Day 3 Handling the Holidays Series
“I only get fudge during December.” Do you have thoughts like this about holiday food? It’s only available RIGHT NOW!! This produces the feeling of scarcity and drives the action of eating all the food! Did you know that you can actually buy or make fudge year round? I know. It’s like a revelation. The ingredients for mine are chocolate chips, marshmallow creme, sugar, evaporated milk, butter and vanilla. All regular grocery ingredients that are available year round. There is actually no shortage of fudge. You can totally make it anytime. You can buy it anytime at Godiva’s or See’s in the mall. Year round. That holiday buffet with 3 kinds of desserts? You can totally make or buy those anytime. It’s simply not true that these foods are in short supply.
But our brains operate from this thought and make us think we should definitely eat it now or there won’t be any left. This comes from the caveman days of true scarcity. If they didn’t eat the food when it was available, they might literally starve. We are not at risk of starving if we don’t eat the fudge.
Remind your brain that you can totally eat the fudge tomorrow—when it’s part of your plan. If you still want it tomorrow, you will have 1 piece. But eating foods high in processed sugar and flour in the moment, when they are unplanned, reinforces the feeling of scarcity, reinforces the thought “I better eat it now before it’s gone,” and reinforces the “see food, eat immediately” reaction.
Like day 1 (getting honest with your schedule), get really honest about what foods are actually available to make or buy year round. You may choose to only make certain foods at certain times of the year. But OWN that choice. Don’t blame it.
Tomorrow I’ll show you how to plan an exception!
Having trouble identifying the thoughts you’re having around food? Book a free strategy session with me and I’ll show you how to do it!