Visiting Family and Maintaining Health Goals

For me, visiting family is a wonderful and stressful time. I love my family, but at the same time a lot of the triggers I have about food involve my family. So visiting family and maintaining my health goads is not always easy.

It helps that they are very proud of the success I have had with my health goals. I've now dropped 100 pounds and am smaller around than I have been in almost 20 years. Woo Hoo!

There is ice cream here in the house--normally my biggest weakness--and plenty of wine, chocolate and other goodies. None of them are appealing to me, which is incredible. The emotional pull is still there. Again, like at the truck stop, I have stopped and listened to how I am feeling about the food and determining if I really want it.

My mother's 79th birthday is coming up and I am sure that I will partake in some birthday treats. And there may be more treats than that. And that is OKAY!!! It is important to celebrate and enjoy life. I don't believe that never having a treat is being in control of it--that is avoidance.

So far I not had any treats. I have been feeling really great and I have even been feeling slender. However, I feel fat today. I am looking at myself and instead of seeing the successful changes I am seeing the fat person. Amazing how the brain works! It is a challenge to remind myself that my clothes are many sizes smaller and that I am doing fantastic.

The good news is that the cravings are not coming back! There have been a few emotional pulls, but because I feel so balanced chemically they have been pretty easy to recognize and not be controlled by them.