Yes I’m talking about weight gain. What is it about the holidays that makes us think its okay to pack on 5-10 lbs? And then to say, “Oh I will lose it in the New Year.” For someone who has a pretty good self control, I found myself unable to say no to anything last week. It was out of the blue too. All of a sudden it was like a switch was flipped and I went into a see food diet…I see it, I eat it. I didn’t allow my brain to even think about whether or not I should eat it or even wanted to actually eat it and half the time I didn’t even realize what was happening until I finished whatever it was! I guess you might be able to call that emotional eating? Maybe?

I started last week with making sugar cookies and I thought I was being really good by bringing them to work…boy was I wrong. I am at work more than I am home and since I hoarded them in my locker instead of putting them in plain sight to actually share with my coworkers, I ended up eating almost all of them myself.

Weight gain reason #1:

Then on Tuesday a client was talking about pizza…COME ON! So what did I order before I left work that was ready for pick up by the time I got home, conveniently right downstairs? An arugula pizza with mozzarella, truffle oil and shaved parmesan. I ate half of it in 3 minutes then continued to eat some of the sugar cookies that I didn’t bring to work. Yeah I stashed some for my late night munchie issue.

Weight gain reason #2:

Then on Thursday I went out to dinner for the 110 club which is a dinner for those trainers who hit 110 sessions or more in the previous month. We went to Pier 6 in Charlestown. PHENOMENAL. Seriously go there. It is where Tavern On The Water used to be. Anyways, we could get whatever we wanted on the menu…2 Malbec, 3 vodka soda, 4 sweet and sticky chicken wings, 4 oysters, 2 pieces of bread, 1 lobster salad sandwich, 10 french fries, 3 scallops, 1 apple crisp later and I was well over my caloric limit for the week.

Weight gain reason #3:

No this is not what I ate but I have no picture so I used this because this is what it felt like had entered my stomach

Friday night was the Equinox holiday party. 6 glasses of Malbec, 12 pieces of sushi (at home) and some peanut butter and jelly (late night), later and I am starting to feel a bit bloated.

Weight gain reason #4:

Minus the sushi and peanut butter and jelly obviously

Then Saturday night I went to dinner in the North End to Mare. Best seafood in town. Half a bottle of Ferrari-Carano, 6 oysters, 3 pieces of olive bread, 2 scallops with a bowl of butternut squash (with lots of butter), truffle crusted tuna with grilled eggplant, wilted spinach and sweet baby peppers. This doesn’t seem like a lot but if you include the late night cookies….yeahhhh

Weight gain reason #5:

Use your imagination.

Now this might not seem that bad, but I didn’t even mention the fact that I finished the pizza on Wednesday, ate sandwiches all last week, night ate every night and ate my weight in cookies this past Monday when they had a BAKE OFF at work. Moment on the lips, lifetime on the hips should be on repeat over the holidays. Of course some indulgence is normal but to consume every cookie/brownie/cake in the bake off Monday is just completely unnecessary. You know a bite of each just to be able to judge fairly would have been just fine and totally acceptable. Instead I chose to eat ALL of the individual baked good, even the ones I didn’t like and there were about 10 different options. Not to mention the brownies I made from chickpeas earlier on Monday. Of course I ate the batter while I was making them because the recipe said it was totally acceptable. Then I proceeded to eat about 5 before returning to work, greeted by my biggest guilty pleasure. Damn you baked goods. Oh and I barely did any of this last week….

Which would lead to weight gain reason #6.

But really, it is the holidays!!! To not taste the holiday treats and sweets and to not indulge at holiday dinners and parties is just out of this world silly…or at least that’s what I keep telling myself. I mean come on, it’s winter and everyone is wearing lots of layers so no one can really see what you look like under all your clothes so no one should really care. And I also remind myself I’m getting hip surgery in 3 weeks and totally not thinking about how my body is changing (lies)  because I can’t do much to control it (some truth, some lies) and don’t care what happens to my body (more lies, lies, lies) and suddenly I have convinced myself it is perfectly okay to eat all day long…until I get on the scale and it says I have gained 5 lbs in a week.

Sooooo maybe I care a little bit more than I think I did. All these weeks of not dieting and not gaining any weight and I think I am invincible to this thing we call weight gain. Well, I found those lbs and they found me. I will have to break up with them eventually but for now I am just going to accept that I let them in to my life and move on…maybe tone down the feasting for now.

Malbec, you’re here to stay, don’t worry. 🙂