Via Gerry Ellen Avery

on Nov 4, 2012

The Beginning of the Holiday Food Fest.

Navigating our way through the next six months is going to be truly challenging.

Not only is it challenging on a personal level with the elections and the recent weather patterns throughout our country, but society is now faced with onslaught of the holidays. Everywhere are signs of the new month and another holiday.

It’s awesome to have the positive spirits of decorating the house, the smells of fresh baked goods for friends and family, and gift giving of rare and unique treats. Here’s where we can finally take everything we have worked so hard for over the last six months and throw it out the window.

It all begins with late October and Halloween.

A good and healthy reason to dress up, be someone who you secretly wish you were (c’mon, admit it!), and eat oodles of sugary anything that lands in your Halloween bucket, or your kids’ bucket.

Let’s face it, Halloween is the best excuse to eat like crap.

So starts the season of the food-fest.

Next up is November and Thanksgiving. Already, magazine racks in stores are filled with ideas and cooking creations to eat healthy, go gluten free while still enjoying turkey, remembering to exercise after all the gluttony and football game watching, and relish in the bliss of family gatherings.

It all boils down to food.

We convene at Thanksgiving to eat and drink and eat and drink some more. Then, we start thinking about Christmas and decorations (which probably began somewhere in mid-August), parties, gifts and cheer.

The holidays in December can cover a wide range. There is always something to celebrate, which involves cupcakes, chocolate, alcohol, heavy foods to keep us warm in the winter months, eggnog, you name it. We just climbed our way out of November and the sated guts of that month, yet we are teeing it up for more food celebrations in December.

Let’s not forget New Year’s Eve. Everyone, perhaps even secretly, makes some sort of resolution to alter a behavior which no longer serves them. It always boils down to letting go of some habit revolving around alcohol or food. After the guilt of Thanksgiving, Christmas and other fervent holidays, we resolve to no longer eat or drink the same way.

Then, New Year’s Eve parties are vast and celebratory, full of champagne, oysters, caviar, and other fancy foods that cap off the beginning of a new year. But, wait, we just made a resolution to no longer drink so much, or at all; limit fatty foods and processed sugars and gluten, get more quality sleep and devote more time to a spiritual practice.

Hence, we put off the serious resolutions, for the most part, because Valentine’s Day is just around the corner.

February marks the beginning of love, chocolate, red roses, romantic interludes and declarations of togetherness. Valentine’s Day is the big holiday this month. It can’t pass anyone by without a morsel or two of sugar and goodness. The extra laps around the neighborhood or more classes at the gym will make us feel good about those ill forgotten resolutions in early January.

No, we just have to accept that someone always loves us and wants to show us in ways that mean dark chocolate and red wine. Goodbye well intended waistline.

Oh, then there’s March and St. Patrick’s Day and March madness. This is a time where we get down and dirty with everything green, lots of beer and raunchy parties, and more dressing up like leprechauns wearing our favorite college basketball jerseys. Chips, dips, fried foods, heavy meaty foods all encompass this passing phase of March. Just when we think we are out of the weeds comes Easter and Passover.

It is doubtful, after a lengthy season of this holiday food-fest that we can allow April to pass us by without some sort of recognition and celebration. Beautiful lilies, the smell of spring, the rising of a season of hope and glory, and more food and festivities all mark this time of April and the spring season.

We had just recovered from the food hangovers of almost five months of holidays, yet we have one more to acknowledge, eat and drink and put our hands on our bellies thinking about those past summer days of simpler times. April is hopefully the last month of this food-fest before thoughts of slipping into less clothing and donning our resolution bodies for the world to see.

Brace yourselves for the beginning of the next six months of willpower, courage, strength, allowance and intention.

Take lots of deep breaths that the holidays don’t run our lives and progress into the ground.

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Gerry Ellen is a freelance writer, author and wellness consultant. Her novel, Ripple Effects, was published in March 2012 and she’s in the throes of working on another book. Her passions include nature, travel, running, yoga and anything that keeps life simple. She is currently writing for wellness websites, working as a nutritionist at an integrative pharmacy and doing some dog-sitting gigs on the side, just to keep it real. She studied nutrition at the University of Texas way back in the early 80’s and has carried that passion for good health and quality living forward to this moment. Besides the day-to-day pursuits that bring her joy, Gerry Ellen can be found helping others in ways that always bring a smile to her face, and those involved. Her highest good is shared in the written word and her message is to continually stay connected to each other in a loving manner.