13th December 2010

Habit and routine have an unbelievable power to waste and destroy.- Henri de Lubac

Monday morning’s rolled around again and it’s only 12 days to Christmas, hooray! I cooked again yesterday made myself a delicious roast lamb dinner, slow roasted it in a red wine gravy – ooo nice. Then I made mom a turkey and mushroom pie with the remaining filo. I spent my afternoon looking through my old Weight Watcher cookbooks for my favourite recipes and copied and converted them to ProPoints so I have my own cook book started now. Stuffed mushrooms on the menu today I think!

I’ve cooked and eaten well this weekend, at the same time I’ve given myself permission to overindulge! It had nothing to do with the fact it’s Christmas time! I just do that every now and again because I’ve realised that I have an emotional eating pattern and rather than ignore it or try to fight it I go with it as best as I can. By doing this I no longer feel guilty afterwards like a lot of people do when they overeat.

The best thing you can do for yourself is to start working on your emotional eating pattern right now, before the New Year when you usually make your resolution to really do something about your weight. Beginning to have control now and knowing that you are doing something about it, will give you that extra momentum and confidence that just might make the difference for next year.

You can still eat plenty at Christmas. Even if you eat a little too much that will be okay, as long as you are making a conscious decision to indulge yourself on this special occasion. If you can begin to trust yourself by starting to be more conscious about what's going on within you, you'll probably be able to prevent some or all of those awful blazing binges that make you hate yourself and rob you of the opportunity to enjoy the holidays.

If you’re worried about overindulging, remind yourself, that everyone is tempted to overindulge during the holidays. For some it doesn't matter, they just eat or drink a little bit more and work it off after the holidays. But if abstinence is important to you, or controlled eating is something you are working on, the temptations become more difficult. By planning ahead you can have an easier time with your eating goals.

Make it easier on myself by allowing for some indulgences, but planning for it by budgeting for the extras into your ProPoints allowance and by saving your weekly allowance for it.

Start to understand your own reasons for overeating and overdrinking and watch for these triggers. And maybe just accept that this is a time of overindulgence and that if you do overeat or overdrink it is not the end of the world.

If you really do struggle, ask for help, others can often help during difficult times. Sometimes just talking with someone who will listen is help enough. When you decide to ask for help, remember to choose the person wisely and be clear about what you're asking for. The meetings are a great place to discuss how you’re feeling, either with myself, another member or with everyone in the discussion.

Christmas can be a very emotional time for some, so if you’re one of them, recognise your feelings, uncomfortable feelings commonly accompany difficult situations. Although the usual advice is to express feelings, sometimes that isn't appropriate, especially if you’re at the in-laws for example or because you got the worst present ever from a loved one! Consciously deciding to keep your feelings private for good reasons is not the same as being in denial. In fact, that decision can actually make you stronger and more self-confident.

Most importantly, take care of your own personal needs. It's important to be good to yourself. By taking care of your own needs, you'll be proud of yourself and probably avoid something of the challenges you are now anticipating. In order to take better care of myself, continue with the routines you’ve already put in place following ProPoints, these will help keep up your health, not set you up for disappointment, respect yourself and your feelings and needs. What are you going to do to assure that you do these things for yourself?

Enjoy this time of year and don’t fear Christmas, remember you can take things too seriously! I had an email the other day that really made me smile because it showed what happens if you get too extreme!

In this email there was a photo of Gillian McKeith and below it said –

This woman is 51. She is a TV “health guru” advocating a holistic approach to nutrition and ill health, promoting exercise, a pescetarian diet high in organic fruits and vegetables. She recommends detox diets colonic irrigation and supplements, also making statements that yeast is harmful, that the colour of food is nutritionally significant, and about the utility of lingual and faecal examination.

She didn’t look good! Next there was a photo of Nigella Lawson and below it said –

This woman is 50. She is a TV cook, who eats nothing but meat, butter and deserts.  So forget “join a gym and eat more celery”. This Christmas it's food and booze all the way, and the only exercise you need is dancing!! Merry Christmas!

I think you’ll agree both show extremes, so finding your own balance is very important! I’ve done the Bailey’s thing this weekend and it was delicious and now I don’t feel the need to do it again this year.

Let’s hope today isn’t a Manic Monday!