The holidays are always a tricky time for most of us. There is stress, there is food and more food. Pretty much from Halloween until New Years, it seems our lives are centered around food and parties and celebrations. As someone who has diabetes this can be a tricky time of the year. I have even seen patients whose A1C’s increase by about 1-2% during this time each year and they always have the same thing to say about it, “it’s the holidays, I will get back on track in another few weeks”. To me that is sad. I mean why do the holidays need to ruin us? Yes I know food is great. We all have a love/ hate relationship with food. We love it cause it’s yummy, but hate it cause it makes us fat, makes our sugars go high and can make us have bad feelings about ourselves based on our lack of will power. But food is a necessary evil. I mean we can’t live on water alone. We need to put fuel in our tanks to be able to function and carry out our daily lives. So how can we learn to find a way to keep our sugars under control while we celebrate? How can we enjoy our foods but not in excess? I don’t think this is a question simply for people with diabetes, but rather one that needs to be addressed by everyone in this country. I think maybe if we can change the way we see food and stop having it be a love/hate relationship with it, our lives will change for the better. Has there ever been a truly successful relationship based on a love/hate scenario? Food should not be an enemy, it should be something we take joy in. Let us make this holiday season one where we find a way to live in peace and harmony with the foods around us. Let us find the inner willpower to celebrate without causing us actual harm. Take the day and think about and write about how you view food in your life and see if there is one thing you can do to change that for the better. Maybe you need to stop using food as a reward? Maybe you should stop using it as a punishment? Maybe you simply need to treat your food with love, after all it is keeping you alive! This holiday season, find a way to make food your friend and not your enemy! I know we each have the power within us to make one change to improve your relationship with food!