Holiday food fever.

Well folks, it's that time of year.  Halloween has passed which can only mean one thing... the holidays are here!!

The holidays are my absolute favorite time of year, for a multitude of reasons: getting in some quality time with family (a serious issue when you're a college student living away from home), exchanging gifts, the lights, the music, the feeling in the air, and, of course, the amazing food!  My mom and I have been Christmas cookie fanatics for as long as I can remember.  Every year we buy all the Christmas cookie magazine publications and try to bake our way through them before the big day arrives.  And for as long as I can remember, I have spent the holidays stressing more than any other time of the year about my weight and my body.

For the few of you out there who have no idea what I'm talking about, breathe a deep sigh of relief.  For the 98% of you who, like me, have been in a love-hate relationship with your diet for years, the holidays are just an extra source of stress, emotional and otherwise; not only is there a multitude of incredible food around that you don't usually have, you're often going to parties and other social gatherings with people you haven't seen in a while and, of course, as a chronic dieter, you're once again hoping to impress everyone with an incredible body transformation.  Not by coincidence, every women's health magazine on the shelves right now has some feature or another on how to "control" yourself during the holidays.  Tips range from eating before every party so you're not "tempted" by the food offered, all the way to wearing clothes that are slightly too tight so you're feeling just "tubby" enough that you're too embarrassed to eat.  I don't know about you, but that does not sound like a fun party to me.

Then, on the opposite end of the spectrum, there are those of us who deal with the deliciousness of holiday food by letting ourselves go entirely, binging over and over again with the plan of simply waiting until January to deal with our food problems.  There is, after all, the opportunity to resolve once again to "lose the weight once and for all" come January 1st.

Here's the deal: the holidays are supposed to be the one time of year you can get together with those you love, relax and enjoy yourselves together, and believe it or not, part of that enjoyment includes eating.  Indulging in a few holiday meals with your friends and family should be a source of pleasure, not one of stress and anxiety.  While there is no need to partake in the American notion that Thanksgiving is not a success unless you've eaten to the point of making yourself sick, neither is letting yourself off the hook for a few meals going to lead to any kind of dire consequences, besides perhaps a little apprehension about consciously breaking from your "diet."

I know we're all at different points in our journey towards body acceptance, but no matter where you are, try to have some compassion in your heart for yourself this holiday season.  Keep in mind that the stress you're feeling over your body and your eating has nothing to do with what your body actually looks like, or how beautiful you actually are.  That, and let yourself enjoy that peppermint bark, eggnog latte or second helping of stuffing without worrying about your food log or your waist.  I hope that by now you're all trying to break away from the constant dieting, but if not, take the first steps this holiday season by letting yourself enjoy a few meals without worrying about calories, fat, carbs, or anything in between.  The holidays are a time of celebration, so I can't imagine a better time to celebrate the fact that you are beautiful and amazing just the way you are, and no slice of pumpkin pie with extra whipped cream is going to change that.  In fact, it might even make you just a little better! #