You've been cheating, haven't you? Yeah. You knew that Russian tea cake was not paleo, you could have passed it by. But you didn't. It just looked so lonely sitting there on its own. You ate the heck out of that gingerbread man your nephew made you, you partook of the egg nog, the rum balls, the candy canes, the cranberry bliss bars, the peppermint bark, the salted caramel mochas, and OH, THE FUDGE!
The late winter holidays are a rampant playground of sugar, treats, and 'acceptable' cheating days. It's the day your resident paleo shills (be they family, friend, or a health nut runner person who thinks that carbo loading before sunrise is the way to be-- and will not take any other form of healthy eating under consideration no matter what the costs) take a moment to remind you what you're missing by doing that crazy diet of yours. They hold gooey eclairs under your nose, reminding you of traditions and how hard they worked to buy these treats just so you can enjoy the insulin spike
Miraculously, I avoided it this year. I purposefully dove head first back into paleo on December 20, just so I wouldn't fall into the trap of "Oh, but it's the holidays! One day isn't going to make a difference!"
The problem is, I'm exactly the kind of girl to whom that one cheat, that slice of pizza, that spice cake, that milkshake, that handful of chips really DOES make a difference. I am weak. I am the first person to give in to food temptations. I know this to be a fault of mine. I know that once I cheat with that cupcake, the entire rest of the day (possibly even the rest of the WEEK) is completely ruined.
My mother and father, who are awesome, agreed to make Christmas dinner gluten free (we also recently found out that my amazing 3 year old niece is also gluten intolerant, so really, the convincing didn't take much), and from that platform, I was able to create a lovely little paleo smorgasbord of delicious yum that felt like I was able to participate in a festive Christmas dinner. I piled my plate high with salad, ham, sweet potatoes, fresh green beans, peas and carrots. My plate looked almost exactly the same as everyone else's. I skipped the mashed potatoes and gravy... even though I was really very tempted (my mother's home made mashed potatoes are filthy and she made the gravy with tapioca flour - but I'm focused on losing weight, so I didn't want to go down that road).
It reminded me how far I had come from conventional weight loss change days, like January 1. Most people I know sit and meta cheat binge starting at Thanksgiving and go all the way through December 31. Especailly December 31. They eat terribly, overindulge in the booze, go to bed super late. They treat their bodies just cruelly. They allow themselves to be okay about the insidious weight gain because "the Diet starts in the New Year! This is it! This is my year!"
I'm not surprised when most of these people make it to about January 10 with their new diet goals because they have spent the last month putting terrible things in their bodies and for some reason, their new diet doesn't change those habits over night. They never realized how addicted they were to those foods, they hate themselves for the weight gain, so they eat very little (calories in, calories out, am I right?) and go to the gym incessantly hate-training. Doing their best to chronic cardio their way out of the misery they easily wandered into.
They started the My Year Of Me feeling terrible. They sat there and deliberately set themselves up for failure.
I wasn't going to let that be me this year. Dieting is hard. And I'm the worst at it. That's why I restarted paleo early. I got through some tough times a few weeks ago, but I've almost made it to January, and I can start the new year feeling amazing instead of feeling like I'm lacking.
Could it be that I did it right this year???
I'll try not to be smug.
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