Column 50 – The Best Gift of All! By The FlyLady, Marla Cilley

 I was asked by an interviewer once, “if anyone wanted to treat themselves to a gift from the fly shop what would that be?” I told them it was not a gift from the Fly Shop that I would recommend to FlyBabies to give themselves that it was a gift of routines.

The holiday season is tough enough.  We don’t take care of ourselves. We push and push and push till we can no longer go.  Why do we do this to ourselves?  In November we practiced our new habit of menu planning. We have saved money, saved time and you have had fun.  It’s a wonderful we can learn a new habit and do all these things. December’s habit is going to be very difficult for you.

We always put ourselves last.  And as a result of putting ourselves last, we become tired, irritable and hard to live with.  The holidays are tough enough without you adding to the stress.  Your new habit for December is going to be taking care of yourself. In order to not be irritable and stressed out; it is essential that we take care of ourselves.  I know you don’t like to do this.

What does it mean to take care of yourself?  Taking care yourself starts with going to get a decent hour.  We never like to be told to go to bed.  You need to get your rest.  You are pushing yourself on too little sleep.  Not enough sleep, causes us to be fussy.  It also causes us to run around all day in a fog.  Not enough sleep messes with our metabolism; this could be one reason we gain weight in the holidays.

The next thing we have to do to take care of ourselves is eat properly.  This means to eat plenty of fruits and vegetables. We are so used to crashing and burning.  We do this with food too. We eat a lot of sugar; then we crash and we need more sugar or more caffeine to get us going again. It becomes a vicious cycle of crash and burn; crash and burn. What would we do if our cars ran this way?  If we were to put a little fuel, run out of gas, have to get more gas and go 90 miles an hour and then run out of gas again. No wonder our cars wouldn’t run correctly.  We have to stop this behavior!  In order for our cars to run effectively; they need a good steady fuel supply.

What does this fuel supply consists of?  It consists of fruits and vegetables, plenty of water, protein, and fiber.  This is what we call a balanced diet. My gift to you this holiday season, is a gift of routines.  The simple habits we teach you every month become the routines that help you take care of yourself.  Taking care of yourself relieves stress.  This stress is what causes us to not enjoy the holidays.

Please enjoy your gift.  The month of December is about pampering and taking care of you.  If you don’t do it who will? This is the best if you can give yourself!

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