By Barbara Berkeley
Along with the snow, along with the cold and wet, along with the flu, along with the desire to bundle up and eat nothing but mashed potatoes for three months….along with all of that comes the food assault.
Food assault is the term I use to describe the feeling of being pressed in on all sides by food. This happens often enough at other times of the year, but it reaches epic proportions around the holidays. The food that’s coming to tempt us in the next couple of months is not your ordinary stuff. No. This is the candy, the delightfully decorated cookies, the steaming cups of hot chocolate, the puddings, the stuffings, the pies. Need I go on? What’s worse for us maintainers is the fact that all of these foods are tied in our minds to happiness, family and love. Food is happiness, yet we certainly won’t be happy if we regain our weight. How do we walk that tightrope?
Maybe our first response should be to unmask the true nature of holiday food “happiness.” For example:
• Many of the people who are making and offering holiday food can least afford it themselves and won’t be happy in the weeks following the holiday binge
• While a little sweet food may be love, a lot of it is destructive to POWs (the previously overweight)
• There is nothing necessarily good about pushing away from the Thanksgiving table with a stomach so distended that it’s painful
• The foods we confront during the holidays are really just a more intense form of the SAD (standard American diet)…the very diet we’re trying to distance ourselves from.
I’m a big fan of planning. It’s around this time of year that I start prep work with my patients, so why not online? It’s time to visualize your Thanksgiving dinner. It’s time to imagine some of the food challenges you’ll likely face this holiday season. Once you’ve got these scenarios in mind, I advise you work on designing a plan that circumvents them. Here’s some of what I’ll be suggesting this year:
• Imagine the exact situations you’ll find yourself in and picture your response.
• Think about what you’ll allow yourself to put on your plate.
• Imagine how you might divert yourself by getting into conversations or helping out (away from the food)
• Figure out how to keep your hands busy.
• Plan on the clothing you’ll wear and pick something snug. That both shows off your new shape and keeps a check on eating!
In addition, I advocate an overall strategy. Since this is a food war, it’s a good idea to know what your campaign will look like.
Here are two possible strategies:
1. The “ Diet of Conviction” strategy
a. Probably the most effective strategy of all. Simply: keep doing exactly what you do the rest of the year. Don’t give yourself a pass just because it’s the holiday. I often remind my clients that vegetarians don’t start eating meat just because they go to a party. They base their diet on a certain conviction and stick to it no matter what. I know that many of you do the same and find that this thinking is key. This doesn’t mean you can’t make slight departures, but by and large…you adhere to plan.
2. The “I will…but then” strategy
a. In this strategy, you decide in advance what off-plan foods you will allow yourself. Making this decision ahead of time is critical, because you never want to get caught on the defense in front of a table full of pie and cake! Decide what you want to “spend” and don’t go over budget. This is the “I will…” part.
b. Decide in advance what you will do after you’ve gone off plan. This is the “but then” part. Here are some examples:
i. I will eat a serving of stuffing and a full piece of pumpkin pie, but then I will go the gym the next day and do a full work out;
ii. I will have those potatoes with the marshmallows on top, but then I will weigh myself in the morning and if I’m up even slightly, I’ll do a mini-diet that day.
I am sure that all of you experienced maintainers will be sending your comments. For those of you who are about to go through your first holiday season since losing weight, remember that we’re here for you! Gaining over the holiday is not inevitable if you make a plan and enjoy the cleverness it takes to carry it out!
