Maintaining Through The Autumn Season

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  • hippysprout
    hippysprout Posts: 1,446 Member
    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 :p (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!
  • CarvedTones
    CarvedTones Posts: 2,340 Member
    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.
  • Packerjohn
    Packerjohn Posts: 4,855 Member
    nowine4me wrote: »
    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.

    Good pointers. I couldn't care less if Starbucks never existed too.
  • MelanieCN77
    MelanieCN77 Posts: 4,047 Member
    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.
  • kimothyschma
    kimothyschma Posts: 209 Member
    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.
  • funjen1972
    funjen1972 Posts: 949 Member
    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 cheese
  • MikePfirrman
    MikePfirrman Posts: 3,307 Member
    edited September 2018
    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. :D

    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.
  • RadishEater
    RadishEater Posts: 470 Member
    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.
  • xbowhunter
    xbowhunter Posts: 944 Member
    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...lol
  • rheddmobile
    rheddmobile Posts: 6,840 Member
    kimothyschma wrote: »
    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.

    Sounds yummy! My autumn/winter drink is a latte made with a modest amount of 2% milk (I think 57 calories? Even less if using unsweetened almond milk) with a few drops of almond extract, shaved dark chocolate and cinnamon on the top. If your machine doesn't have a foaming attachment, you can make foamed milk in a jar in the microwave. You can add your own pumpkin spice, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, or other autumn spices without adding a bunch of sugar calories. Then sweeten to your liking.

    Flavored extracts are a great low calorie way to pomp up coffee and hot chocolate for the holidays. I have rum, orange, vanilla, and peppermint at various times.
  • rheddmobile
    rheddmobile Posts: 6,840 Member
    xbowhunter wrote: »
    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...lol

    Wish you lived near me! I don't know anyone who hunts anymore and I miss venison!
  • sydlovesscience
    sydlovesscience Posts: 7 Member
    i try to think of it like any other time of the year, because of dietary intolerances it is not to hard to continue into the fall season. the only hard part is not knowing the calories/macros of anything so that is challenging.
  • xbowhunter
    xbowhunter Posts: 944 Member
    rheddmobile wrote: »
    xbowhunter wrote: »
    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...lol

    Wish you lived near me! I don't know anyone who hunts anymore and I miss venison!


    LOL Have not bought meat in years... :)
  • FL_Hiker
    FL_Hiker Posts: 919 Member
    xbowhunter wrote: »
    rheddmobile wrote: »
    xbowhunter wrote: »
    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...lol

    Wish you lived near me! I don't know anyone who hunts anymore and I miss venison!


    LOL Have not bought meat in years... :)

    I am beyond jealous right now...
  • kimothyschma
    kimothyschma Posts: 209 Member
    rheddmobile wrote: »
    Flavored extracts are a great low calorie way to pomp up coffee and hot chocolate for the holidays. I have rum, orange, vanilla, and peppermint at various times.

    I was just reading about these in the "New products that caught your eye thread" and I had no idea these things existed! I've got to get some. I need the peppermint!
  • CarvedTones
    CarvedTones Posts: 2,340 Member
    edited September 2018
    xbowhunter wrote: »
    rheddmobile wrote: »
    xbowhunter wrote: »
    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...lol

    Wish you lived near me! I don't know anyone who hunts anymore and I miss venison!


    LOL Have not bought meat in years... :)

    Part of my motivation for giving up mammal meat is because of the inefficiency of farming; growing bushels of corn as feed to produce a single hamburger instead of feeding several people with crops fed to farm animals. Game doesn't have that issue. We can't feed everyone that way, but I can't fault those that provide that way. I harvest fish.

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