How to NOT Gain Weight During the Holidays

For me .. I seem to forever gain about 5 lbs on holiday .. oh well. I'm not afraid of it .. it's not 20 lbs! And I plan and accept it. What I plan on doing a little differently this holiday is rather than trying to stick to my plan (currently pushing for the last few pounds to drop) .. I'm going to work on being on maintenance instead.

I'll still have crap days because unfortunately .. for 8 days over Thanksgiving and 18 days over the Christmas/New Year's holiday .. I'll be living out in a hotel and ALL meals will be restaurant food. It's the same every year .. This is how my family celebrates the holidays together .. away from home. Of course I will make the most healthy possible choices and exercise portion control (placing 1/2 orders instead of full entrees whenever possible) .. I always do when I'm traveling anyway. It's just not possible to make my own meals. I request a refrigerator and microwave in my room .. but the fridge is tiny .. and quickly fills up with leftover meals before I have chance to eat them. It's a lot more expensive to rent a suite with a kitchen in a neighboring town.. and traveling (not for business, but for family) 5 times a year .. isn't cheap. Flying, car rentals .. it's already adding up.

I do plan on using the hotel's gym and swimming pool every day! and I'm going to enjoy my family, friends, the food and drink! I will not bloat out and fail miserably every day. I will simply do the best I can :-)

Thanks for the post

Why are we all talking about Holidays that will last two months??? There is Thanksgiving (fine, 2 sets of parents, thus, 2 dinners), Christmas (or whatever else you are celebrating)- 2 dinners and the New Years party. Throw in a few corporate parties. So maybe 5 -7 bad meals spread over 2 months. It's just the mentality so stop with bull cr@p if you care about the progress you've made so far, enjoy those several dinners/lunches and continue on with what you were doing before holidays.
We are all here to reach a certain goal so why looking for excuses and giving yourself whole 2 months to eff up your progress?

Phewwwwwwwww. I am done....

Great idea to eat all the healthy stuff first and save the junk for last! I usually pile EVERYTHING on my plate at once lol

BUTTTTT what about ALL the leftovers??? We usually have a week's worth of leftovers after Thanksgiving and Xmas :-(((((

Learn to love the 80/20 rule. If you are going to attend your office and family parties and plan on eating and drinking whatever the hell you want, that means you need to be incredibly diligent in your normal days. No more, “okay just one” which leads to four or five. Instead, aim for great week days – eat great breakfasts before work, bring your lunch in, and cook a great dinner. Then, on weekends or holiday parties, eat what’s available.

Eliminate the term “cheat day” or “cheat meal” from your vocabulary. ”Cheat” implies that you’re doing something wrong or immoral and should thus feel ashamed afterward, which I don’t think is true. Last weekend, I ate pizza, drank beer, and ate a dozen hot wings on a Sunday while watching football, and didn’t feel an ounce of guilt or shame about it – it wasn’t a “cheat day,” it’s just simply part my eating plan. Eating great 80% of the time and eating what I’m in the mood for during the other 20% allows me to feel good, look good, and have fun.

Now, after that “whatever” meal is done, I immediately go back to my normal healthy eating schedule – not because I was cheating or because I felt guilty, but because that’s just how I operate. No momentum loss, because it’s business as usual!

^^^ THIS. This is something a lot of people need to take to heart 365 days a year. It makes me sad how many "I just had a binge and life is completely over. I'll be fat forever." posts I see in the forums.

Bump

Also take into account...how many Thanksgivings and Christmases have you had? 20? 30? 40? Why can't you skip this ONE to save your life, to get healthy and feel good about yourself?

This is so true, I like the way you put it...

its called SELF CONTROL

And balance.

How about double jeopardy, all married people know what I am talking about. Dinner at her parents place, dinner at your parents house . Same at Christmas, and you can bet there will be food for 40 when only 12 are showing up. All the bad food choices, sweets, bad carbs, you feel like a alcoholic in a bar with open bar.

I just accept its going to be a bad month, and look forward to January so I can resume my diet. I figure it won't be so bad when I reach my target weight, then falling off the wagon won't feel so bad.

but i'm going to be trying to lose weight every other day. 80% on point, allows me 20% wiggle room.
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Try what, eat lettuce while everyone is eatting. I admit I am a food addict, I lose weight by not having the bad food around. So I guess I was trying to comment on having to put up with two bad days of eatting instead of one. And you don't know me, and what I have loss, so don't assume I am a failure, nice way to try and help.
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This will be my first holiday season while dieting, but I have an idea in mind that I plan to try: PORTION CONTROL. I'm taking my digital scale and dishers with me. I also plan to log every bite in MyFitnessPal. It is working for me now, and I haven't given up any favorite foods or drinks. The other secret weapon I have is my husband. We're doing this dieting together, so I will be taking my diet partner with me to help with the challenge.

We no longer face double jeopardy because DH and I are in our 60's and our parents are with God, BUT we have kids who have cherished holiday traditions to follow that we established over the years. I'm so happy with my progress that I'm unwilling to let things go too far. There is only one holiday treat I worry about, clam dip and potato chips. It is my Achilles heel. I'm considering how to handle it. Perhaps we can substitute another scooping vehicle for the potato chips, like celery or cucumber slices. And I'll make "diet dip" by using neufchatel instead of cream cheese. I plan to include the kids in the discussion so no feelings get hurt if we slack a bit on the celebratory food. In the end, the scales will tell whether we succeed.

Just eat ALL the foodz!!! Rawr!!

Listen, this is coming from someone who has FFBS (Former Fat Boy Syndrome): Just eat all the food. You'll be just fine, get back on track the next day. If you're truly worried about it, stay within your caloric goals and just ignore macros for the day. That way you can still eat pie or whatever and not have as much guilt.

I still say EAT ALL THE FOODZ!!!! I'm aiming for 10k calories on Thanksgiving, true story.