Holiday Damage Control
I can tell I’m not in Ohio anymore.
The weather on my side of Washington state is still pretty mild. It’s annoying to see the sun set at 4:30 p.m. and the trees losing their leaves, but beyond that, it’s kinda hard to tell that winter’s on its way. While the local stores have their Christmas displays up, they’re not quite as in-your-face as they were back in the heartland, and – at least so far – I haven’t had to listen to any of the 3,572 muzak variations of “Winter Wonderland” while I shop for groceries.
So the impending holidays haven’t really been on my radar screen…until today.
I got my wake up call this afternoon, while nosing around over at msnbc.com. Like the first Robin of Spring, there it was: 11 tips to help you enjoy the season without busting your diet. I actually had to go look on the calendar to figure out when Thanksgiving was. It’s the 27th – less than 2 weeks from today.
So the tips are appropriate for here and now…there are some good ideas there.
For my money, though, the best holiday “damage control” tips are from Tom Venuto. The tips linked above are about how to keep from gaining over the holidays. Tom’s article, “Holiday Weight Loss Tips” takes it one step further: how to make progress on your fitness goals over the holidays. And – in my opinion – that’s the way it should be. It may be tempting to think that you can splurge between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve, ’cause you’ll make up for it on Jan. 1. But the reality is that:
- you’re not going to wake up as a different person with a brand new outlook on Jan. 1.
- you may be 5+ pounds heavier, so you’ll have to make up for lost ground.
- ultimately, keeping the weight off means learning to cope with holidays and feasts…so you might as well start learning to do it NOW.
But, whether your goal is to just maintain, or make progress over the holiday season, it’s important to think ahead, and have your “damage control” policies in place – before the revels begin.
Likewise, I need to start getting my shopping list together – but that’s another story for another day…
