Support for the holidays

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SusanDSME
SusanDSME Posts: 194 Member
in Motivation and Support
I've just started tracking my calories and exercise, and I'm nervous about the holidays. We're traveling to husband's family for Thanksgiving, and the food... oh, the food! I want to stay active and stay sensible through this crazy season of eating. Anyone else here want to encourage each other through this challenging season?

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  • chellekoren
    chellekoren Posts: 273 Member
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    Me! My family does a LOT of carb heavy casseroles. My goal is to load up on turkey, green bean casserole (less carbs, I️ think), fruit salad and maybe ONE of the casseroles but I’m not sure on that. Pumpkin pie for dessert.

    I️ want to jump on the elliptical before hand too.
  • SusanDSME
    SusanDSME Posts: 194 Member
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    My brother-in-law is a chef and my sister-in-law is a pastry chef (they have their own restaurant), and they're cooking Thanksgiving dinner, so this is going to be hard. My favorite parts of Thanksgiving are stuffing and cranberry sauce, which aren't exactly diet-friendly foods. I think I'm going to try to case the spread before we eat so I can figure out a rough idea of the calories in everything, so I don't go crazy and eat it all and then figure out what I've done. The family also often goes out to an Italian restaurant the night before... another challenge. We are staying in a hotel with a gym, so at least I can burn some calories!
  • PaytraB
    PaytraB Posts: 2,360 Member
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    Holidays will be an ever-ongoing awareness issue. Each holiday, we will need to find that balance between enjoying and overindulging.
    Exercise each day to give yourself more wiggle room.
    Change your goals to maintenance for the few days of celebration (and not longer).
    Keep an aware eye on what you're putting on your plate. Take less of the calorie dense foods, more of the calorie light foods. Don't snack or snack with awareness, keeping portions small (1 cookie is okay; 6....maybe not so much). Awareness is key.
    Enjoy yourself but keep your goals in mind. Both are attainable.
    Maintenance plus the exercise calories plus awareness of what you're putting in your mouth will keep you within your goals.

    You can do this. If you conquer the Holidays, you'll be able to manouver through them for years to come.
  • mgmagnolia
    mgmagnolia Posts: 4 Member
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    I'm struggling with this issue, too. I have two Thanksgiving dinners to go to tomorrow. There's two more in a week or so. Then Christmas parties, etc. I'm also worrying about how to accurately log what I eat.
  • rileysowner
    rileysowner Posts: 8,121 Member
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    SusanDSME wrote: »
    I've just started tracking my calories and exercise, and I'm nervous about the holidays. We're traveling to husband's family for Thanksgiving, and the food... oh, the food! I want to stay active and stay sensible through this crazy season of eating. Anyone else here want to encourage each other through this challenging season?

    Don't make it a "season of eating". Make is a few days here and there where you eat a lot. If you only eat a lot on the actually days (Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, and maybe a party or two) while sticking to your calorie goal all the other days, you will be far ahead by January even if you ate like crazy on those special days. A huge part of the issue is people start eating too much for a one day event, then continue to eat that way pretty much every day until January 1st, ie. "a season of eating".
  • SusanDSME
    SusanDSME Posts: 194 Member
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    Yeah, I have a tendency to make it a season of eating. Like a couple of years ago, I made 5 king cakes for Carnival. Not a good plan. I'll have to change that this year!

    @mgmagnolia - I'm worried about logging, too. We don't eat out much, so I usually know what goes into our food, since I make almost all of it.
  • Aarjono
    Aarjono Posts: 228 Member
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    My goal is mindful eating not mindless. Consistent logging, and keeping on track with my exercise plan.
  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,464 Member
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    Keep your portions small!
  • hannahsmithmd
    hannahsmithmd Posts: 4 Member
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    Try to maintain healthy eating over the holiday period can be very difficult, especially if you are visiting multiple people and don't want to offend them.

    Try and keep your portions as small as you can and don't get disheartened if you think you eat too much over the holiday period, try and go back to maintaining your diet before it or set yourself extra exercise goals like going for a an hour walk after dinner or just getting out of the office and constantly walking for your lunch period.

    Try and set yourself small achievable goals and don't feel too guilty , if you do eat too much over the holiday period.

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