I take in the majority of my annual calories during the holiday season in much the same way many businesses take in the majority of their profits during the holiday season. And apparently I’m not alone. I just read that the average American gains around one pound per year and three-quarters of it is between mid-November and mid-January. I suspect we add the other quarter between the day we buy Halloween candy and the day we buy more Halloween candy because there’s none of the first round left for our trick-or-treaters.
I manage to eat pretty healthfully—as long as there are no treats in a 25-mile radius of my home. But I cannot be trusted around all the goodies that show up between Thanksgiving and January 2. Make that between Halloween and January 2.
During the extended holiday overeating season, I’m forced to balance two competing interests: My love of sweets and my desire to fit into my clothes come January. If I can also pass my next cholesterol test, so much the better.
Thankfully I’ve come up with some strategies to fight this annual battle and as a public service and early Christmas present I will now share them with you. I make no guarantees about their effectiveness.
First, I won’t do any holiday baking. That’s what bakeries are for. And anyway I have friends and family members who love to bake and are generous with the fruits of their labor. Why should I add to the calorie count when there are so many other people making treats that taste better than mine would anyway?
I won’t buy any desserts for holiday meals until the very last minute. That way I won’t have to buy them again. If that doesn’t make sense to you, you’re a stronger person than I am.
I won’t skip meals prior to holiday gatherings. I know a lot of people who do that in order to save their daily calorie allotment for the big event. But I find that the hungrier I am, the more likely I am to eat an entire pan of fudge when I get the opportunity. That can be so embarrassing when you’re at someone else’s home for the party.
I won’t waste calories on holiday foods I’m neutral about and I certainly won’t waste them on foods I don’t even like. For example, I’ve never learned to like cranberries and, believe me, I’ve tried. I serve them every Thanksgiving because one of my regular guests thinks it’s a sacrilege to eat turkey without cranberries. But after years of choking them down, I decided to save the calories and the limited space in my belly for pecan pie which I learned to love a long time ago.
Finally, I will share. Or at least I will consider sharing. Early in our marriage, my husband gave me a box of my favorite chocolate-covered mints for Valentine’s Day. On February 16 he asked if he could have one. No, he could not. But not because I didn’t want to share—though I didn’t want to share. The truth was, they were gone.
I told him I’d been concerned about the freshness date. But we both know the only candies that have ever passed their expiration date in our home are the ones that fell into that unreachable place between the refrigerator and the cupboard. I can save myself a lot of calories this holiday season if I can bring myself to share.
So there you have it: my strategies for healthy holiday eating. I’ll let you know how it goes—but only if it goes well. If it doesn’t, I’ll be asking Santa for a new wardrobe this Christmas. And I’ll have to remember to give him my new size.
Dorothy Rosby is the author of ’Tis the Season to Feel Inadequate; Holidays, Special Occasions and Other Times Our Celebrations Get Out of Hand and other books. Contact her at www.dorothyrosby.com/contact.