|
Start by Doing Just One Thing
 Posted by Michelle Butler Dec 4 2011, 8:26 pm in eating healthy, exercise, Expectations, food, goals, Holidays, Michelle Butler, Michelle Mondays, small changes As I write this, I am grooving to Christmas Carols and still feeling the happy glow from my local RWA chapter’s holiday party. I have several more holiday season events to look forward to and wonderful friends and family to visit and celebrate with this month. Add the memories of the beautiful and festive Christmas markets I saw in Austria a couple of weeks ago and the unbelievable levels of happiness I’m feeling this year because of the fabulous boyfriend, and it would be safe to conclude that I am enjoying the holidays this year. I’ve gotten fairly good at enjoying the moment, and my moments are mostly great right now, but that does not make me immune to the temptation to reflect on my past year and to start thinking about some long time goals. One important area of my life where I’ve frankly backslid is the whole health/diet/exercise stuff. I’ve been aware of this. Heck, I still get weighed in at Weight Watchers weekly and have noticed that my bigger size 12s, much less the smaller 12s and 10s, are getting tight, but I’m so stinkin’ happy that I’ve found it hard to care enough to do something about it. But, I’ve gotten rid of all my size 14 and above clothing, and I refuse to buy bigger sizes. I’m also aware of the amazing culinary temptations of the holidays, and everywhere you turn you hear that the average person gains a big amount of weight over the holidays. Now, I’ve got a a decent amount of experience with navigating the holidays without doing too much damage, but I know better than to try to be perfect this month and expect to lose a lot of weight. I do want to limit the damage I do though so that I still fit into some of my clothes when 2012 starts, and I can renew my efforts to get back into that healthy weight zone. So, how can I enjoy the holidays yet still stay true to my healthy writer commitment to good eating habits and fitness? One way I’m making sure I don’t completely lose it is to keep going to my Weight Watchers meetings weekly. This is not something new for me, but just deciding to stick to it and not skip meetings when I know I very well will most likely gain weight helps me keep some control over my portions and food choices. One tip that our leader shared last Tuesday was to pull out a calendar and circle all the days with “big eating” events. Most likely, it won’t be everyday. Recognizing this helps me to be more disciplined on the days when I don’t have holiday parties and helps me to strategize how best to approach the days with lots of food temptations. These big eating events are part of the fun of the holidays for me, and I want to be able to enjoy them without stressing over everything I eat and drink or doing too much damage to my waistline. I’m going to start by committing to do just one thing in every challenging situation. This weekend, I had two parties. Yesterday, I made going to the gym a priority, and I plan to make exercise a priority throughout the month of December to help counterbalance the increased calorie intake. I had a regular sized breakfast but a smaller lunch as the party started at 4:00. I did not limit any kind of food or drink at the party, but I did try to practice good portion control and compare my intake to the “skinnier” folks there to help judge whether I was eating too much. Today, I wasn’t able to fit in the gym, so I was a little stricter at today’s holiday party. I committed to limiting my beverages to water (no hot cocoa, no alcohol, no soda, etc.) but no food was forbidden. I could eat whatever I wanted in moderation. One of my friends had committed to eating no food at the party, so I could have been more disciplined, but I know that something like that can backfire for me and inspire me to binge. I did eat a normal sized breakfast but did not have lunch before the party, which was from 2-5, or supper after the party. For the rest of the holiday season, I plan to make these kind of commitments to do just one healthy thing on the big eating event days to limit the damage I do to the way my clothes fit this month. These small trade offs do not ruin the festivities and do not stress me out or make me feel deprived. None of these events will be the very last time I can eat a Christmas cookie or other treat before I must commit to a lifetime of perfect dieting so that I have a prayer of being a healthy weight. I can find a way to balance enjoying the holidays to the fullest without gaining a large amount of weight. You can too if you take a few minutes to decide just what one thing you will commit to doing on the big eating event days during the holidays. What one thing can you do to help make sure you have a happy yet healthy holiday season? What are some trade offs you can consider making?
Comments
11 Responses to “Start by Doing Just One Thing”Leave a Reply |
The Latest Posts
archives
tags
10 Healthy Guidelines
Anna Sugden
bad habits
calories
clothing
confidence
cookbooks
cooking
eating healthy
Emotional Eating
exercise
Expectations
fear
fitness
food
food diary
goals
guest blogger
health tips
Holidays
inspiration
Inspiration Sunday
Keri Mikulski
Michelle Butler
Michelle Mondays
motivation
non-scale victories
portion control
positive thinking
process
progress
Rachel Graves
recipes
running
Sally Kilpatrick
small changes
stress
Tawny's Thursdays
Tawny Thursday
Tawny Weber
The Biggest Loser
Trish Milburn
walking
weight loss
Writing
feeds
the healthy writers
|
|||||||||||||
home | about | the writers | resources | blog | contact
©2010 The Healthy Writer Blog. All rights reserved.
Site designed and maintained by Bemis Promotions.
Hi Michelle!
I love this “just one thing” approach–and the way it involves thinking about your day and making choices about the day.
I need to start applying this to my writing. Yet again, I’ve fallen into old habits of letting the semester’s work dominate my time. The thing is, though, that there’s a difference this fall. In my new neighborhood, my daughter spends a lot more time playing with neighborhood kids on the weekend, so I’ve got much less of an excuse for not at least writing on the weekends–and if I can write on the weekends, maybe I can bring back that “10 minutes” a day plan (with the weekends as the bigger chunk of writing that keeps me going through the smaller periods of writing).
Balance everything is so hard, Elise. I’m hoping that thinking about doing just one thing will make it easier to keep doing something for healthy weight management throughout the holidays. If you feel like you have to do 12 things at once or be perfect, it can seem impossible and you just don’t try.
Here’s hoping it helps you with your writing too! It could be a great strategy to implement in January.
I love this positive attitude, Michelle! I’m so pleased that you’re so happy with life (and the fabulous boyfriend) and that that is what’s driving you to make positive decisions!
You know me, I love trade-offs and balances. *g*. I know I can’t exercise, so I need to ensure I make time for my steps every day.
I also try to balance what I eat based on the holiday plans and activities. Smaller portions and more frugal meals when we have a big celebratory event. I also do things like order two appetisers instead of a heavy main course or ensure I eat nibbles with plenty of protein and veg, instead of fried/starchy nibbles. I try to stay away from the salted nuts and stick to tortilla chips instead.
My big weakness at this time of year is mince pies. I don’t normally eat desserts, but mince pies can be eaten at any time and are best with cream! Especially as hubby has made his own mincemeat this year. Half fat cream helps, as does limiting the number I eat *g* to one and not every day either. And I try to make sure there aren’t any festive chocolates or sweets around the house!
Thanks, Anna! I almost labeled “trade-offs” as Anna’s favorite trade-offs. Your name is very associated with that word in my mind.
Mince pies are yummy – and they do tend to only be around over the holidays. It sounds like a smart, special indulgence. I hear you that you “make sure there aren’t any festive chocolates or sweets around the house!” I try to do that – but give up when it gets so close to Christmas and/or Thanksgiving. That is also a huge challenge at work. One thing that helps is it tends to be at its worse in January, and by then, I tend to be so sick of overeating that I just want to eat sensibly for awhile.
Just one thing…I like that and need to follow it. So often we undermine ourselves by giving up when we can’t do something perfectly.
I’m so happy you’re having a great holiday season–you are an inspiration to us all!
Thanks, Sally!
One phrase you heard get thrown around in DC is don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. e.g. Ted Kennedy killing Nixon’s health care plan bc it wasn’t perfect and there not being one for another 30+ years. Anyway, I think of that often when I start stressing over all that I’m not doing to succeed.
Another thing that helps is believing that perfection pretty much doesn’t exist and it’s something people use to beat themselves up with instead of as something that can inspire them to try harder.
I love that phrase – it’s especially good for procrastinating writers too! I’ve learned to keep moving forward, even if a scene isn’t perfect, as I can come back and revise it later. That way I keep progressing and actually get my books finished!
Another phrase along those lines that a former professor of mine used to say frequently was: “Don’t get it right. Get it written.”
Great plan for managing the holidays and their temptations, Michelle. Another thing we can do is pausing. When confronted with a temptation, pause before just grabbing it and popping it into our mouths. We need to ask ourselves, “Do I really want this? Is it worth the calories, or would I rather save those calories for something I enjoy more?”
I like your suggestion to pause, Trish. Making what you do in terms of eating and drinking a conscious decision always helps. I hate when I look at some half-eaten sweet I’m holding in my hand and have to wonder when did I decide to eat this thing.
Great suggestion, Trish! I’ll use that one too!