Look out! The holidays are coming!

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  • KandGRanch
    KandGRanch Posts: 131 Member
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    prettymrsnelson wrote: »
    I looovvveee the holidays and let me just say...I'm an eater. I really struggle with deciding that I've had enough. I will literally eat until I'm sick and miserable for hours. I'm trying to come up with a game plan for this season but I'm not sure where to start. I have always let my guard down in the past but this year I want it to be different. We go to my parents house and to my in-laws every year so I don't have control over how all the food is prepared. I was thinking about preparing a healthier dessert option so I have an alternative to turn to instead of the usual pumpkin pie, cookies, etc. I'd love to hear everyone's tips and tricks to stay on track for the holidays.

    I don't eat things I can have any time of year, like sweet potato or corn or lima beans.
    I eat a slice of the seasonal pies we only have at holidays, my moms sausage balls that are xmas exclusive...you know-those family traditions that have your mouth watering the week before? Eat those. they only come around this time of year. If that means you end up eating nothing but pie that day, it is one day. Have leftover turkey and go back to lean, mean machine the day after.
  • NiftyPineapple914
    NiftyPineapple914 Posts: 16 Member
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    KandGRanch wrote: »
    prettymrsnelson wrote: »
    I looovvveee the holidays and let me just say...I'm an eater. I really struggle with deciding that I've had enough. I will literally eat until I'm sick and miserable for hours. I'm trying to come up with a game plan for this season but I'm not sure where to start. I have always let my guard down in the past but this year I want it to be different. We go to my parents house and to my in-laws every year so I don't have control over how all the food is prepared. I was thinking about preparing a healthier dessert option so I have an alternative to turn to instead of the usual pumpkin pie, cookies, etc. I'd love to hear everyone's tips and tricks to stay on track for the holidays.

    I don't eat things I can have any time of year, like sweet potato or corn or lima beans.
    I eat a slice of the seasonal pies we only have at holidays, my moms sausage balls that are xmas exclusive...you know-those family traditions that have your mouth watering the week before? Eat those. they only come around this time of year. If that means you end up eating nothing but pie that day, it is one day. Have leftover turkey and go back to lean, mean machine the day after.


    This is a great perspective.
  • ahoy_m8
    ahoy_m8 Posts: 3,052 Member
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    The two big holiday meals are not my biggest challenge. I'm usually cooking at least one of them, and my family appreciates my "whole foods" cooking. It's the sugary gifts and cocktail parties that have a greater cumulative caloric effect. For the gifts, I pick the one I love the most--usually a fine chocolate-- and enjoy it. If it will keep a month, I'll stretch it out and enjoy it a whole month, fitting it in my calorie budget in small increments. I let my teenagers go after everything else.

    Parties are harder because they so often occupy the dinner hour without a proper dinner being served (pet peeve). What works best for me is to hit all my macros for the day and to eat protein right before we go (carrots & celery in the car at a minimum). I don't even try to make a meal of the cocktail food. If the food is unusually good, I'll try some in moderation. If I arrive hungry, I turn ravenous after downing a glass of wine.
  • tibby531
    tibby531 Posts: 717 Member
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    sweatpants. that's my plan of attack. ;)
  • ChrisM8971
    ChrisM8971 Posts: 1,067 Member
    edited November 2014
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    melaniebhowes wrote: »
    It's not what you eat between Christmas and New Year's; it's what you eat between New Year's and Christmas.

    This ^^^^^^

    You just need perspective, you can probably lose 52 lbs in a year, I figure if I try really really hard I can gain 10 lbs over the Christmas period so still a net loss on the year ;)

  • mccindy72
    mccindy72 Posts: 7,001 Member
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    If you threw calorie counting out the window for these days: Thanksgiving, Christmas Day, New Year's Day, Valentine's Day, and your birthday. That's five days out of 365 days. No big deal overall, even if you eat yourself into sickly stupor. Even if you ate 3,500 calories on each of those days, the most you would gain total would be 5 pounds. It's not likely you would eat that many calories all five days.

    Eat up.
  • Cyndesire
    Cyndesire Posts: 56 Member
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    I will enjoy the foods and time with my family. I will log it all the best I can. Then space out the calories of overage over the next week and burn them. Then eat the leftovers responsibly. All that turkey makes for great healthy meals for the following week. These holidays only come once year and are gone to quickly. I don't plan to miss a minute of it. Happy holidays!
  • LAWoman72
    LAWoman72 Posts: 2,846 Member
    edited November 2014
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    I will probably eat more than my allotment at Thanksgiving, but this year that's at my house, THANK GOODNESS! - so I will be able to make some fixins that are delicious but at least have a semblance of healthiness to them. I will probably also eat more than usual or the wrong foods at the family Christmas party as nobody ever feels like doing anything remotely healthy (maybe a vegetable stuck in here and there) and I the family Christmas is not at our house.

    I won't need to worry about Christmas Day as we will be at our house (just the four of us) and I will be making probably a turkey or ham, but not doing a gigantic dinner like the family Christmas pig-for-all. :)

    Other than that, I plan to work goodies into my daily allotment. I can't see why that can't happen, I've done it before. It may mean a less healthy day overall, but if I keep those down to a dull roar, I should still be pretty much on-track. No reason you can't fit in a couple bites of your favorite holiday treats as they come into the office, get sent to you and so on, while still staying on plan, at least IMO.
  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,150 Member
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    It's the holidays, enjoy them. Log as accurately as you can and try to use moderation.
  • brenn24179
    brenn24179 Posts: 2,144 Member
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    someone once told me eat 3/4 cu of your favorite, then pick at the rest.
  • rainbow198
    rainbow198 Posts: 2,245 Member
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    This time of year I celebrate both Canadian and American holidays and have a ton of birthdays and events to celebrate. Despite of that I've actually lost weight during holidays the last couple of years.

    Some of the following may sound a little weird, but I don't care. It worked when I was losing in 2012 and it worked my first year of maintenance in 2013 so if it isn't broke, don't fix it!

    Here's what I do on the day of the holiday:

    - I eat light, but filling foods the early part of the day. For example I may have a protein shake and a large apple at 11am and an egg omelette loaded with veggies and greens like bell peppers, onions and spinach or I will have steel cut oatmeal at 2pm. This leaves me with a lot of calories to play with for dinner and I'm not hungry during the day.

    - I wear close-fitting, non-stretchable clothes. No leggings, no comfortable/loose/expandable pants. For me that is asking for trouble.

    - When I was losing I had a little bit of everything at dinner and saved room for desserts. Now I'm able to increase what I eat, but I don't go to town like I did when I was obese.
    [/list]


    I also do the following:

    - I don't drink my calories like pop, store-bought juice or alcohol...I'm not including my homemade smoothies, protein shakes or freshly squeezed juice however. Drinking water and herbal teas fill me up and I do this everyday so I'm used to it, but it's nice to bank those liquid calories for food.

    - For my workouts I increase cardio for the week of to earn more calories.

    - I try on a pair of my largest shorts that I can fit into one leg. I burn that image into my brain. It reminds me how far I've come and to keep going. Also it helps to think about that when that second slice of homemade pie is calling my name.

    - I write down everything I eat in my notebook. For me it's very easy to have one cookie, then another and another and another, but when I see what I've eaten in black and white it makes me rethink my choices.

    - Normally I eat a slightly under maintenance during the week and eat over maintenance during the weekend (have treats, go out to eat, bake a high calorie dessert), but during that holidays I typically omit this since I've likely have eaten at more during the week anyway.

    - Lastly I ignore the food pushers and enjoy myself with my family!
  • eldamiano
    eldamiano Posts: 2,667 Member
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    Get a job?
  • LAWoman72
    LAWoman72 Posts: 2,846 Member
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    eldamiano wrote: »
    Get a job?

    Um...hmmm? :neutral_face:

    I actually had a much worse time during the 20 years I was in the workforce (I work from home now) than at home during the holidays. At work, every other day some client or supplier is sending in a giant box of junk over the holidays. :smiley:

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