The Fat Diaries: Eating Away Our Holiday Stress
So who’s ready for a week of no school, a debt-riddled trip to a crowded shopping mall and a gauntlet of holiday-themed parties? Anybody?... Anybody?... Bueller? By now there have been a hundred articles posted on every news feed about avoiding holiday weight gains. Those we don’t read are regurgitated to us by well-meaning friends and family. Go vegan, go low-fat, what to eat, what NOT to eat, skip the buffet, skip the party. My favorite tip for holiday parties was to wear clothes so restricting that you were too uncomfortable to eat. Another was to stuff yourself before going to a party–as if that ever works. If there’s a cheese-ball with bacon in it, I’m going over to it regardless of how full my stomach claims to be.
It’s no use in me pontificating on how to avoid holiday feeding frenzies. If I ever manage to get through a party without one, I’ll let y’all know. There’s only one little nugget of useful information I can share with you. Science and leading weight-loss experts agree that one of the chief culprits of weight-gain (aside from eating half a 4” diameter bacon-cranberry-pecan cheese ball) is stress. Think about it. What’s not stressful about the holidays, even if you’re a nut like me who actually enjoys them?
I’ll give you my evening as an example. Right now as I type this, I’m supposed to be: knitting presents, wrapping presents, doing laundry, saving the Christmas cookies from charring, making a list of items to pack for our holiday vacation, looking up addresses and directions, burning CDs for the new CD players the kids will be getting, vacuuming for the guest we’re having over tomorrow, drinking the rest of the beer that’s about to skunk, and making sure the kids stay in bed and go to sleep for crying out loud! Add on to that the fact that presents aren’t cheap, rent’s due next week, the kids are out of school until the 3rd, I’ve eaten probably 40 too many cookies in the last week, and that it now gets dark at 4pm. It’s all one big stress cocktail.
According to Web MD and most medical/health studies, stress in the body releases hormones that were once useful to our opposable-toed ancestors. When homo erectus got a scare these chemicals told it to run away and hide. When the danger had passed, these chemicals told it to replenish its nutrients (after exerting all that energy by running) and then get on with life. Well, since the modern ape has stopped running, except at the local gym, the wires today have gotten a little crossed. Now when we stress out, the hormones give us a jolt of energy followed by a long-period of cravings, usually for sugar or starchy food.
This hormone (cortisol) usually stores the extra fat from this kind of gorging in the midsection (visceral fat). Belly fat is an indicator of high stress levels, and is closely tied to heart disease and diabetes. There’s also a psychological link to weight-gain. Stress can make us crave comfort food, like cookies, booze, chips or bacon-cranberry-pecan cheese-balls. Enter the holiday potluck that consists of 40% cookies, 30% dips and spreads, 19% crackers, 10% candy and 1% raw baby vegetables from Costco.
So here’s the only advice I have for surviving until life begins to wax normal again on Jan 3: RELAX. Take two minutes to just breathe. Realize just how tense your shoulders are and drop them. Unclench your jaw (two of my friends did this without knowing it and complained of aching teeth until I suggested this to them). Play ten minutes of video games. Stare into space. Belt out your favorite song. Show someone this article and make them give you a back rub. Just concentrate on yourself and only yourself for a few minutes, smile, regroup and find your positive energy that’s buried beneath a ball of stress.
Joking aside for the moment, the holidays are notorious for causing a deluge of stress-related problems like heart attacks, panic attacks, and ulcers. Take a moment every now and then to take internal stock of your well-being and the well-being of your loved ones. When you take everything as it comes and shrug off the small stuff this really can be a fun week to get in touch with your family and friends with minimal guilt or stress. So enjoy; have a ball – even have two! And here’s a little holiday gift from me: some soothing rain sounds . I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season and a happy new year! I’ll see you all again on Jan 7th. God Bless.
