Holiday Eating

comittobethin

I have been watching what I eat and exercising regularly since September 2nd of this year. I have been really committed with the occasional slip up on a meal but soon got back on track.

With Thanksgiving, I went WAY overboard for the better part of a week. I ate until I could almost burst and was then eating all the foods I had been missing since my eating habits changed. When I eat that way to the point I feel sick, I am miserable. I really don't know why I do it. I shovel down the food without even enjoying it and then feel miserable afterwards.

And yet, my mind is tricking me in to continuing these bad habits. How do you overcome the massive amounts of food on the holidays and how do you get back on track?

Poofy_Goodness

Your mind is not tricking you.

You're making choices.

You chose to let loose around Thanksgiving, which is totally fine. A day or two will not completely derail you.

Now you have to CHOOSE to go back to how you were conducting yourself. No more excuses. No more mental gymnastics to justify it.

Just choose to change your behavior. You've done it before.

thickerella

I know the feeling. I did the same and I swear I feel hungrier as a result. It usually takes a couple of days of healthy eating to stop the craving for junk. Hold firm and you can do it.

cwolfman13

I just choose to keep my portions within reason. I definitely overeat on the holidays, but not to the point of exploding out of my stretchy pants. I stop eating when I'm satiated...sometimes just a little full. It is a conscious decision that you have to make, there is not secret of magic to it.

megginanderson

I think that the things over the years that have worked best for me are to plan out these events or cheat meals. I think that way im telling my mind that its OK to eat the holiday meal and have a slice of pie or a couple of cookies but then the next meal is a planned meal according to my plan or guideline. Its def all mental, so by allowing yourself this special occasion your not feeling so badly after and more apt to get back at it.
The other thing that ive read is that if you are craving certain things and have trouble with occasional binging, your body is telling you something too. That maybe your missing some other things in your every day diet that are causing you to crave these other bad things.
Planning and consistency are the keys to success and I promise that the longer you are at your healthy lifestyle the easier it will become and then before you know it become second nature.
Hope that helps.

janicebinva

How do you overcome the massive amounts of food on the holidays and how do you get back on track?

I think of all the hard work I've done to date, and how I don't want to mess it all up by doing the wrong thing.

Like some of the others, I recognize that a big meal once in a while is not something that's going to make me fat. It's the other 95% of the time that matters. And when I sat down last week for Thanksgiving dinner, I ate slowly, had reasonable portions of all my favorites, didn't eat the things I didn't want as much, and had a piece of pie and a few cookies.

So I'd say, when you see those holiday food spreads, just think about how far you've come. Do you want to give it all up to a turkey?

Lizzy622

My trick is to slow down. If I am going to eat the sweet potato pie, I will enjoy every bite and savor it slowly. I also had a small mocha peppermint coffee which took me over an hour to finish. It was delicious and I wasn't going to guzzle it down but wanted to taste each sip completely. SLOW DOWN and enjoy.

knitcandi

This thanksgiving I let myself have a full plate of food, but just one. Then I let myself have a plate of dessert. After lunch it was back to the portion control mindset. It worked well for thanksgiving so I will probably use the same game plan at Christmas. I get one holiday meal with desert!

Sugarbeat

I did the same thing this year and I haven't been particularly "good" up to that. What I have been telling myself since, though, is that it is NOT one meal, at least in my case, so I do not treat it as such. Between the end of October and New Years, in my family, we have a birthday dinner for my husband, Halloween (and I do not always exercise my willpower around candy until we get to the Sweet Tarts), Thanksgiving, usually a church or neighborhood potluck, the holiday potluck at work, dinner with my mom, usually dinner with my sister and his, Christmas dinner, and we usually go out for Chinese on New Year's Eve. You just have to pace yourself and realize this isn't going away. Thanksgiving will come next year, as will whatever holiday meal/traditions you may have. I keep reminding myself that I don't NEED to eat everyone's dish and have dessert each time. I'm picking and choosing what I truly want, and then leaving the rest.