Damage Control

I've been through enough of these to know where things are headed. It starts with that first piece of candy in October and heads steadily downhill until Easter. That's right, I'm talking about gluttony--one of the seven deadly sins, and a favorite characteristic for the stereotypical Puritan. As a kid, I could pretty much eat with reckless abandon. But that day has come and gone. Now I'm starting to understand why all the women's magazines come out with diets to help you lose weight in time for swimsuit season. I haven't yet tried one of those, but soon enough, I might get suckered into cracking open a magazine or two.

The way I see it, I have two major obstacles to avoiding weight gain this holiday season. First is my lack of self-control and the second obstacle is my sense of guilt at wasting "good" food, even if that good food is really quite bad for me. So soon after Thanksgiving, I set a goal for myself. If I avoided sweets between Thanksgiving and Christmas, then I could eat with reckless abandon come Christmas day. Of course, since then obstacle number one has come into play. I stuck to my goal for the most part that first week, if I don't count the fistful of marshmallows I ate one day and the dark chocolate candy bar I consumed for medicinal purposes another day. Since then I've decided that on special occasions I can eat treats in moderation--special occasions being church activities, weekends, and any time I really need a sugar fix. So it's basically a lost cause, but I keep thinking that this next week I'll show a bit more self-control.