So it’s February and many of you have gotten a month’s worth of New Year’s health and fitness resolutions under your belt. You track your workouts Seinfeld style. You stop eating before you’re full. You have tried new kinds of workouts. And from this, perhaps you’ve lost some fat pounds or increased your mileage or gotten stronger and if so, that’s motivating. But this can also be a dangerous time as the excitement of getting started on the journey has potentially worn off. Now you’re just punching the clock, putting in some serious hard work based not on excitement, but hopefully on the goal of building permanent habits. So during this time, you might find yourself tempted to cheat a little. You tell yourself that it’s a special occasion and so you’ll make an exception.

But have you ever noticed how many “special” occasions there can be? Time for another Seinfeld reference:

How true is this? Special occasions are EVERYWHERE! Don’t believe me? Let’s count them up, starting with birthdays. Let’s say you’re married and have two children. That’s four birthdays right there.

Now each of your kids attends at least one of their friends’ birthday parties and you have to be there… two more birthdays to cheat at.

Next up, both you and your spouse have at least some family that lives in town, and of course, they have kids… so there’s another five birthdays at least. So far, that’s 11 birthdays… nearly one a month.

Next up? Holidays: Valentines, St. Patrick’s, Easter, Mother’s Day, Memorial Day, Father’s Day, Fourth of July, Labor Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving (and let’s face it, the day after Thanksgiving), Christmas, and New Year’s Eve. Add 13 more special occasions to our previous 11, so we’re up to 24… two a month. But still not done.

And then there are days that aren’t quite holidays, but should be, like your anniversary (this one actually is a holiday in our house), Super Bowl, and NCAA March Madness (which lasts a month, but we’ll say you splurge just twice). That gets our total up to at least 28.

And what about vacation? Between Spring Break, a June trip to the beach, and random three day weekends. Let’s see, 28, plus 14, carry the 1, that’s 42!

And let’s not forget spur of the moment special occasions, like Junior bringing home straight C’s, a promotion/raise at work, a snow day, your best friend delivers twins (so you probably should have a piece of cake for each baby, right?), church cook-outs, entertaining clients, and surviving a particularly hard Monday. That’s seven more getting us up to 49.

And I’m sure there were three cheats you had when no one was looking? I mean, not you… you’d never do that… but you know people *wink *wink that would. So we’re up 52. 52 “special” occasions. One… special… occasion… a week. And that doesn’t even include the obnoxious work parties Elaine detests so much.

So with all these temptations, what is one to do? First, you need to know how to cheat on your diet. Secondly, you need to be intentional and plan ahead and know your own rules. That’s why I recommend some form of the nutrition tithe. This way you can factor it in ahead of time and have balance (which includes zero guilt). Write down ahead of time when you’re going to allow yourself something that truly is special and STICK TO IT! (BTW, you can track nutrition Seinfeld style too… not just workouts).

If you haven’t yet started working on your New Year’s health and fitness resolutions, stop procrastinating. I can help. I do FREE fitness coaching.

But if you’ve been working hard and are feeling tempted, I’m here to say that it’s understandable. I can still help. But it all starts with you. You have to be intentional. You have to be honest. And you have to be realistic about what is truly special and what isn’t. HINT: If there’s a reason to celebrate every week, then it IS NOT special.

If you’re struggling, I will echo Elaine’s sentiments… flour and sugar and egg and vanilla are not the answer.