The Anti-Fit

As we all know, and my sources can verify, the average person gains between 5 and 10lbs during the holiday season. I know the stuffing balls, turkey slices, honeybaked ham, pumpkin pies, cornish game hens lathered in butter, yeast rolls, cheese plates, and desserts, desserts, desserts coupled with the feeling of abandon that usually accompany this time of year can pile on the pounds. Not so for me. At this time of year the biggest problem I have comes not from overeating, but usually from drinking too much.

I've tried to identify a few key reasons this may be the case. Here we go:

1. I'm Irish. Duh! I know that's not a true excuse, but I have to say that until you've been to Ireland and seen how much of the cultre is centered around the pub and drinking, you don't really know how second nature it is to us all. I have may thoughts on why this is so (a depressed nation, downtrodden for decades, a penchant for keeping emotions in tight check, a young population with historically few opportunities etc. etc) which I will espouse upon at some other time, but honestly, it really is a cultural thing. I grew up drinking. To quote Oscar Wilde: "Work is the curse of the drinking class". So true, so true.

2. San Francisco is a drinking city. It's true. It just is. And why not? We have awesome bars, great restaurants, and again a young population. A young population with disposable income.

3. Working at my company is like working at MTV Spring Break  sometimes. Seriously. Now, you kids with your Silicon Valley foosball tables and photo booths and skateboard ramps. You think you know something about partying? My company, which is NOT in  the tech industry, (I'm going to give you a hint, but if we were playing "Taboo" right now I'd totally be out. I bring this up because last time we played Taboo, the H/BF's cousin, who is a college professor and scary smart got frustrated when his wife couldn't get the answer with the clues "Actor" and "Bald", so he resorted to "Spruce Bilious", which is now all I will ever be able to think of Bruce Willis as. But I digress. Anyway, Hint: sounds like "endurance" and the industry is universally hated.) could really show you all some things. This past Friday was our Annual Employee Christmas Holiday party. I kid you not when I say there are numerous locations in the city we're no longer allowed at. But that's sort of what happens when you kick off your Holiday party at 9:30am with mimosas and shots of tequila. By the time the buses had all arrived at the venue with our 400+ employees, quite a few people were well on their way to being full of good cheer and a level of friendliness that would be considered inappropriate at some orgies. Then the booze flowed freely until 5:00pm, where we moved on to the all expenses paid "After-Party", because apparently we're shooting for the one day where we'll reach a "FlashForward" level of blackout and the entire company will lose the exact same amount of time and see the future or something. And this year was tame. Really. This is a company who, in a belt-tightening move installed a fully stocked bar in every office to cut down on our Happy Hour costs.

So, anyway!  at our Holiday party I was speaking to our "Wellness Coordinator" (of course we have a wellness guy whose entire job is to effectively try to counteract the rest of the culture a little bit. That's just smart planning right there) about how working out is such a departure for me and one of the things I'm really enjoying is the feeling that even if I do everything else wrong on a particular day, if I've worked out, I've taken the time to do something good for myself. And it's true. Even with this season of overindulgence, the days I make it to a workout are better than the days I don't.

Plus, there's always January, right?!