Here we are. It’s been a about a month since Christmas and our lives are picking up the beat of the rhythm of life in a new year. It’s amazing how the years go by and much of life is consistent from one year to the next.

The same thing is on my mind this year at this time as it was last year at this time and the year before that and the year before that. The post holiday guilt feelings are panging (can pang be a verb? – you know what I mean). The pangs (there’s a noun) of guilt are from having eaten as if there would never be another holiday season.

I didn’t pay a lot of attention to exercise during the holiday season – or for a while before the holiday season for that matter. But, like a few other Sanpeters who live without a 4-wheeler with a snow plow blade, I have been doing some snow shoveling.

There has been some snow this year, so there’s been some occasional snow shoveling. I have to believe that activity counts as exercise. I just make sure to keep my cell phone handy – ready to call 911 when I go down in a heap with a hand clutching my heart. In any event, I’ve decided that in addition to shoveling snow I’d better attempt to get back into a reasonable diet and activity level.

Holiday weight gain – where could it have come from? What could it have been? Was it the eight or ten pounds of chocolates? The seven loaves of sweet breads? Enough caramel corn to justify a Nebraska corn field? Cookies enough to make a girl scout fantasize about getting my account.

Okay, so maybe I’m not being accurate in reporting the amount of sweets that I’ve eaten lately. But the question is: am I exaggerating the amount higher or understating the amount lower? Even I don’t know for sure.

The bad part is that there are still goodies sitting around the house staring me in the face every time I turn around. There’s that big (I mean Costco size big) plastic jar of Sea Salt Caramels that some beloved neighbors brought by. I’m not being sarcastic. I love them! (The people and the caramels) There’s also various chocolates and candies calling my name – night and day. The question is: Why is it that I’m the only one still eating all this stuff?

Some of you are saying, “Throw it out; just because you have it doesn’t mean that you have to eat it.” I say, “You didn’t grow up with my dad.” As I quoted him here a week or two ago, you may remember what one of his famous mottos was, “Better a belly busted than good food wasted.”

If you don’t quite “get” that, don’t worry; it didn’t make a lot of sense to me either. But still I have a hard time throwing food out – especially “food” made of or partially made of chocolate.

Dad’s perspective was that of one who lived through the hard times of “The Great Depression” and, of course, “the war.” We had to make “war plates” by eating everything on our plate at meal time at our house as I grew up. Even though World War II had been over for nearly ten years by the time I was sitting up to the dinner table, it was important not to waste food at our house.

So here I am – embarking on another “shape-up” routine. It’s time to get off of the fitness vacation and reacquire the discipline to get my caloric intake down to the equivalent of a Sumo wrestler’s diet. I’m starting as of right now. It ain’t easy.

I know that many of you have the same recurring goals each year that I’m talking about. Reasonable weight maintenance and healthy living are on many Sanpeter’s minds. We’re all in it together. Let’s help each other out.

You can start helping me by making a social call to my house, whereupon I will consider thawing out and slicing up some banana bread and pass it around along with chocolates and salted caramels.

And maybe we’ll have some fresh treats too. It’s soon time for Valentine’s iced sugar cookies. Yum!

And, just because I say I’m trying to be “good” by limiting treats, don’t let that make you cross me off your goodie list. Keep those recurring holiday treats coming! Good luck Sanpete with your healthy living plans. And, good luck to me. — Merrill

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