A battle of the mind

CarolinaSweetheart93

I'm having a hard time with Christmas coming up. I have the 20th through 25th off work and my kids will be on winter break. Every year we bake and decorate cookies for Santa Clause and I want to be able to enjoy that with them. Idk what to do. I want to enjoy my time with them but I also don't want to feel guilty if I eat one or two cookies.

nanastaci2020

Try to disconnect feelings of good vs bad when it comes to food. There is no good food. There is no bad food. Food is fuel. Eating cookies is not bad. And in the overall scheme of things: even eating over your target calorie goal does not have to be a big deal. Having a few out of the ordinary days is fine. Even if you ate 1000 calories over maintenance for each of those 5 days, the net 'gain' would be offset by returning to your deficit over the following week or two. (Depending on your normal deficit target.)

Now you probably don't want to eat ONLY cookies over the break - but that was not your plan, I imagine. Enjoy the time with your family.

ChickenKillerPuppy

You should absolutely enjoy your cookies - just come up with a plan and stick to it so it doesn't become a free-for-all. If you record you food, just plan on recording 2 or 3 cookies, whatever you realistically think you will eat. Try to approximate the calories the best you can, and if you record your calories, just make sure they are part of your log. It's OK if you are over your maintenance calories for the day, that is going to happen, I think your goal should be to be deliberate, to make a plan, and to stick to the plan.

I also want to agree with nanastaci2020 that there are no "good" or "bad" foods. I literally eat dessert (usually cookies) every day, but I PLAN for them. Because I plan for them, I don't feel guilty when I eat them. And I plan for other indulgences. Last weekend I planned to eat 3,200 calories (about 1,100 calories over maintenance) because I had lunch plans with a college friend, and dinner plans with my in-laws (2 restaurant meals in one day), and I stuck to my plan and ate what I had planned ahead for (including alcohol and sweets) and I enjoyed every minute of it because I didn't feel I binged or lost control, I came up with a plan and stuck to it.

Good luck, and I hope you do get to enjoy your tradition.

ChickenKillerPuppy

One more note - plan and record the cookies ahead of time, not after you eat them. That way you know you get to enjoy three cookies and you can do that, opposed to just feeling unmoored at cookie-time and going crazy. And don't just record one if you think you will eat two or three - be realistic!

nossmf

Unless those cookies are simply enormous, I doubt they'll equate to more than 80-100 calories each. So eating "one or two" means you've added only a couple hundred calories, which isn't even a blip on the scale. So beyond possible concerns with diabetes or other doctor's demands, I say go ahead and enjoy your time baking, including eating one or two for "quality control." lol Those calories are easy enough to account for during your daily logging, or at worst will be offset the following week as @nanastaci2020 pointed out.

Sometimes we need to splurge a little for the good of our soul. Time spent making memories with kids during the holidays far outweighs (pun intended) the concern over the additional calories. (Unless you go overboard and have a dozen cookies per day...)

AnnPT77

What Nanastaci said ^^^^.

Most of us, what we're trying to do is not just lose some excess weight, but - maybe more importantly - find a happy life pattern with habits that keep us at a healthy weight long term, balancing calorie intake over time with things like tastiness, nutrition, practicality, social connection, family/cultural traditions and more.

It sounds like your happy life pattern includes some Christmas cookie baking, and some Christmas cookie eating. A few Christmas cookies are a tiny drop in the ocean of life's total calorie intake: Don't let them have more power than that.

Yes, it's good to change our patterns to some extent, maybe even necessary. In the case of Christmas cookies, I think that means being thoughtful about how many cookies to eat, how often, over what period of time, in what overall eating/activity context. (Maybe the context includes some fun Winter outdoor play, or indoor active play?)

Have some cookies, in reasonable total numbers, over the holiday period. Share some quality time and some cookies with the kids. Also, you have an opportunity to share with your kids a wonderful model of celebration, enjoyment, moderation, and overall mentally/physically healthy life balance. IMO, that's a pretty amazing gift to give them, no matter the time of year.

Merry Christmas!

nay0m3

I can relate to how hard this can be! I could never eat french fries or potato chips again but sugar and I are best friends (or worst enemies!) and one cookie could easily lead to two or ten? I agree--plan this ahead in your tracking and allow yourself the opportunity to enjoy the cookies and time with your kiddos. Make it a mindful experience and actually SAVOR and TASTE and eat little bites to make it last. Sit down and have a glass of milk or almond milk with your cookies and your kiddos. I find allowing myself to really enjoy the taste and giving myself space to eat something I normally don't, helps me to not want to binge on things. If I have the conversation and agreement with myself ahead of time, it makes all of the difference. Reaching out here is a great step and I hope some of our thoughts help you! *HUGS* and please let us know how it goes for you.

elisa123gal

do what you must. If you binge eat cookies.. then don't decorate them this year.. decorate a gingerbread house. one of the those awful hard as a rock pre fab kits you buy at a store. That way you have the fun and tradition of decorating something ..without eating or binging.

callsitlikeiseeit

elisa123gal wrote: »

do what you must. If you binge eat cookies.. then don't decorate them this year.. decorate a gingerbread house. one of the those awful hard as a rock pre fab kits you buy at a store. That way you have the fun and tradition of decorating something ..without eating or binging.

so her KIDS cant decorate and eat cookies? Sorry not sorry, I dont buy into that BS

Look, take this for what its worth, from someone who has lost 230 pounds, make the stupid cookies and either have the willpower to not eat any (i dont like sugar cookies and royal icing, so not hard to say no thanks) or log a few and enjoy.

I eat cookies or sweets every day. For crying out loud, I have an entire section in my diary title 'I NEED A COOKIE'. I keep room for them.

Its christmas week. Your kids are only young once. Mine are grown now, and holidays arent the same.

decorate the damned cookies. maybe even eat a couple.

kshama2001

If you literally mean "one or two cookies" then your issue might be that you are very rigid about dieting and would benefit from relaxing a bit.

If your "one or two cookies" is a slippery slope, I can relate! Please advise and we can strategize for that. I find it helpful to have had plenty of protein and fiber before I start on high carb & fat foods like cookies. Otherwise, and especially if I am hungry, I can eat and eat and eat and never feel satisfied.

mookybargirl

If I have challenges like this, I pre log my meals. Add the cookies, add your meals for the days and make it fit. See what you’ve got to work with. Those cookies taste so much better knowing you’ve enjoyed them and stayed within the goal you set.
If it leads to uncontrolled cookie binge and I’ve been there, try not to let it throw your whole 5 days out the window of eating everything. You can be in control and eat the cookies. Even a whole batch of cookies won’t matter in the long term as long as you find your way back to your deficit goals. But 5 full days of eating anything and everything gives you a little damage to deal with

amusedmonkey

If you really do mean a couple of cookies, then I don't see the issue. If it's too hard for you to see cookies as normal food, deconstruct them in your head. They're basically flour (the stuff in bread, including diet bread and diet cereals), sugar (the stuff in many foods like fruits, beets, milk, BBQ sauce...etc), eggs (well, they're eggs), and butter (the stuff you add to salmon and many other dishes you see as "healthy").

Some foods have a "villain" aura because the diet culture deemed them scary, but in reality, they're just food. Some are less nutritious, but that doesn't mean they will somehow remove all the other nutrients in your overall diet. Some are more calorie-dense, but that simply means you need to be careful with the amount (FWIW, nuts are more calorie-dense than cookies).

A couple of cookies is a drop in the bucket. You don't gain weight by eating a couple of cookies. You gain weight by consistently eating more than your body burns, whether that includes cookies or not, and you lose weight by consistently eating fewer calories than you burn, whether that includes cookies or not. The keyword here is consistently.

Even if you do overeat those cookies, the occasional overeating or undereating means nothing in the grand scheme of things if you're not overeating/undereating consistently. Gained a pound during the holidays (ate over your maintenance by a total of about 3500 or so calories)? Big deal, it will be gone in a couple of weeks or less when you're back to dieting. This isn't consistent enough of a change in calorie balance unless the overeating drags on for weeks/months/years.

metaphysicalstudio

You are not alone! I also feel some stress around the food of the holidays. Some good advice here. I just wanted to offer some support!

cwolfman13

A couple of cookies is pretty immaterial to your diet on the whole. I think you need to figure out a way to put aside this notion of good food/bad food. Frankly, I don't try to lose weight over the holiday season. I don't go off the rails or anything, but I do take a month from Thanksgiving through the New Year to just relax and enjoy spending time with my family and making holiday memories.

It's no big deal and generally I come out of the holiday season ready to hit the ground running and in a better mental position for tackling my training and my nutrition. My cycling season starts in April/May so that means I pretty much have to commence training starting January 2. I also get my nutrition in order and also do dry January. I typically will lop off whatever weight I put on over the last few months of the year by the time April rolls around...May at the latest.