“The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.” -William Arthur Ward.

This week I make a month on Sparkpeople. The first month is one of the very hardest because most of the changes that take place won’t show up on the scales or in measurements, maybe not even in the way our clothes fit. These changes are the invisible ones; the ones that aren’t going to give us any instant gratification.

No visible results does not mean that the changes aren’t important, quite the opposite- these changes are vital to our journey. This is the time when we start learning our bodies, understanding the challenges ahead of us, find out what saps our motivation, what builds our momentum, what our strengths and weaknesses are, what our goals evolve into and what we really need to tackle to make a difference. We start thinking about everything we put in our mouth, what every step we take means for our future. We start unwillingly understanding chemistry and energy and inertia. We notice all of the damaging and upbuilding things that pop up unexpectedly in our day to day lives. This is the month when we get the first glimpse at our initial battlefield.

We all know that it is going to be a fight to achieve our goals, perhaps that is why we put it off, or shrank away from the challenge in the past. But how can we expect a victory if we dive in headfirst without surveying the battlefield.

With the holidays quickly approaching, it will be very very easy to listen to the little pessimist on our shoulder tell us that the challenge is about to get too difficult, that we are going to lose, or fall or fail. We haven’t really made a difference in our bodies yet, we may be thinking, so we might as well forget it for the moment and start all over again in January. But we have already made a difference. Our thinking has changed monumentally, our motivation waxes and wanes but we are aware of it now, sometimes only too painfully.

Instead of seeing the upcoming battle of the indisputable hardest time of the year as something we could never conquer, because we are just getting started; because we are newbies; because we haven’t been living long enough with our new habits, yet- we need to adjust our sails instead.

Let’s make these holidays the truest test of our desire. We want this so badly, we want the results, the pride, the sense of accomplishment and all of the benefits that come along with a truly healthy lifestyle and the body that it means to live by it. We want it so badly we can taste it.

This is not our first holiday season. We know every single test that we are going to be facing the rest of this year. We know about all the food, the bad weather, the looming possibilities of illness and family stress. But these things should be the driving force behind our fight, not the reasons to give up. Continuing to sleep enough will help us deal with the sickness that jumps around from family member to family member and exercising, even for 10 minutes a day will help our immune system. Getting our heart pumping will help us deal with stress and frustration. The weather will challenge us to find new and creative ways to exercise and make ourselves better without having to go outside in it. The abundance of food will teach us to watch our portion sizes, practice moderation- no one says you can’t have dessert- or seconds- no one says that at all. Just think about what you eat.

If we can continue to build on our healthy habits through the holiday season, then we should have no problem continuing them once January gets here. If we can conquer this, then we can conquer anything. And emerge in the spring as an even healthier-minded, happy person- instead of staring down the idea of starting from scratch. Again.

Go back through your logs, blogs and trackers to the first week that you joined SparkPeople and look for any differences you have already made. Is your tracking more consistent? How have your eating habits changed? Can you walk farther, run faster, do more crunches? Are you sleeping better? Are you more aware of what you eat? Do you have a better idea of what your plan is going to be to reach your ultimate goal? Look deep inside and figure out all the changes you have made INSIDE. Write about it, publically or even sit down at your kitchen table with one of your kids school notebooks and make a list with a crayon. Decide the pros and cons of continuing your journey through the holidays, or starting over in January. Decide if those reasons for putting off the battle are worth it to your new frame of mind. Decide now that you can and will do this, even if your decision is just to maintain.

We all need each other and we are going to pull through this with shining colors. Let’s emerge from this battle together, with shining faces and stronger hope, but most importantly- with a sense of self so strong that no turkey legs, apple pies or winter storms can shake us enough to break that image of ourselves, crossing that finish line.

Besides, there are like NO calories in candy canes, almost. And it's still weeks before Thanksgiving gets here. It's enough time to steel ourselves for the brunt of it.