Day Of The Dead

It is currently Dia de los Muertos or The Day of the Dead is until tomorrow night. Not just
because of how we might feel due to staying up late on a school night, eating too much sugar and
dealing with amped up kids. It is a holiday with religious origins celebrating life.

A little history lesson for you. Dia de los Muertos a holiday celebrated throughout Mexico,
especially in the Central and Southern regions. Many people of Mexican ancestry living in other
parts of the world celebrate as well. In the past 5 or so years, Day of The Dead has started to
blend into Halloween. The holiday has also become more visible due to popular children’s
movies such as The Book of Life and the upcoming Coco. Most of us are familiar with the
skulls, and skeletons we see on t-shirts and the iconic white face paint. The multi-day holiday
focuses on celebrating all parts of life, death being just one part of it.

All Parts of Life
Today is the perfect day to celebrate life by recommitting to living as healthy of a life as you can,
especially given how much you probably indulged last night. Today is the perfect day to decide
you are not going to zone out on yourself with sugar. Today is the best day to honor yourself by
choosing to live your best life, to not get a case of the “screwits” this Holiday Season.

There are any parts of life, some are good and some are bad. Much of it is out of our control, but
we have absolute decision making ability in what we chose to put in our mouth. I can not count

the number of times I have said “no thank you” to a type of food, I might be allergic to, I don’t
like or I know will cause a chemical reaction in my body I am no longer willing to live with. I
have tricks and strategies to get around pushy relatives, overbearing party hostesses and when
my kids say “I made it just for you”.

Acknowledging we are in control of this means we can no longer lie to ourselves like we once
did. We can no longer say we have bags of Halloween candy in the house for the kids, who by
the way don’t even like Snickers. We can no longer tell ourselves everyone in their 40s needs
Spanx, when it is in fact possible to lose major bloat without the white stuff (meaning sugar,

flour and artificial sweetener). We can no longer tell ourselves everyone in their 50s has a meno-
pot, when my clients who are sugar free, had theirs disappear. We can no longer blame our adult

acne on hormones, when it is in fact due to the surges in blood sugar due to what we eat and
drink. We can no longer tell ourselves being chronically tired is acceptable because life is hard,
when being on a constant sugar roller coaster will truly exhaust you. Lying to ourselves is
frightening, and yet we will hold on to it for dear life because the idea of truly committing can be
scarier.

Why don’t we just truly commit? If we still have the dieting mentality, we are giving ourselves
an out, just in case this “diet” doesn’t work. It is great to take this new way of life one day at a
time, one meal at a time. To make a huge proclamation such as “I WILL NEVER EVER EVER
EAT SUGAR AGAIN” when you are on day 1 is too much pressure, and I strongly discourage
anything of that nature. However, to observe how we feel after 7 days of being sugar free, is to

be self aware. To notice how calmer we are in traffic when we aren’t having 6 Diet Cokes a day,
is smart. When our younger brothers say we are noticeably less bitchy this weekend than we
were at Labor Day now that we drink coffee with just creamer in it, is noteworthy. To take it one
meal at a time, isn’t lying to ourselves, it is the antithesis, it is being kind to ourselves.

The next 23 days
November 1 is the beginning of the Holidays, soon the retailers won’t hold back at all. Let’s face
it Costco has had Christmas merchandise out since August. They can barely contain themselves
from unleashing the beast that is the Christmas season upon us. Soon we will be hearing
Christmas music constantly, red and green will be everywhere and the special food will be
starting.

For now, let’s focus on November. I am going to share with you my strategy so the pants I am
wearing today, will fit me the Monday after Thanksgiving:
I to split the month into sections from today until Thanksgiving is 23 days, so 69 meals. I make
sure those are spot on. I do not go crazy and do a juice fast or the diet trend of the week, I simply
follow my food plan in my book. (link to follow). It works, my clients will tell you. They have
lost inflammation in their joints, the last 10 lbs they never thought they could and feel fantastic.

On Thanksgiving Day, I will eat dinner with my family, if I feel like having something I don’t
usually eat, I will have it, if it falls under these conditions:

1. It is something I truly love. No Meh’s. So nothing I am lukewarm about, like an every day
handful of almonds. Giant Meh!!! However did I smell bacon wrapped figs? Bring them
over!
2. I am eating it so I can enjoy it. I am sitting down, I am playing attention, the food is the right
temperature and it is on a plate. This means I do not eat anything while I am cleaning up the
dishes, or on a pass through the kitchen later on in the night.
3. I do not go to extremes. I go back to my routine the next day. November has 90 meals, if 1 of
them isn’t as perfect as I want it to be, that is ok. I will workout the next day like I would on
any other Friday, no more no less.

The rest of the weekend I will eat the same, and I will the remainder of the month. The leftovers
will not derail me, nor will going out to eat. I would rather feel my best, and be thinking clearly
than have pecan pie. I prefer to only have one size of pants in my closet for all the stuffing in the
world. Having clear skin and not being bloated when I go to bed is worth not indulging on sweet
potato and marshmallow casserole.

Taste is just one part of our five senses, in the same way death is one part of life. If we focus on
one part and ignore all the others, we are out of balance. The goal in all parts of life is to live in
balance, whether it be with our food, or during our lives.

It might seem early to be talking about a holiday health strategy, but it isn’t if you want a strong
foundation before the Holiday food and the Holiday stress comes at us. If you need help getting

your eating habits on track today, or you know someone who does, contact me at

xoxo,

Erin

Link to my best selling book
Why Can’t I Stick To My Diet

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075M2YRYG