Friday, October 30, 2009

Object in Mirror Are Intended to Remind you to STOP

Holidays = calories.

Its a fact, maybe not for everyone but it is for me. When I was trying to lose weight it was overwhelming and sometimes upsetting because it made enjoying holidays harder. Now that I have a pretty decent system and am comfortable with myself I'm less bothered by the fact.

Birthdays (not a holiday I know, same deal, whatever), Christmas, Thanksgiving and even Halloween can be challenging. There are so many reasons that I hate Halloween. First, it overshadowed my birthday as a kid. Stupid Halloween stole all my glory. Why can't my school birthday cupcakes be pastel colored? Why are they orange and black? All the other girls get pink and purple birthday treats! Life was clearly unfair to this suburban youth. Excuse me while I tear up and then roll my eyes at myself.

I do hate Halloween though. I hate plastic decorations. Halloween is, by definition, a tacky holiday. At least Christmas decorations can be classy. I also get annoyed with the emphasis on chocolate. I like chocolate occasionally but can't eat much of it. Clearly my life is still unfair. Now its your turn to roll your eyes.

My general system for not making holidays a bear and instead making them enjoyable is a simple promise to myself: I refuse to feel stuffed. Its never worth it. I used to rock the food coma. In college I was a queen of overeating (okay before college too). When something is tasty its hard to remember, although I try, that this food is good but not worth that horrible stomach pain that comes from over indulging. Even if the food is good or even expensive, not worth it. Take it home!

I have a friend that I regularly share expensive meals with. Its a thing we do - we love to save up and have a blow out meal. Just a few months ago we went out, ordered cocktails and had a few snacks and then proceeded to order dinner. Moments before our dinner arrived we realized we already felt stuffed and wanted to fall asleep (that one might have been the cocktails). So we had the waiter pack up all the food. He looked at us like we were clearly crazy. And we might be. But we had one hell of a lunch the next day.

So: stuffed = not worth it. Perhaps I need to tattoo it backwards on my forehead.

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