Hello, late November can be a trigger time for many people to get anxious about their weight. The thought of wanting to look great for Christmas parties, combined with a jam-packed social schedule can leave many fearful of losing control of their eating behaviour and putting on weight, at a time when they want to lose weight.

December brings with it big Christmas meals, family reunions and munching chocolate whilst trapped around the TV. This can make weight control a precarious balancing act for many.

One bite too many of a forbidden food, one unwanted comment about your size, or feeling you have no choice but to eat the portion sizes served to you can cause weight anxiety to sore.

Imagine a dimensional scale with no anxiety about weight on one end, and extreme anxiety about weight on the other end. Where would you place yourself?

Do you shrug off overeating at this time of year and tell yourself you will do something about it next year? Maybe you allow yourself to have fun and relax, but make some attempt to compensate for the extra calories with more activity? Or do obsessive thoughts about food and calories proliferate your waking hours making you fearful of weight gain.

Your weight can become a distorted way of validating your self-worth. It can make you feel as if you are in control, when other domains of your life seem chaotic. A fluctuation in the number you see on the scales can instantly change your mood. Weight gain can shoot off negative thoughts in your head, which in turn stir up unpleasant emotions about your self-worth.

Changing the way you validate yourself and breaking any habits or rituals you have around jumping on the scales can take time. Staying the course of this journey brings freedom, and with it a shift to healthier place on the dimensional weight scale.

Each day take a few minutes to acknowledge things about yourself, your character, your personality and your achievements. Remind yourself that you are a great friend, fluent in spanish and you have run a marathon.  Search for the things that are positive and special about yourself.

This exercise will help you validate yourself in new ways, and allow you to slowly change your relationship with weighing yourself.

Please leave your comments about weight and weighing behaviour below.

Email me on info@weightmatters.co.uk if you are interested in creating a ‘Healthy Christams Survival Plan’ to help you through the holidays.

Have a great week!

James