Holiday Hangover

Do you have a Holiday Hangover?

It's the start of a New Year and we are just starting into January 2015.  Did you notice that the ads for weight loss services and products started on January 1st?  There's no coincidence in that fact.   Everyone spends most of December over indulging in Food and Alcohol while being social and trying to keep up with all the social obligations that they have whether it's a work Holiday Party or a Traditional Family Dinner or even just a party with friends.  You either can't say No or you don't want to say No to events and food and drink.  But then the marketers cash in to your guilt after all the gluttony is over and you look at your expanding waistline and shrinking pocketbook and the total lack of energy you have after trying to be everywhere and eat everything over the Holidays.

Are you feeling the effects of a Holiday Hangover?  Here's the thing.   It's not your fault.  Well some of it is but really you just fell into the trap that is set up by savvy marketers.   Starting from our Canadian Thanksgiving in October the marketers start pushing the Holiday Decorations, the entertaining tips, the gifts you need to buy and all the food shows really ramp up all the perfect holiday events that you need to host or attend.   Yes I have fallen into that trap and probably perpetuated it myself as well.
It's hard not to fall into it.  Everyone wants a better life and to spend time eating great food and drinking with our friends and family and enjoying our life.  We are encouraged to make the Holidays the best they can be.   Well it's not always a great time of year for everyone.  For myself it's a rough time of year because I don't have a family and I don't have a job other than this blog right now so the pressure to buy gifts and bring things to parties and host events is high but I end up alone on the key holidays because people spend it with their families.  Depression is at an increased level for a lot of people at this time of year because they just can't keep up or measure up to what's expected in their life.

Then the New Year hits and you are expected to magically shed all the Holiday weight and achieve impossibly high goals by a certain time.  But you still have a Holiday Hangover.   You probably have a huge amount of holiday bills to pay.  If you go back to work you are probably overloaded with work that didn't get done while you were busy attending all the parties.   If you drink you may be getting over the Christmas and New Year hangovers.   Yes you feel like crap in more ways than one and those smart marketers are going to help you fix all of your problems.   They will sell you gym memberships, weight loss services and products and make you feel like your life isn't good enough as it is and you need to change into a NEW YOU.   Yes,  I have been guilty of writing articles about this in the past but this year I am going to tell you that it's not your fault.

As I look around my home and see all the remaining treats from generous friends and even companies and my own cooking and buying of treats for entertaining I realize that it's hard to start your weight loss goals while all of these things are still around your house.   But you don't want to throw them out because people have thought about you and brought you sweet treats or your secret Santa gift exchanges contained treats or you received hostess gifts.  It's really easy to just pick up a gift basket from Costco or a box of Chocolate from the drugstore because it can keep and you don't have to do anything with it.  Who doesn't love chocolate or cookies or candies or cakes?
 I made a few food gifts because I didn't have money to spend on gifts.

I hosted a small party because I realized that I accumulated a lot of food from attending all my food blogging events and I told my friends not to bring any munchie foods but one of my friends still brought a box of chocolate because it's what you think you are supposed to do.   My same friend dropped by on the weekend totting a box of Cinnabons to have with tea.  
So you see that food is still all around you and this is why your New Year's resolutions to lose weight fail a week into January.  It's cold out and you feel like crap and this food makes you feel better right away until the guilt and television reminders kick in and then you beat yourself up about it.

This year my resolutions are to no make a diet and weight loss resolution but to drink more tea with great health properties like Oprah's Chai Tea or Green Tea.   I am also trying to clean up my life by making sure I don't waste food and keeping clutter to a minimum.   My big goal is to get a job that pays enough to live the life I want while still leaving me time to keep up on this blog because I enjoy it but it's not supporting me at this time unfortunately.

I am working on getting rid of my Holiday Hangover and all the after effects of a couple of months of buying and doing things I shouldn't be doing.   But I am going to try and ditch the guilt and just move forward and try and spend less and eat better.

Ditch the Holiday Hangover and the guilt and just keep moving forward.
My advice to ditch your Holiday Hangover is to take more time for Tea..
Drink the good stuff and Detox and take the time to sit back and enjoy it and re focus where you are going in this New Year.

Enjoy 2015 and be prepared to do it all again next year.

12 Days of Christmas Food Gifts

 Holiday Gifts Ideas  

There are a few people that I know that can't for the life of them figure out what to get as gifts for people and some people like me try their best to try and come up with ideas that are either specific to the person or a general thing that would make most people happy.

Here are some of my ideas for Gifts that you can give to people that appreciate good food or for those people you have no idea what to get that will make them happy.

1.  A Great Serving Platter something like this Hand Painted Plate.

2.  A unique box of Chocolates or Artisanal Chocoates like these Ginger chocolates

3.  A Cookbook for the Novice or Professional Chef, a Celebrity Chef book, Healthy Cooking or even an ethnic or beginner cookbook.  Always helpful.

4.  There's always a traditional mug but why not be not so traditional and get an Original mug or Artist original painted mug that shows the person you know what their interests are like this camera mug.

5.  How about a Morter and Pestel and some whole spices to kick up their dishes to the next level.  It's something most people don't think about but once they have one they use it when they want really intense flavour in their dishes.

6.  Your friends and family can't cook or too busy or just hate to cook.  Why not get them a gift certificate for a great local and special restaurant like Chef Lynn Crawford's RUBY WATCHCO.  The menu is a prix fixe menu that changes every night.   And you might see Chef Lynn cooking away in the kitchen too.

7.  Ever thought outside of the box for a Foodie gift that can double as a tree ornament?  How about getting your favourite baker a Specialty Cookie Cutter and tie a string on it and present it as a tree ornament that they can use to bake you some delicious cookies the following year.

8.  If you are a decent baker then bake up a batch of your best cookies and present them in a Holiday Tin or Wrap them in Individual bags and tie with a pretty ribbon.  People are always impressed that you went to the trouble of baking specially for them.  From easy chocolate chip to fancy gingerbread.  Just present it well and they will love it.

9.  Present treats or any little gift in a cute little lunch bag like this that can be reused long after the treats are gone.

10.  If you don't know what to get someone then why not get them a gift pack of Specialty teas and maybe present a whole Tea package.  Even if they are coffee drinkers they will appreciate the gift when they have guest visiting them and they can serve them the specialty teas.  No cooking skills or machines required just some tea, boiling water and a mug.

 11.  Is someone you know scare you when they are holding a knife?  Well you can fix that by giving them a gift of a knife skills class to teach them how to wield those sharp objects without people running in the other direction.

12.  And then there's always a safe bet of a movie.  Or pop some popcorn and give them this Dancing Snoopy and the Charlie Brown Christmas Special or maybe a food movie on DVD or tickets to go see a great food documentary like the one I saw recently " Spinning Plates" 

Don't forget the Mistletoe and Gingerbread like Snoopy is armed with.

I hope you find some of these ideas helpful if you are stumped with ideas for the perfect gift.

Foodies are really easy ...they love food and all things about food so there are endless ideas of things that would make them happy if you just look around and think outside the box.