Article Body:
Every year, I swear that i will be able to be thin enough to wear my smallest dress to the office party. and each year, I don’t quite make it. Oh, I can usually get into it by the start of February after a diet-obsessed, guilt-ridden January, but it doesn’t mean the maximum amount then.
Why are November and December so toxic to our weight control efforts? Certainly there's abundant food available during the month long celebration from Thanksgiving to New Year . it's the season for non-stop parties and gifts of food from colleagues, friends, family, and customers.
But quite just the food, there's a special atmosphere that descends on the Western World at the top of November. Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzai – regardless of the celebration involved – evoke the onset of primitive emotions. We wax nostalgic over the vacations we recall from childhood. We turn towards family and traditions that are absent from our thoughts for the remainder of the year. We indulge ourselves within the joy of giving and receiving.
Cookies, and chocolates, and gift baskets bursting with preservatives, which we might politely refuse during the other time of the year, are now gratefully accepted within the spirit of the season. Food we might normally avoid – creamed soups, fruit glazes, gravy, fruit breads, honeyed hams – appear as comfort foods, warming and welcoming. Our sophisticated and world-weary veneer fades within the face of traditions that make us feel whole and contented again.
The goodwill we feel demands a context and a continuity that was established a few years ago. Each December, we affect an equivalent old carols, enjoying the familiarity of tunes we learned to like sitting next to a glittering tree and a roaring fire. For a month, we emotionally step back in time to reconnect who we are with who we were. Despite its current crass commercialism, we'd like the vacations to remind us of our roots, our values, and our beginnings.
So this year, i'm getting to throw myself into the fray, eat whatever i would like , and let the chips fall where they'll . I can always wear something else to the office party and there'll be innumerable occasions within the New Year once I can attain caloric virtue through deprivation and denial.
This year, I’m getting to have guilt-free, unalloyed, and omnivorous fun.
Bon Appetit!