Thursday, December 8, 2011

Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Chocolate All the Way...

Andy Williams was right, it is indeed the most wonderful time of the year. I love Christmas time. Love it. The music, the lights, the decorating, the food, the building of memories--such a special time that we wait all year long for (not that you can't do any of those things all year long, but you know what I mean!). Of course, this time of year also comes with its burdens--the crowded stores, the high cost of gifts, the chocolate and the cookies and the cakes and the this and the that showing up right and left, every which way you turn...phew, let me catch my breath.

If you can't tell, food is on my mind these days. This time last year I was already underway to enjoying myself a little too much, and as a result I gained a bit and got myself in a bit of a rut that took a while to get out of. It is hard to lose weight around the holidays. I believe that everybody out there generally knows and understands that, but I promise you, you never quite grasp it as well as when you are actively trying to lose weight. Suddenly, you're hyper-aware of how much eating actually goes on throughout the month. December is literally a giant, four week long temptation. Well, at least it is for me.

If you recall, I work in an attorney's office. We've downsized so much over the last few years that we don't really all-out celebrate things like we used to. Five or six years ago we did ornament-exchanges and a huge potluck Christmas party ever year. Every birthday in the office meant a Chocolate French Silk pie or banana pudding for everyone to enjoy. These days we're all so overworked and underpaid that we're all rather grumbly (although trust me, I'm not as bad as some of the crones around here) and not really in the celebrating mood. Truthfully, that's perfectly fine with me. As a matter of fact, I say GOOD. I don't need pie on my birthday and I do not need Honeybaked ham and macaroni and cheese. Those things aren't so bad by themselves, but when you add it to the chocolates being dropped off by our courier for my coworkers and I to enjoy, or the assortment of freshly baked cookies that our top client's wife baked just for us, or whatever other goody is being forced in our faces, the temptations can become extremely overwhelming.

I am determined this year to get through the month of December more intact than I was last year. I'm not saying I have to lose ten pounds this month--although, boy, would that be nice!--but I hope to make it past Christmas at least feeling a little more in control and able to face the temptations head-on without always giving in. Normally, my will-power, which certain people in my life are always admiring me for, packs its bags and heads for Aspen to go skiing this time of year. He's a sneaky lil' devil, that will-power...

So far, it hasn't been too bad. But then again, it's early still. The silent storm of baked goods is slowly brewing, building stronger and stronger into a buttery, sugary monsoon. I can feel it. I can smell it. The chocolate that runs through these veins knowingly seeks its brothers and sisters. You know them all too well--flour, confectionery sugar, butter. Together, they are as sweet as they are deadly. Like phantoms or shape-shifters, they come in many forms, deceiving us all with their puckering cuteness--cookies, decadent brownies, peppermint bark. They are not to be trusted! I don't know when the storm will hit land at full force, but it's coming. We must be ready for them...

Okay, so maybe I'm giving these sweet little treats way too much power over me. Or am I? I suppose I could look at this delicious time of year as the final exam to the rest of the year's studying. Weight Watchers spends all of its time and energy teaching us how to handle situations just like these. And yet, some of us often throw all that hard work, those tools that we have acquired, right out the window. And all for what--fudge? Rich, moist, pillowy fudge...Whoops, there I go again...

Yet again, though, I must remind myself. I can have the fudge and the cookies, or whatever else there is. I can have anything I'd like--just not as much as I want, whenever I want it. It all has to be reined in to make sense, to be structured. So far I've made it through the first nine days of December unscathed. We'll see how I fare next week...

Coming up on the nearest horizon--book club! It's my turn to host this Saturday night and I can't wait. I have so come to look forward to our monthly get-togethers. Sometimes I laugh the hardest I laugh all month long those nights with my ladies. Hopefully they'll all enjoy what I plan on cooking up for them (I'll get to that later) and hopefully they enjoyed the book I chose! I try my best to purposely choose books that make for great discussion material. I think my choice this time went above and beyond those standards. Hopefully it didn't rub too many of them the wrong way--then again, those reactions often make for the best discussions. I'll report back with all the details after this weekend.

In the meantime, how is your holiday decorating coming along?...

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