December 20th, 2016
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Photo Courtesy of Country Living

This holiday season I feel a bit like Buddy from the popular Christmas movie, Elf.

Remember the scene where Buddy the elf, who is magically played by Will Ferrell, travels from the North Pole to New York City to find his father and explains to his new family that elves try to stick to the four main food groups: candy, candy canes, candy corn and syrup?

That would be me this holiday season.  Except for the candy corn, which I have never liked because I think it tastes like some kind of plastic or wax.

But the rest of the categories?  No problem.

And there in lies my conundrum.

The tasty and oh so enticing things that are made to eat from Buddy the Elf’s food categories are not really food, at least not food in the healthy sense.

You may differ in opinion with me and say Buddy’s food categories are food but let’s be real for just a second.  Buddy’s food is really just four different ways of finding instant gratification.

And I have been giving myself permission to indulge because my personal and work routine has been running on overload.

I know that it’s no excuse to choose sugar just because I’m busy or stressed.  But I’m human and I can’t help it.

Despite my efforts to constantly use breathing and other mindful resources, which do help me a lot, I have found myself to be constantly on the run, trying to get more things done for more people in a shorter amount of time and that has led to the dreaded attitude that I sometimes adopt where I tell myself it’s okay to “only take a handful” of whatever sweetness I have found and go ahead and consume it.

It’s not the way I like to handle my diet because I know sugar isn’t healthy but at the same time it seems to be everywhere when the holidays are happening all around us.

Here’s one scenario from last week that I knew was over the line and made me laugh at myself:  I am sitting at my computer trying to find stories and information that would inspire and remind me to be healthy and transition off the sugar train.  I knew I was in trouble because I was reading the CDC’s (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) website on Healthy Eating For a Healthy Weight while I was eating some tasty nonpareils from Trader Jo’s.

OMG what I site I was.  The irony of this picture was not lost on me.  Just so you know, nonpareils were one of my grandmother’s favorite candies so I think I got a twofer here: stress relief and a nice memory of my grandmother.

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Buddy the Elf Eating Spaghetti & Candy

At the same time, I am trying to send the alert message to my brain that it’s definitely time for me to pump the brakes and cut back a bit right?  Are you finding yourself in this conundrum too?

The calendar says we’ve got five days to go until Christmas and I intend to try and hold the line on sweets.  Part of the problem is that this sweet stuff is free and sitting in my office or someone sends it to my house.  I wouldn’t go out of my way to walk to the store and buy these sweet treats.

At least that what I tell myself.

What to do? Move forward.  Do the best we can and try to stay in each moment.  If we stumble, we stumble.

The important thing is not beat ourselves up over bad diet choices because as Buddy would say, it is the holiday season, and “the best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear.”

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