Selection box be gone....

New Year, new you - or at least new you once the selection boxes/Roses/Quality Street/Christmas cake/other Christmas chocolate is all gone. I know what you’re going to say, I can actually hear you right now even over the sound of the radio and the screaming kids;  “Sure it’s in the house, I need to eat it to get rid of it and then I can start buying vegetables and eating healthy.” Am I right? Am I, am I?

I know I am right for at least some people, as I have heard them say this exact thing. And I now say to them and anyone else out there who is thinking the same thing, there is another way to get rid of all the junk in your house. Don’t eat it - just throw it out. Into the bin with it. Yes, the actual bin. If you like,  you can separate the food from the plastic and throw the chocolate into the compost bin (google seems to think it’s ok but do your own research if you’re not sure) and the wrappers are generally not recyclable. Use your empty tin for art supplies or healthy muffins when you get your bake on. 

Less controversially perhaps, you could donate your unopened tins of chocolates to a children’s hospital or local nursing home where they can be shared by a large number of people rather than being hogged in a corner by one person who has already eaten so much over Christmas they have had to go to work in their pj’s. Just saying.

Here’s the serious bit now :

We are now beginning to understand that obesity is not simply a case of lack of willpower or personal choice. Our environment has a huge impact on our weight with the presence of high fat, high sugar foods every where we turn. Temptation is placed in front of us when we’re buying petrol, in the supermarket, at the cinema and even buying furniture! We need to remove some of the temptation in our environment so we can go about the business of leading a healthy life.

And that goes for our children too. Speaking from the experience of my 11 year old who has asked me to hide any treats in the house so he won’t be tempted to eat them in the middle of the night (true story).

And the moral of the story is; throw out all or most of the junk in your house and give yourself and your family a fighting chance of a healthy year ahead! And see next Christmas, just don’t buy it…..