This weekend represents a major holiday for many families, and that can mean serious challenges to significant lifestyle changes. I've seen quite a few DBers who have at least expressed almost total resignation to the fact that Sunday dinner with their family is going to wreck this DB for them. Allow me to offer a brief word of comfort (in its classic sense) to you, if you're among those people.
Tell that liar in your head who is leading you to give up the fight before it has even begun to shut the hell up. You can hold it together for a few hours, whoever you are, and however important eating large quantities of food are as a holiday ritual in your family.
I know this from personal experience. A few short months ago, I had to be fitted for my own personal CPAP machine, after my wife noticed that I would stop breathing at times . My blood work was a disaster - to the point that my doctor told me bluntly that I need to "knock it off." As much as it hurt to hear that (and to see the words "MORBIDLY OBESE" written in all caps at the top of my lab report), she was absolutely right. At 335 pounds, I was a (slowly) walking, (heavily) breathing health bomb. In a last-ditch attempt to get my myriad health problems under control, I committed to a juice fast through the month of November.
Some of you may not realize this, but a pretty major food-related holiday happens at the end of that month. I dreaded having to deny myself the tantalizing food being passed all around me, but I knew that not living up to the commitment I had made to myself, my friends, and my family would hurt much more than any temporary satisfaction I got from my taste buds and overly full belly.
In addition, surviving that weekend gave me all kinds of confidence in my ability to acknowledge the inevitable cravings without giving in to them. I think it was Martin Luther who said words to the effect of, "You can't prevent the birds from flying over your head, but you can keep them from building a nest in your hair." He was talking about the temptation to sin, but it applies here as well.
Look - you're not going to be able to prevent the foods you crave from smelling or tasting good by Sunday. But you're not an animal! You can, in fact, resist the urge to eat any of it, or more of it, or all of it. The more you resist the easier it gets to resist! "Resist the devil," James urges in the New Testament, "and he will flee."
My only point is this: it will be difficult to do something different than people expect you to do in public. Especially when you're around people who have seen you make this kind of commitment before, and fail miserably. Know what? You're not perfect, and neither are any of the people who you think will be watching your every move around the dinner table this weekend. Admit your shortcomings. Disarm the haters by asking for their help in keeping you honest (that will really throw them for a loop). And when, or if you fall, pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and keep trying! I guarantee that you will feel much better having kept your urges under control!
Rant over. Now go out and FIGHT FOR YOURSELF, for once.