Avoiding huge weight gains during December

It seemed appropriate to offer a few suggestions to help navigate through this time of year. You will not find a collection of low-fat recipes or traditional diet tips forthwith; those shall be left to others who excel in that arena. Instead, this collection of thoughts and ideas will hopefully trigger inspiration on how to help your diet survive the remainder of the year.

1) Set realistic expectations

Losing weight during December is not the same as during January, when the national psyche shifts from “How much can I indulge?” to “How quickly can I get the weight off?” Expect it to be a more of a battle.

Realize temptations are more obvious. That’s not an excuse to consume an entire pumpkin pie or two pounds of Hanukkah Gelt but don’t expect to find it as easy as it is other times of the year. (Of course, I’m not sure it’s ever “easy” but you get my drift, right?)

One of the more common problems is expecting that if you lose, let’s say, an average of one pound a week during the year, it will continue to be at that same pace all year long. However, during the other times of the year, you are not surrounded with Chocolate Santas and reindeer shaped cookies at every turn; in addition, most families do not deliver sugary treats to you during August or June.

Unrealistic expectations simply set you up for failure. Notice, even skinny people indulge during December; they just don’t “go crazy” and they compensate for it. Plan for a few treat but set limits. And, most importantly, be gentle on yourself if you slip up, but don’t give up.

2) Realize the holidays are not the entire month of December

Although it might feel like it, the “holidays” do not begin with Halloween and end on January first. In reality, there are only about seven to ten troublesome days during those two months.

Take a look at a calender and once you actually see when the tough times occur, it relieves some stress about your diet. In addition, you can plan to compensate for those periods before and after they occur. If you actually put it on paper, it becomes clearer that it’s not as daunting as you might think; that gives you inspiration to continue and to plan.

3) Realize no one is overweight “because of the Holidays.”

We tend to think that we’d be thinner if it weren’t for the indulgences of the holidays. Reality check: If the only time overweight people ate excessively was during holidays, we wouldn’t be overweight. Assuming we indulge at every celebration (including those such as Flag Day and Admissions Day) we’re still only counting about 30 days a year, less than ten percent of the time. The holidays don’t throw us off; it’s all that time in between holidays where we continue on our eating sprees. We say, “Well, as long as I blew it, I might as well start again when the holidays are over.”

I don’t mean to burst a bubble, but the holidays — at least those around this time of year — have been in existence for a few thousand years. They are not stopping anytime soon. However, with some forethought and focus, one can stop the yearly weight cycle and really have something healthy to celebrate in January.