How will you cope with festive food

Lessennan

Since we don’t go out for Christmas lunch on Christmas Day I’m trying to plan ahead and add away from the normal daily stuff .
Portion sizes are fine.
Calories I can manage UNTIL I try to add the Christmas cake!!!

Has anyone else thought about it yet or are you just going to let go for Christmas and New Year and start afresh on January 4 th?

Lietchi

Last year, my New Years Eve was actually more of a calorie explosion than Christmas!

I moderate myself to 'sensible' portions overall (also because I don't like feeling too full) and only seconds of my favorite foods. I may try to bank some calories beforehand. I will also skip breakfast to limit the damage. But not a chance I'm staying below my maintenance calories and I have no ambition to do so.

In my case, it's three days, it won't destroy my progress! I enjoy the food, count it (eyeballing) and then move on.

rosebarnalice

In a family setting, I always offer to bring a dish or two, and I plan on making those as healthy as I can so they're the majority of my meal. Rosemary roasted veggies, savory curried sweet potatoes or acorn squash with caramelized onions, and mini apple pie phyllo cup tartlets are always popular

cmriverside

13 years of holidays are now in the books since I lost my 80 pounds. I haven't gained it back.


I remember in the beginning feeling like I had to jump through some hoops on holidays. Now I realize I can't really do a lot of damage on three or four days.

You'll figure it out.

CurvyEmmy

Oh my gosh, I ALWAYS gain weight between Thanksgiving and New Years! But usually it’s around 5 pounds. Last year I gained 11 pounds in that time which was my biggest holiday gain.

I feel like holiday gaining weight is inevitable and you shouldn’t stress about it too much. You need to be kind to yourself and allow yourself to enjoy the holidays and yes that involves indulging in sweets and eating as much as you feel having like even if it’s a bit “too much”. You can’t stress about this stuff during the holidays or you won’t enjoy yourself and that’s bad for your mental and emotional health!

It’s natural for weight to fluctuate throughout the year and to go up a bit during holidays and winter in general.

The best thing is to accept that and then start fresh in January. That’s what I try to do I just need someone to motivate me and encourage me and hold me accountable, This January I did a resolution to walk more and I pushed myself to do the treadmill for 15 minutes every day. I was able to keep it up for 10 days and I lost 4 pounds. I feel very proud that I did that because I’m not an athletic body type so i had to really push my self to do that. The push started to feel like too much for me and I felt like “I deserve a break for my mental health.” I feel a bit guilty that I didn’t get back to it and I didn’t lose all of my holiday weight.

Now with the holidays around the corner I know there will be more weight but this time I want to stick with it in January and lose ALL of my holiday gain. I need help staying motivated! Maybe we can make a group for accountability!

Lessennan

Thanks for the comments so far. I just have to make the Christmas cake pieces smaller

AnnPT77

Lessennan wrote: »

Since we don’t go out for Christmas lunch on Christmas Day I’m trying to plan ahead and add away from the normal daily stuff .
Portion sizes are fine.
Calories I can manage UNTIL I try to add the Christmas cake!!!

Has anyone else thought about it yet or are you just going to let go for Christmas and New Year and start afresh on January 4 th?

My feeling is that the problem isn't so much *holiday* indulgence - those 2 days, or thereabouts - but rather treating the holiday *season* as a free-for-all . . . which is pretty easy and tempting to do, but also more manageable, given some thought and planning. I can enjoy those holiday parties, cookies at the office, happy hours and whatnot, without blowing out my calorie goal every. single. time.

I've figured out that if I stuff myself to the maximum possible across a day, via normal indulgent eating**, I'm topping out around 3 times my normal TDEE, so just a touch over an extra pound's worth of calories, around 3500-4000 calories over maintenance.

(** By "normal eating", I mean just eating yummy stuff as presented, without explicitly strategizing to fit in as many calories as possible as the main goal, as those "10,000 calories in a day" YouTube challenges do.)

I know how to lose a pound, if I have to . . . even 2 or 4 of them, given US Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas, New Years.

Thing is, when I've eaten those 5-6000 calorie days - and I've done it multiple times while counting calories over the past 7+ years - I never see the full impact of those calories on the scale, after I give it a week or so for the water weight and excess digestive contents (on their way to becoming waste) are out of the picture. Fat regain is less than the math would imply, from a *rare* huge indulgence, IME. Some regain? Yes. But less than the numbers would imply.

There's some science about why this would be so, to some extent; but I also wonder if there's a limit on how many calories the body can absorb during full digestive transit, in a rare case - when presented with a volume of calories it hasn't been training for, in effect.

Personal case study example:

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10603949/big-overfeed-ruins-everything-nope#latest

True for everyone? Don't know. From other posts here on MFP, I'm not the only one, though.

westrich20940

I have found that it's easier for me to make sure my eyes are not bigger than my stomach (I used to be like...miserably full). But --- I love ALL of the Thanksgiving/Xmas foods. So, I am the person who puts a spoonful of everything on my plate. I end up with a full plate with like 3 bites of everything (including all the desserts I want to try). I know I'm over my calorie goal for the day but it's just a few days honestly. So I don't worry about it.

I simply cannot deny myself my fav holiday foods =D It's not going to cause a crisis. I don't typically get in much serious sweets usually but man....the Holidays are an exception.

no1wf

This will be my first Christmas under a lifestyle change and to be honest I'm probably just going to fit the Christmas chocolates into my day, log them and account for them. Christmas day itself I'll probably log breakfast to keep my streak going but then enjoy myself for the day. Don't make idiot decisions, keep portion sizes sensible but I didn't get to my highest weight overnight and I won't get back there overnight either. I figure I'm allowed to enjoy myself at Christmas!

goal06082021

As best I can. Day-of, I plan to eat lighter before the main meal, but otherwise I'm focusing more on maintaining the daily exercise habit I've cultivated over the past year and continuing to meal prep and stay on-plan diet-wise* the rest of the time.

(*I'm using "diet" here in the general sense, just "the foods that I eat.")

Lessennan

I hadn’t had a restaurant pizza for a very long time and tried one last weekend and my tum just couldn’t take a whole one. Maybe festive eating will not be controlled by my hands this year. Used to manage a dessert after a whole one

rheddmobile

I’m a diabetic so I can’t afford to overindulge even on holidays - my blood glucose doesn’t care what day it is! I used to really stress over holidays because everything my family eats has carbs. I’m starting to get a grip on things though. My plan looks like this:

First - I don’t stress too much over calories. I eat at maintenance and do some extra exercise to bank calories for the day.
Second - surrender the idea that enjoying the holiday is all about the food. I will not particularly enjoy the foods because I eat my favorite safe foods every day, and I can’t eat my favorite holiday desserts ever again, because “diabetic friendly” holiday food is sad and disappointing. So create new traditions to make it a special occasion. My husband and I usually run a race on holidays, we listen to music and dance, go out to see holiday lights, and so on.
Third - take charge of enough of each meal that I at least have things to eat. Make sure there is something green on the table (my mom says, do we really need a salad and vegetables? Note that my mom is also diabetic, but just eats whatever she likes, which is why she is headed into kidney failure), lean meats, nuts, and a dessert that won’t spike me.
Fourth - if in a situation where I can’t control the food at all, remember that I won’t die from not eating it. I can just eat a couple of bites, then socialize, wait, and eat foods which are safe for me later.

Speakeasy76

I will eat the things I really enjoy, albeit smaller portions. If I don't really actually care for something all that much and I used to eat it because it's there, I probably won't eat it. I eat more of the better for you stuff and less of the not-as-good-for-you stuff.

Since last holiday season, I've gone through an elimination diet under an RD discovered multiple food sensitivities, including often-main-ingredients like cow's milk, gluten and eggs. I'm also sensitive to some preservatives and sulfites and you often don't know what those are in. I'm less concerned about the weight gain and more about feeling blech again from eating that stuff. It will be hard to avoid it, and we always go to my parents or in-laws 4-5 hours away for the holidays so it's not like I can easily bring my own stuff. I'm already planning on only eating my phase 1 and 2 foods for 2 weeks after the holidays; the RD told me that that in and of itself can be like hitting the reset button.