I think I had some of you worried with my last post. I'm fine, really! It wasn't really the weight that was getting to me, it was just a whole wave of self-doubt and lack of confidence that just overtook me. When I get stressed out, I tend to over-analyze, over-think, and generally get a lot less confident. My mind equates high pressure with super high stakes, meaning a bigger distance to fail. I hate failing. I hate when people think I'm not giving 100% or they don't like something I did. My weight is the one part of my life that I feel like I have consistently failed with. Now that I'm getting somewhere with it, it's almost like I need to up my game all around and perform faster, better, stronger… <ok, realize I'm rambling so now I'll stop>
Anyway, I wrote a post last week about the important of pre-planning when approaching social gatherings with food or how to stay on track during holiday meals. I've been contemplating something for three weeks now. There is a 5K the night before Thanksgiving called the Southern Lights Stroll. Southern Lights is something that happens at the Kentucky Horse Park here, where they put up thousands of Christmas lights and displays and you drive your car through the park to see them. At the end there are all kinds of fun family things like petting zoos, horse rides, vendors, etc. The 5K is run/walked through the horse park. So not only are you completing it at night, you're doing it surrounded in a flurry of twinkle lights and horses that are in the fields! Fun!
There's another 5K the day of Thanksgiving called the Thoroughbred Classic. The past few weeks, I've contemplated doing both 5K's, back to back. My reasoning: If I did 2 5K's back to back, then I could eat “normal” on Thanksgiving.
I thought Trainer Rob would be horrified at the thought of me wanting to eat on Thanksgiving. Instead, he asked why I was doing both 5Ks. The Southern Lights Stroll I wanted to do because it sounded fun and I thought I might be able to wrangle my husband in going with me. The Thoroughbred Classic I wanted to do because I thought it would give me extra exercise in order to not feel bad about eating pumpkin pie later in the day. Not the right reason.
So what am I going to do? I'm doing the Southern Lights Stroll because I WANT to do it. Hubs is doing it with me, and some of his family might do it as well. I'm not doing the Thoroughbred Classic because it doesn't sound fun to me (even though I'm sure it's a great event- I've heard nothing but good things about it). On Thanksgiving day, I'm also going to eat some “regular” food with family. I'm planning this in advance, and for that reason, I'm not considering it a fail. Instead of “fail to plan, plan to fail” I'm actually “planning to enjoy, planning not to nose-dive into a 10 pound bag of sugar.” And because of that, I'm going go try my best not to feel guilty. At some point, I need to figure out how to make this lifestyle work for me forever, so here's one little exercise in self-control. Moderation – something I've never been really good at!
Caroline over at My Fascinating Life shared her 5 point plan for staying healthy through the holidays, and her plan involves moderation as well. Check it out if you want to see how other people are approaching the holidays.
