Time to Start Planning

A friend of mine wrote something the other day that I thought pretty much nailed it in terms of boiling down the choices we have to make about our health.  The upcoming holidays prompted him to write the following - I hope it will be as thought-provoking for you as it was for me!

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Any idea on how you’ll feel come January 1^st, 2010 or do you think about those things? Have you got a plan?  I guess it doesn’t really matter if you’ve got a plan or not because it will most likely come true.  It’s like saying “it doesn’t matter whether you think you can or you think you can’t, either way you are right”. 

What I like about creating health is there are no manipulations of emotion.  It’s either you want it or you don’t.  If you don’t want it right now then you don’t want it right now.  You can’t create health if your head is not in the game, so why even try?  But if you really do want to create health—even during the holiday season—it can be fun in a challenging way and very, very rewarding. 

 
Three basic plan choices:

1. No Plan:  a.k.a. The “what happens during the Holidays stays in the Holidays” plan.  The Holidays are a time to get away from all that stress, relax and enjoy family, friends and food.  Most Likely Result: What happened during the holidays doesn’t actually stay there.

2. Quasi-plan: a.k.a. The “let’s see how it goes” plan.  I’ll try to eat right and not overindulge.  I’ll try to exercise too.  Most Likely Result: Vegas odds on this one; could go either way.

3. Definite Plan: a.k.a. The “I know what I want” plan.    Most Likely Result: The empowerment of knowing you can create whatever you want in your life.

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With Thanksgiving less than two weeks away, it's not too early to start thinking about your holiday strategy.  The determining factor will be deciding what it is that you really want. 

Two years ago, I was 4-1/2 months into my weight loss journey and I had to make a decision regarding what I was going to do during the holiday season.  I had enjoyed great success with my weight loss but still had a long way to go, and up until Thanksgiving I hadn't cheated at all.  I briefly toyed with the idea of going off plan just for the day, but I decided that I didn't want to kick myself out of the fat-burning state.  I was also afraid that if I got my head out of the game, it might be hard to get back in and nothing I could eat was worth potentially undoing much or all of the progress I'd made.  I found some wonderful holiday recipes that were 100% Medifast legal and was able to enjoy the flavors of the day and still stay on plan.  My plate looked a lot like everyone else's, and even though I had 26 people at my house for dinner that year, I stayed on plan.  That gave me the momentum I needed to get through December, even though we had friends for dinner on Christmas Eve, I had 23 for dinner on Christmas day, and we hosted a sit-down New Year's Eve dinner for 10.

I didn't crawl into a cave that holiday season and I had a wonderful time, and on January 2 I was thrilled to know that I'd lost 18 pounds between Thanksgiving and New Years.  I breathed a sigh of relief that I'd made it through the many food temptations and knew that nothing would stand in my way between January 2 and whenever I reached my goal (which I did 5-1/2 months later).

I really encourage you to plan now.  The choice is yours, so choose wisely :-)

P.S.  If you would like my collection of Medifast legal holiday recipes, e-mail me at justpraisin@gmail.com and I'll get a copy off to you!