Super Bowl overeating, for which many people feel guilty, is now behind us. If you struggled with all the array of food, maybe next year you can feel less social pressure and not eat fried and unhealthy foods. We can eat pop chips that taste great and don’t have the saturated fat that clogs our arteries and increases our cholesterol. Another tasty food are chicken wings that are well-seasoned and not fried. Make sure there are crudités with an excellent dip of yogurt and fat-free dressing with lots of seasoning. The key is not to deprive yourself with food but to enjoy that evening and to feel good about the next day!  

However, we also have to contend with Valentine’s Day in February. The worst of all the Hallmark holidays is Valentine’s Day which may accentuate many people’s loneliness. Many may resent Valentine’s Day since they feel they have just finished paying off their Christmas presents, and now there is more pressure to buy presents of jewelry, flowers, or chocolates. Men may want their wives or girlfriends to be skinny, but then wind up bringing chocolates to celebrate the day which the women feel obligated to accept graciously…and we wonder why there is so much bulimia and depression! 

Happy couple’s don’t need Valentine’s Day – they express their love and buy presents from the heart when they feel like it. Children don’t need Valentine’s Day either…it’s an opportunity for them to feel excluded or unpopular if they don’t get as many valentines as their peers. Then they go home and eat chocolate and watch video games…and we wonder why there is such an epidemic of childhood obesity! Some Jewish children do not observe Valentine’s Day, and then they feel really excluded. If you can ignore Valentine’s Day, you may feel relieved (although the media makes it hard)! 

Or perhaps you can extend some love, food, or companionship to an isolated stranger through organizations like In God’s Love We Deliver or Project Dorot on the Upper West Side that organizes people to visit isolated Jewish elderly. I have had many non-Jewish clients who volunteer and find it a very gratifying experience. Perhaps you can get the name of a child or teenager who is poor from Big Brothers/Big Sisters or a guidance counselor or person in the clergy and take them to lunch or the circus, a movie, or a play geared toward children or teenagers, a sporting event or even buy them something “cool” – a new sweater for this very cold weather, an extra pair of gloves or hat or something else they say they would enjoy. 

And perhaps you could show yourself some extra love by getting that 

1.  Hot stone massage you’ve been dreaming about. 

2.  Have a session with a personal trainer to begin gearing up for spring. 

3.  Buy that book you’ve been wanting to read. 

4.  Get a ticket to that show you’ve been wanting to see. 

5.  Let yourself sleep later or stay in bed later or take an afternoon nap. 

6.  Buy something new for spring that will be here very soon. Remember, February’s best feature may be that it is a short month, but it is a great one to start moving if you haven’t (5, even 10 minutes intervals) or try a new form of movement, begin a serious meditation practice (20 minutes twice a day is ideal, but studies show even 5 minutes twice a week has benefits), or just curl up and read a good book. 

7.  Get involved in an organization that is meaningful to you in this broken, fractured society: a.  Immigrant rights and protection 

b.  Gun control 

c.  Fundraise for many of the diseases people are suffering from due to a lack of research funding, often women’s issues that affect older or underrepresented people: Alzheimers, Parkinson’s ALS, cancer or heart disease (the #1 killer of women) among many others. 

So let’s enjoy the end of this short month! Spring won’t be far behind!