Ah, the holidays… we all made it through, hopefully without compromising our waistlines and health too much. December was my month of mindful eating; basically, I tried to eat only when hungry and stop when full. I will admit, this was a bit of a cop-out month. I didn’t want to commit to a month with any serious dietary restrictions, since I wanted to fully enjoy the tastes of the season. And I did. I enjoyed my mother’s homemade gingerbread, my mother-in-law’s braided breakfast roll, and the always-awesome cookie tray from my neighbor Kevin. 

I was able to stick to my goal of mindful eating for most of the month, although I will admit that I started to lose focus as the holidays wore on. By the end of December, cookies started looking more like breakfast and less like a special treat. The most surprising thing was, when I stepped on the scale right before New Year’s, I weighed exactly the same as I did in November. So there is some good news here… if you can control yourself, you really can eat whatever you want without gaining weight. But there is also some bad news… all that extra sugar and refined carbs had put my digestive system in a state. I won’t say what state exactly, just that I had to dip into my secret drawer of shameful medications. (Yes, I do keep a separate drawer for those embarrassing medicines you don’t want anyone to know you have. You know: Gas-X, fiber pills, anything dealing with the girly parts. This might be weird, okay it’s definitely weird, but it makes me feel a little better, even though I’m sure that most people own this stuff, but in any case… I digress.)

The best news of all? The not-to-be-named medicine fixed me up and helped me commit to my January goal: The White-Out.

Yes, folks, for January, I will strive to live without all the white stuff: white sugar, white flour, white rice, white potatoes. Since I have already done a month without sugar, I feel that this won’t actually be so bad. It is relatively easy to sub brown rice or quinoa for white rice, and a sweet potato is prepared the same way as it’s white cousin. The hardest part will be white flour… like sugar, it is included in most breads, pastas, and baked goods. However, whole grain options are pretty easily available, so I’m not too worried.

In fact, my white-out commitment forced me to finally make the whole-wheat pancake recipe I printed out months ago. I subbed honey for the sugar and my kids gobbled those healthy little suckers up! Ha! (Am I the only mom who feels like I’ve won some sort of secret battle when I trick my kids into eating something healthy?)

I will also say that after only three days of the white-out, I feel fabulous. Seriously. I loved indulging in my favorite goodies at Christmas-time, but I’m not so sure my body did. And it was interesting to learn that weight does not necessarily equate to health. I can weigh the same and feel healthy or not healthy.

Feel free to join me! Call it a New Year’s Resolution, call it just doing something good for yourself, or call it crazy, if you like. If yesterday’s snowfall is any indication, it’s going to be a white January. And for this January at least, I’m going to let the white stuff stay outside.