Every year we are faced with the inevitable. The bombardment of Christmas advertising and commercials on TV. The mind numbing holiday music playing in almost every deli and store. Family visiting from out of nowhere. Awkward office parties. The leftovers we stuff ourselves with for days after Thanksgiving. The tons of candy, cookies, and cake that our coworkers thoughtfully dump on us all in the office. Yeah, thanks a lot for that last one gang.

I always swear I will stay away from all the bad eating each holiday season. I think we all do. There’s the little person in our brains that tell us it’s not good to be devouring all those buttery sugar cookies, candy canes, sweets, and high fat egg nog. Oh, egg nog. Sigh. That is my weakness. I can’t resist it. Like a moth to a flame. I can easily drink a gallon of it in one sitting. That’s where the evil little elf comes in. He sits on our shoulder and whispers into our ear to consume everything in our paths over the next month or so. He is a manipulative little devil. I mostly despise him and the guilt trips he brings, but at times I relish his company as there are just so many delicious treats out there at this time of year!

Diets take the ultimate beating during the holiday season. What was normally a healthy eating regiment turns into a mine field of despair. We are faced with so many obstacles and each day heading into the new year becomes tougher and tougher on our waist lines. I know that for myself I have pretty good dicipline but I have swayed lately like a boxer taking a standing eight count after being repeatedly hit in the head with a stale fruit cake.

It’s all about goals. I have been struggling lately with sticking to my workouts and hitting the gym. I’ve been battling a few injuries that at times feel healed, and at others still make me wince with the slightest movement. At times you just have to gut it out and work through them smartly. Sometimes you need to visualize an endpoint. I found a new one last night at the movies. We went to catch the new James Bond flick “Skyfall” (excellent movie by the way) and I was very impressed with Daniel Craig’s physique. The man is in phenomenal shape! That is my new goal to strive for and will keep me from going overboard this holiday season. I am sure I will stray a bit along the way and enjoy a few cheat days but a six pack doesn’t come from a diet of bad foods. Holiday cheer notwithstanding.

I prefer to have a body like Daniel Craig’s rather than Frosty the Snowman!