This year's Christmas has been a lot more relaxed for me. So relaxed in fact that I got to work this evening and realized that I hadn't bought anything to fill my mother's stocking tonight or any of the ingredients to make my side dish for tomorrow...AND I didn't even know what side dish I was making!! So I joined the mad rush of people scrambling around the groceries at the last minute on my break from work. Thankfully I managed to get everything that I needed in time.
So here I am on Christmas Eve in my office sipping ginger mint tea from my Rudolf coffee mug, surrounded by a pool of grocery bags and donning a rather grannyish red sweater in my attempt to look festive. Ho ho ho...
Now, everyone knows that Christmas is a very special time of year. Your kids turn to saints because they couldn't bear the grief of being neglected by the all-seeing Santa. People are walking around wearing ridiculous Christmas gear like semi-crushed Santa hats or singing reindeer antlers with half dead batteries that strain to whine out the tune of 'Jingle bells'. Family time becomes mandatory and it seems like everyone is making a special effort to be pleasant this time of year. I personally love it and I admit that I also love that the kitchen is filled with bright tins of my mother's lovingly made Christmas cake. Let's face it guys, Christmas is also a time of really delicious but rather unhealthy food and it's hard to pass it up! If you log on to any fitness or diet site you'll find article upon article of tricks to beat holiday cravings and motivational speeches on why it's not worth abandoning your diet at this time of year. I'll be honest and say that I've not been restrictive with my diet at all. I eat according to my usual method during the day but when that sun goes down the moonlight hits those cake tins so attractively...Its so hilarious really. In the morning I think, 'Okay! I had cake last night so none today!' and I'm 100% devoted to this until about 12:30AM where I shoot up out of bed and the first thing that comes to mind is, 'Cake!' and of course I sneak down the hall and have 'one bite' which leads to one slice. I would have felt totally guilty about this at one point but these days such things matter a lot less. Obviously I want to eat healthily, and I do, but I'm not going to beat myself up over the cakes and chocolates that I have been sampling. Admittedly, my stomach is a little...fluffier since I've been having the extra sugar but on the other hand my leg muscles have gotten larger. They seem to be loving the extra calories! The truth remains that if you want to be completely ripped for the holidays, you can't eat the cake, or the chocolate...or the nougats or eggnog or cookies...you also can't go all out on the cheese platters or the spiced nuts...ham in moderation and so on and so forth. Not to mention you also have to politely beat away each of the cooing relatives trying to fill your plate with a house sized portion of whatever they brought. Basically, come meal time, just hide.
This isn't the Christmas that I had in mind though, so I'm having my cake and eating it. However, I'm still taking small measures to make sure that I'm not going overboard so I figured that I would share those with you.
Bring a dish.
Add an option to the Christmas spread that you know is healthy. Apart from that there is almost always a salad (or you can bring that yourself) so right there half to three quarters of your plate is already filled with smart choices. Whatever you decide to fill the rest of your plate with is your Christmas present to yourself. ;)
The dish I chose to make this year is a Potato and Sweet Potato torte. I got the recipe from Eatingwell.com and you can see it here: http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/potato_sweet_potato_torte.html
I decided to use purple potatoes instead of Yukon gold to add some funky colour!
Turn a blind eye to the store bought desserts.
You can tell when a pie is made with love as opposed to made in China. Don't pick the plastic and processed frozen pies and cakes or the packaged cookies. Indulge in a homemade delight even if it is more fatty. I rather eat a cake made with real sugar and butter than 100% organic high-fructose corn syrup.
Sip lightly.
You know why. If you get drunk and jolly you're not going to care if it's your fourth piece of chocolate covered deep fried ice cream cake. I don't know if they really make that but I'd imagine I'd try it if I was drunk enough...
Don't fast.
Even if you plan on eating the entire dinner spread and the platters it came on, don't starve yourself during the day. That will backfire in so many ways. First of all it will shift your body into starvation mode and it will end up hanging on to every crumb that you have once you eat and that also slows your metabolism. It will make you unnecessarily ravenous come dinner time and you will be more likely to eat far more than you should. It's my belief that its better to eat something, even an unhealthy something, than not eat at all.
I actually made for myself a yummy ginger carrot chicken soup so that I'll have a healthy meal on hand when I need to resist the leftovers as well! I will share that recipe with you sometime because it's scrumptious!
And yeah., that's pretty much it. The rest is up to how well I moderate my portions.
Whatever happens though, I'm not going to measure my Christmas enjoyment by how tight my shirt seemed to get between breakfast and lunch. It really is too special a time to be hung up on calories. Have a merry Christmas!
I also have a bit of freaking great news. Santa came early this year and gifted me with the ability to run again! On Tuesday I hit the track and did three 300m intervals. I nearly threw up but this time not from pain but from being so out of form. Haha! I'm so happy though! I think I will get up early on Boxing Day and have a nice easy run!
If you notice, I've been blogging mostly about diet so far and not posting much about my workouts. Well, trust me, I've been working out. Yesterday we did heavy leg work in the gym where my trainer/friend had me leg pressing 290 lbs and taking ten seconds to complete one slow squat. I also did my first session of unassisted squats. Every step I take today feels like someone is pinching my backside. Haha!
I've decided to take my 'before' photos after Christmas. That is, after all of the Christmas damage. :P Once the season is over I'll start giving you a run down on my workouts and you can start tracking my progress with me. :) I also would really love to hear what you guys are doing for the season and how you're keeping yourselves fit these days! Don't be shy!
So...Merry Christmas to you all! Thanks again for all of your support this year with the marathon and I hope to see it through and complete next year's event! If any of you that live where I do want to train with me too, please let me know!
Happy holidays from my office chair! Notice that I included the festive fire extinguisher.
Perhaps I will brush my hair for Christmas...
Merry christmas to you too! <3
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