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| New Year, New You | | | ‘No more sweets for the kids, no more chocolate for dad, no more bread for me, no more food for anyone after six pm EVER again!’
Some make it to day 2, others to day 22 but sooner or later, there’s a blow-out on the very thing you’ve been hankering after since the New Year. An unscheduled encounter with the neighbour-from-hell or an exasperating relative can leave you swinging into the forecourt or take-away at breakneck speed.
A woman once told me she devoured 5 chocolate bars behind the wheel of her car as it was being soaped up, showered and waxed. Her private rage behind the suds ended in a feeding frenzy, which left her confirming her worst fear. She was unable to cope! She was a worthless person. Why? Because her not-so-thoughtful husband had bailed out of their first family-planned swim of the New Year and went to a match instead. ‘Why couldn’t she still take the four children, he’d join them later!’ | | |
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Of course eating in response to an emotion is never the answer but at the time the instant gratification seems like a good substitution.
A better resolution is to start feeling good about food and the way you eat in 2012. If you’re going to have those Brazil nuts enveloped in two inches of chocolate – then enjoy them. But the key thing is to realise why you are eating them in the first place.
What you focus on, grows.
Start to really appreciate yourself this year. Be mindful of the multiple things you are juggling, give yourself some wriggle room, ask for help and give yourself the odd hug. There’s nothing to be gained from a lambasting, telling yourself you’ve no will power or that you’re lazy or fat.
Whatever you are, be realistic. There are always trade-offs. There has to be.
But ‘less can be more’ in many situations.
For example be prepared to spend … |
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 Less on shoes or bags or whatever this year and more on your weekly food shopping. |
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Less on convenience foods and more on fresh foods especially fruits and vegetables. |
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Less on processed meats (poor quality sausages, pates, hamburgers and rashers) and more on smaller quantities of fresh meat (lean mince, lamb, pork , turkey and chicken) |
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Less on your total weekly alcohol consumption but more on a really nice bottle of wine when you do decide to have a glass. |
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Less on shoes or bags or whatever this year and more on your weekly food shopping. |
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Less on two-for-the-price-of-one packs of biscuits and snacks |
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and more on smaller quantities of better quality home made style biscuits.
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Less on shop smoothies and juices and more on a juicer you can use at home yourself. |
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Less time on making excuses and more time on kitchen solutions.
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There is only so much time in any given day. And with the best will in the world you wont ‘find’ the time to do the things you say you want to do. You simply MUST MAKE the time.
Make the time to…
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Sit down and roughly sketch out your week on a Sunday evening – who’s at home, when and for what meals.
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Plan more or less what you will eat / cook each evening.
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Take your shopping list with you to remind you of your weekly plan.
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Prepare the food and batch cook and freeze it if your plans change.
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Sit down as often as you can as a family.
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Enjoy your food, eat more slowly and leave digestion time.
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Cheer to 2012
Is your Chablis seemingly evaporating as soon as you open it at home? Agree to wait and avoid topping up any wine glass, until the slowest drinker’s glass is practically empty. This slows down the faster person and entices them to savour rather then gulp their tipple.
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