Halloween is over. It’s official: the dreaded fat-making Holiday Season is upon us. Why is it always like this? Every year. Every single year. Here’s why: *You get busy and skip important things like sleep and exercise and packing your own lunch. *You make concessions on food you don’t even necessarily want (fruit cake anyone?) just because you’re at a Holiday party and it’s there. (I had this experience this week.) *You accept it as fact that you’ll gain wait leading up to December 31st and then have to lose it in the New Year. *You feel obligated to eat copious amounts of sugar for 2 months straight…again, because it’s there. *You feel obligated to eat gluten or dairy because hey, “It’s Thanksgiving!” Instead of making a gluten free stuffing, you just say, “Forget it, I’ll just feel like crap for 2 days.” *You prioritize everyone else’s feeling about your fit lifestyle, your dietary strategies (like being low carb or gluten free) becuase you don’t want to be the one who “eats weird.” *You have the idea that if don’t eat everything available at Holiday celebrations, you’ll be missing out – despite how awful you feel afterwards. *You let perfect get in the way of BETTER when you say, “I’ve already overeaten Halloween candy, I’m just eff-ed until January.” *You think it’s OK to eat until you’re in a coma because it’s Thanksgiving dinner or Christmas morning. Way too many carbs is way too many carbs. Period. If you have PCOS or Hashimoto’s these carb benders can mess you up for days. You know this, but you do it because, well, it’s the Holidays! *And you believe he prevailing thought is that “the Holidays make you fat”. It’s just a fact, right? Uh-uh. The holidays are 2 months – just 60 days – out of the year. Your body is MUCH more a product of what you did the other 305 days of the year. AND, the holidays don’t have to be like this if you keep up even most of your BETTER habits during that time –while still enjoying a few of your favorite once a year treats. This year, let’s do it different. INSTEAD of waiting until January first, hung over and hating yourself, let’s get to work on BETTER habits now. Yes, right smack dab in the middle of the time when you think it’s impossible to do BETTER. The only habits you need are right here. And I’ll be blogging (and even doing videos!) about them in more detail over the next 2 months As always, I’m right here with you. I’m going to be working on the first T in my BETTER acronym, THINK. I have a useless, mean spirited, hurtful habit of saying or thinking, “I’m fat”. I’ve thought this when I was at my thinnest and at my heaviest, but it never really felt much different. The reality of my body fat percentage has never dictated whether or not I felt fat. My attitude, my habitual way of thinking was that I was fat, regardless of what I actually look like. My habitutde, is to “feel fat”. I complain about it to my husband. I shrink down as I talk to someone I think is in way better shape than me, wondering if they are surprised that I’m not thinner. I feel sad about it when I look at other, skinnier moms and wonder if they are judging me the way I’m judging them. I feel guilty when I realize I’m bitching about my body in front of my 2 year old daughter. I feel the shame of knowing I’m the fat loss expert-body positive girl who still doesn’t think her own body is good enough some days. I feel the exhaustion of constantly trying to quiet the “I’m fat” chatter in my mind. I feel the sadness that I’m approaching 40 and I’ve felt fat as long as I can remember. I also feel proud that I’m doing much better in this area. I’m more confident, gentle, respectful and comfortable with my body than I’ve ever been…but I have more work to do. I don’t assume I’ll ever be perfect and never have a “fat day” – but I can do BETTER. The first step in doing BETTER is to face it, head on. I’m doing that in a big, big way by publicly outing myself to all of you right now. The next step is to look at this way of thinking and see how it does not serve me at all. What is the cost? The cost is obvious: I feel sad and insignificant and guilty and scared. Scared I’m not helping enough people because I’m not skinny/lean/small enough. Scared I will never be content and happy because I always want my body to look better. And then, what’s the payoff? What do I get from “feeling fat”? I get to play small, hide, let myself off the hook. As in, of course I’m not going to get a book deal, I’m too fat! And most importantly, it’s an excuse to not take 100% responsibility for myself and my body. If I’m fat, I can’t also be lean and happy right? I don’t have to own it that I’m not as lean as I want to be, I can instead sink down into self pity and start to make excuses. Re-read these blogs (this one and this one) to refamiliarize yourself with these concepts I’ve been sharing over the past few months and tomorrow, I’ll show you how I’m using my 6 step process to work on this habit. So why “BETTER in 30 days”? When you think of weight loss and changing your body, you’re instantly overwhelmed. There’s so much to do – and you know it takes time. It does take time. But what you miss when you’re focused on the end goal that may take you 6 months to reach, you miss the small victories along the way. You miss that you’re cultivating the habits that will get you to AND keep you at your goal, right now. You miss the chance to be happy along they way, not just when you’re at your goal. It is small habits, little better decisions, every day that add up to that “lifestyle” change you’re seeking. Where you’re not on a diet, but living your ideal body and it feels great – not like just a lot of restriction, work and misery. It’s all just habits. Saying “I’m fat” is a habit I’ve had at least since junior high. This is the habit I’m going to be working on, and I’m going to share it with you – and the internet. Follow me on Twitter with the hashtag #BETTERin30days and my Facebook page. Every 30 days I’ll take on another habit, because in the end, it all comes down to habits. It’s what you do every day that matter, not once in a while. It’s not what you do during the Holidays that matters most, it’s what you do the rest of the year. If you do BETTER the rest of the year, it’s easy to do BETTER during busy, stressful, sugar laden-times like the Holidays. I’m going to share my process changing my habits. In this case, transforming this limiting belief – and I want you to do the same. Together we can support each other and tackle a new habit or two each month so that INSTEAD of waking up New Year’s Day needing a complete overhaul, you’ll be rocking at least TWO new habits and well on your way to a BETTER body in 2014….and maybe, just maybe, you’ll end up liking your 2013 model a bit more. To top all that off I’ll be giving away prizes, products, supplement, even my services to the best of the best as you all risk being vulnerable in order to be great 🙂 in order to be BETTER. And we’re off. #BETTERin30days
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