Need some strategies for managing through the holidays, weekends or traveling? Consider these tips:
1. Figure out why you are going to a social occasion like a party or family gathering. (See chapter 25 in Thin Within.)
– Write down your purposes in attending and plan accordingly. Most of us, once we have decided to surrender this area of our lives, don’t go to parties intending to overeat. So ask yourself if it is because you want to connect with family, friends and co-workers, it is easier to accept that food isn’t required for that.
– Then, when you get to the event, achieve your goal! Socialize or network or whatever it might be!
2. When planning to attend a social event that includes food, plan to be at a zero (stomach totally empty) by eating a smaller meal earlier in the day.
– It may be unreasonable for you not to eat at some events–like sit-down holiday dinners and the like. If your event is at 7pm, for instance, and you get hungry at 5:30 pm–you are definitely at a 0 at 5:30pm–then have just a few crackers or a cup of milk or something that will just remove the hunger. You don’t need to eat to a 5. This way, you will be more likely to arrive at your holiday dinner at a 0 and ready to eat.
– You can also “ride the 0” a little while unless you know yourself well enough to know that you will have a hard time eating slowly if you get “too hungry.” Sometimes, when we eat too fast, it is easy to eat way too much.
3.) When you are eating 0 to 5 at a holiday party and there are TONS of choices from which to choose, you can look at all that is offered and evaluate before you choose the foods you will eat which choices are most likely to be “teasers,” “pleasers,” and “whole body pleasers” (see chapter 18 in Thin Within). You want to be “picky” about what and how much of each “pleaser” or “whole body pleaser” food you select.
– Identify which foods offered are teasers and don’t even “go there.”
– If something is available all year long (like fresh french bread) you may want to forego selecting it in favor of something that is a favorite at holiday time.
4. ) Look around the party or dinner for a naturally thin eater and note their behaviors. See if you can spot someone who is naturally thin, but who is enjoying the party without overindulging. (This may be tough as most Americans use holidays as an excuse to eat way more than we need.)
5.) Sometimes people give gifts of food. It is true that some people “love on” others by giving food any time of the year–all the more during the holidays! In Thin Within, there is nothing wrong with having a small piece of whatever food that you receive, of course. If you know that you can withstand temptation to overeat it, feel free to have it in your home, of course! But if you know that you can’t handle the temptation, then here are some suggestions:
– When someone wants to send you home with a bunch of treats 🙂 either politely tell them “No, thank you,” or oblige and state (or not) that you will be glad to share the treats with others…then re-gift them as soon as possible before temptations lures you into eating them.
– When you end up with treats anyhow…THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH FLUSHING THEM DOWN THE TOILET THE MINUTE YOU WALK THROUGH THE DOOR! If you are like me and sometimes need “permission” to do something so drastic, consider this a blanket permission… “Flush the cookies, cakes, pies, candy, whatevers…down the toilet!”
6.) Put the fork down between bites when you are eating out or at a holiday party. This helps slow me down quite a bit any time…not just for holiday parties.
7.) Maybe most importantly, EXTEND GRACE to yourself. If you “blow it” for a party or a meal or even for a day or a week…just OBSERVE and CORRECT! This isn’t a diet, so you don’t have to feel like you “blew it!” Instead, you just had a step or two back on your path…but forge ahead “forgetting what is behind!” Remember this is a journey…a life long journey! God extends grace to you in all things, so extend some to yourself!
What about you?
Do you have strategies that have helped you make it through the holidays? What are your plans for this weekend?
Then, have you ever experienced this sequence of events? That once you gave in to eating because it was a holiday, vacation, or weekend, you felt like a failure and it made you want to eat more?
Let’s kick this “left over” from our dieting days TO THE CURB!!!
This week, Week 11 of our Renewing the Mind Bible Study, we will have a look at these motivators for eating outside of physical hunger and satisfaction. We want to continue to scrutinize our thinking, expose the lies, dismantle them, and replace them with truth.
Monday
1. Time to update your “memorial stones” again in your journal. I am asking this question for the umpteenth time, but it bears repeating. Are you convinced…is it a conviction of your heart…that God is calling you to 0 to 5 eating? If the answer is yes, write it down (yes, again!) in your own words in your journal and sign and date it. We are soooo prone to forget our convictions! If you aren’t resolute today, but have been in the past, go back through your journal and find an entry (or two) when you were convinced and wrote it down. Spend time with the Lord, asking him to restore that conviction.
2. Evaluate “Commitment.” The point of a commitment is that we do whatever it is, even when we don’t feel like it. It is the same with “Boundaries.” A boundary is a demarcation that we might stray across if we didn’t have the boundary there to protect us from veering. It is something we know is best for us. So, if you have said in the past that you are “Committed to eating 0 to 5” (or something similar) or that you have a “Boundary of 0 to 5” (or something similar) when you don’t FEEL like living that way is when your commitment or boundary is tested. That is the point of a commitment or boundary! That is when you really see it for what it is. Think about it this way…when you tell your child to wrap up the leftovers after she is done eating and she does it because she thinks it is a great idea so she can enjoy the leftovers again another time, is her submission to your authority really tested? Not really. When she doesn’t see a good reason, or doesn’t agree with you, but does it anyhow, that is when obedience or submission is really seen. Likewise for us. If the only time we are obedient is when we feel like it, if the only time we are committed is when we feel like it, then we aren’t necessarily committed. We may need to spend some time with the Lord on this one, so that is why I am including it as part of today’s assignment.
2. The reason we are doing this study now is Labor Day is next Monday here in the United States. As you journal your answers to Barb’s questions, try to be as practical as possible. If you aren’t in the US, then consider strategizing about an upcoming holiday that you will celebrate.
3. Share with us here any strategies you will use next weekend to celebrate.
Wednesday
1. Make a plan for what you will do if you “fall off the horse” during this week or the upcoming holiday weekend or a vacation you have coming up. What can you do to minimize the damage and to get back ON the horse? What plan will you have in place so that you will NOT beat yourself up?
2. Visit Barb Raveling’s study on Failure Eating. Read the introductory paragraphs, Self-Condemnation section, and the section under the subheading, “Does it Have To Take That Long?” Journal any thoughts that you have that are triggered by what Barb shares in these paragraphs. Can you identify with what she has shared?
3. Feel free to click any of her other links and explore the resources she has there.
Thursday
1. Depending on how much time you have, visit Barb’s Failure Eating page again and select one or both of the bible studies she has in her “Bible Study” section to complete.
2. You can also read the article that she refers to. It is encouraging, too.
3. Add any new truths to your truth cards.
4. Share with us here any new insights you glean!
Friday
1. Visit Barb’s Failure Eating page again and complete her Failure Questions.
2. What truths can you add to your truth cards?
3. What is your VERY PRACTICAL plan to be victorious TODAY as the weekend begins?
Summary
Consider vacations and holidays a training opportunity. Many of my coaching clients and bunches of the emails I get mention the concern that weekends are very challenging. Each weekend there is a change in the routine, a change in structure (there may not be ANY structure). We may have attitudes of CELEBRATION!!! Then, when we give in, we beat ourselves up and get caught in continuing to break our boundaries because we are stuck in that old dieting mentality of “I already went off my ‘program,’ so I may as well forget it…” Let’s use THIS WEEKEND (be it a holiday, vacation, or just a normal weekend) to practice rejoicing in the pleasant, wonderful boundaries that God has established for us! If we fall off that horse, let’s get back on QUICKLY and rejoice that his mercies are new each minute!!! NO failure eating! You with me? 🙂
Is your routine disrupted and, while you start the weekend with wonderful intentions, do you find that pretty consistently, you fall into more chaotic eating patterns? Perhaps weekends have historically been a time of letting down your guard, throwing all caution to the wind!
I know for me, weekends signal me to “Celebrate!” which traditionally in my life has meant “It’s time to eat!” The whole mentality for me that weekends are a time not to work at anything creates a challenge with being diligent with 0 to 5 eating boundaries.
What can we do about this so we don’t end up the other side of the weekend, disappointed by our “failures?”
Preparation is our greatest ally for the weekends. If we expect the weekend to be disruptive, let’s take time to be with the Lord when the house is quiet. Let’s renew our minds about “fun,” about 0 to 5 eating being a good, godly, boundary that we can delight in, and call on His strength to help us. Let’s put on the armor of God found in Ephesians 6.
Know that there will be challenges to your resolve, but you don’t have to just let them roll over you like a tidal wave!
Consider the forms the challenges have taken in the past:
A spontaneous family trip out for ice cream.
A game night where snack foods abound.
Nascar/other sports on the TV all day with people munching as they watch.
One of the family members trying out a new cookie recipe.
One of the best strategies I know of is to plan ahead for all the fun. Then, I can plan my hunger to happen the same time as the fun.
For instance, we can plan the ice cream outing (or the cookie baking) ahead of time! Ask the family in the morning… “Hey, let’s go out for ice cream this afternoon!” Not only will it be fun to have the outing itself, but there will be joy all day at the anticipation. Spontaneity IS fun, but so is the joy in planning ahead! Once you have the plan for the ice cream outing (or going out to dinner…whatever it might be), you can plan your hunger so that you are at a “0” when it is time to go out. It is true that planning hunger takes some experience, but you can learn it in time. Just extend grace to yourself if you have never done that before. This is a process!
Let’s renew our minds about the connection of food with fun. The truth is we can enjoy the experience without the food. We can enjoy the laughter, the joy, the emotions, the hugs, cuddles, tickles of the family…just being together… without having to break our boundaries.
Let’s come out the other side of our weekends victorious. Let’s not shrug our shoulders, throw up our hands, and figure we can’t fight the disruption to our routines that often comes on the weekends. We can do this if we are committed to it!
If we do “mess up,” let’s observe and correct,rather than observe and condemn.
Invite God into your weekend. Renew your mind! Ask the family for their support. Plan ahead for the fun.
What can you do in your home life and family to ensure that weekends still provide fun without breaking your eating boundaries?
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