Tips for not gaining over the holidays

LAWoman72

crzycatlady1 wrote: »

Laurakay2012 wrote: »

We run a 5 mile Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning, that burns off a piece of pumpkin pie with whipped cream. Holiday food should come - not with a calorie count - but with a miles per bite count.

Seriously use the time during the holidays to focus on activity instead of eating. Take a family walk/hike, play some flag football, organize a family plank or push-up challenge.

I'm trying to envision all my obese relatives doing any of this and I think it would end up in trips to the ER My grandma and one uncle can barely walk because of their obesity, though they manage to get themselves back up to the buffet table for thirds sigh....

My MIL would be whimpering and faking a simultaneous asthma attack and spontaneous tibia stress hairline fracture within like 30 seconds, necessitating a cessation of all activity but fork-to-mouth plus looooooooooots of attention, with the added bonus of us NEVER EVER asking her to extend herself physically again.

However, I can see my husband, the kids and me all taking a nice long walk after the meal. We will be up in the mountains this year for Thanksgiving and we love to walk up there, plus we walk daily as it is.

cwolfman13

Laurakay2012 wrote: »

We run a 5 mile Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning, that burns off a piece of pumpkin pie with whipped cream. Holiday food should come - not with a calorie count - but with a miles per bite count.

Seriously use the time during the holidays to focus on activity instead of eating. Take a family walk/hike, play some flag football, organize a family plank or push-up challenge.

I don't know that this is exactly a healthy outlook on things either. I'm certainly not doing a bunch of unplanned activity just because I'm having a feast day...and I'm sure my guests would never return if I made them do push ups or whatever. Having a "miles per bite" outlook is how people get into exercise bulimia...and minimally, it can lead to a cruddy relationship with food and fitness where exercise/fitness becomes a penance or punishment for eating. There is no reason to do a bunch of unplanned and random exercise...there's no reason to deviate from your regular protocol.

The only thing that will be any different for me is swapping out some days...Thursday is usually a lifting day, but we always do a Turkey Trot 5K on Thanksgiving and I won't have time for both so I'll move my lifting day to Wednesday. Friday is typically a rest day and I usually lift on Saturday...but we'll be doing all of the Christmas decorating, getting the tree, etc on Saturday so I'll move my lifting day to Friday and make Saturday my rest day...Sunday will be my usual ride.

For me and mine, we will go do our little 5K and come home and put on the parade for the boys while I get rocking in the kitchen...my guests will start arriving around 2:00 and I will have a nice spread of appetizers ready to roll. I'm very much looking forward to sipping on a bourbon and sharing a cigar with my uncle on the back patio and hearing all about this years hunts...looking forward to chatting with my aunt and giving my mom a toast. It is a day for me to be thankful for the bounty that I will put on the table and be thankful that I can provide such a bounty for my family and friends and that we can all come together and hug and talk and eat and enjoy each others company and watch some football...some of these people I only see once or twice per year...so yeah, my focus will be simply on enjoying them, not on planks and push-ups

ACrazyNightOwl

Try to go easy on the carbs.

Nikion901

If you ONLY indulge on Thanksgiving and Christmas ... that's only 2 days out of a month and you should be able to eat some treat food that you normally don't have or eat more than you normally do without a problem. It's when it bcomes eating that more in abundance ... like several times a week, that weight will come on. So, my trick to not gain weight during that time frame is exactly that ... I stick with my normal food plan except for those days and on them I will have extra food but not to the point of feeling sick from overeating.

As far as the 5 or 6 parties ... that's 3 or 4 more than the 2 days I already counted ... so on those days the way to deal with it is to eat a bit less on the days around the parties so the extra food on the party days average out to what's close to normal.

lorrpb

Portion control. Have a taste, not the whole thing!

Chef_Barbell

I eat all the foods and drink all the drinks. :drinker:

cwolfman13

ACrazyNightOwl wrote: »

Try to go easy on the carbs.

why?

Verity1111

Some options are...
Watch your calories. Eat what you want, in small portions.
Exercise more the weeks before or after so you can afford to eat a bit extra on holidays.
Add in extra exercise on the holidays/days you eat more.
Lower your calories/raise your calorie deficit for the days before and/or after so you can eat more on holidays.

llbrixon

Tip: Treat the Thanksgiving Holiday as ONE day not 4-5 days. Treat Christmas as ONE day and not 2 or more days.