Santa Claus may embody cheerful generosity and innate goodness, but the beloved, jovial character has some serious health problems.
To begin, he is a huge sugar addict.
At every house he visits, the beloved gift-giver noshes on sugary, gluten-filled cookies that well-intentioned parents left for him.
Come to think of it, aren’t millions of us like Santa?
[shareable cite=”Connie Bennett, The Cravings Ninja”]Are you a little like Santa — pigging out on sugar and neglecting self care?[/shareable]
No wonder Santa can’t resist the sweet stuff.
Just think of Santa’s plight.
Here he’s trying to make boys and girls around the world super-happy, but wherever he goes, he’s faced by an endless round of temptations.
Not only that but he may be over-caring.
So let’s look at Santa’s lifestyle and health challenges.
- Santa is super-sedentary. In fact, the most exercise he gets is when little kids sit on his laps and ask for toys.
- Plus, Santa only gets out one night a year and that’s the time he spans the entire globe. (I do hope you’re chuckling here!)
- Plus, he and Mrs. Claus hang out on the North Pole for months at a time to make all those perfect gifts.
- Then, Santa just can’t resist sugary cookies. Hey, would you be able to say no to all those tempting treats from well-meaning Sugar Pushers?
- Now, it turns out that Santa has gluten issues, too, as the Gluten-Free Warrior pointed out recently.
Although Santa’s been around for centuries, his health didn’t take a downward spiral until 2006, as I pointed out then on my Sugar Shock Blog.
That’s when he was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, as revealed by Mike Adams of NewsTarget.
At the time, Santa was focused on reclaiming his health. He was headed in a good direction, even seeking nutritional therapies to offset his type 2 diabetes.
But evidently in the past decade or so, Santa, like millions of us, fell off the wagon.
He forgot all his good intentions and neglected self care.
And generous guy that he is, he just focused so much on creating and delivering the best gifts for billions that he forgot the most important thing of all — To take care of others, you must first care for yourself.
Perhaps the stress of delivering all those gifts in a short designated period of time (only 24 hours) was just too much for Santa.
Although Santa is nervous about sharing this, he doesn’t just nibble and nosh at every stop. He often goes on full-scale cookie binges after working 24 hours nonstop. (No wonder he pigs out — who can work for 24 hours straight and still be productive?)
By the way, in the last decade or so, Santa has gained so much weight — easily 50 to 100 pounds — that now he just can’t make it down the chimney.
The only way those gifts get delivered on Christmas is thanks to smaller, slimmer elves he brings on his annual reindeer ride around the world.
Don’t millions of us neglect self-care in pursuit of deadlines?
It’s now time for my confession. I’m homebound with pneumonia. Yes, scary! No, I didn’t have sugar galore, but like millions of us, I, too, skipped self care.
Now, I didn’t pull an all-nighter like Santa does, but I skipped on sleep while back from an awesome 40 Years of Zen program; then didn’t get enough sleep at an inspiring Tony Robbins conference for most of a wee; pushed myself too hard getting settled and fixing up my new place; then the heater wasn’t working right. So now I’m home sick with parties and fun planned with my bed, supplements, TV and me!
You’re all so smart. Will you help me put together a solid, safe plan for Santa to regain his health so next year, he’ll be around to deliver millions of gifts?
Share your tips for Santa here on this blog or on Facebook.
Spread the word. Santa needs our help.