My self-control is very good all year round, even other holidays and special occasions, I can easily say no to the sweets, meats, dairy and certain delectables I choose not to consume on an almost-never basis. My food allergies, gluten and lactose intolerance, make it a simple choice, no one wants to engage in birthday festivities with the belching, stinky-farting birthday girl, nor the grumpy, bathroom-bound, one-year-older-cranky-next-day-birthday-girl either. So I kindly say, "No thanks."
But there is something about the holidays! It starts with Thanksgiving and snowballs from there into a zitty, gassy, bloated, chapped lips, irregular pooping (read irritable and oh-so lovely) me. I have the zits, raw private bits and irritability to prove it. Concluding thoughts, the holidays are evil.
Thanksgiving I did well, as I hosted, so I had most control. I made everything vegan, except, well the turkey. I proposed the idea of a turkey-less Turkey Day and that did not go over well. How could I resist the herb and lemon, crispy skin, dark meat that I have long loved, so I indulged slightly. Other than that Thanksgiving was easy. I didn't over eat, didn't eat the desserts others brought and thought to myself I can handle this.
Ha, nice try...then there is my Mom's birthday, which is overindulgent by nature. We went to Boston (hello yumminess). Between the long sitting/traveling time (i.e. traveling gas and bloating) to the overindulgence of yumminess and mucho vino, I was constipated and achey all over. My yoga sessions in our hotel room hoedown space helped, as did some intestinal massage and probiotics, but the entire weekend, I was not a happy camper.
I came home and immediately started a juice cleanse. Knowing Christmas was around the corner, my system needed a break. After my 4-day cleanse, my body, poops, discomfort and irritability finally balanced out.
Not consuming alcohol during the holidays is a nearly impossible feat, it seems. I swear the holidays are the only socially acceptable time to be drunk continuously for days, hey "it's festive!"
I was good, happy, pooping regularly and balanced until Christmas Day. Christmas Day is filled with family traditions that have been modified to fit my dietary restrictions yet still, is so far from my normal eating habits; mimosas, lots-o-coffee, bagels, lox, goat cheese a plenty. Then the following days is chocolates, more champagne, more, more. Hence poop, fart, poop, zits.
Oh wait, and Then there is New Years Eve!! More booze, more gooie-yumminess....Ahhhh....I'm too sore to keep wiping!
How do you do it? How do you celebrate without celebrating with food? Each childhood holiday was surrounded in celebratory foods, meals, drinks that marked and made that specific holiday special. Letting go of those family traditions is hard and somehow the idea of a holiday without them is less festive.
I think this time of year wouldn't be so hard except for the fact that there is 5 holiday celebrations for me, back to back with little to no break in between. It is also amazing to me how quickly our bodies get confused and tell us we crave things that we don't normally. It goes to show you the power of processed foods, sugars and fats, and their addictive properties. So rarely eating such things, this little dose is making my body go, "give me more, give me more."
My body can't handle that much irregularity and I normally don't subject it to so much hatred. It is ironic that the holidays are celebrating family and the holiday spirit, yet somehow I forget to celebrate me, my body and my health. I need to learn to merge the two, be celebratory and involved, while still celebrating my normally happy-healthy body.
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| @yoga_girl after Christmas smoothie |
How does she do it? How can I do it?
