Moderators: JeffN, f1jim, carolve, Heather McDougall
That seems like an effective way to frame things. What is your plan for navigating the holiday? It always helps me to face those celebratory situations in an intentional way. Keep doing your best!Rebecka22 wrote:Trying to focus on how good I feel when I stick to the plan and remember that next week when everything is about food.
JeffN wrote:Thanksgiving is often thought of as time of feasting and indulgence and, for many, it means a time of overindulgence. As food is central to many of our celebrations and our health, I want to share some personal thoughts on Thanksgiving.
Throughout history, many cultures have enjoyed great feasts to mark the important and joyous occasions of the year. These feast days traditionally occurred only a few times a year and any overindulgence was confined to these few days of celebration. However, today, the spirit of celebration and the notion of a “little indulgence” have been taken to extremes as more and more Americans treat every day and every meal as a holiday and a time to overindulge.
Over the past 40 years, rates of excess weight, obesity and related health problems have increased rapidly. Today, almost three-fourths of American adults and over one-third of children and teens are obese or overweight. This extra weight increases an individual’s risk of developing many chronic illnesses such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, arthritis and cancer.
Every day throughout the year, American meals tend to provide portions that are too large and have excess fat, salt, sugar, and calories. A large disparity exists between recommendations for a healthful diet and actual food consumption habits. Excessive intakes of salt, solid fats (major sources of saturated and trans-fatty acids), added sugars, and refined grains often replace intakes of healthful, nutritious foods, making it difficult for people to achieve recommended nutrient intake while controlling calorie intake. The negative health effects of these eating habits are further compounded by the sedentary lifestyles of many Americans.
Commitment to a healthful diet is one of the most important components—if not the most important component—of an individual’s overall health and well-being. A healthful diet is one that emphasizes minimally processed fruits, vegetables, starchy vegetables, intact whole grains and legumes, and limits the intake of salt, saturated fats, added sugars and sweeteners, solid fats and oils and refined grains. The key to achieving and maintaining a healthful weight—during the holidays and all year-round—is to live a healthful lifestyle on a day-to-day basis that includes healthful eating, regular physical activity, and stress management.
Following is one of my favorite food quotes of all time, and it comes from the book The Life We Are Given by George Leonard and Michael Murphy. I think it has a powerful message that is appropriate for this time of the year.
“Finally, how we eat, just as is the case with how we exercise, stands as a fundamental expression of our embodiment and is thus important to our practice, not merely for the benefits it might bring but for its own sake. To eat with full awareness turns us toward a diet that is both good and good for us. It rejoins us with the matrix of our existence and can inspire us with thanksgiving for the everyday wonder of food, the everlasting miracle of the life we are given.”
The holidays are a time to celebrate, give thanks and, yes, perhaps for some of us, to even overindulge a little. It is important to remember, however, that Thanksgiving is just one meal on one day and is not the start of a month–and–a–half-long celebration. The very occasional indulgence on the very occasional holiday (i.e., the actual day and meal itself) will most likely not be damaging to overall health and well-being for most of us if healthy eating and exercising take place on a regular, consistent, daily basis throughout the rest of the year.
The holidays are times to focus on family and friends—not just food. Catching up and sharing laughs with loved ones will allow you to feel the spirit of the holidays more than a second helping of pie. If you do indulge a little to celebrate, be careful and do so without throwing all caution to the wind or hurting yourself. And remember, your body is never not watching!
So, during this upcoming holiday season of thanksgiving and celebration, let’s not forgot to take a moment and reflect, celebrate, and give thanks for those things that are truly the most important and of the most value to us…our lives, our health, our friends, and our families.
Have a happy and healthy Thanksgiving.
Jeff
Continue building on the progress you have made, aiming for improved adherence wherever that feels achievable. You can do it!Check-ins and self-assessment reports are on Friday; participants have until noon pacific time (19:00 UTC) on Saturday to post their report for the week. Reports posted outside that window of time won't be included in the weekly summary, or receive replies. Please post your report in the following format -
- Assess the week in regard to your adherence to each of the recommendations from the MWL 10-Point Checklist.
- For each point from the list, please elaborate by discussing what contributed to your success and/or what actions you plan to take to better fulfill that recommendation.
- Feel free to include any personal victories, comments, concerns, or questions
- If you like, you may post a change in weight at the END of your post, but it is not required, nor is it part of the formal template. If you do choose to post a weight change, please do so in pounds gained or lost, and enter it as a whole number without a decimal. If your scale displays weight that includes a decimal place you can follow the general rules for rounding; .1 to.4 is rounded down to the nearest whole number, .5 to .9 is rounded up to the nearest whole number.
The intention here is to share effective practices and propagate them through the group. Likewise, when struggling with a particular behavior, we want to encourage participants to consider how they can overcome obstacles and devise an action plan for addressing challenges. Simply relying on "willpower" alone is often insufficient for success. If you are feeling stuck on a particular point, and you're completely at a loss for what to do, ask the group so that we can help. Our goal is to help you adopt a pattern of behavior that will lead you to achieve your important health goals.
Mark Cooper wrote:I would say that highly-palatable, calorie-rich, processed foods, when consumed, nearly always pose a risk for triggering the Pleasure Trap. That is how the Pleasure Trap works, right? That said, something achieved once should be achievable again, no? I believe there is no lapse from which one cannot recover, provided continuing life and agency.
Mark Cooper wrote:It seems to me, for whatever reason, that oftentimes, when we lapse it can pretty easily be a string of the "wrong" foods "all at once." I think, perhaps, that an encounter with the Pleasure Trap can snowball and cause a repeating cycle. So, the key is to break that pattern as soon as possible - getting back to basics, and making the very next meal consist of the recommended foods is a good way to do that (then do the same with the next meal, and the next). A lapse needn't become a full relapse, but it can get out of control pretty easily in my experience, so a focus on returning to the previously successful form is important. You can do it.
Mark Cooper wrote:I agree that the most important thing in the wake of a lapse, is to get right back "on plan" as soon as possible, so as to avoid a full-blown relapse. That is one reason I think framing things in terms of self-assessment, learning and adjustment, rather than recrimination, is so important. It allows us to see where obstacles lie, and correct our course around them; "beating ourselves up" often just leads to feeling bad and losing motivation.
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