I am not the only one who has changed eating habits, only to be met with this specific piece of resistance from others:
“But it’s [a special occasion]!”
A few problems with this mindset.
First, there are so many special occasions. The bigger your celebrating circle, the more occasions there are.
(I framed it as a “celebrating circle” because you can have a big family or circle of friends but few or none in that circle who do much for various occasions, or a small but very reason-to-eat circle.)
There are holidays. There are birthdays. There are sporting events. There are weddings, quinceañeras, baptisms, bat/bar mitzvahs. There are graduations, promotions, new jobs.
If you take a calendar and mark on it every one of these events that is going to include food, I bet you have dozens. And remember that some of these things linger. For example: how many Christmas-related events did you go to? How many nights of Hanukkah do you celebrate? How many birthday parties does each kid have? (A family party and a friends party?)
In my making resolutions post, I indicated that making your goals more like plans and less like hopes leads to better results.
“I am going to cut dessert down to once a month and go to the gym three times each week” instead of “I’m going to lose weight.”
Be on the lookout for “obligatory” special occasions. Have a plan. Decide ahead of time which ones are worth it in the long-term. If you can, and if your people are able to be supportive (we’re not all there yet…), let them know ahead of time what your plan is so they can help support you.
And if you take a bite of cake and it’s just not that good—you don’t have to eat it. No really, you don’t.
One more thing. If you’re at one of these events, and you decided ahead of time that you are not going to partake of the junk food, and there’s something there that looks amazing—DON’T TRY IT. Unless you’re a stronger person than I, and can taste it, learn that yes, it is indeed amazing, and then not eat any more. (That’s not in my skill set.)