Dieters: What gift will you give yourself?

What kind of December will you give yourself this year?

You choose!

You can drop all pretense of trying to lose weight and let
yourself go for the whole month, making the most of every
opportunity to wolf down more calories. Or you can carry on
eating when you’re hungry, stopping when you’re full, making the
best of the food choices available to you – even at parties. And
you can eat extra healthily on the days when there’s really
nothing special happening.

You can give up exercise for the month and slump down on the
sofa every night watching your waistline expand. Or you can keep
active (even if you don’t have time for your usual routine) by
putting lots of energy into your preparations, keeping moving as
you go about your day and fitting in 10 minutes of exercise (a
walk, a stair climb, a few stretches) here and there.

You can get completely frazzled leaving everything until the
last minute and set yourself up for a huge amount of stress and
comfort eating. Or you can spend just a few minutes each day on
preparations and cut out last minute panics.

You can make yourself sad and depressed by comparing your family
party with the ones portrayed in the media or you can just
decide to enjoy it, knowing that the media parties are the
figment of the producer’s and the designer’s imagination (and
the pictures were shot in August in a studio).

You can spend all your energy and time finding great gifts for
everyone else and set yourself up for disappointment by just
hoping something nice comes your way. Or you can make sure that
you have something you really want this year, by dropping hints,
asking directly (some people would love to know – it takes the
pressure off!) or even just buying whatever it is you want and
wrapping up the perfect gift just for yourself.

So you choose what kind of December to have. You can come out of
it frazzled, overweight and disappointed or happy that you’ve
enjoyed the break and haven’t done too much damage to your
waistline.

Which will it be this year?

Choose wisely, give yourself the gift of a great December and
have a fantastic time.

Copyright 2005, Janice Elizabeth Small

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