Can we get real with each other?

I hope you’ve had a festive few weeks! Jonathan and I have been baking Christmas cookies, lighting the menorah, belting Christmas carols (mostly Mariah Carey and Glee) and reflecting on all of the miracles in our lives. It’s been heaven.

As I was flipping through O Magazine yesterday I came across an ad for “alli”, a weight loss pill that makes you poop a lot, that said:

“LET’S FIGHT HOLIDAY FAT! Dominate the Holiday and come out weight loss ready in 2013.”

Ugh. Yuck. No thank you.

When I read that, I felt tight and anxious, like I was preparing for war against my body.

But this message isn’t new to me, and I know it’s not new to you. We’re inundated with messages telling us we need to muster up willpower, grab our guns and kick the sh*t out of our body, so we can finally lose weight and be happy.

Last week, my therapist pointed out that “humankind” is really

Human-kind.

Just say it out loud, “kind”. Don’t you feel your feathers smoothing down your back and your shoulders soften?

Now, what would it look like, instead of going to war against your body, to be kind to her? I imagine curling up on the couch with my body, sharing a pot of tea and talking about boys.

FIGHTING HOLIDAY FAT feels like shooting at my body from behind barricades in my kitchen and periodically nursing my wounds and exhaustion with a few brownies.

How would you rather feel?

And can we be honest with each other for a second? How many times have you tried to lose weight over the holidays? Like, every year since you were 13? And I bet you still find yourself eating 10 cookies worth of cookie dough when you’re rolling out Christmas cookies (I mean, you’re not gonna let all those scraps go to waste). And after, you spend hours, maybe days berating yourself for being such a weak, ugly mess.  All of that self-hatred makes us want to curl up in a pile of peppermint bark and gorge our sorrows away.

What if we just call it like it is – Christmas is a time to eat lots of cookies, drink eggnog and have a few extra glasses of wine.

What if you just let yourself have it?

What if you stopped trying to lose weight this month, and you started being kind?

Here’s what kindness looks like to me:

-Wearing festive clothes everyday

-Taking time during the day to stare at our Christmas tree

-Eating as many cookies as I want when they’re really frickin’ good

-Rubbing my belly, taking a bath, and sipping ginger tea when I feel a little sick after, telling myself, “It’s Christmas love, don’t beat yourself, be kind”

-Eating what my body needs to feel energetic and beautiful: green smoothies, lots of kale, homemade dinners and hot tea

-Spending more time with friends and family and less time with my computer

-Telling my body I love her, everyday, even if she’s looking a little puffy

-Knowing that having three glasses of wine on one night, is a lot different than having three glasses of wine every night

-Moving my body everyday because nothing makes me happier, more grounded or more alive

I know you think that if you put down your guns, and call off the war with your body, that you’d raid Walgreens and eat every single green and red wrapped Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup you could get your hands on, but I disagree.

I bet, that if you got really clear on what it looks like to be kind to yourself, you stop fighting and start enjoying yourself, that you won’t gain twenty pounds in the next 2 weeks. But you won’t know until you try, so let’s give it a whirl!

In the comments below, I want to know – what does kindness look like for you – especially when it comes to the holiday season? And since there’s commonly confusion between “kindness” and “apathy” I want you to ask me any questions you have about hitting your sweet spot.

Wishing you a weekend full of candle lighting, cookie making and kindness.

Xo,

Sarah