So the Holidays.....And Eating

if you invite me over for dinner i will personally show you how to eat all those southern goodies through the holidays...


i plan on dealing with it just like i deal with parties or bbq's or any other outing... i will probaby just have a small taste of everything i like leave a little room for dessert and stay away from the empty calories of punch and cider and any other sweetened beverage.

then the next day i will wake up and hit the gym hard like i do any other day.

plus to be honest my stomach can't pack it away like it use to when i was younger or when i had poorer eating habits. 2 beers and i am bloated and anything more than one plate of food and my stomach is knocking for the bathroom

saw something on tv the other day that said the average person eat a 3300 calorie meal on thanksgiving...

Personally? I just relax and enjoy myself most of the time at these things. It's a day for guilt free indulgence, imo-- but even, then, I find there are a lot of things, like pop, that I used to crave and now don't care about.
Your mileage may vary here, but I find whatever weight I put on over one or two days of holiday eating (Holidays are typically three hours from here, so there's a day or two where I'm off diet) comes off really quite easily afterwards.

i deff wont be counting cals on christmas day i been realy good with my eating and i really dont think a day or 2 will hurt to much as long as i dont go over board and carry on eating when i am full

My plan is to get my butt to the gym every day the weeks of Thanksgiving and Christmas and get in serious workouts. I generally eat back most of my exercise calories, but I may take it easy those days. Then I won't feel guilty at all eating a big fabulous Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner. I'm also running a 5k Thanksgiving morning.

I won't be counting Between Thanksgiving and the New Year. I am going to try to hold my own on weight or allow myself to gain a couple of pounds. Not only will there be big dinners, but it is candy making and bread baking time.
I learned at Weight Watchers once that you need to choose what you want to do during the holidays---lose, stay the same or allow a gain and then not stress over it.
I also know that I don't eat as much as I used to and will only choose my favorited. I personally can't wait till thanksgiving for dressing and noodles----YUM

I'm probably going to ramp up my running during the holiday season in preparation for all the holiday eating. As far as Thanksgiving, there's always Turkey Trots. Great way to burn some of the calories before you even consume them.

I'll be on vacation over Christmas anyways so I'll be away from all the sweets but I will have to contend with restaurant food for almost two weeks.

I usually don't log simply because I'm with my family and there are more important things to do during the holidays. However, I try not to eat a ton. Personally, I try to eat just one helping of dinner (no going back for seconds!!) and I try to eat more turkey and veggies than I do potatoes and other high-carb food. I try not to snack on junk (although this is ridiculously hard as my mother makes the BEST Christmas baking - yes, even better than your mom's!!). What really kills me on the holidays is all the alcohol, but I don't worry about it too much. When I get back home and back into the routine I might have lost a week or two in my goal, but I know that the good times I had during my stay with my family is weeelllll worth it.

I'm just going to have a couple of bites of all my favorite stuff thats about it.

I'm planning on eating with my family WITHOUT going diary-log nuts
I am going to give myself reasonable portions as to not stuff myself like the bird [like I have done every year]

My family is Mexican so we dnt do thanksgiving. thank gawd!

I'm going buck wild and enjoying myself. If I gain a few pounds, no biggy.

Girl i know exactly what you mean! I'm Mexican and from the south so yeah, we go big for holiday meals. I plan on ENJOYING the food. Maybe not over eating... My biggest weakness is dessert. i do plan on logging my meals even on Christmas and new years because i'm curious on what my sodium/sugar intake is going to be.

I'm running a 5K Thanksgiving morning. My breakfast that day will probably be a little bit of granola so I can actually manage the 5K. After that.. I'm eating, I'll try to make better choices (not necessarilly good choices) and then get on with my life the next day.

Christmas eve wont be a big problem, I don't know for sure about christmas but it's the same thing all over again, I'll keep on with everything I'm doing the next day. Plus I have two races on new years day, a 5K and a one mile.

My strategy is always to eat a little bit of everything. I make one small plate with all the things I really want in small portions. Generally I get full of just that since I eat a lot less now than I did in the past, so unless I'm really hungry I STOP at that one plate. Then have a small portion of whatever dessert is there. If I've eaten a bunch of different things and can't even fathom the idea of logging it, I don't bother. But if I can log it, I try to, just to see how far over I went out of curiosity. I never feel any guilt because I don't pig out like I used to and it is, after all, a holiday.

*this*... except that it will be a standard size plate (10-12"?) for me. I just joined MFP in Sept, so this will be my first food holiday trial-by-fire.
Breakfast and lunch will be almost entirely raw fruits and veggies to minimize sodium intake before the 'big meal'. I will log where reasonable, but I won't be my usual "pre-logging, macro Nazi" self.
I will probably exercise a little more during those weeks, but won't beat myself up if I don't. For more than a decade I used to be a Black Friday warrior, up at the crack of dawn, loving the crowds, and shopping the whole weekend; I imagine that I used to get a serious calorie burn from the all-weekend madness. However, last year was the first year that I did most of my shopping online. The Cyber Monday deals were so good that I don't know if I can go back to shopping the ol'-fashioned way. So I'll have to factor that in to my exercise plans.
My Stage 2 goal (see profile) was to get below 260lb by Turkey Day and maintain until after X-Mas before losing again. I've already built-in a 5 lb "fudge" factor (both figuratively and literally), so as long as I stay below 265 lb for T-Day, I'm good.

Unfortunately, diabetes doesn't take a holiday.