Rate your fear of Christmas food on a scale of 1 - 10

UKMarjie
UKMarjie Posts: 257 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I am at a healthy 8.5 with a bit of rationalization keeping me from an 11.

Keep thinking the holidays don't go on forever and the longer I hold off on baking the better it is for me...and my diary count!
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Replies

  • Rayman79
    Rayman79 Posts: 2,009 Member
    0/10

    Why on earth would I have a fear of food?

    Think about it logically. How could a couple of days of over-indulgence possibly outweigh years of healthy lifestyle???
  • UKMarjie
    UKMarjie Posts: 257 Member
    That makes sense. I guess I am pretty excited by the idea of losing weight and seeing results and think that I have chosen one of the hardest times of year to begin. I am thinking of letting myself enjoy and keep up with tracking and just work at keeping it all reasonable.
  • Abstraktimus
    Abstraktimus Posts: 213 Member
    I'm just going to portion control everything, I'm not going to say NO YOU CAN'T HAVE THIS OR THAT. Just going to have small amounts of what I want and not go crazy.
  • zaph0d
    zaph0d Posts: 1,172 Member
    0
  • Molly_Maguire
    Molly_Maguire Posts: 1,103 Member
    I don't fear food. If I am going to fear anything, it would be myself, who makes the choice to EAT the food.

    I control the food, it doesn't control me.
  • bridgelene
    bridgelene Posts: 358 Member
    0/10. Crap, today I ate 2 meals of fast food bc it was a crappy day and I was out at emergency medical appts all day so I picked up things on the run. And I was still under my calories ('though I certainly wouldn't make a habit of it).

    It's just food. You have to be able to live as part of this. A few days here and there can be a part of that and not hurt ya :)
  • Rayman79
    Rayman79 Posts: 2,009 Member
    Sounds like a sensible approach to me!

    There are ways to minimise the impact during the holidays too. Time off from work for a lot of people makes it easier to get more exercise for example.

    My advice would be to log what you have (especially given that you are just starting out), it will help you appreciate just how much you are consuming, and might make it easier to get back on track after the silly season.

    Don't go completely stupid with foods, strategies like avoiding the nibbles/snacks and piling up my plate at meal times works for me. I can load up on lots of good protein and veg but still feel like I'm eating whatever I want.

    I'll definitely eat over maintenance for a few days over the holidays but I might have a couple of half-fasting days too.

    Honestly, learning how to achieve fat loss gradually is the single hardest thing for most people. If you can get your head around that and maintain a level-headed approach that will put you in the best possible place to reach your goals!
  • NocturnalGirl
    NocturnalGirl Posts: 1,762
    Food is something that shouldn't be feared. 0 is healthy, anything more is not a good sign in my opinion.
  • Nina2503
    Nina2503 Posts: 172 Member
    0/10 Christmas is two days, its people that turn it into a week or ten day food fest
  • pinky_pie
    pinky_pie Posts: 127
    0 - food is not your enemy.

    Zombies, on the other hand. That's a 9 for me.
  • graveflower316
    graveflower316 Posts: 169 Member
    0/10. If I eat a lot, I eat a lot... it's not the end of the world. Just start back up the next day if you can't help but nibble a little too much on the day.
  • meeka472
    meeka472 Posts: 283 Member
    0/10...I just log it all and eat in moderation.
  • VanessaHeartsMasr
    VanessaHeartsMasr Posts: 727
    I'd like to say 0, but I'm gonna say 1. I have a little fear of going nuts on the cookies.
  • cmcollins001
    cmcollins001 Posts: 3,472 Member
    I'm going with 0

    I'm going to eat until I can't eat anymore....and then eat more.

    The "holiday season" isn't a season, it's a couple of days spread over a couple of months. If this throws a monkey wrench in my weight loss...then I'm doing it wrong.

    ETA: And no logging during the festivities either.
  • darisey
    darisey Posts: 228 Member
    0. I plan to eat as many cookies as humanly possible :D
  • Natashaa1991
    Natashaa1991 Posts: 866 Member
    first world problems.

    "OMG OMG OMG I hate Christmas! there's so much food around!"

    puh-leeeease! and there are kids starving.
  • UKMarjie
    UKMarjie Posts: 257 Member
    Sounds like a sensible approach to me!

    There are ways to minimise the impact during the holidays too. Time off from work for a lot of people makes it easier to get more exercise for example.

    My advice would be to log what you have (especially given that you are just starting out), it will help you appreciate just how much you are consuming, and might make it easier to get back on track after the silly season.

    Don't go completely stupid with foods, strategies like avoiding the nibbles/snacks and piling up my plate at meal times works for me. I can load up on lots of good protein and veg but still feel like I'm eating whatever I want.

    I'll definitely eat over maintenance for a few days over the holidays but I might have a couple of half-fasting days too.

    Honestly, learning how to achieve fat loss gradually is the single hardest thing for most people. If you can get your head around that and maintain a level-headed approach that will put you in the best possible place to reach your goals!

    I think that is the journey part of it. Corny I guess but I am working my way through the steps, as it were, and am currently in the 'accepting that there is an issue' part of the program. It isn't the exercise part I need to work on but the entitled way I approach food. Being brought up in NA you get a sense that you should snack after every bit of exercise - like the soccer snack syndrome I observed at my daughters games this summer. My mother was a compulsive comfort eater so I don't have a great roll model in the way that I portion things. Measuring stuff out has been a big lightbulb for me. The idea that I should be satisfied with an actual portion is something I am going to have to work on. And let's be honest...if you are on a weight loss journey - somewhere along the line your relationship with food has gone slightly astray - and my comment about fearing food is not unreasonable in that context. Saying it is not to be feared is something good to hear.
  • UKMarjie
    UKMarjie Posts: 257 Member
    first world problems.

    "OMG OMG OMG I hate Christmas! there's so much food around!"

    puh-leeeease! and there are kids starving.

    First world diss when you are typing onto a chat forum...but ok. ;)
  • Natashaa1991
    Natashaa1991 Posts: 866 Member
    no diss. just another perspective of "fear of yummy food"
  • Emtabo01
    Emtabo01 Posts: 672
    I know what you mean with the baking. I've never been huge into Christmas baking, but I was never into cooking in general, until I started MFP, now I'm really into cooking and baking, just usually skinny recipes though. I've been making tons of sweets/desserts this month. They're all healthier recipes, mostly from skinnytaste and websites like that, but it's still hard to not overindulge even on healthier sweets. I ate 3 Skinny Dream Bars ( you know, the ones with sweetened condensed milk, coconut, chocolate chips, etc). I just won't be eating anything else afterwards today and I won't go over on my calories, which I don't think I want to eat anything else tonight, I'm stuffed and sweeted out after that. I just tell my husband to eat as many as he wants or bring some to work. I'm not afraid of the food, but it does require more self control than normal because of the easy accessibility of it being around. I know I could just not make it, but I like my husband and kids to be able to have a treat, especially around the holidays.
  • justal313
    justal313 Posts: 1,375 Member
    I'm afraid that someone will try to feed me mushrooms or heaven forbid commercial fruitcake. I do not however fear I'll eat too much food. Mushrooms are gross and commercial fruitcake is awful especially when I've had excellent homemade fruitcake.
  • kdeaux1959
    kdeaux1959 Posts: 2,675 Member
    1
  • NZhellkat
    NZhellkat Posts: 355 Member
    Lol Can I say -5. Because it's just another day that I get to hang out with my new extended family and have a boatload of fun. I'm here for my physical health and well being not because I wanted to lose weight. That is just the added bonus.
  • 3foldchord
    3foldchord Posts: 2,918 Member
    Where is the zero? Food is not to be feared. As long as no one is serving liver and onions to me this season, I am fearless.
  • LaurenAOK
    LaurenAOK Posts: 2,475 Member
    0/10

    Why on earth would I have a fear of food?

    Think about it logically. How could a couple of days of over-indulgence possibly outweigh years of healthy lifestyle???

    This this this WINNER DING DING DING :flowerforyou:
  • Rayman79
    Rayman79 Posts: 2,009 Member
    I'm afraid that someone will try to feed me mushrooms or heaven forbid commercial fruitcake. I do not however fear I'll eat too much food. Mushrooms are gross and commercial fruitcake is awful especially when I've had excellent homemade fruitcake.

    I'll agree with you on that! This is the one time of year when I get my fix of homemade 8 hour steamed Christmas pudding (soaked in brandy custard of course), and I aint skipping that for anything! :drinker:
  • waterwing
    waterwing Posts: 214 Member
    Last year I would have said 10.. this year I'm about a 3... I've got a workout schedule planned out and as long as I get my workouts in when I can and don't go completely insane.. I think everything will be okay. You gotta live! You gotta celebrate!
  • AggieFan2011
    AggieFan2011 Posts: 551 Member
    Absolutely 0 fear here!

    I've only been using MFP for about 6 weeks now, but I can already tell you there is no reason to have a fear of holiday food. I know that the Christmas food typically lingers a lot longer than Thanksgiving does, but over that Holiday I went two straight days without logging anything that I ate and thoroughly enjoying myself (I mean I didn't go insane, but I didn't completely restrain myself either) and when I stepped on the scale on my weigh in day the next week I had still lost a pound. Having a couple of days of enjoying some christmas cookies and pie will not undo all of your hard work, I promise. Plus, I view this as a lifestyle change and I can guarantee that I will not being living the rest of my life in fear of overindulging on the Holidays so why start now. That's just my opinion though. :smile:
  • Saiava
    Saiava Posts: 68 Member
    Hmm....2 for me. Kinda worried about possible weight gain and sabotaging the effort I put into weight loss; however, it's the holidays, and I will not care. I want to stuff my face with all the yummy goodness, and I won't log anything for two days! Besides, I have almost a week after that to be a good girl and burn of the holiday goodies. :)

    Relax, enjoy the food and family. It's only two days. ^^
  • Koshkaxo
    Koshkaxo Posts: 332 Member
    Honestly, at least a 6 or 7. I have at least 3 different invitations to family and friends Holiday meals plus my work feeds us if we work xmas (which i will be) plus plus there are other contractors in my work area that offer xmas meals.

    Everyone in my town is on shift work so unfortunately most of these meals will all be on different days. It will be hard to politely refuse peoples good will but Im aiming to have small portion sizes at all meals I end up attending.

    I wont even get started on how much I love eggnog and rum :sad: I guess I'll stick to a glass of wine instead.

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