‘THE DREADED SILLY SEASON’

If I had a dollar for everyone that told me how busy they are with various events and parties through this month and coming up to Christmas, I would be able to afford to put on another party to invite them to and add to their busy schedule! Lets be honest, we are all always crazy busy this time of year. Everyone wants things done before the new-year, people want to celebrate various things or get together for catch-ups and that means food, food and more food and, although I don’t drink myself, generally these events mean a significant amount of alcohol also!It is a standard thing within our society that when we get together, we need to have food and lets be honest, its rarely celery sticks and water that people are binging on at parties! It can be really hard to look after yourself with good food and exercise at this time of year because everywhere you go has “party food and drinks”, in other words, junk food and alcohol! Ever wonder why so many people have ‘New Years resolutions’? Generally it’s because they have overindulged over December and into January and not done that much exercise and feel like crap and need to start again!I will confess I have a massive sweat tooth! Yes I do enjoy chocolate but generally my weakness is lollies. Maybe 2 or 3 times a year when I was a kid, I would be given a bit of money to spend at the school canteen and I would always get 20c of mixed lollies. Gosh that makes me feel old thinking about how 20c used to be able to get you something significant! Anyway, I still remember thinking “when I grow up and have my own money, I’m going to spend it all on lollies” and there probably was a time when I did exactly that! Left school, started to earn a bit of money and just bought so much crap food because I could! As I am writing this, I now have an understanding where all the money, which should have been a deposit for a house, has gone: lollies and dentist appointments! Ok maybe I’m exaggerating slightly but that gives you an idea of what my weakness is and although I am no where near as bad as I was when I first left school, if I am going to binge, that’s generally what its going to be.This week, I am heading to Geelong for my cousins weddingand to visit one of my sisters and catch up with friends and family. There’s heaps of aunty’s, uncles and cousins on my mum’s side of the family and when we get together for an even like a wedding, the McDonald family know how to enjoy food at the family shindigs! Generally when I am down there, I revert back to my childhood where all I want to eat is junk food and then when I come back, I have to give myself a pep talk and go “RIGHT, no more eating complete garbage coz I now feel fat and disgusting!” So this time, I am setting myself a mission where I don’t come back needing to set myself a mini resolution to get my health and fitness back on track. I will go and enjoy myself, because I have never been one to deprive myself of enjoying food, but I’m just going to make sure its not going to leave me feeling like crap by the end of the weekend.I do have a point to my endless drivel about myself and it is this: yes we all have parties and events we will be attending over the Christmas-New Years period (including the amazing Active Mum Christmas party!) and of course you want to be able to enjoy yourself. But maybe try and set yourself some little goals before you go to these. Try and limit yourself to just one slice of cake, or one plate of food, or one or two glasses of wine and that’s enough. Yes we all want to have fun and relax the rules a bit but think about how long you want to make the road to get back on track. Have a great time over this period but try not to completely abandon all law and order with regards to your health and fitness!