Maintaining Through The Autumn Season
xxbubblegothanaxx
Posts: 4 Member
Hello everyone!!
It's that time of the year again 🎃🍁
Comfy sweaters, harry potter, shopping, and crisp rainy mornings – all the reasons autumn is my favorite season! However, its also accompanied by many delicious treats that make it hard to stay on track. I've just recently reached goal weight, and it's very important to me that I don’t gain the weight back, but still get to enjoy my favorite comforts.
Here are some helpful tips to surviving the halloween season without any spooky weight gain:
1. Starbucks – If youre like me, you LOVE pumpkin spice! And no one does it better than starbucks, but those 400+ cal counts can ruin your day as soon as it starts. Instead, order your drinks with nonfat or coconut milk. (grande nonfat psl = 330cals) And for frappucinos, ordering without whipped cream saves 110cals on grande/venti sizes!
2. Portion control – we all love halloween candy, and just because youre maintaining doesn’t mean you cant still enjoy some… with caution
Try counting and calculating an amount for yourself before you start eating. Remember theres other sweet treats besides pure candy (Halloween oreos, 70cals per cookie)
3. Bake smarter – Autumn baking us one of my favorite activities, and with some devoted research I've found some crafty ways of cutting cals from pastries, including: I Cant Believe Its Not Butter Light is the lowest cal butter I've found, at 40cals a tablespoon. Truvia is the lowest brown sugar, at 60cals a tablespoon, and lastly using white whole wheat rather than all-purpose flour. (around 50% cal difference).
4. Cold weather comfort – Lastly, one of the most difficult aspects of autumn is the colder, sleepier weather, and with the school year starting again, it can be hard to not come home and eat some hot comforting casserole when youre too tired and hungry for anything else. However, there are low-cal alternatives for these days too. Dinty moore and Hormel completes dinners are super yummy and cheap (200cals per dinner).
Hope you guys find these helpful! Don't forget to avoid restaurants and cafes that don’t have their calorie counts on menus or online, and making treats at home is the best way to know what you're actually eating. Have a great autumn everyone❤❤ -xoxoMissAna
It's that time of the year again 🎃🍁
Comfy sweaters, harry potter, shopping, and crisp rainy mornings – all the reasons autumn is my favorite season! However, its also accompanied by many delicious treats that make it hard to stay on track. I've just recently reached goal weight, and it's very important to me that I don’t gain the weight back, but still get to enjoy my favorite comforts.
Here are some helpful tips to surviving the halloween season without any spooky weight gain:
1. Starbucks – If youre like me, you LOVE pumpkin spice! And no one does it better than starbucks, but those 400+ cal counts can ruin your day as soon as it starts. Instead, order your drinks with nonfat or coconut milk. (grande nonfat psl = 330cals) And for frappucinos, ordering without whipped cream saves 110cals on grande/venti sizes!
2. Portion control – we all love halloween candy, and just because youre maintaining doesn’t mean you cant still enjoy some… with caution
Try counting and calculating an amount for yourself before you start eating. Remember theres other sweet treats besides pure candy (Halloween oreos, 70cals per cookie)3. Bake smarter – Autumn baking us one of my favorite activities, and with some devoted research I've found some crafty ways of cutting cals from pastries, including: I Cant Believe Its Not Butter Light is the lowest cal butter I've found, at 40cals a tablespoon. Truvia is the lowest brown sugar, at 60cals a tablespoon, and lastly using white whole wheat rather than all-purpose flour. (around 50% cal difference).
4. Cold weather comfort – Lastly, one of the most difficult aspects of autumn is the colder, sleepier weather, and with the school year starting again, it can be hard to not come home and eat some hot comforting casserole when youre too tired and hungry for anything else. However, there are low-cal alternatives for these days too. Dinty moore and Hormel completes dinners are super yummy and cheap (200cals per dinner).
Hope you guys find these helpful! Don't forget to avoid restaurants and cafes that don’t have their calorie counts on menus or online, and making treats at home is the best way to know what you're actually eating. Have a great autumn everyone❤❤ -xoxoMissAna
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Replies
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Harry Potter because of Halloween or because you’re going back to Hogwarts on September 1st? I’m still waiting for my owl. 😢13
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I do love autumn
cosying up in front of the fire watching telly
I've maintained my weight loss for over 5 years and my my ten cents is:
I'm not one for buying coffee out, drinking calories to me is a waste, I'd rather eat em LOL - If I do have coffee out its usually a skinny latte for 150 cals.
Hallowe'en candy thankfully for me isn't an issue - my kids are grown up and we don't get trick or treaters calling as we live in the back ar$e of nowhere
Since I lost weight I lost my sweet tooth so candy/sweets aren't an issue. I will enjoy a few squares of chocolate every day, but that satisfies me.
I also like to bake, but I make the full fat/full sugar version because imo taste is everything - I will only have a very small slice though or if I want a bigger one, I'll make sure they fit into my maintenance cals/TDEE.
A 200 calorie ready made dinner would never cut it for me but I can see why some would find them handy. My dinner averages 500-600 cals - I use the slow cooker for casseroles/soups/curries for handiness, its great to come home from work and dinner practically really to serve. Or having the dinner prepped the night before so all that's needed is to cook it means it can be ready to eat in around 30 mins.
As for eating out, well that only happens now and again so I'll eat whatever I darn well want I'll hardly think of the calories because I get full easily and stop when I'm close to being full.
I also bank calories - i.e I eat at deficit during the week so I can eat more on the weekends.
Keeping active is my main way to maintain my weight easily, it means instead of only being able to eat 1600 cals at 5ft 2, I can eat 1900 - that keeps me from being hangry as well as keeps me in shape
Congrats on reaching maintenance, you'll find it takes working at keeping the weight off just as much in maintenance as it did when losing but its totally worth the effort 14 -
p.s the kinds of restaurants I go to rarely have the calorie content displayed, to say to avoid some of the best eateries out there because of lack of calorie information would make me sad
. We all have should a good idea of the calorie content of food after tracking on here or we can make really good guesstimates. 10 -
With tracking and discipline, I am hoping it won't be that much different. The two big things I worry about are the lack of variety in fruit, which has a fair mount of sugar but isn't as calorie dense as most treats, and the loss of so much stand up paddling as one of my primary exercises. Through the spring and summer, I have been paddling twice a week most weeks, several miles at a time. I often burn 1000+ calories on a single outing. I don't worry too much about falling off the wagon; I worry about ending up hangry in the evenings because I used up too much of my daily allowance on the warm pumpkin bread someone brought into the office...4
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Fall isn't really an issue for me, but Christmas-time is terrible. Every day at work the table in the kitchen is covered in sweets and other snacks. Ugh. Life is hard
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Fall isn't really an issue for me, but Christmas-time is terrible. Every day at work the table in the kitchen is covered in sweets and other snacks. Ugh. Life is hard
For that one I like the tip - "It isn't what you eat between Christmas and New Years that causes weight problems; it's what you eat between New Year's and Christmas." The only trouble with that is that a lot of the treats start showing up around Thanksgiving and don't disappear until a few days after new Year's. It keeps coming back to discipline.12 -
My tip is to only buy Halloween Candy that does not appeal to you. I don't put chocolate in the bowl, but Nerds, Twizzlers, Ring Pops, Laffy Taffy, and any candy kids like that I don't. Another is to keep Holiday Meals a one day event. I cook just enough of the really fattening foods (stuffing, pecan pie, macaroni and cheese) to last for one day, but make extra of the healthier options (low sugar cranberry sauce, sweet potato mash, fruit cobbler with no added sugar and a lightened up topping). Instead of splurging on Starbucks Coffee (pumpkin spice or Peppermint Mocha anyone?), I buy one or two bags of the Holiday Coffees and make my own skinny coffees at home. At parties, I follow the "All You Can Eat Buffet" rule i.e. One plate of half veggies and half of whatever looks delicious to me followed by another plate of fruit for dessert. It really helps to have a strategy in place for the Holiday Season--if I keep my weight gain to 2 to 3 pounds, it is easier to take it off later.
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CarvedTones wrote: »Fall isn't really an issue for me, but Christmas-time is terrible. Every day at work the table in the kitchen is covered in sweets and other snacks. Ugh. Life is hard
For that one I like the tip - "It isn't what you eat between Christmas and New Years that causes weight problems; it's what you eat between New Year's and Christmas." The only trouble with that is that a lot of the treats start showing up around Thanksgiving and don't disappear until a few days after new Year's. It keeps coming back to discipline.
Exactly, it's an entire month and a half or so! I gained about 5 lbs last year during that time. lol. This year will be better3 -
MaggieGirl135 wrote: »Harry Potter because of Halloween or because you’re going back to Hogwarts on September 1st? I’m still waiting for my owl. 😢
Going to Harry Potter world in Oct. I will see about your owl! Lol2 -
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!3
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I'm SO glad the summer heat(100+) is heading out!! Fall isn't really a problem for me, I don't eat candy & sometime get iced coffee with soy & sugar free vanilla. I love to cook & bake . Looking forward to using my oven again & making stews & soups & casseroles. Thank you for sharing1
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@xxbubblegothanaxx
I am sure that many people in MFP will appreciate your posting, and good for you for having a plan, and congratulations on reaching maintenance. Way to go! But I agree with @LivingtheLeanDream.
I don't like candy so Halloween or holidays are not a problem for me. Kids are all grown up and grandchildren not living nearby (two of them are too old for Halloween). I also live in a gated community so no trick or treaters came to ring my bell
. I am retired so no office temptations to be concerned. Yeah!!
Coffee is mostly at home with the exception of once a week treat; but I only drink black coffee cold or hot and I share a piece of sweet with my husband. I also save extra cals for the weekend or for outings so I am covered.
I live in southern CA and we don't have much cold, except at night when I am under the covers and the temperature may dip to low 40s (OMG!). Today is 106F in my neck of the woods..., and that is colder that it has been in a long time. Salads and soups are my comfort food all year long.
I eat out a couple of days a week and I am not planning to change that. Most of the restaurants that I eat at don't have nutritional information either. I know that many people in MFP recommends to only eat at places where the nutritional information is available and to plan ahead what to eat; however, IMOP that is limiting the eating experience and my husband would not go for that, and it doesn't appeal to me either.
I have been in maintenance for close to 9 years and I learnt a lot from my experience. I don't like to bake, so that saves me calories and I like to exercise and that keeps me active.
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Don’t like Starbucks anything, so that ones easy. Don’t bake. I buy Halloween candy the day of, a the last kid gets whatever’s left.7
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I hope my daily, searingly honest. food logs will keep me on the path. A guilty conscience is it's own accuser.7
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Great reminders and suggestions!!!!1
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I just leave a bowl of all the candy on my porch and then we go trick or treating with my kids. I'm sure the first kid comes up and empties it into his bag, but whatever. At least I participated. I don't have much problem eating the candy myself but my husband does! drives me nuts! I buy a bag of candy and then by the time halloween is here, the candy is gone!5
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We have trick or treaters but never know how many will appear. Some years 25+ some years 2. I buy chocolate that I like in snack sizes, so after Halloween I can have a small piece when I really want something sweet. Our leftover chocolate will usually last us about 3 months.
I can't imagine eating only 200 calories for dinner. That's a snack, not a meal.0 -
I usually get some pumpkin spice tea to satisfy my pumpkin spice cravings in the fall. All the pumpkin spice flavor with none of the calories of a pumpkin spice specialty drink. I just like saying pumpkin spice. Pumpkin Spice.7
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I just want to point this out since it’s been mentioned you’re new to maintenance and these could really mess with your counts if you’re using bad entries, the flour in particular.xxbubblegothanaxx wrote: »Hello everyone!!
It's that time of the year again 🎃🍁
Comfy sweaters, harry potter, shopping, and crisp rainy mornings – all the reasons autumn is my favorite season! However, its also accompanied by many delicious treats that make it hard to stay on track. I've just recently reached goal weight, and it's very important to me that I don’t gain the weight back, but still get to enjoy my favorite comforts.
Here are some helpful tips to surviving the halloween season without any spooky weight gain:
1. Starbucks – If youre like me, you LOVE pumpkin spice! And no one does it better than starbucks, but those 400+ cal counts can ruin your day as soon as it starts. Instead, order your drinks with nonfat or coconut milk. (grande nonfat psl = 330cals) And for frappucinos, ordering without whipped cream saves 110cals on grande/venti sizes!
2. Portion control – we all love halloween candy, and just because youre maintaining doesn’t mean you cant still enjoy some… with caution Try counting and calculating an amount for yourself before you start eating. Remember theres other sweet treats besides pure candy (Halloween oreos, 70cals per cookie)
3. Bake smarter – Autumn baking us one of my favorite activities, and with some devoted research I've found some crafty ways of cutting cals from pastries, including: I Cant Believe Its Not Butter Light is the lowest cal butter I've found, at 40cals a tablespoon. Truvia is the lowest brown sugar, at 60cals a tablespoon, and lastly using white whole wheat rather than all-purpose flour. (around 50% cal difference).
4. Cold weather comfort – Lastly, one of the most difficult aspects of autumn is the colder, sleepier weather, and with the school year starting again, it can be hard to not come home and eat some hot comforting casserole when youre too tired and hungry for anything else. However, there are low-cal alternatives for these days too. Dinty moore and Hormel completes dinners are super yummy and cheap (200cals per dinner).
Hope you guys find these helpful! Don't forget to avoid restaurants and cafes that don’t have their calorie counts on menus or online, and making treats at home is the best way to know what you're actually eating. Have a great autumn everyone❤❤ -xoxoMissAna
All natural sugar has 48-60 calories per tablespoon. If the Truvia is strictly about calories and not avoiding sugar it’s not saving you anything.
There is no difference in calorie counts between white and whole wheat flour (455 cals per cup) and only a small difference between them and white whole wheat, 400 vs. 455 not anywhere near a 50% difference.
The quick meals both say servings per container vary.
As for me, my daughter is a professional baker and this house is swimming in baked goods for the holidays. She makes those Browned Butter Sugar Cookies and it’s all over, lol. I typically gain (and plan for) about 4lbs from October through December and I’m okay with that. I don’t 100% lose my mind but I do loosen up a little. By the end of January those four pounds are gone and I’ve tightened things up again.
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I'm still going on the losing -- 20 pounds left to go, so I won't be done until the spring -- but my solution to Halloween candy is to give out small cheap novelties and toys instead. Glow bracelets, bubble blowing stuff, whistles, balloons, slime, plastic jewelry, rubber ducks and such -- they keep from year to year, you can buy them from Oriental Trading and you'll NEVER eat them 4
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MaggieGirl135 wrote: »Harry Potter because of Halloween or because you’re going back to Hogwarts on September 1st? I’m still waiting for my owl. 😢
I'm saying, HP is 365 days a year, not just fall (That Errol got lost again, I'm sure)
Meanwhile, laugh if you will, but I've had an eye on this situation since July. Candy, fall-themed treats, hot drinks - these things do not scare me. I eat candy and treats with regularity and impunity so I simply have to swap which treat I work into my day and continue with moderation. What I find daunting is the food-celebrations that inevitably come with fall. The foothills festival with its funnel cakes, deep fried oreos, gelato and beer. I want to go to that and not gain 2 pounds. The Halloween parties with their delicious creepy cakes, and potions, and tables laden with nothing designed with your health in mind. Oh dear GOD, the football games. Nothing edible at a football game is made to promote health. Thanksgiving: and that's all Imma say about that. I can probably avoid a lot of these events, but what's the point of getting healthier and more confident if you don't join in on the celebrations of life?
For Thanksgiving, I generally host the meal, so I've been reworking some of the old family recipes to be lighter and healthier while not compromising taste. I'm prepared to give that day over and just enjoy family. I know one day will not derail me, and I've made every effort to make it a better food day. It's the rest of the celebrations that have me edgy. My game plan is to go in leaning heavily on discipline, remembering that everyone has to work to pay for indulgences. Either you pay for it in terms of time to work off the extra calories, or you pay for it by carrying extra weight around. Obviously, I'm going to indulge, but I think I may save my indulgences for the things I feel are worth the work.
I am however, open to suggestions if anyone with more experience has words of wisdom to offer!1 -
One of the hardest for me is home made goodies in the break room. Candy is out pretty much all the time and i can have a Baby Ruth every few days and it will always be the same. Donuts are bought from a few different places but they seem to rotate though those places and ones I like will be available again. If I am in the break room and there are home made treats that look really good and/or others are praising, I feel like it's now or never to try them and a small serving doesn't scratch that itch.3
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How about Fall being a great time for long walks, hikes, runs, bike rides, etc that many put off because, "summer heat is so stifling"? Chopping wood for the fireplace, raking leaves, etc. Great time to get in some more activity.8
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I don't find soups and casseroles a problem, they are easy to make voluminous and delicious! Also the cooler weather means I am likely going to have more energy, I'm not a sun and heat person.
Also those Hormel Compleats look like cat food, I tried one once and it was nasty.2 -
My favorite autumn/winter hack is just adjusting the Hershey's hot chocolate recipe:
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract (2 calories)
2 tablespoons HERSHEY'S Cocoa (20 calories)
2 tablespoons sugar 1 tsp honey (21 calories)
1 cup milk unsweetened cashew milk (25 calories)
Dash salt
TOTAL: 68 calories
I had one every day last winter. It's super easy to fit in and still really rich. If I have extra calories I add marshmallows or whipped cream, or a candy cane stirrer.2 -
I love outside workouts in the fall! Nothing beats a dewy morning run in the crisp air under a canopy of changing colors!
Some of my favorite lower calorie fall foods are:
1. Apples with FF caramel or brown sugar
2. Apple cake
3. Stewed apples with cinnamon
4. Ok, enough of the apples...
5. End of season garden vegetable soup
6. Roast beets
7. Acorn and butternut squash
8. Brussel sprouts
9. Cider braised pork
10. Pumpkin bars with FF cream cheese0 -
Halloween isn't too much of a problem for me as I'm dairy free and won't eat milk chocolate. My wife has to be dairy free (she's allergic to cow dairy), so I eat the same way. I will make her some dairy free chocolate from scratch and we eat that and that's it. She's also gluten free, but I make her a Take Five Bar imitation using GF Pretzels and Dark Allergen free chocolate. We make those and one tray of Mounds Bars (homemade) and that does us for Halloween. Just enough and not too much. We give literally the rest away to the kids that get to our home last. Kids are fighting now to get to our home last, right before 8 PM. They have figured out to save our house till last and you might get an entire bag of candy! Future MFP members! I'm doing my part to keep the site strong.
I have a B-Day two days after Halloween and we don't do cake for that any more. I might just do a pint of Dairy free Peanut Butter Ice Cream.
For Thanksgiving now, we limit desserts and don't do X-mas cookies any more except maybe one batch of GF Snickerdoodles, which taste as good as the real GF, dairy thing. We've modified most of even our Winter recipes to be lower calorie.
I find staying warm in Winter helps me tremendously. Now that I'm 70/60 lbs lighter after 6 years of maintenance, I get cold very easy. When you're cold, you want to eat more. We have space heaters, thermal socks, I have a nice foot warmer under my desk even. Staying warm, even if it means wearing a jacket in the house helps me a lot.
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But Fall also means
~ more time to exercise because I don't have to wait for the temperature to drop to go horse riding
~more sleeping because it isn't close to 80 in the apartment
~more PUMPKIN and other root veggies, which are great to cook with and can be "healthy hack" for some recipes like pumpkin gnocchi, sweet potato sheperds pie, pumpkin risotto, pumpkin stuffed shells.
Can't wait for the apple cider dougnut and cider at the orchards, I'll happily do some extra exercise in the crisp fall weather for those.2 -
Fall is hunting & gathering season for me. I'll be busy picking apples, gathering mushrooms & best of all deer hunting. I'll probably drop 5lbs because I'll be too busy to eat...lol4
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