Several years ago I had a serious conversation with my mother.  I told her that although I appreciated the sentiment, I no longer wanted to receive cookies from her for Christmas.  I know, I'm a cookie hating asshole.  Actually I just don't like to have super tempting foods at my house and I don' t need a reason to have a chocolate chip brownie for breakfast.  I try to make it as easy as possible to make good food decisions at home, it's a "safe" zone from temptation, minus the wine of course.  This did not initially go over well with Mary Weiss, obviously if I didn't want her cookies it meant I didn't love her, maybe even hated her.  And if she couldn't express her love for me through delicious baked goods, how would I know that she loved me?  Being the resourceful woman that she is, my mom has found other ways to show she cares. Now my stocking (yes I'm 39 and I still get a Christmas stocking) is full of dark chocolate, spice rubs and Justin's Almond Butter.  My mom is still the Cookie Lady for other family members, friends and co-workers but she doesn't have to be the Cookie Lady for me.  There are two lessons here: it's okay to have a tough conversation with your loved ones about food and your goals AND you don't have to share your love through butter and sugar.  Here are a few ways to change your holiday giving identity from Cookie Lady or Cookie Guy to Healthy Gift Giving Genius

Bring Protein to the Holiday Potluck
Inevitably there will be many social obligations between now and New Year's.  You may even be required to bring food to said festivities.  Vegetables and protein will be hard to find at these gatherings and you may find yourself wondering how you're going to keep up with your healthy habits with so many temptations.  Be part of the solution instead of part of the problem; bring a satiating protein dish.  This week I'm going to the holiday party at the pub where I work part time.  We have a sign-up sheet for the potluck and it's full of cheesy dips and sweets.  I'm sure I'll hit up the buffalo chicken dip and have a cookie or two but I'm going to make damn sure there are some protein and veggies available. I've braised chicken thighs and made a batch of homemade coleslaw for tacos.  I'll enjoy some tacos and fill myself up a little in order to keep from over-indulging on the rest of the buffet. PS - the buffalo chicken dip didn't disappoint.

Share Your Recipes
This idea actually comes from my Cookie Lady Mom. She put together a binder of family favorites for my brothers and I.  It's a project you could slowly add to throughout the year. My mom put hers in a binder but you could even have a book made or go paperless and send it as a PDF.

You're In Charge
It may seem like you're going to let everyone down if you don't bake 6 million cookies for Christmas but the truth is, you can become the Healthy Gift Giving Genius, you don't HAVE to be the Cookie Lady.  There are other ways to share your love of food with friends and family.  Hopefully this post will inspire you to step out of your traditional role and try a new one where you're the healthy role model that everyone strives to be.  Who knows, maybe you'll inspire others in your gift giving circles to do the same.

I was working with my client Sarah the other morning and she was telling me about her co-worker who can do 38 push-ups in a minute.  It's hard to not get caught up in the comparison trap which will quickly lead to  feelings of inadequacy and I could tell Sarah was heading down that rabbit hole (lol bunny pun). Sarah does elevated push-ups from the smith bar and hasn't done a push-up from the floor....... yet. On one level, it's great that this woman can do 38 push-ups, I'm all for supporting my fellow women in our strength endeavors.  However I also want to call bullshit. I looked over at Sarah and said "I can't do 38 push-ups either".  I'm not ashamed that as a personal trainer I can be so easily out-push-upped because I'm proud of the push-ups I can do.  Here's a video of my current max push-ups:  

I wonder what Sarah's co-worker's push-ups look like. I see it at the gym every day: hips sagging, neck craning toward the floor, elbows flared and partial range of motion.  You could ask, does it matter? I'd say that yes, it does. Doing correct push-ups demonstrates good core stability, shoulder mobility and upper body strength. I am sure there are women out there that can perform 50 beautiful push-ups in a row, but there are many men and women claiming credit for bad reps.  If you want to know how your push-ups measure up, the easiest thing to do is to video them. Take a long honest look at the video and if you see some of the form mistakes from below, it may be time to pull back and do an easier version, progressing from there.

In the video on the left, my head is pushing forward, elbows are flared and the core is unstable.  On the right, my head is up and my back is arched.
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