Holiday binge planning
Without symptoms, and purely as a precaution, I’ve been self-isolating for the past 2 weeks before joining the couple I’m good friends with for Christmas Eve. With my friend’s dad being immunocompromised, the 3 of us have taken extra precautionary measures to ensure as much safety as possible. We decided to spend time together again today as a pre-Christmas chill. It feels good to see friends and enjoy controlled social time in my bubble. Merry merry joy joy! But these celebratory meals are already becoming challenging when you’re offered marshmallows, homemade from scratch, that tasted and smelled like heaven. My friends were impressed by my self-control and will power for having taken just 1. Clearly, the uphill battle to stay as much as possible on track with my food habits has started.
Luckily, they are not pushy — they simply offer and let me decide if I want it or not. But when the offer is a homemade marshmallow, how can you not have at least a tiny bite? It was worth the 6 grams of pure, simple carbs heaven. You might wonder how 6 grams of sugar can really influence your day, but we have to keep in mind that my 200 grams of rapini had the same amount of carbs and only 1 gram was sugar. This cloud light sweet treat had 0 nutritional benefits other than being soul food. During Holidays, we like to feed our souls, a lot! Where can we strike a healthy balance and allow ourselves to indulge in delights made with love?
This was planned months ahead and I have chosen to use the ‘cheat day strategy”. I won’t be limiting my calorie intake nor control my macros on Christmas Eve. Oh yeah, oh yeah, woot woot! But I’m not letting myself off the hook that easily. Of course, I had to put a spin on this. I’m still going to journal everything I will eat. Yes, I will put myself through the masochistic task of remembering what I consume, just like when you clean up the day after a party and the number of empty bottles tells you how crazy you were the night before. There will be a public truth of what will cause my food hangover on December 25th. Merry Christmas! Fully risk-aware, I will go through this experiment in the name of pseudo-science.
As much fun my imagination is having with this, I will respect my limits and use my safe words if needed: “no, thank you.” The rules have been laid down, my friends have negotiated this with me and we are ready to play this scenario in 3 days. Again, my objective is not to make a point by hurting my body, I just want to allow myself an evening of social eating. In my experience, people tend to eat more in large groups, particularly when the food is so diverse and appealing. Health is obviously a core value of mine and I’m conscious the well-being of my body is equally important as my emotional wellness. Accepting my friend’s affection through culinary love matters as much as meeting my nutritional needs. I don’t plan cheat days because they will present themselves — I simply know when it’s time to appreciate a feast with loved ones and get some nourishment — for my soul.
