Have you put on a few pounds over Christmas?
Ah, January…
The mince pies are a memory. The Quality Street tubs are ready for recycling. You’ve done your best to eat up the stilton so it doesn’t go to waste. The Bailey’s is back in the cupboard and Terry’s Chocolate Orange is long gone.
What lingers for longer, though, is the Christmas weight gain that all that food can cause as a souvenir of a good time. If this sends you into a post-Christmas panic, read on…
How not to drop the holiday pounds
For far too many years, I started January by diving into whichever diet promised to shift those festive pounds fastest.
One year it had something to do with lots of grilled tomatoes and the odd boiled egg (lasted 4 days). Another year it was Slim Fast (lasted a few weeks, spent a fortune, felt horrific, missed real food). Way back in Jan ’98 it was satsumas, madeleines and Nesquik (a low point, I ended up fainting, silly goose). A different year it was Joe Wicks’ 90 Day Plan (lasted 0 days. I spent ages looking at the before/after photos, felt worse, had some cake).
And not forgetting the juices, cleanses, detoxes, fibre pills to make me feel fuller (allegedly). All an absolute waste of time, money and energy.
No more festive regret
This year, I refuse to feel self-loathing at my lack of December discipline and resulting Christmas weight gain. I shall feel no shame about that packet of mince pies or bag of roasted peanuts. There will be no unkind words to myself about how my waistbands are a tiny bit tighter. Instead, I am totally owning that I have been fortunate enough to have had a wonderful Christmas filled with love, family and great food.
I don’t now need to suffer a punishment for this lovely time. There’s nothing to “balance out” by restriction, denial and misery.
A happier, healthier new year
All that’s happening for me this January is going back to what happens the other 11 months of the year. Great food choices that makes me feel fab (like those in my Easy Healthy Eating Handbook). Plenty of positive eating behaviours, plus the odd apple crumble, Wispa, fish & chips or whatever else I fancy once in a while.
I suppose what I’m trying to say is that I know what it’s like to give yourself a hard time, and also how much nicer it is not to.
Happy New Year!
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