Surviving the Holidays

sugaspice999

Birthday on thanksgiving, so going to eat whatever But I'm requesting atleast cauliflower mashed potatoes, moist turkey, cranberry quinoa apple stuffing, almond butter cinnamon sweet potatoes, and probably birthday cake + ice cream!!!

mcesira

Plan is to get up early, run hard and do some calisthenics and then enjoy the day with family... with small portions and hoping to make smart choices. For me, we have most of this food around us all year long. So this is a constant struggle for me, but yes, holidays mean even more temptations! Too many sweets, which are my weakness!

I am Italian and I am always cooking/baking for my 3 children and husband and my extended family eats together every weekend like this. This is going to be hard for me because all my life eating for hours at a time and big portions is just what we always did! So I have to keep this in mind. I just began this journey in January so this is my first year of watching what I eat. Wishing you all peace and time with the ones you love and care about!

katieme

I will be rosy cheeked from the vat of sherry I aim to consume and full of mince pies.........santa is my idol!

lithezebra

I'm going to make a pie, now that I have a good recipe for gluten free pie crust. Maybe I'll go completely decadent and make pecan pie.

mmapags

Survive??? "Survive is what you do when you're stuck in a foxhole in Afghanistan, a small village in the Sudan, or a weekend in Detroit. Applying the word survive to a holiday is patently ridiculous. It's ONE day!!! Eat the food!

EAT ALL THE FOOD

A similar thought occurred to me. What is there to survive? Nobody is shooting at you. It only food for goodness sake!! Dramatic much?
I'm going with the plan Sidesteel posted in another thread.

I've been thinking a lot about this and I believe I have an optimal plan for ME. But please if you don't have anything nice to say about my plan then just don't say it. We are all here for the same reasons so lets just hold hands and sing songs. Ok now that I have that out of the way here's the gameplan.

First, I'm going to bring some whey protein with me to the thanksgiving feast. When my relatives aren't looking, I'll sprinkle some whey into their milk to hopefully help blunt their appetite so that they don't eat as much. Not for their sake, for mine. I really hate when we run out of turkey.

I've also decided this year that when I take four or five massive scoops of mashed potatoes, I'm going to use my spoon to mash the middle of the potato mountain to create a big cavern so that I can pour the gravy into the cavern and it will sit there like a gravy swimming pool. If I were more comfortable I'd take my shirt and pants off and dive into the gravy pool but I think it might be a bad impression to give my son since he can't swim yet, and that's pretty unfair.

I'm also going to sit in the chair nearest the back-counter where we keep the pie so that I can position myself closer to the pie and minimize travel time between my plate and the pie. This, combined with the potential hunger blunting effects of whey protein that I used on my relatives, may result in more pie for me.

Finally, I'm wearing my gym pants instead of jeans, and bringing a towel in case I get the meat sweats.

Thanks for reading my gameplans and remember this is just what works for me and we're all different.

lithezebra

I have allotted myself 5 free days between now and the 26th of December. (three of my kids have birthdays between Thanksgiving and Christmas, what's a mom to do?) I allow myself an extra 500-600 calories on free days. However, I really don't think I'll use them for Thanksgiving. My MIL doesn't believe in celiac disease and she is hostessing for the family this year. She seriously thinks I'm just not eating gluten because I want to make things hard for the rest of the family. I am truly scared to eat the turkey because many of them have gluten in/on them for flavor. Seriously, why? And she won't look at the ingredients. I'm taking the dressing and bacon wrapped asparagus and a butterscotch pie (I make my own GF crust) for myself. If Memaw makes the sweet potatoes, I'll be able to eat those and I don't know what else will be safe. There will be some veggies, but I don't know what. I won't be able to put butter on anything because of cross-contamination and I won't eat any bread of course.

Come to my house. My holidays will be all gluten free!

Since you probably can't do that, and you'd miss your memaw, you could take some butter with you. Best wishes!

Iwishyouwell

I'm giving myself 2 days for Thanksgiving to eat whatever I want, as much as I want.

I'm giving myself a week in December, starting a few days before Christmas, and ending a few days after, to eat whatever I want, as much as I want. It's my favorite holiday season, by far, and I intend to enjoy the culinary offerings this year to the fullest.

I don't count calories or log food, so that's not an issue for me.

ShannonMpls

Go Kaleo put it best:

My super simple guide to surviving the Holidays:

1. Go about your life as usual. Eat how you usually eat. Exercise how you normally exercise. Sleep how you normally sleep.
2. On the Holidays, celebrate with your loved ones. Enjoy the food that has been lovingly prepared, without guilt or shame. Eat what you want, and savor it.

The end.

ChrisM8971

I am going to eat, drink and be merry with my family and friends. I accept that this may mean I gain some weight over the Christmas period but I know that I can lose it again once it all over

zipnguyen

It's about family and friends and not so much about the food. LOL "not so much about the food" <---disclaimer. I've dieted and prepared for contest through contest-dieting which is a tad extreme and have survived the holidays. Are you going to go over your numbers? Sure. Key for me during dieting phases and if that dieting phase just-so-happens to occur during the holidays I start increasing deficits during the week marginally. Instead of calories in and calories out per day................think of it as calories in and calories out per week.

Reserve something like 100 calories per day for a week leading up until Thanksgiving or whatever familial event that requires you to eat. You're basically now budgeting for a +700 calories on Thanksgiving-day. So if you're maintenance is 2000 per day, you're budgeting 1900/day and bam 2700 on turkey day. From a weekly perspective, you're fine. Little strategies like this has helped.

If working out and dieting and you have "refeed days" place your leg day on Thanksgiving and have your refeed day on that day. Very minimal damage will be done and you will not be thrown off track in your overall dieting plan.

What are everyone's plan for the Holidays? I.e. When you are at the table with your family; how do you plan your day & still eating within a reasonable amount of calories? I realize I will be treating myself, but I don't want to go overboard or feel weird around others. I am the only one in my family watching what they eat (other than my husband), but he won't be with me.

Also, any key workout plans during this time?

Thanks!

Rebecca