"Regrets Sunday"

Motivation to Change

“Sometimes the greatest growth comes through pain, but it's not the pain that helps me grow, it's my response to it. Will I suffer through and continue as before or let the pain inspire changes that help me grow? The choice is mine.”

                                          Courage to Change

Today the house clears out, life resumes its normal parameters and the refrigerator empties. Take a nice, deep breath and let it out slowly. Now check inside and see how you feel. Today is the day the regrets usually kick in—“I shouldn't have eaten all that sweet-potato casserole and pumpkin pie. What in the world was I thinking?!”

My son and daughter-in-law refer to Thanksgiving as “fat week.” They plan for it; work out like maniacs for weeks prior to get ready for all the extra calories. She lost two pounds just so she could eat a slab of her grandmother's caramel cake.

Stepping on the scales any time can be painful, but after the debauchery of Thanksgiving, it is doubly so. Here's the rub—if you just recriminate and do nothing to change your behavior, well...you'll be right back here next year or, next month, because the next four weeks will be filled with holiday festivities. Let's make a plan so that we don't have to beat our selves up and feel depressed until we make all those faulty New Year's resolutions.

Being judicious about food and drink is mainly a matter of portion control. If you deny yourself the things you really love, you'll feel pitiful and deprived. So set up a 'reward-jar' program of personal growth. Every time you stick to your guns about what and how much you eat or drink, give yourself a dollar in your reward jar. Have a spoonful of the dense carbohydrates rather than a bowl full. Have one drink, instead of three. When you begin to see the cash stack up in your jar, you'll be so happy you won't want to stop the trend. When we ring out the old year, you'll still have your figure, you will have changed a self-destructive behavior, and you'll have some cash to buy something new. Win-win, right?

Pain is a great motivator. We can use it to change behavior of all kinds—not by tearing ourselves down, but by using it as incentive to more responsible living. If you don't like something about yourself, or if your choices are causing you anguish, you are the only one who can do something about it. The change you desire is brought about faster by rewarding good behavior rather than punishing bad. Trust me, I've raised two strapping boys.

                                          In the spirit,

                                             Jane