Look out! The holidays are coming!

rainbow198

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.
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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

Get a job?

LAWoman72

eldamiano wrote: »

Get a job?

Um...hmmm?

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.