November 11
I can figure out from past experience exactly how much I might need to bank to net out with no weight gain January 1. It’s not unlike knowing how much I spent on presents the year before and paying in cash as I go rather than putting it all on a credit card. And, I certainly know that these overeating opportunitues are coming and exactly when.
Here is an example of the math over the 6 weeks. Let’s just say, for example, that you have two celebration days for each of the three major holidays (Thanksgiving, Christmas or Hannukah, and New Year’s). Then, let’s tack on at least one more party per week for each of the seven weeks. I am not actually that popular, but you might be, so it makes a better example. So, seven parties and six celebratory days at say 3000 calories per day. If you assume that it takes about 1500 calories a day average to maintain a 140-150 lb. woman, she would have had an extra 1500 calories for each of those thirteen high days that she needs to pay back within the seven weeks. She has 36 other non-party days left in that window of time between Thanksgiving and New Year’s to pay off that debt. It means that she would have to do the other 36 days at about 1150 per day to “pay as you go” so to speak and not carry any debt over. It is the same payback she would have to do after the holiday, by the way if she wants to “diet” it all back off beginning in January. If she exercises (just like having a part time job) she can throw these calories at that debt too and not have to do so much of it by eating less.
When you get good at it, you can start before the holiday and pre-bank, as it were. Even attempting this helps me to keep a grip and not succumb entirely to “holiday mentality” where I eat everything that isn’t nailed down, whether it is related to the holiday or not.
Why not try this for the holidays this year? And, if the math or even the concept of really trying to reconcile as you go overwhelms you, just try not abandoning all the potential reasonable days that could have been chopping away at the debt rather than accumulating more.
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