Sunday, January 2, 2011

Eat to Live

Tis the season...for eating.

In previous years, I had recognized the change of seasons once I started seeing Mallomars and Jingles cookies on the shelves at Waldbaum's.

Now I'm posting on twitter to ask if I can get pumpkin and spaghetti squash year round. What a difference a year makes!

That's not to say that I won't be budgeting points to squeeze in a couple jingles with my sugar cookie sleigh ride tea (now with real sugar cookie flavor) before bed, but I have recognized my issues and adjusted my intake accordingly.

I have also accepted that I need to keep moving my body during the holiday season. As I posted before, this is one of the many benefits to training and running the Disney half-marathon right after the holidays.

My long runs last a couple hours and I usually earn between 10 and 15 AP's. That's about 3 or 4 Mallomars, NOT A BOX. Running not only keeps me burning off all the marshmallowy goodness, but calculating the APs forces me to recognize how much work is takes to negate my cookie intake. My sore muscles serve as a reminder to keep me in check.

Now, most of us are even busier during the holidays, so fitting in the extra time to get some activity in can be tricky as hell.

Although I am at goal and am currently the healthiest I have ever been as an adult, both physically and emotionally, many things are still a struggle and contrary to popular belief, activity is my main one. I would rather spend all day cuddling with Ruby and Mikey and watching bad sitcoms, than almost anything else.

A couple things I keep in mind about food and activity, particularly over the holidays:

1. Food does not have to be the main event to family gatherings. I am lucky enough to have a bunch of hysterical people in my family and I have a blast whenever we're together. Conversation is far better when I can actually concentrate on it and am not stuffing various junk into my yapper to the point where I'm almost choking, have to unbutton my pants and then obsess over my guilty feelings. Who knew?

2 This is all a choice. MY choice to eat more foods with nutritional value and less crap. I want to feel better. I want to look better and I want to serve as a good healthy example for others, so I can help them to improve the quality of their life. 

3. Running into someone I haven't seen since I gained 40 lbs (or more) is far more difficult, exhausting, stressful and time consuming than budgeting a couple hours a week to work out. I do not want to experience those feelings ever again.

This year, Mikey and I decided to sign up for the 8K Turkey Trot in Buffalo, to start the day off right! I'm so excited, even though I will have to dvr the Macy's thanksgiving day parade to watch after a nice hot shower.

So this year, I'm extra pumped for the holidays. I'm not scared of any uncontrolled food intake or seeing someone and being self-conscious about my size. 

I'm prepared because I know what to expect, have done some Weight Watchers inspired mental rehearsing and re-framing and I am ready! Bring it on!