Happy New Year

It's time to say Goodbye to 2011 and Hello to 2012. 

2011 is over.

Lets be Thankful for the good of 2011,
then let go of the past and move into the future.

My New Year's message to you is in my latest Ask Grandma video
which I've posted below.

  Taking a Vacation from posting on this web-site until New Year's. 

When I was a child, Christmas morning was the big time of celebration.
Getting up and gathering around the tree and exchanging gifts.
Then on Christmas afternoon came the big Christmas dinner.

My current husband's family had their big Christmas celebration on Christmas Eve.
First they had a big Christmas eve dinner,
after dinner the family gathered around the tree and exchanged gifts.

When the two of us became a family, each of us brought our own ideas
about the timing of the big meal and the exchange of gifts.
Our compromise turned out to be opening the gifts on Christmas eve,
and a big dinner around 1 p.m. on Christmas Day.

So for us, Christmas begins the morning of Christmas Eve,
and ends at bedtime Christmas Day.
Two days of extended eating….snacking all day Christmas eve
….and snacking and overeating all day on Christmas.
Because to me….FOOD….is celebration.

There are many esoteric arguments about WHY this shouldn't be the case,
and HOW this needn't be the case,
but on this point, raw instinct prevails,
and in FACT, it IS the case.

So….it is up to me to deal with it.

Again

Today is December 23.
Tomorrow is December 24.
The day after is December 25.

So…..it goes.

                       

Moderation means being within reasonable limits; 
avoidance of excesses or extremes.
This concept is a large part of a my dieting hobby,
and it is important for any type of dieting lifestyle.

Even if I've chosen to eliminate specific foods from my life,
many tasty foods remain to tempt me to eat more than my body needs.

For me the most important (and difficult) thing about holiday eating 
is to keep away from the "all or nothing" mindset. 
I need to make intentional food choices, and eat mindfully.

During Holiday celebrations, I work to prioritize the treats I'm going to choose,
I look everything over first and pick the things that look good to me.,
and work to eat those things in moderation. 

Mostly, I choose to leave behind foods, like chips and dips, 
that are available anytime during the year.

I find that it is important for me to be realistic.
Depriving myself of special holiday foods,
or feeling guilty when I choose to enjoy them
isn't going to help me maintain my weight-loss long-term.

I'm not going to lose weight during the holidays.
For me that is a self-defeating goal,
But I need to work to maintain my weight 
by balancing Holiday food with other meals.

It is a week before Christmas.
Even if we are frustrated with all the holiday goodies 
and scared to get on the scale,
……………..(go weigh yourself right now)……
the good news is there still is time to get things under control 
and enjoy the season in moderation.

It’s never too late.
When it comes to a dieting lifestyle, 
every day is a new day.
 
For those of you who are following my “Ask Grandma” video series

Click : “Friendly Flirting" to see my latest video,

which is located in DietHobby under RESOURCES, Videos, Ask Grandma.

I spent the past hour writing a long article about
how accepting Responsibility for one's behavior choices
applies to us in relation to weight-loss issues.

However, my MacBook Air computer crashed and I lost the article.
I want to BLAME it for this brief article,
but the truth is that I am choosing not to take the additional time
to re-write it.  I'm just not in the mood to make the effort.

This is the what frequently happens to us in our dieting efforts.