I hope your weekend went well. I got out to a few events. We introverts have to push ourselves to get out but when I do, I enjoy myself. I have pretty good social skills from the ole’ drinking days but too long at a party can exhaust me.
Did your Christmas parties and dinners start yet? If not – they’re coming. Office, friends and family parties galore.
Did you ever notice that it’s sometimes our own family that can be the hardest on us?
I often wondered if I was an alien from another planet growing up.
Gosh, I know they meant well (at least I hope they did) but they never got any of my issues with substances – none – zero.
It’s better now, but three decades will do that.
You never want to think about you favorite aunt as a drug pusher.
You know the one.
The best baker in the family.
The one that everyone can’t wait to get to her house at the holidays to sample what new creations she has this year and all the old standards she’s famous for. Yeah, that aunt.
Except she has a little quirk.
Maybe because she doesn’t get a ton of recognition elsewhere in life – this is kind of her identity.
She takes this stuff seriously.
And she’s good at.
But, she’s also insanely aware, maybe even hurt, when you’re not enjoying her treats.
I mean how the hell does she even know you “haven’t had even one” of her newest cookies?
She’s not the only one.
There’s the great cook. Or maybe the only cook sometimes will seem upset if you don’t stuff yourself like everyone else. If you don’t eat what he or she deems as “enough.”
Have you had enough food?
“Come on, you barely touched the candied yams.”
I could go into the whole limbic brain thing where they want to keep you in the group and just like the group but I think you already know that.
They’re not doing it to keep you in a sugar haze.
They’re doing it because that’s what they were taught, what they learned coming up.
The hard part is to recognize it and that initial change you make to eating differently than them. After the first holidays, it gets easier. They no longer, well usually, brow beat you to eat more.
It’s hard.
You love them and they love you.
These old patterns are tough to change.
There is so much love and tradition wrapped up in them.
But there are so many gentle tricks and tips that you can employ without causing a huge scene or a fight. Ways for you to stay strong and ways gently deflect the comments and questions.
We’ve found that this stuff really rattles folks.
The holiday times with family has a rhythm to it, a cadence. It flows.
When we change it up a little (but it feels like a lot) cages get rattled, egos get bruised and it ends up in, at the very least, in some long drawn out explanation of our new eating habits. Ugh, freaking double Ugh.
Who wants that?
We can help you avoid that and we can supply the proper moral support to feel strong enough to breeze through it without upset.
It’s up to you.
Tonight is the first of our “holiday support calls”. There is still time to jump on with us.
Go ahead, jump on the call with us and let’s make these holidays different in preparation for an insanely awesome 2017!
Imagine being able to duck into the bathroom at auntie’s house and call up a friend who’s probably at the same kind of party! Or just text her and tell her how crazy all your relatives are.. Click all this blue stuff!
