Today, my weekly blog comes a day early as there is something very specific to the Holiday season that I'd like to share with you...

BUT, first and foremost, I would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas, or whatever it is that you're celebrating, from the bottom of my heart, happy holiday season.

Now, back to the blog... It's about willpower. "I have zero willpower." Have you ever heard that? Have you ever said that? I remember I used to say this as well, but I've come to understand something and I now firmly believe that during the holiday season, we are actually doing ourselves a disservice by giving power to all those treats and goodies...

I personally am in Quebec right now. I'm surrounded by my family, my brother, my sister-in-law, my niece, my nephew, my mom, my dad, my husband... It's an amazing time. I will also be seeing some of my cousins, of my uncles and my aunts, as well as a lot of my friends from Quebec. This is my number one favorite treat during the holidays: spending time with my loved ones, people I don't get to see very often since I live in BC.

But Christmas is also about sweet treats and desserts, right? And the thing is that we tend to psych ourselves up for failure because we tell ourselves that we have no willpower and that we will not be able to resist the goodies. We have to change our mindset.

Let's say you go to a Christmas party, and there on the dessert table, there's sugar pie (one of my favorite things). There's donuts, there's cookies, there's pumpkin pie there's just so much delicious stuff! You actually have two choices as to how you react to being presented with all this sugar.

Scenario Number One

You see the treats and say to yourself: "Well, of course, I'm going to eat all of that. Of course, I'm going to gain 10 pounds over the holidays. Of course, I will because I have no willpower, and I'm such a loser. I just can't resist! That's why I'm overweight, and that's also why I'll never be able to fit into these jeans again." You go on and on, and then it snowballs into something that doesn't have to be that big.

It's just a cookie. Calm down. It's temporary.

If you have one cookie or you choose one thing that you really like and indulge a little bit, it's just temporary. Slow down. It doesn't make you a bad person. Also sometimes, we feel like because we've decided that we will have just one treat, as soon as the lid opens, then we go crazy and we start eating a whole bunch of stuff that we don't really even like. So, choose what it is that you like, and then stop there. If you eat one cookie, you don't have to eat the whole tray.

If you drop your phone on the floor and you have a little scratch in the corner of your screen, are you going to say: "Well, now there's a scratch on my phone, so I might as well finish it off." ? Are you going to throw it back on the floor and start stomping on it? No, of course not. It's just a little scratch.

Scenario Number Two

You eat a cookie and you say to yourself: "Mmm, this is delicious. I'm loving this. This is kind of new to me, because I'm a very healthy person. I have a very healthy diet and I eat pretty well. This is a one-off. I'm enjoying this today, because it's Christmas, so of course, I'm going to have a cookie."

My personal assistant in my head is not going to start trash-talking me about all this stuff. In fact, more likely, my personal assistant, hearing all this, that I'm amazing, that I'm great, that I'm healthy and that I'm fit, will make me want to go for a walk after dinner, or want to go snowshoeing the next day. It's going to make me want to be active because my personal assistant will have heard that I'm fit and healthy as opposed to hearing: “You're going to gain 10 pounds.” In that case, your personal assistant is going to make you want to sit down after dinner and just do nothing.

This "I have no willpower" mindset has got to go!

Happy holidays everyone, have a fantastic time. Hopefully, you get to be in touch with your close ones. From my heart to yours, happy holiday season.