Holidays are an awesome time in American culture. I love Thanksgiving. It is a time when everyone loosens their belt and indulges more than normal. It was a great morale boosting necessity during periods like the Great depression and when our ancestors were building this country. Unfortunately our current lifestyle is too indulge everyday. So during the holidays we increase that base level of indulgence. The way your brain works is when it gets used to something it develops new neurons to accommodate that new level of being. This is called plasticity. It is a great adaptive tool which allowed humans to do so well on this planet, however there is a down side to plasticity as well, once you have lots of sugar and great tasty treats your body has already adapted to a new sensation so it will now crave them.
One really smart coping method is to be pro-active about this process. Accept the fact you are going to indulge yourself but make a commitment to doing a short Qi Gong routine every night. Put on a DVD and follow along. I am a teacher and I do it all the time. In fact, I will be doing just that at 6:00 am this morning. Forget about silly ideals that are unrealistic which then work to undermine your positive efforts to begin practice. If you start a self practice in addition to coming to class, you begin to reinforce that practice into a daily routine. When January comes along you will not be one of those people who join a gym as a band-aid for your guilt, then by February have already stopped. The gym workers just sit back and laugh when January comes along. All the new clients are so enthusiastic and the workers know that most new clients will stop by February.
An Ounce of Prevention......
I know everyone has heard that saying but now is the time to put that in to action. Start a little now and later it will be easier. In January when everyone is trying so hard to retrain their tastebuds and get themselves back into shape, I will be making a small effort to bring myself back to baseline. This is also the same as controlling your balance point. In the Tai Chi classics it is written, "Smaller movement is better than big movements." This is true because it is easier to control smaller movements it takes less effort.
