To Stuff or Not to Stuff?

Christmas is coming - "Oh no it isn't, Oh yes it is!" (Thank you Widow Twanky!) Don't worry when it's "Behind you!" I'll be sure and let you know, just in case you prefer to hibernate during this rather hectic festive mayhem.

So what've you got planned? Big family get together? Cornflakes and mince pies for breakfast, followed by the contents of a selection box, a satsuma, a couple of walnuts, ( you would've had a Brazil nut, but you couldn't get in to it) a snowball cocktail and sausage roll all before 10am?

You've suddenly got that feeling when you're so stuffed you're beginning to dread your dinner?

No need to panic for there will inevitably be a calamity in the kitchen. The cooking time of the Turkey is generally a couple hours out. Someone with home economics O level and an unhealthy interest in Gordon Ramsey will ask "Is that the juices running clear or just fat in the bottom of tin?" In the interests of food safety you get a couple of extra hours digestion time to recover from the mornings munching.

When you eventually sit down to Christmas lunch it's more like Christmas tea, well past the Queen's speech and that means you can put away a small EU mountain of Brussel sprouts and not even flinch.

After the main course, the Pudding arrives in flaming brandy. Everyone cheers as a small fire hazard is extinguished and then all around take stock. No one wants Christmas Pudding after Christmas dinner - no one. However, unless you are allergic to it's ingredients, you get it down you in the name of tradition, for old times sake and because it's flipping well there! Personally I think Christmas Pud should be reserved for emergencies; a food substance that has the properties to sustain a small community for some days. It doesn't finish the meal, it paralyzes the eater.

That should be enough, but some brave chaps can't be beat.

If you're following the pudding by eating cheese and biscuits you're in the elite league. You've done the steeple chase of morning munching, the marathon dinner excess and now in a kind of food triathlon you're setting off on another gluttonous trek. You will finish, but you will be fit to burst my friend, fit to burst!

Naturally you'll find room for a turkey and stuffing sandwich to mop up the alcohol at around midnight and then your digestive system will gurgle like a clapped out school boiler, sigh heavily and roll up it's sleeves and get on with processing a conveyor belt of calories and attempt to turn them in to something useful; well it'll do it's best, it IS Christmas and when you're poor old body's been up since 4am peeling carrots and pouring sherry for an imaginary fat bloke it can't promise anything.

Boxing Day will roll around and from then on it's about 'eating things up' which to be honest is where all of the damage is done. Our bodies can cope with the odd blow out. We love the occasion of a good 'Feast' and for good reason. Celebration something special and rare is what makes us who we are. Every so often an incredible feat of overeating won't even register on the scales because inside the body knows it's supposed to be slim and it'll get right back to being slim without skipping a beat. But, and it's a big old but. If you keep on stuffing yourself for the sake of 'eating it up' or 'because it's Christmas' then you're getting into the habits of overweight people and when you follow those habits, you'll get a new fat shape whether you like it or not. It's up to you. Blow out or blow it? The choice is all yours.

For more information on how to change your thinking to change your weight go to
www.fatladsreformclub.com

P.S Funny thing about the days after Christmas. I always end up craving beans on toast. I don't plan it, but I know I'll hit the point when I just want something dull. It's not the grub, it's the variety that's the spice of life and in the end if you listen to your body, it'll keep you slim and healthy.