The suffering begins

In case it hasn't become obvious yet, let me preface this post by saying that I love Christmas. I'm in the Christmas spirit all December, starting from the moment that November 30th turns into December 1st at midnight. That moment is precious, and it's important to me to do whatever I can to make it extra special every year.

The moment includes listening to Angels from the Realms of Glory while contemplating all the incredible things I achieved in the past 11 months. After that, I prepare a selection of treats, including Swedish green cake, and enjoy them while watching The Office.

To make sure all of those three components are special every time, I have this four-part strategy that I use every year:

To make sure the song resonates all the way to my core, I must work my butt off the weeks leading up to it.
To make sure I enjoy the taste of the cake, I don't eat sugar for three months.
To make sure I appreciate the show, I refrain from watching it during those other 11 months.
To enhance the overall euphoria, I follow a very strict diet for the last 10 days before December 1st.

I know number 4 sounds crazy and disorderly, but I do eat enough food (temporary hunger is fine, chronic energy depletion is not), I just limit the variety.

Which means that this year, from the 21st to the 30th of November, I eat nothing but meat, eggs, and butter, and drink only water, coffee, and tea.

As someone who eats meat-based, this is actually quite easy for me. All I need to cut out are chicken, fish and other seafood, bacon, and coconut fudge. I thought about cutting meat as well, but after trying it for five days earlier this month, my energy levels plummeted and I felt fragile. I might be able to go the last three days with eggs and butter alone, but definitely not all ten.

Furthermore, I might only eat once on November 30th to really enhance the flavor of the green cake. (Every dish, regardless of baseline deliciousness, tastes better when you're hungry.)

While I hope this is enough "suffering" to bring out the best euphoria when the moment comes, I'm sure I can always find ways to increase it if I need to.