Running With Perseverance

The first week of November seems way too early to be thinking about the holidays, but last weekend the grocery store was full of peppermint flavored, snowflake shaped everything even before the Halloween candy went on clearance. It’s not a great time of year to notice that your jeans are getting snug, but they are forcing me to own up to some habits that I need to get in check so I can enjoy healthy holidays.

Since I wrote about my “healthy enough” diet, my after-dinner snacking habit has gotten out of control. I blame the dinner party we had a few weeks ago, and the variety of “family size” bags of chips that were leftover. I’m pretty good about not buying too much junk food (I learned that lesson a while ago), but once it’s in the house I have a hard time resisting. I’m not good at portion control, so I’m sure I’ve been adding several hundred empty calories to my intake almost every night.

My snug jeans already were making me own up to what I’ve been doing to myself, but thinking about this week’s Wednesday Word–complacency–has forced me to be even more honest.

The basic definition of “complacency” in the Mirriam-Webster on-line dictionary wasn’t too thought-provoking:

a feeling of being satisfied with how things are and not wanting to try to make them better; a complacent feeling or condition

But the “full” definition was pretty harsh:

self-satisfaction especially when accompanied by unawareness of actual dangers or deficiencies; an instance of usually unaware or uninformed self-satisfaction

I’ve been complacent about my nighttime snacking–munching away without thinking about the consequences, convincing myself that my diet was pretty healthy–but now it’s time to reckon with the truth and break a habit that is standing between me and healthy holidays. If I can’t resist lime flavored Tostitos, how will I exercise restraint in the face of platters of homemade Christmas cookies? 

Another way to be honest about healthy holidays is to join the #HolidaySweat challenge hosted by Amanda (@RunToTheFinish) and SweatPink. 

The challenge will run from November 8 through January 2, with weekly prompts, prizes, and, most valuable of all to me–accountability, support, and motivation as I strive for healthy holidays. You can learn more and sign up here.

[Tweet “Don’t be complacent – join the #HolidaySweat challenge with @runtothefinish @fitappraoch #WednesdayWord”]

Is there something you’ve been too complacent about?