The day after can be the hardest

I don’t know about you, but I am historically decent at “getting through” challenging periods. The day after, however, can be a different thing. This may not be how it shows up for you, but it’s how the winter holidays often have worked for me. Because I don’t have an off switch when it comes to sugar, I don’t tend to eat a single treat during festive occasions when “everyone” else is doing it. For me, one chocolate something invariably becomes 20 chocolate somethings over the course of any event or day. And, no, I am not exaggerating. If I could eat like a normal person, I would. I don’t know how.

It’s not that hard for me to avoid sugar during the holidays because I do that every day, but it is hard for me to watch everyone else make exceptions to how they normally eat (and encourage me to make exceptions, “it’s the holidays, live a little!”). Even though I love my regular food and the way my body feels when I eat it, I start to tell myself a story that I’m deprived and that I “deserve” something that I don’t normally eat.

BTW, in my case, it’s pretty odd for me to believe the thought that I “deserve” something that I have determined is harmful to me. WTF is that about? I avoid the foods I avoid because they have immediate negative health consequences. Have I been a bad girl? Do I deserve to be punished?

For all these reasons, Boxing Day (traditionally what the day after Christmas is called) is harder for me than all the days leading up to Christmas (the same for January 2nd). That’s the day I breathe a sigh of relief. I got through that. The danger is over.

The day after, in my brain = time to celebrate

now, where did my husband put those chocolate somethings?