10 Strategies for Avoiding Holiday Weight Gain: Proven Tips for Resisting Holiday Excess
http://www.womensquarter.com/articles/10855/1/10-Strategies-for-Avoiding-Holiday-Weight-Gain-Proven-Tips-for-Resisting-Holiday-Excess/Page1.html
Nancy D. O'Reilly
Clinical psychologist Nancy D. O'Reilly, PsyD, has worked with women for more than 25 years. She founded the WomenSpeak Project to offer a supportive atmosphere for growing older in our society that does not support aging. Access ongoing research, e-newsletters, a free online consulting service, and resources about Health and Wellness, Relationships, Finances and Aging itself at "http://www.womenspeak.com">WomenSpeak.com. By Nancy D. O'Reilly
Published on 6 December 2010
Do not let the holidays add five pounds of ugly fat to your frame. A clinical psychologist and women's expert offers proven techniques for preventing holiday weight gain. You can have holiday fun without eating too much of the wrong things. These ten strategies include tips for success that help women maintain their weight during the holidays.
I know a fitness instructor who every December purchased five pounds of beef suet from the butcher and displayed it at her exercise classes. "Is this what you want on your butt December 31?" she would ask.
What a wake-up call! You better believe we exercised harder and paid attention to the flow of holiday calories.
As she helped us demonstrate, we really did not have to gain five-to-seven pounds of ugly fat during the holiday season even though lots of other people would!
You don't have to do it either!
If you make a plan, pay attention, and develop some strategies, you can easily enter 2011 no larger than you are today. Here's how:
1. Check Your Expectations. Remember, it's just another day. Don't let your cherished memories create unrealistic expectations for tomorrow. The past probably wasn't as great--or as awful--as you remember. Live in the present. Don't expect yourself to be perfect. Expect that your family and friends will still know how to push your buttons. Prepare yourself for a less than perfect time with annoying family members. It's all OK.
2. Stay grown up. Don't let your cousin who tormented you as a child turn you back into an eight year-old. You're a grown woman. Release old fears and grudges and stay in the present. If your family if truly toxic, keep your car keys in your pocket as a reminder that you can leave anytime. You don't have to eat for protection.
3. Arm yourself. If you can't avoid people who make your self-esteem shrink, arm yourself with a top-ten list of what makes you the greatest YOU! Slip the list in your pocket and use it to bolster your spirits if Aunt Minnie starts picking at you again. Are you brilliant? Hysterically funny? Wryly clever? Incredibly loving and supportive? Intensely loyal? Be yourself...everyone else is taken!
4. Grin and bear it. Take little kids, add sugar and holiday excitement, and one is bound to crash and burn. Please be patient, bring plenty of entertainments, get them outside to run at every opportunity, and remember...they're the kids these holidays are supposed to be for!
5. Meet Your Family Like an Anthropologist. Don't let them get under your skin. Step back and observe this unusual new culture you have found. Note the strange initiation rites, the peculiar traditions that bind the tribe, and the bizarre customs they have developed.
6. Wear Your Favorite Clothes, Makeup and Hairstyle. Knowing that you look your best will help you emerge from behind the buffet table. Take up a position across the room and nibble on grapes while conversing with others.
7. Learn Something New About Everyone There. Set yourself the assignment of drawing other people out of their shells. You'll find the evening flies by when you have a focus, and forgetting to obsess about yourself can help free you from the nervousness that leads to overeating.
8. Say "No, Thank You." Accept the love people offer, but pass on the rich foods. Practice saying, "It looks fabulous, but no, thank you." "What a wonderful dish, but no, thank you." "Oh, you'll have to give me the recipe, but no thank you." "Oh, I so admire your cooking, I wish I could but No, thank you." Repeat as needed.
9. Say "No, Thank You" Again. Use this all-purpose response to escape the things you'd rather not to do. Wouldn't you like to visit Aunt Sarah (who has never said one nice thing to you in 40 years)? No, thank you. Wouldn't you like to take care of the kids while the rest of us go shopping? No, thank you. Take the kids shopping with you? Go to dinner with your old boyfriend's family? No. No, thank you.
10. Have a Plan and Picture Your Success. Before you head out to the next holiday event, sit quietly. Write your goals and plan in your journal. Visualize how wonderful you'll feel as you leave the event, comfortably fed but not overfull, remembering the fun new things you've learned about the people there, grateful for your blessings, and delighted with all the material you've collected for your new book on bizarre family traditions. Carry this plan with you as a magic shield against overeating.
Now, that doesn't sound so hard, does it? You can have a wonderful holiday season without sabotaging your health and your body. Ready, set, go enjoy yourself!
What a wake-up call! You better believe we exercised harder and paid attention to the flow of holiday calories.
As she helped us demonstrate, we really did not have to gain five-to-seven pounds of ugly fat during the holiday season even though lots of other people would!
You don't have to do it either!
If you make a plan, pay attention, and develop some strategies, you can easily enter 2011 no larger than you are today. Here's how:
1. Check Your Expectations. Remember, it's just another day. Don't let your cherished memories create unrealistic expectations for tomorrow. The past probably wasn't as great--or as awful--as you remember. Live in the present. Don't expect yourself to be perfect. Expect that your family and friends will still know how to push your buttons. Prepare yourself for a less than perfect time with annoying family members. It's all OK.
2. Stay grown up. Don't let your cousin who tormented you as a child turn you back into an eight year-old. You're a grown woman. Release old fears and grudges and stay in the present. If your family if truly toxic, keep your car keys in your pocket as a reminder that you can leave anytime. You don't have to eat for protection.
3. Arm yourself. If you can't avoid people who make your self-esteem shrink, arm yourself with a top-ten list of what makes you the greatest YOU! Slip the list in your pocket and use it to bolster your spirits if Aunt Minnie starts picking at you again. Are you brilliant? Hysterically funny? Wryly clever? Incredibly loving and supportive? Intensely loyal? Be yourself...everyone else is taken!
4. Grin and bear it. Take little kids, add sugar and holiday excitement, and one is bound to crash and burn. Please be patient, bring plenty of entertainments, get them outside to run at every opportunity, and remember...they're the kids these holidays are supposed to be for!
5. Meet Your Family Like an Anthropologist. Don't let them get under your skin. Step back and observe this unusual new culture you have found. Note the strange initiation rites, the peculiar traditions that bind the tribe, and the bizarre customs they have developed.
6. Wear Your Favorite Clothes, Makeup and Hairstyle. Knowing that you look your best will help you emerge from behind the buffet table. Take up a position across the room and nibble on grapes while conversing with others.
7. Learn Something New About Everyone There. Set yourself the assignment of drawing other people out of their shells. You'll find the evening flies by when you have a focus, and forgetting to obsess about yourself can help free you from the nervousness that leads to overeating.
8. Say "No, Thank You." Accept the love people offer, but pass on the rich foods. Practice saying, "It looks fabulous, but no, thank you." "What a wonderful dish, but no, thank you." "Oh, you'll have to give me the recipe, but no thank you." "Oh, I so admire your cooking, I wish I could but No, thank you." Repeat as needed.
9. Say "No, Thank You" Again. Use this all-purpose response to escape the things you'd rather not to do. Wouldn't you like to visit Aunt Sarah (who has never said one nice thing to you in 40 years)? No, thank you. Wouldn't you like to take care of the kids while the rest of us go shopping? No, thank you. Take the kids shopping with you? Go to dinner with your old boyfriend's family? No. No, thank you.
10. Have a Plan and Picture Your Success. Before you head out to the next holiday event, sit quietly. Write your goals and plan in your journal. Visualize how wonderful you'll feel as you leave the event, comfortably fed but not overfull, remembering the fun new things you've learned about the people there, grateful for your blessings, and delighted with all the material you've collected for your new book on bizarre family traditions. Carry this plan with you as a magic shield against overeating.
Now, that doesn't sound so hard, does it? You can have a wonderful holiday season without sabotaging your health and your body. Ready, set, go enjoy yourself!