Holidays and anniversaries bring a wonderful opportunity to celebrate with family and friends, but they also bring a great challenge when it comes to trying stick to healthy eating habits.
Sometimes, a family cookout can completely derail your efforts because you’re among family and friends who have come together to eat good food and have a good time.
Even if you went in with the plan that you would only eat the salad and grilled chicken, there’s always that one aunt who will badger you until you take a helping of her banana pudding. It’s too awkward to turn her down, right? Especially while she’s already shoving the spoon in your mouth…
So what do you do?
Do you completely concede and join in the feasting? Or do you act like the “Food Nazi” and condemn everyone who tries to tempt you?
It’s complicated! You don’t want to offend anyone, but you also don’t want to gain back all of the weight you’ve lost and then some.
I say this: it is a special occasion. My husband and I decided to celebrate our 25th anniversary a little early this year by taking a mini-vacay together. During that time, we ate out and didn’t adhere as strictly to our eating habits. We didn’t go completely crazy, but we definitely loosened up a little and had a wonderful time together. Now that we are home, we’re back to eating the way we should.
So my thought is this: As long as you don’t completely gorge yourself beyond reason, you should be okay, but here are some things to consider:
3 Questions to ask yourself
How long have you been on your health journey?
If it’s been less than 3 weeks since you started changing your eating habits, you might want to skip the sweets and unhealthy food choices. It takes 21 days to solidify a habit, so it’s way too early to think about cheating, especially if you haven’t made enough progress with weight loss.
Are you willing to risk not feeling well, later?
After you’ve been eating healthy food for so long, the body often can’t handle the unhealthy foods you used to eat. You may feel sick afterward, have excessive gas, or feel extremely tired.
It’s hard to predict how you will feel, but at least if you understand the risk, you can make a wiser decision about whether or not you should eat Granny’s famous pound cake.
Can you commit to returning to healthy eating habits immediately?
Just because you’ve diverged from healthy eating for a day doesn’t mean it needs to continue for the rest of the week. Get right back to eating as healthy as you possibly can as soon as you can.
You don’t have to let family celebrations throw you off of your journey completely. Enjoy your family and your friends for a short, defined period of time and then get back to avoiding sugar, wheat, corn, soy, and processed foods as soon as possible.
Remind yourself that this is a lifestyle change, not a diet. As long as the majority of your time is spent eating right, one exception doesn’t mean you’ve lost your discipline.
What to do if you’ve gotten completely off track?
If you feel as if you’ve gotten off track, it’s never too late to start again. Start over, recommit to eating right. It’s better to keep trying than to completely give up. Start over as many times as you need. Start with the 3-day detox phase again and get back in there!
So enjoy the holiday! Happy Labor Day!
It’s Worth it
All of the effort you put into eating right and improving your health is worth it! When you begin to feel better and look great, you’ll come to see that it’s definitely worth the time you put into it.
For more strategies for adhering to a healthy lifestyle, get your copy of Worth the Weight, the story of my health journey that left me 75 pounds lighter, energized, and younger-looking.