First comes Halloween with it’s glowy gourds and crisp air. It heralds the start of soup season, fuzzy sweaters, the harvest, and the bounty of fall. It is a celebration. Celebrations tend to incite a release of excited emotional energy that demands to be replenished, and often what’s around is chocolate-coated, sugar-dusted, or caramel-filled. There’s nothing wrong with celebration, but it can put a person into motion that quickly picks up speed, and not always in the direction you want to go. It can create anxiety for lots of us because not only do we spring into celebratory motion in late October, but the holidays in November and December tend to add a smooth downhill that contributes to a higher velocity. This sounds scarier than it is, but it’s true. I asked a group of my friends how many of them had some element of anxiety around holiday eating, and every single one claimed to have at least a little bit. We fear the holidays because of the additional opportunity to indulge, and the resulting discord it creates with our healthy eating habits.

There’s nothing to fear! Celebration is wonderful, and the holidays are a beautiful time to connect with the foods of our childhood, the rituals of our ancestors, and the community of sharing time and space together around joyful occasions. The beauty of the Splendid Spoon Program is that you are making one small step each day, with a single cleanse day every week. There is room for personal choice, and a little extra indulgence, because the lean souping meals will truly keep you connected to the pace of your healthy eating habits. Sure you might speed up a bit now and then, but think of those trusty soup swaps and reliable soup cleanse days as unavoidable speed bumps to bring you down a gear.

Stopping a quickly speeding object is much more difficult than preventing the acceleration in the first place. That’s the idea behind putting a little extra thought and effort into your habits toward the end of this month. Keep that pace even and steady with little steps that keep you feeling balanced: stow an apple in your bag to satisfy a sweet tooth (instead of that mini snickers bar), take an afternoon walk to stretch and move your body, or perhaps sit down for a 5 minute meditation in the morning to create a peaceful mindset for your day. These small steps will become speed bumps as you accelerate into the holidays, and by the time New Year’s hits you may not even need a resolution. ;)