In the northern hemisphere, today is the shortest day of 2009 and the start of a new season. We’re also approaching, not just a new year, but a new decade, and as of today, we’ll be seeing the return of longer days (or at least more daylight). I like that idea and the images it conjures up—so many possibilities…

For many, 2009 has been a confusing and sometimes challenging year. The thought of fresh beginnings and bright light sounds refreshing and auspicious.

Wishing you wonderful holidays and an awe-inspiring 2010,

PS: I’ll be taking a break to spend time with family over the holidays and probably won’t be blogging. I’ll see you in 2010!

Here are some tips for staying in the driver’s seat with food and weight during the holidays:

1. Have plans. Make decisions ahead of time about what you are truly interested in savoring and indulging in and the portion that you will take.  For instance, there are certain once-a-year homemade foods and artisan chocolates that I only see in December. I do indulge in these, and I make sure that I mindfully enjoy every bite. On the other hand, I don’t really need to taste the candy canes, colored M&Ms, and store bought desserts that aren’t really that special to me. Knowing I’m going to eat the really special stuff means I don’t feel deprived when I don’t eat the other choices. One more thing–when you do indulge–serve yourself a portion. Don’t just keep going back for tiny tastes. By serving yourself and stopping to eat and really taste it, you’ll enjoy it more and probably eat less.
2. Find solidarity. If you work in an office, I can practically guarantee you that you aren’t the only one who’d like to stay on track with your eating and your weight this season. Can you and your coworkers agree on areas where the food will and won’t be? Can you find a partner to keep you motivated and to talk you down when the food is just too compelling? Someone who’d like to spend their break taking a brisk walk instead of smelling the sugary treats?
3. Don’t go hungry. You’ll eat more and have less impulse control. Make sure that you have healthy and filling options around. I know you are busy, but take the time to pack a healthy lunch.
4. Be aware of the times of day when you are more tempted or more susceptible to emotional eating (stress eating, comfort eating, eating as a pick-me-up). Know the occasions when you might be especially tempted and create a strategy ahead of time that you can implement–instead of overeating.
5. If you do overindulge (don’t we all?) forgive yourself and keep moving forward making the best choices you know how to make. Resist any urge to beat yourself up about it. Self blame tends to lead to emotional overeating or bingeing or all-or-nothing eating (“Now I’ve blown it so I might as well go all out!”). Not helpful.
6. Find other ways to socialize, take care of yourself, or reward yourself that don’t involve food so that avoiding the cookie tray isn’t all about deprivation. What nonfood treat can you have instead of eating food you don’t want to indulge in?
7. Join the party. Share a dish that you want to enjoy and that you really love. It doesn’t have to be dessert–in fact, your colleagues will probably appreciate a break from all the sugar. What about a pot of soup or a favorite tea? This is the time of year I love a bowl of satsumas to snack on.

Take good care,

I’ll bet that right now you can easily come up with six things that you need to do or that are bugging you because they are undone. How long does it take you to come up with six recent accomplishments you are proud of? I’ll guarantee you that there are six accomplishments. But it’s likely that that isn’t where you are focusing your attention.

So many of us are great at being tireless, at always being poised to do “one more thing,” that we don’t really absorb the thing we just did and the goal we just accomplished.

We don’t take credit. Often we’ve been taught not to toot our own horn. Many women I know are masters of the “yes-but” that diminishes whatever it is that they just completed and prevents any compliment from really soaking in. Don’t get me wrong. Some of us are great at tooting our horn for anybody else. I know lots of great party throwers. But how many of us really regularly take a bow or reward ourselves for what we’ve done?

Do you know the price that we pay? Not celebrating and not recognizing our milestones diminishes our success. When we skip our own curtain call, we miss out on a great opportunity for rejuvenation. When we don’t give ourselves credit and the celebration we deserve, we are much more likely to burn out or to fall off track. If it’s all work and no play, we’re going to end up feeling deprived and when that happens, we often turn to “vices” (like overeating) because we feel tired and we know we deserve something for all the effort we’ve expended (is that an unjust dessert?). These vices may provide short term relief, but they never really satisfy our craving.

Even the savviest women have trouble with celebrating. Knowing everything I’ve just said, it can still be tempting to skip the step of giving credit, tempting to tell ourselves that the accomplishment is its own reward and that we’ll celebrate next time “because we’re really too busy right now”.  I know.  I’m there too.  But more and more I realize that I’m too busy not to celebrate.

This busy holiday season, don’t forget to celebrate you. Try taking credit for your accomplishments on a daily basis. List them to yourself at the end of the day. Plan rewards and celebrations for the tough or unpleasant stuff you may have to endure—and block out some time so that you can follow through on your plans. Go ahead—indulge!

Take good care,

What the study doesn’t explore is how much the average American enjoys those extra calories. Here’s a point to ponder this week. As you are facing the holiday treats, the cookie trays, and the calorie-laden celebrations, how much of the food that you eat are you completely savoring?

One of the excuses we give ourselves for indulging this time of year is that these are special, once-a-year treats. Are you tasting them—or are you mindlessly munching while focused on something else, having a conversation, or just-not-paying-attention?

My guess is that many of those 619 extra calories (per day!) are mindless calories that really aren’t enjoyed, relished, or savored. They are calories we eat because they are there.

My advice: if you are going to indulge, allow yourself to soak it up. Stop. Breathe deep. Taste your food.  Enjoy how it feels in your mouth. Stop before your next bite and ask yourself whether you really want it, whether you are hungry, and whether you are still savoring.

Take your time.

When you are done savoring, stop eating. There will be plenty of opportunities to savor again.

My clients who try this tend to discover two things. First, they enjoy their eating experience much more when they give it their full attention. Second, it’s difficult to overindulge when you interpret indulging as giving food your focused attention, savoring it completely, and stopping when the experience isn’t one hundred percent satisfying anymore.  Many are surprised to find how early on in their eating they actually stop savoring and are simply eating or “finishing” what is in front of them.

Care to try it out?  I’d love to hear what you think.

Take good care,

PS: If you could use more help with mindless eating, stress eating, or emotional eating of any type, I highly recommend my Emotional Eating Toolbox™ 28 Day Program.

1.    Don’t skip meals. When we let ourselves get too hungry, we predispose ourselves to binge eating and to grabbing the first thing we see—not a good weight control strategy. Plan your meals and make sure you provide yourself with a healthy breakfast and lunch. You’ll be better equipped to follow through with the healthy choices you want to make later in the day.

2.    Don’t skimp on sleep. Inadequate sleep leads to increased appetite and weight gain. Research shows that sleep deprivation leads to an increase in hunger, disruption in our metabolism, and an increase in our cravings for sweet, starchy and salty foods.  Have I convinced you yet? If not, listen up. In one study, women who regularly slept five or fewer hours a night were 32% more likely to have gained at least 33 pounds over the 16 years the study spanned than those who slept 7-8 hours.

3.    Plan ahead. Don’t expect yourself to live on a food plan based on deprivation. Take the time to identify the treats you want to indulge in and choose the trade-offs that you are willing to make. What are the temptations you can have anytime that you can pass by over the holiday months? What portion size will you serve yourself? I shared many of my best tips on creating a healthy lifestyle blueprint for the holidays in a recent free teleseminar. You can access a copy of the recording here.

4.    Savor. Take the time to really taste and appreciate the food you eat.  That’s what indulging is really about. Don’t multitask while eating. Put the food on a plate. Take smaller bites. A recent study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that people who take tablespoon-sized bites ate twenty-five percent more at a meal than people who took teaspoon-sized bites.

5.    Stay on top of your stress. What stress management strategies will you rely on this season? Identify the activities that soothe or calm you and designate time for them now–before things really crank into high gear. Proactively managing your stress, tension, anxiety and frustration will help you stay in control of stress eating and other types of emotional eating that can sabotage weight loss.

6.    Give yourself permission to be imperfect. Some days will go better than others but even the worst day of overeating doesn’t mean you’ve “blown it for good.” It’s never too late to make your next choice a healthier one.

Take good care,

Is the candy haunting you? It’s the beginning of the holiday treat season and a good time to ask yourself the following questions:

What’s your plan? How do you want to respond to all the treats you will encounter between now and January 1st?  “Don’t eat them” is not a plan. What strategies do you intend to use to minimize temptation, stay in control of your choices and not feel deprived?

Where are your weak spots and how can you be proactive? Do you feel calm and on track until midafternoon or does the chocolate only call to you after dinner? What’s that about? If you’re REALLY feeling haunted and it feels impossible to resist (we’ve all been there), then this is about something more than hunger. What else is going on? Is this emotional eating—stress or comfort or even boredom eating—that you are experiencing? Respond to the situation or the emotion and the food will become less compelling.

What simple policies or structures can you put in place to limit your exposure and make life simpler? Of course you know to get rid of that leftover candy you don’t even like, but what next step could you take?

What’s your plan for dealing with the treats? Any tricks or brilliant strategies you’d care to share with the rest of us?

Take good care,

Research shows that many of us gain weight during the winter holiday season.  That’s probably no surprise to you.  What may surprise you is that research also shows that we are less likely to lose the weight we gain over the holidays. That weight tends to stick around and accumulate over the years.

Research also shows that if you’re already overweight, the holiday season may present an additional risk. Those who are overweight are actually likely to gain MORE than the average person during the holidays.

How would it feel if you woke up on January 1, proud that you maintained your priorities without being sucked into holiday overeating, emotional eating, overwhelm, and overload?

I’m offering a free teleseminar:

The Busy Woman’s Holiday Healthy Lifestyle Blueprint: Eat, Drink, and Be Merry

During this free teleseminar I will cover:

–3 important tips for creating healthy lifestyle success during this busy time
–4 paths to self-sabotage you want to avoid
–What you MUST feed yourself to be successful
–2 things you can do RIGHT NOW to maximize your success

You’ll also hear information about our all new Emotional Eating Toolbox™ Take Action Series

The call will take place Wednesday, October 28, 2009 at 4pm Pacific, 7pm Eastern.  If you can’t make the live call, don’t worry.  The call will be recorded and all who register will be emailed access to the recording.

Won’t you join me? Just go here to register.

Take good care,

I’ve never thrown a holiday before, and I’m hoping it will be wonderful.  There will definitely be a lot going on. You’ll see guest posts from other busy experts  on a variety of topics.

You can register to learn how to honor your time, set better boundaries, and maybe even find some time you didn’t know you had in my free teleseminar with Timefinder Expert Paula Eder.

All week, I’ll be blogging tips for taking control of overwhelm and creating the life you hunger for. My theory is that if you feed yourself the life you crave you’ll have less need to try to care for yourself with sugary treats and choices that don’t align with your goals.

And of course, there are gifts.  Until October 23, you can go here to claim all sorts of valuable resources and bonuses that my friends and colleagues have donated in celebration of Too Much On Her Plate Week—and you.

Take good care,

I’ve designed this new series of six teleseminars to complement the popular Emotional Eating Toolbox™ 28 Day Self-guided program.  When you register, you’ll receive a copy of the Emotional Eating Toolbox™ program that you can work through at home—at your own pace ($139 value).  You’ll also have access to six hour-long teleseminars led by me.  We’ll cover the techniques and tools that will keep you motivated and in action, help you deal with the self blame, perfectionism and other prickly mine fields that can easily sabotage weight loss and healthy lifestyle success.

I’ve designed this series with busy schedules in mind. You can attend the calls live and take advantage of spot coaching opportunities, or, you can download the recordings and work through the program at your own pace.  The best news?  The upcoming session is specifically designed to overlap the fall/winter holiday season–the time of year when people gain the most weight.

Oh, one more thing.  I’m giving a particularly juicy bonus ($150 value) to the first five people who register.

Take good care,

It’s possible that holiday patterns of overindulgence can actually predispose the body to develop patterns of ongoing overeating. Overeating causes biological changes in the body that can lead to more food cravings, disrupt food and sleep cycles, and cause your stomach to send mixed signals about when it’s actually full.

Metabolic and hormonal processes go into overdrive when we overeat. The body attempts to cope with excessive food intake by producing extra insulin, triggering a cycle where blood sugar levels are negatively affected and cravings for high sugar, high carbohydrate foods result. For some, this vicious cycle can create a sense of “sugar addiction” or feeling out of control with food.

Overeating and high fat diets may also affect our internally regulated patterns of eating and sleep. Dr. Joe Bass, an endocrinologist and molecular biologist at Northwestern University, has studied the effects of eating patterns on the body clocks of mice. Mice who are overfed show changes in their body clocks, which regulate sleep and eating. In his research, mice who were fed a high fat diet actually began waking up during the night to eat. This extra food consumption led to weight gain. Bass hypothesizes that people who eat lower fat diets may sleep better and may be less predisposed to night time binge eating.

Finally, we know that overeating can affect the body’s ability to identify fullness or satiety. Consistent overeating triggers changes in the part of the stomach that sends signals to the brain indicating that the stomach is full. According to Dr. Sasha Stiles, a specialist in obesity at Tufts Medical Center, “When you overeat time and time again, this electrical conduit pathway gets tired and it doesn’t tell your brain that you’re full anymore. It may send abnormal signals and you may not even realize you’re full.”

What’s an over-indulger to do?

• First of all—don’t panic. Knowledge is power. Acknowledging that your body might be going a bit haywire after a few weeks (or more) of overindulgence is an important first step.
• Focusing on a lower fat, low sugar balanced diet will help. Be patient with yourself and know that overeating and sugary high fat food choices may actually have impacted your cravings. Over time, with changes in your diet, these cravings will change.
• This is a time to become a real listener to your body. Pay attention to what signals your body sends you about hunger. Notice what you eat and how your body responds. By paying attention to what you eat AND to how your body feels, you will grow more skilled and more confident at knowing how and when to feed yourself.

Take good care,

Melissa