Good Bye, December!

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December is a rough month.

The days are the shortest. The weather is the greyest. Vitamin D is at its lowest. You drive to work in the dark and drive home from work in the dark. Energy wanes for after work errands, never mind evening exercise.

Time constraints of the holiday season rock routine. There are office parties and family gatherings, school concerts and tournaments. If you have school aged children, you must figure out different meals and childcare because of the long winter break. And it really does not matter whether you celebrate any of December’s many holidays or not. Some change in routine is inevitably imposed upon you.

Everywhere you go, a relative carb/fat fest awaits. Neighbors shower you with homemade Christmas cookies and candies. Coworkers litter the break room with cheese balls and crackers, party dips and those little sausages. You get invited to party after party and even though you don’t go to the party hungry (you’ve learned that lesson) people look at you cross eyed if you don’t have a plate full of food in your hand. Not a party goer? Doesn’t matter. Grocery stores sample the winter wonderland of delicacies wafting deliciousness down every aisle. The demons of white sugar and refined flour dance with saturated fat like innocent sugarplum fairies whispering sweet nothings in defenseless ears. It’s just one bite. Even the strongest will powers give way. 

I know mine did.

I’d been burning the candle at both ends, trying to finish strong at one clinic all the while readying my new clinic. My sleep, disrupted from training my puppy, became even more frayed with work worry. I was able to keep my exercise routine going but I cut back to a slower pace, brisk walking without intervals. From December 22 on, my adult children rolled in one at a time from hither and yon: Jacob from the Bay area, Zeke from Bozeman, Elena from Bend, and Zach, Carol and Uriah from down the street in Jefferson. In lieu of presents, we logged time together. We took in a movie, caught a Blazers game, ventured to the coast, checked out a new coffee shop. We even coordinated a family photo thanks to Jacob’s friend, Casey, a feat we had not been able to accomplish for ten years.

We logged a lot of time and we ate a lot of food. Good food, healthy food, prepared at home food, but a lot of food. And then there were desserts: ice cream by the pint, freshly baked gingerbread, stockings filled with candies,  cookies from a brother/sister bake off, and some sort of chocolatey concoction that ended up in the cart on one of my husband’s many Costco runs.  While refined carbs usually don’t tempt me, this year, they drew me in. Admittedly, I was more vulnerable. I was sleep deprived. I had less energy.  And everybody else was eating their hearts’ desire. Why couldn’t I?

When you don’t eat refined carbs and then all of a sudden you eat a lot of refined carbs, guess what happens? FLC Syndrome. What is FLC syndrome you ask? Feel Like Crap syndrome. FLC syndrome occurs when your blood sugar spikes, and fructose, the sweetest sugar molecule, hits your brain like jet fuel, you get a drug like rush for brief seconds and then in 30 min or so a precipitous drop in blood sugar which make you feel tired, and wired; sluggish and  jittery at the same time. And you crave the very thing that made your blood sugar spike in the first place: sugar. You have heard me say it before because it is true: Carbs beget carbs. And that roller coaster ride is no fun.

While for some, December heralds joy filled celebrations and festive foods, for others, it is a harbinger of loneliness, sadness and grief. The deployment or dysfunction or death which separates families and friends tends to be felt most in December. I can relate. Though this year ranked in the top 10 best ever family times, in the past I would have done anything to skip December altogether. My son Sammy’s birthday falls on December 17^th. He died from a brief illness when he was just two and a half. In the ensuing years my other young children’s excitement for the season pushed me to at least go through the motions. I often felt guilty if I found myself enjoying life. Sometimes I resented others’ happiness. Food comforts in those dark times.  And most of those comfort foods combine both carbohydrates and fat together.

Think peanut butter and jelly. Think macaroni and cheese. Think potatoes and gravy. Popcorn lathered in butter. Pizza.  Ice cream. Any baked good. Carbs and fat together. When you combine two energy sources, your body preferentially metabolizes the carbohydrate, using it for fuel. Then the break down product of the carbohydrate metabolism signals your body to store all the fat you just ate. In celebration or consolation, if you combine carbs and fat for too many days in a row, it’s a recipe for the roller coaster of weight gain.

I’ll say it again December is rough, especially in the weight loss arena. It is no wonder that most Americans gain at least two pounds between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve.

Although I am grateful for the family time and will cherish the memories, I am relieved that January is fast upon us. So long, December. I can get back to my healthy habits.

The good news is healthy habits can be reclaimed. And there’s nothing like a New Year to reclaim them. It’s never too late and you’re never too far gone. At Oregon Weight and Wellness, we would love to help you get off the roller coaster of refined carbs and comfort foods and get back on track with your healthy habits. Maybe start new ones. No impossible New Year’s resolutions, just one small change at a time. Work with us for at least six months and we will equip you with tools so that next December will be way different.