Denial, da!, not a River!

Well....  It's the day after Christmas. I hope it was a good one!  I hope you had fun spending time with family and friends. 

I want to talk a little about that today. One thing I've learned over years of weight struggles was the effect of family and friends. One of the biggest traditions in society through history is sharing food and drink as way to pass time together. Who you eat and drink with is, many times, the people who are closest to you. So by all means eat, drink, and be merry!

When you do though, look around the table. You'll see that sometimes your friends and family aren't the same as you. One person at the table may be able to eat whatever they want and still stay skinny. Another may not be concerned about weight at all, and still others may even make attempts to get you to eat and drink things you shouldn't!  

Don't DENY the fact that you are different!  Your body may react differently to different foods, or portions than others do. Plus, if you're reading this, you probably have different goals than the others at the table do.  I am personally not one of those people who can put away gobs of food, and drink growlers of beer and not pay the price. I look at that stuff and it seems to stick right to my belly!  It's hard work and lots of dedication for me to stay thin. It was extremely difficult for me to get thin!  So don't let someone else tell you what's best for you. Listen to you're own body, and eat what you need to eat in order to meet your goals. 

I'm as guilty as anyone when it comes to caving in to the pressure of friends and family. So what do you do when you make a mistake?  Daaaaaa!  You brush it off.  Get back up the next morning and get back into your healthy routine!  I can't tell you how many times I've done the wrong thing and fell into, what I call, the "might as well" mentality.  Meaning I got up the next day and head to the nearest Dunkin' Donuts and ordered a large cream and sugar with a cinnamon roll. I figured I'd already blew it the night before, "might as well" do it again this morning. Don't be that short sighted. 

When it comes to your diet I find it best to think in terms of weeks instead of days or meals. That one mistake will cost you a whole week of weight loss, or give you a good pound or two in a maintenance phase. So don't get caught up in meal to meal or compound a mistake meal into a mistake day or week. Dust yourself off and put it back on track!