Avoid Weight Gain In December - Accept The Imperfection

I have done plenty of previous blog articles with practical tips on how to avoid weight gain at this time of year. For example which snacks to avoid, what behaviours should focus on doing/not doing, etc. I would suggest you read these as well if you haven’t already. But this year I’m going to focus more on a mental strategy that you can employ. I truly believe that if you can accept the imperfection, it will prevent you putting much/if any weight on during December. And more than that it will make your weight loss/weight management journey much more enjoyable and give you a lot more control over it.

Christmas Parties

Most people have more social engagements this time of year. And certainly most people will be with family and friends over Christmas. And understandably you want to let yourself have a little bit of freedom when socialising. But at the same time a lot of people really struggle with not being able to control their food/drink the way they want to and have been doing whilst they have been losing weight. And therefore fear putting weight back on.

All or Nothing Mentality

A lot of people have an ‘all or nothing’ mentality when you comes to health and fitness. So the mind tells you something like ‘I am out of control with all these parties/social engagements, I’m going to put weight on anyway, I might as well forget about it till January and just eat/drink whatever I want for now.’ In a way this mentality gives you back the control. By giving yourself permission to not worry about your weight and accepting the inevitable weight gain you eliminate the failure you feel when we try and don’t succeed. But that approach will most likely come at a cost in terms of weight gain.

Of course for most people it is impossible to totally eliminate the part of them that really doesn’t want to put a load of weight back on. So even if you are telling yourself ‘it doesn’t matter, I will sort it out in January,’ most people will still be feeling guilty/bad about what they have eaten/drank and be dreading that January weigh in far in advance. So if this is you, I would argue you are not really even enjoying the treats anyway despite what you may be trying to convince yourself.

Striving for perfection

This is the other end of the scale. You either don’t go to any social engagements or don’t indulge in any treats when you are there. I would argue this is not a healthy strategy either. You are either cutting yourself off from any treats, which is not a long term solution in terms of learning moderation and living your life. Or much more likely you will fail to live up to these high expectations of yourself and fall off the wagon. Except instead of being accepting of it, as you would be if you allowed yourself a little freedom in advance, you will feel like you have failed. And most likely lose motivation to continue being healthy thereafter.

Accept The Imperfection

What we should really strive for is accepting the imperfection. By this I mean accept that it is okay to try to be healthy most of the time but still enjoy the social engagements. To accept that you may get on the scales in January and it goes up a couple pounds. And that is okay and NOT FAILURE. You have enjoyed yourself with friends and family over Christmas and can undo that weight gain in a week. Your good habits are still largely intact and it won’t be difficult to get back into your regime.

As opposed to if you just eat and drink whatever you see in December and put on 7-10 pounds. (Yes I have seen this more than once). Then you have a much bigger task to lose the weight. You will most likely feel pretty down about the weight gain and your ‘failure’ to control your impulses the previous month. This typically leads to some pretty negative self-talk, which is not a productive place to be in terms of getting motivated to move forward. You have also broken your good habits which makes it much more difficult to change them back again.

Hopefully you can see the difference in the 3 scenarios. And maybe you can identify some of the traits I have discussed in yourself. Self-awareness is incredibly important in weight management. If we know what are tendencies and mental processes are we can start to put things in place to cope with them and counteract them if necessary. As opposed to just being reactionary and letting your emotional response lead your decision making rather than your brain.

Conclusion – Accept The Imperfection

Of course this is all easier said than done, but set yourself the goal of accepting the imperfection this December. If you have a lot of social engagements accept that this MAY lead to a slight weight gain by January. And be okay with that. Accept it. Enjoy yourself whilst practising moderation. Focus on controlling the rest of the month when you are not socialising as best you can. I.e. keep eating plenty of protein, keep eating your normal meals, keep snacks healthy, drink plenty of water etc. If you do this you will have a much easier task in January, you should be able to actually enjoy the social engagements more guilt free, and you are still in control.