmas all December.
There are however, two problems with this approach. Firstly, by all means enjoy your Christmas, but throwing caution to the wind on the expectation of one day’s festivities is foolhardy. It leads you into a false sense that 1 day of festive fun will undo any and all the hard work and effort you’ve put into losing weight until now. It’s worth remembering that it’s not the one off family occasions that lead us to year on year gain weight, it’s the small incremental changes to our diets that do. All the extra sweets, treats and rule bending in the run up to Christmas are extra calories and regardless of what you eat on Christmas, Boxing or New Year’s Day will contribute to weight gain in and of itself.
Secondly, if you have built up healthy habits over the past few months and decide in December that these habits aren’t worth maintaining for the next three weeks, regardless of what it does to your waistline, it is re-introducing some of the bad habits that lead you to gain weight originally. What this means is that once the celebrations are over and it’s back to reality, you will have to relearn your good habits. You may be lucky and pick these up quickly, but it’s far more likely that you will struggle to get back on track as old habits that you have worked hard to tackle and correct will have to be tackled all over again.
What this means is that eating healthily and losing weight will be harder still in January. Never underestimate just how hard it can be to correct bad habits, our behaviour and attitude to food are often the hardest things to address when following a diet. But it doesn’t have to be this way, you can rise above it all, stick to your healthy eating guns, enjoy a treat every now and again (I’m not scrooge!) and come January getting back on track and starting over again won’t be as hard a mountain to climb.
That is such good advice! It is easy to loose sight of the overall picture. I dont think you should deprive yourself, just make the most of the treats you do have. I am thinking really carefully about what treats I buy and how many - it is only two days! I usually shop for the whole month. I made a really gooey cake yesterday, had one piece, decided it was far too rich. I packed my hubby off with the rest of it to work today to feed all his mates... sorted!!!
Comment by NUTTYASAFRUITCAKE -
Its all true, just let go for a day and another day and suddenly half a stone is back on, its scary how quickly all the weight could go back on !! Then its so hard to get back on track.
Comment by PHEONIX129 -
This is so true. Believe me, I feel so bad today after scoffing 12 Milk-Tray type choccies! Now they're gone, they are only a memory, and I have gone way over my calorie count as they clocked me an extra 500 plus cals. It almost makes me weep when I think of all the hard work I put into losing just less than 3 sts last year, and now I have put back just less than half of it. All those steps and stretches I will need to move it again!!!
Comment by CUPPAGIRL -
HI is it possible to change my weight day? at the moment I weight in on a Sunday and I would prefer to weight in on a Saturday morning? is that possible please
please forward on my message if not appropriate to you thankyou Marian
Comment by MARIAN21 -
It's so true - and my only remedy is leaving shopping for treats until the last minute (or hiding them in the back of the cupboard) - and trying to move about more. The second is actually quite easy in the prep for Christmas - over the past couple of days I have been up and down the stairs much more often than previously with tidying up and resolving to carry only small loads at a time which means more frequent trips. But overall, I think it is good to allow yourself a few lapses now and then.
Comment by DORIS4FUTURE -
Makes sense and a treat now and again is fine. Would be a shame to over indulge throughout the whole of December and undo the good work up to that point. If I fancy something I will have it but maybe not as much or as frequent. I will keep getting on those scales as that will have the biggest impact on me to keep on track.
Comment by NICOLE310370 -
Hi
I think that's a very good policy, its so easy to decide that 1 here or there won't hurt. But in December its rarely one or 2. So I think if you pick your moments and have a treat at the party you get the best of both worlds.
I sometimes type the foods I've said NO to into the extras, just to see what my resolve saved me in calories. If you feel a little regret about saying no to a mince pie but find out it was 250 odd calories, trust me you feel really good afterwards for your decision:-)
Comment by CLAIRECHESHIREK -
Sound advice. Everything is just so tempting this time of year. I am just having one treat on nights and parties, be it drink or food, so I don't feel so deprived then.
Comment by BURCH3LL -