How do I survive Christmas with my family?
My hunch is that we have all at least thought at one time or another, How do I survive Christmas with my family?
I received this email from Debbie in Vermont. She is an online Slender For Life™ Weight Loss Hypnosis client.
She writes: “Roger Help! I’m going home to my parents for Christmas and I know that my Mom and my two Aunts are going to want to feed me. In my family, food is love.
Christmas has always been a time of big dinners of roast beef and ham, homemade cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning for breakfast and cookies, cheese logs and special deserts throughout the day. And, of course, Dad will want me to drink his egg nog.
I’ve tried to talk to Mom but she just says it won’t hurt me to go off my diet for Christmas. She is one that if you don’t eat all of your food she thinks that you didn’t like it or that something is wrong with it. And she always pushes seconds.
As you know I have lost almost 30 pounds in the last 3 months and I still have 75 to go and I don’t want to blow it in the 5 days I’m at home.
How do I survive Christmas with my family and not gain weight?
Thanks
Debbie”
Family pressure
“Hi Debbie, I do remember that family pressure that I experienced. One helping was never enough and in my family nobody left the table until all he food on the plate was gone.
For me, it was (and continues to be) ongoing conversations and holding firm boundaries with love.
Years ago, I would call my Mom and ask if she’d be OK if I brought and cooked my oatmeal for breakfast. I let her know I’d be happy to share. She agreed to this and now she knows that I will be showing up with my oatmeal.
Mom and I would talk through plans for any big family meal gatherings. For those events, I would go to Whole Foods and buy vegetables and grains that were already prepared. Even though I knew that most likely my wife and I would be the only ones eating it, I always bought extra to share.
Now that Mom is 95, it’s easy for my wife and me to take over the cooking and we prepare healthy plant-based meals that Mom enjoys. While Mom no longer bakes cakes and cookies other family members make them plentiful.
Change the subject
Probably the most important suggestion that I can give you is to not engage when someone pokes you about how you eat. When a family member tells me about how they think that I should eat, I smile, nod and tell them that I hope that works for them and that what I am doing is working for me. And then I change the subject.
You will not convince them of anything if you take the position of “I’m right and you’re wrong.” Trying to convince someone who is entrenched in their beliefs about food will only create discord. Let it go. Let them have the last word.
My hope for you is that you have a joyous time with your family for the holidays. Share your love by being your Best Self.
Your Hypnosis Health Info Hypnotic Suggestion for today:
I share my love by being my Best Self.
Since January 2, 1997
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