How much weight would you not gain if you blew off the holidays?
Like saved jobs in this country, proving how much you wouldn't eat in a scenario is a rather difficult task.
We talk about the temptation that the holidays bring, anything from the Thanksgiving stuffing we had as a child to candy dishes full of red and green wrapped candy at work. Why are there two gigantic eating holidays at a time where cold weather prevents us from burning off some of those extra calories?
The reality is you will celebrate the holidays because you have to, you want to, you need to, and you'll do your best to get through them.
Secretly, you might desire a chance to spend the holidays by yourself. Okay, you would miss your family. Maybe. But you would be away from the temptations that holidays bring. And the emotional, financial, physical stress that accompany trips.
What if you made a nice simple Thanksgiving type meal, allowing you the time to cook that you might not get after coming up late from work? You could splurge on yourself, but have the time to prepare something tasty and healthy. No verbal pressure to have pie, cake, tart unless you really want it.
How about a nice roasted chicken or quinoa dish at holiday time? Again, a simple meal made with time and love for yourself.
For most, this is a fantasy because you will spend holidays with the family and reality, but not in a good way, because you don't have any family left or the situation is just too bad.
As tempting as it might be to remove temptation, others suffer from the opposite. If left alone, they are more afraid they will overeat and seek the company of others. And alone for the holidays can feel more alone.
If you have no family or don't want to admit you have a family, you can hang out with friends or friends' families. They might be in a family drama, but as an outsider, you don't have to worry about stress levels. And their older relatives might want you to eat more, but they don't have the baggage of your older relatives.
You do have options for how to handle the temptations of the holidays. Even if you are somewhere you don't want to be, you are still in control. Temptations are all around you, but the will to fight them is from within.
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