Halima looked at her phone screen with a lot of glee. Christmas was her favourite season of the year and the best part of it was that she didn’t need to lift a finger to thoroughly enjoy herself. She was counting down to when the family would travel to their country home for the holidays and what a feast awaited them!
Her father-in-law was a traditional ruler and that meant that all sorts of delicacies would be flowing through the home. Her mother-in-law especially used the holidays to take care of Halima for taking care of her grandchildren during the entire year. She understood the stressful natue of Halima’s job coupled with running the home and was very empathetic. Halima was glad that the holidays did not translate to going to prove that she was a good ‘wife material’ by overworking herself. She muttered a silent prayer of thanksgiving under her breath for her in-laws.
The only snag was that during her last medical checkup, she had been told that she was pre-diabetic and pre-hypertensive and she had to modify her lifestyle and also make healthier food choices. It had been a particularly hard diagnosis for her to accept but her doctor had assured her that it was reversible, and she could make it happen.
In the past, Halima’s strategy had been to eat whatever she liked and then drink green tea or lemon and cucumber-infused water to neutralize the junk food, but it obviously had not worked. The truth was that eating was her own way of managing her emotions and work stress, and she had particularly tried to avoid portion control, but it seemed she could no longer eat her cake and have it.
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Halima didn’t want to remember Christmas as the season when her health got worse rather than better because of her usual habit of overeating. She also didn’t want to start the new year with a ‘detox’ because of ‘Detty December’. Over the last year, she had learnt a lot about self-care and making decisions that were in her own best interest.
As she thought about it, she started to ask herself a few questions. Why did she eat too much during the holidays? Was it because of social pressure or that food was scarce, so she had to eat and store up for the future? On the contrary, there was usually a surplus of food, and she could always say NO to more food and also eat smaller portions per time. She knew that when she visited their relations, food was going to be served in large plates, so she decided that she would ask for side plates and take only the amounts she needed. Everybody would be alright, chuckling as she thought about the look of horror on her aunties’ faces because she turned down food.
The next thing was that she knew she would need to eat more proteins and vegetables and reduce her carbohydrate intake. That meant less rice, pounded yam or other swallows and more salads. She would also take more pepper -soup than fried meat and would go for air-fried meat rather than deep-fried meat.
As much as she disliked drinking water, she knew she had to make water her friend and cut down on fizzy drinks. She had always felt odd when everyone around her was drinking something and she was drinking water, but times had changed. She thought of how to make drinking water more interesting. When she was out of the house, she would pour the water into the nicest wine glass available. That way, it wouldn’t be so boring. She had also discovered a brand of water that was flavoured so she would travel home with packs of it. There just had to be a way around this water issue, so that she would meet her daily water intake goal of 3 litres.
The more she planned and strategised her holiday meals, the more empowered Halima felt. She knew that her waistline would get to the new year unscathed, and her health would be in top shape. After all, if she didn’t take the best decisions for herself, who else would?
