Staying on track during Holidays

leader10784
leader10784 Posts: 3 Member
in Introduce Yourself

Hello everyone!

I am tracking and learning all about macros and so forth. I feel that I am doing well and I am looking forward to learning more about nutrition as I continue to lose weight. It is important to me to have proper nutrition to fuel my body for long term success.

I am wondering how people manage to stay on track during the holiday season? How do people enjoy the celebratory meals and such and not get completely derailed? Any advice on the issue will be appreciated!

Jodie

Answers

  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 38,465 Community Helper

    One important thought, IMO: It's holiDAYS, not holiMONTHs.

    What really matters is our average calorie intake over a period of time. A couple of days over maintenance calories is a drop in the ocean, minor impact. What we do day-in, day-out on repeat - our routine habits - is the ocean.

    I'm not saying to go totally wild on the actual holidays. It's a good plan to keep it reasonable, but it's not essential to be in a big deficit, or even any deficit at all for those special days.

    Of course there will be treats on offer through the whole time period. Some will be really special, worth eating, either fitting within calorie goal on a day, or maybe going a bit over goal but staying at least close to maintenance calories. Some will just be sub-par grocery store cookies with fancy holiday frosting, or something equivalent: Festive, but not all that delicious. What each of us finds truly delicious will vary, but that's the question each time: Is this specific thing worth it to me, this time, in a context where I want to achieve my long term health goals?

    I lost weight with MFP nearly ten years ago now, have been at a healthy weight ever since. I eat indulgently on the actual holidays, and go back to my healthy routine on other days. Now and then, I have some treats, either by fitting them in my calorie goal (maybe lowballing one of my nutrition goals for one day to fit them in), or accepting that if I do gain a little weight, I'll have to lose a few pounds again. I know how to lose a few pounds. As long as it doesn't get out of hand, it isn't even hard.

    Repeating myself: With calories and nutrition, it isn't essential to be exactly exact every single day. It's not a magic spell in which every syllable needs to be precise, or bad things will happen. For calorie intake and nutritional goals, pretty good on average the majority of the time will work just fine.

    That's how I think about the holidays, and actually about eating in general. YMMV.

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