Holiday fear

The holiday season is always an extremely stressful time. But if you’re battling with your weight, it can be downright scary.

Choosing the right gifts, spending money you may not have, seeing relatives you’d really rather not see. All of this can bring us back to old behaviors that are just easier and more comfortable.

And usually, those old ways are not the healthiest.

Just so you don’t think I’m a saint, I should tell you that I look to food for comfort, too. And I also suffer from the same worries and anxieties that come with trying to eat healthy under tough circumstances.

Fortunately, I have plenty of experience. Now, the foods I seek are just more of the foods that I know are good for me. It’s like a trained reflex. The more practice you have, the better you become at it.

But even I have my weak moments.

The hurricane that blew through New York a couple of months ago left me pretty shell shocked. And to make matters worse, I recently had to call it quits with my trainer of more than two years.

Nothing felt right. My routine was thrown, and like the “fat kid” I will always be, my first thoughts went to food. (Ice cream, to be exact.)

When faced with stressful and uncomfortable circumstances, it’s so easy to derail, to lose your way, and to revert back to bad behaviors. And that’s almost what happened to me, just in time for the holidays.

Luckily, though, I had other plans.

I was determined not to stop exercising–even though it would have been the easy way out until I found a new trainer. Instead, I reached down into that inner strength that we all carry with us.

I decided that I had learned a lot in the gym over the past couple years. And I would just train myself.

For me to exercise by myself goes against every natural instinct. But, I persevered. And now I’m doing it. All on my own.

Because my health always comes first.

Even when I just want to shut myself in and make friends with a pint of Ben and Jerry’s.

No, it isn’t always easy or fun to eat healthy during the holidays. But no one wants to be one of the many, many Americans who gains ten pounds between now and the New Year.

So I challenge you to lose weight over the next couple of weeks. Or at the very least, not to gain.

But whatever you do, don’t derail. Maintain your integrity and reach for your inner strength. Believe me, it’s there.

You just have to trust it to help you make it through.


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