Downstairs in my kitchen there are four big cellophane gifts staring at me. In them are chocolates, jams, chocolate-covered cookies, shortbread, chocolate truffles, crackers, and more chocolate. If you know me (and you probably do if you’ve read any of my past blogs) chocolate is my kryptonite.
It renders me weak.
I can’t say no.
If someone said, “Hey Tracy, I’ll give you this 52 piece Ferrero Rocher box of chocolates if you let me slap you across the face,” I’d take the slap.
I know. I’m sick.
So you can imagine how it feels to have all these chocolates greeting me every morning in my kitchen. What’s a girl to do? Well she’s to eat them, that’s what. And that’s why over the past week or two my big goal was just to maintain my weight, not to lose any. Hey if I lost a pound or two it wouldn’t be a bad thing but as I do the rough calculations in my head; hmmm let’s see, a box of chocolates plus several cookies plus fried dumplings plus hard-dough bread plus patties plus 30 minutes of intense exercise does not a supermodel make.
So I will be happy (elated actually) if I survive the holidays at the 152 pounds I started it at.
I know many of you can relate to the food onslaught I’m talking about.
Never mind your homes…what about the office?
Ours is teeming with sugar landmines just waiting to blow up in your mouth.
We are so lucky to have some of the most generous guest experts at CityLine who around this time of year feel the need to drop food bombs on us non-stop. They are kind to our soul…not our waistline.
It started about four Friday’s ago when Lynn Spence brought in a box (like the kind you pack up all your stuff in when you move?) full of oversized salted cashews, pretzels, chocolates and more. Then Lisa Rogers bought us her annual platter of gourmet goodies from Pusateri’s. Then Sandra Pittana gave all of us our own beautifully wrapped sticky popcorn. Our web writer Suzanne Ellis bakes as do many people on our staff. I think you’re getting the point right?
I realized by late November I needed to come up with a plan.
This was it:
Get to work, go straight into makeup.
Run past my desk (and assorted tempting treats) straight to studio.
Tape the show.
Run right past my desk into makeup room to gather my things.
Get the hell outta the building without stopping and straight home.
This plan worked very well.
For one day.
I’m chatty and it’s impossible for me to not get pulled into at least four or five conversations before leaving Citytv. Sometimes these conversations take place next to the goodie table. Sometimes goodies wind up…in my mouth of all places.
Plan B: eat the junk in moderation.
I tried this plan too and sometimes it worked. Sometimes it didn’t.
Sometimes I was already unwrapping my seventh Lindt while yucking it up with a colleague before I realized I’d eaten my allotted calories for the day in ten minutes.
Plan C: enjoy junky food guilt free and get back on track in January. (note to self: that’s now by the way. Put the chocolate covered almond down!)
So I eventually went with Plan C which is so far going well. I’d be lying though if I said it was easy. Two weeks of walking into the kitchen and eating mostly what I want is hard to reverse. We’ve been entertaining almost every day in order to get rid of every last bit of rich holiday food in the fridge. The only thing I did stick to during the holidays were my workouts…and thank goodness for that! I’m pretty sure I haven’t been able to stave off at least a couple of extra pounds gained but between me and you…it could have been MUCH worse.
And I’m not out of the woods yet either.
My birthday is on January 6th.
I have about three dinners scheduled already.
Wish me luck.
You might be wondering why I’ve included a picture of me and the lovely and talented Breakfast Television host Dina Pugliese in my blog? It’s only because we both hosted the Citytv New Year’s Bash again this year…and both had to squeeze into our pants that night.
Despite the pudge…it was totally worth it!
I’ll check in with you via Twitter on Wednesday (@tracycityline) with the results from my Weigh-In Wednesday.
Ahhhhhhh!
How did your holiday stay-healthy efforts go? Let me know at contacttracy@cityline.ca
Tracy