Body weight isn’t a number set in stone and that number doesn’t define someone. Body weight can fluctuate for a number of reasons besides what food goes into the body such as stress, periods, and weekly activities. It’s normal.
As we approach the grand finale of the holiday season, one could say there are more opportunities for weight fluctuation with holiday parties, dinners, and relatives coming into town. There are foods being produced in the kitchen that usually only occur once a year. There’s no shame in splurging on special occasions.
Popular culture jokes about weight gain during the holidays in order to feel comfortable about normalizing it. “I’m going to have to unbuckle my belt another notch,” “I’m going to wear sweatpants to dinner,” and “I’m going to the gym after this.” The jokes are a way of laughing off the societal expectations to be thin. It’s practically an American tradition to eat until too full, so naturally weight gain can be expected.
Although there is a movement to normalize excessive eating during the holiday season, it’s only romanticized for a short time. Come January, social pressures will ignite again to guilt everyone into working out. January is the height of gym memberships as they expect a 12% increase in members every year. That 12% of new members are largely from societal guilt from holiday eating. Society normalizes that the eating has occurred, but only with the preconceived idea that one must return to the weight one started out with.
Gyms capitalize on the idea that one of the most common new year’s resolutions is to work out and it’s not always with health and fitness on the agenda. Following large meals and being inside the home with relatives, there’s an unspoken guilt to make up for the overwhelming food. It’s perpetually noted that New Year’s Resolutions hardly last, and it’s almost if people give up on the gym when they return to the weight they started with before the holiday meals.
There’s a balance between health and occasionally splurging, but what someone eats is their business. There’s no need to go out of one’s way to justify to others why another piece of pie is necessary. Let people enjoy their holiday and not be overly conscious of weight gain and loss at every interval of the season.
