The Beginning-Again Ritual

Yep, it’s a new year.  I was in the grocery store today and, while the candy aisle was noticeably empty, I could barely get through the produce department’s enormous shopping-cart traffic jam.  Everyone had cases of diet soda, fresh vegetables, “lite” commercial products, and cartons of yogurt in their buggies.  At the checkout, I noticed very few cookies or chips, but saw lots of healthy and pseudo-healthy things being rung up.   There were coupons everywhere for diet, low-fat, fat-free, sugar-free and whole-grain products.  I think several people were wearing track suits.

Now I am not going to be snide here, because I’ll freely admit that my own shopping cart – which usually carries pretty healthy products anyway – was loaded up with some ambitious quantities of fresh produce.   I have enough spinach and romaine to make salads for a week (which is about how long this conscious-eating effort will likely last).   I also parked at the end of the parking lot so I’d have to walk some extra steps.

Why do we find the new year so inspirational for trying new things, making healthy improvements to our lifestyle and just generally ‘starting over’?  What is it about a fresh calendar year that motivates us to do things we ought to be doing all along?

And most importantly, why does the honeymoon end so quickly?

It’s Turkey Time

Actually, it’s not exactly turkey time; that’s still a day away.   But today is the day to do all the prepping and kitchen organizing so that tomorrow, official Turkey day can go off with relatively few hitches and I can spend time with DH and the girls.

I’m trying really hard to get my head in a better place regarding this whole holiday.  This year, more than ever, I am stuck in a dumb rut and really wallowing in the self-pity.  I miss my siblings.  I miss my family.  Heck, I even miss my husband’s family.  I want my kids to have the same wonderful memories of Thanksgiving that I do.  And I am, unfortunately, not helping things with all this doomy gloom.

My husband says that the problem with holidays is that the expectations run impossibly high, and then people end up disappointed.  I think he’s spot-on with that assessment.  I do have high expectations (for everything, but especially holidays).  And I’m already disappointed, and nothing’s even happened yet.

I need to let go of my expectations.  I need to stop comparing holidays present with holidays past.  I need to come up with my own, new, fresh and different definition of a successful holiday, preferrably one that focuses on the good fortune and good health we enjoy now, and not one that bemoans how things used to be.

So how, exactly, does one get the emotional part of the brain to embrace the logical solution that the analytical brain has calculated??