Party's Over

Jan 02, 2019

It’s official—the New Year has begun!

There are many reasons to feel hopeful with the start of a new year, but often when it comes to our weight, we’re more likely feeling regretful, judgmental and maybe even disgusted.

It might be that the weeks between Thanksgiving and January 1^st flew by in a blur of overeating, overdrinking, overspending and overdoing.

But now it’s over. Done.

And what do you do at the end of a party?

You clean up.

You turn on the lights, assess the damage and start the process, one sticky cup at a time.

Well, my friend, the time has come:

Turn on the lights: Get on that scale

This may feel like the last thing you want to do. Do it anyway.

You may think, “I know I’ve gained, so I’ll just watch what I’m eating and get on the scale next week”. Don’t do it.

In part because if you listen to that voice now, what do you think it will tell you next week? And the next?

Getting on the scale will stop the train. It will put a period at the end of the sentence. And we all need a full stop.

Assess the damage: What’s the number?

You may be pleasantly surprised—maybe you stayed the same or if you gained, maybe it’s not as much as you feared.

But even if it’s worse than you imagined, at least you have the information.

A starting place.

And, this is super important, make sure to skip beating yourself up. There’s ZERO benefit to being mean to yourself. It doesn’t help and it just makes you feel bad, worse in fact.

The number on the scale is simply information. It’s data. And we need it to be able to get where we want to go.

Start the process: Take the first small step

What occurs to you to do?

Ask yourself this question in a quiet, non-judgmental moment and listen for the answer. You’ll get one.

Do that and then consider the following:

A food assessment of the last few weeks (see last week’s Ounce of Prevention for the how to)

Cleaning out your environment—getting rid of all the foods that don’t support you

Making a shopping list—so your new clean environment will have the things you need

Planning your food week—look at your calendar for the next week and see where you’re eating out and where you can make food at home.

Start with something concrete. “Losing weight” is too big of a task—it needs to be broken down into do-able steps. Pick one thing, do that, then move on to the next.

You know what they say about a 1,000 mile journey . . .

Party's Over

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