keeping your food focus when life just gets busy/normal.
Yep. This is the real testing time. We all know that Christmas isn't th 25th December. It usually starts mid November, and ends sometime in the new year
There's that underlying thought that Christmas means 'off the wagon'. The thought that sensible eating just aint going to happen, so what the heck. What's the point of it all now. Might as well wait until the new year and try again.
Along with that, there's more things to do. Less time to focus of what we should be eating. Other priorities.
But this is maintaining. There is no on and off the wagon. It's about how you treat each moment. It's about whether you can still keep a good relationship with food pre Christmas, Christmas day, new years eve, holidays, birthdays, illness.
That's not to say that you *musn't* eat more those days, but it's not 'off the wagon'. It's how you treat those days, and the days following. Whether food becomes more of an issue because it's those days. Whether you can find other things or if food is the biggie...the excuse to overeat.
The further I get into 'maintenance', the more I realise that the word has very little resemblance to what I'm actually doing.
Definition:
Maintaining: To keep in an existing state; preserve or retain
I maybe retaining my bodyweight, but everything else is moving. I'm either making progress, or I'm setting myself back. Each time I practice stopping, or do other things rather than eat, I'm moving forward. Each time I treat food with respect and take a normal portion and don't overfill with snacks, I'm moving forward. Each moment I don't overeat just because it's the Christmas period, I'm moving forward.
Otherwise, I'm moving backwards.
Notice I say 'each moment' or 'each time', not each day, because each day has nothing to do with it. If you think in days, you lose the idea of normal eating. Normal eating doesn't come in units like that. You may well have a larger lunch, because the lunch was delicious, or it was something special, or you are just plain hungry, but that doesn't mean that it's a day off. You've just had a larger lunch so don't need so much the rest of the day.
I get to decide what I want to do each moment in time, but there is nothing static about it. There is no 'normal' day. They are just days when I've made choices that will either help or hinder me.