What are your holiday eating strategies?

suzyqholland

I'm going to be traveling and I'm trying to figure out things that I can do to help me stay within my calorie goals. Does anyone have any ideas for me?

F00LofaT00K

If you will be eating at restaurants while traveling, plan ahead for where you will eat and find the menus online ahead of time. Plan as many of your meals ahead of time as you can and stick to it as much as possible. If your plans involve one or two big holiday meals, eat a bit less and exercise a bit more for the next few days. Don't eat back all of your exercise calories for a week afterward.Don't eat large portions of anything. Stick to a healthy portion of meat and help yourself to veggies. Pick one or two small desserts if you must. I'll only be eating dessert if it's something out of the ordinary. I can get chocolate chip cookies whenever... but if somebody made some homemade tiramisu, I'd be all over it!

ETA: If you're staying with relatives, you could offer to do the cooking. This way you know exactly how much food you're eating. Even if you can't count calories while you're traveling, keep a written food diary anyway. It may help to give you the accountability you need to avoid splurging on too much food.

lthames0810

Traveling for the holidays is a special time. You seem to have been very diligent in your efforts up to now and I know you don't want to blow it, but don't spoil the holidays for yourself either. Sometimes it's a good thing to give your body a break from the calorie deficit. Maybe you could practice maintenance eating during this time. If you are determined to stick to your plan, then I am all admiration for your discipline. These are the things I would suggest in that case:

Usually it's the special feasts that are the most dificult to manage. The breakfasts and lunches can be more spartan in order to save more calories for the big food events. If you are at others' homes for the feasts and don't want to offend your host by not eating their specialties, you can appear to be eating more than you really are, by taking a small portion of the offerings, but only eating part of them while heaping praise on the cook. If you are not at a table, but mingling around a party, you can concentrate on the social part of the event and not so much the food. I like the previous poster's suggestion that you consider whether the available food is diet break worthy and don't overeat the mundane stuff. If you are at a restaurant you'll just have to practice searching the menu for healthy items and asking for them to be prepared the way you want. Even better if you can pick the restaurant yourself.

The excercise part is more of a problem to me. If you are at a hotel that has a fitness room you feel safe in, you could use that to advantage. If you're at people's homes, not so much. When my husband and I travel, we end up doing a lot of walking while touring around. If you're staying in one place for a while, you can look up hiking and biking opportunities. For example, in Key West we rented bicyles one day and went snorkeling another. In Charleston we took a self guided walking tour.

I hope you have a marvelous time on your trip!

Jestinia

I'm going to stay strictly low carb and just to be sure I don't give in to temptation, I'm going to eat a huge slab of dead cow right before I go to the family dinner.