Eating right during the holidays

Cakes, cookies, pies.....oh my! With christmas being around the corner, and with family functions with lots of "fattening" & "unhealthy" sinfully delicious food right in my face, how does one stay the course and not indulge?.

Food is food.

I would suggest you choose your calories wisely. Don't spend your calories on items that you can easily get. Pick foods that are very rare.

My plan is to have a little bit of what I really want and not just eat mindlessly. Also KNOWING I HAVE to log in everything makes me think twice about what to put in my mouth! Trying some light versions of things is helpful. For example, I have a new light cocktail recipe to get me through the parties and gatherings. For Christmas dinner, turkey is fine, and I will only have a little bit of the gooey side dishes. I think I can pass on most sweets, but maybe only have one dessert a day. I will have extra time so maybe I can go for a hike or two to burn.

Cakes, cookies, pies.....oh my! With christmas being around the corner, and with family functions with lots of "fattening" & "unhealthy" sinfully delicious food right in my face, how does one stay the course and not indulge?.

Food is food.

I would suggest you choose your calories wisely. Don't spend your calories on items that you can easily get. Pick foods that are very rare.

This is what I do. I usually have spiral ham, mashed potatoes and gravy, and cheesecake. I don't waste calories on anything I don't enjoy and I log everything. I only indulge on the holiday, no left-overs. And I try to eat close to my TDEE but I don't stress over it. It's one day. You're going to have holidays and social gatherings with food for the rest of your life, so having a good strategy for it is important.

Exercise, amp up how much you do. I normally speed walk 40 minutes a day, but am going to do 60-90 mins a day over the festive period, so I can indulge a bit. I am not going to blow it just because there is food everywhere, I have had loads of Christmas's where I have eaten what I wanted and look where that got me! It is time to dig deep and stay strong.

Cakes, cookies, pies.....oh my! With christmas being around the corner, and with family functions with lots of "fattening" & "unhealthy" sinfully delicious food right in my face, how does one stay the course and not indulge?.

Food is food.

I would suggest you choose your calories wisely. Don't spend your calories on items that you can easily get. Pick foods that are very rare.

^^^ This

I won't be missing out on a single bite of the holiday foods that I won't get a chance to eat for another year. In fact, I posted a thread last week that I plan to eat up to my maintenance calories for the holidays. I did the same for Thanksgiving, and it didn't stop my progress at all.

I would go with this thread....even if you go a little over on christmas day it is not THAT bad..just don't use 'the holidays' as an excuse to over eat every day and not work out...I used to be like..oh well its the holidays I can slack for am month and make it up in the new year ...SO WRONG! Keep crushing the work outs and eat well except on Thanksgiving Day, Xmas Day, and New Years....three days of having a little of you want will not kill you...its the seasonal blow out that will...

Agreed.

It's pretty stupid gorging on foods that you normally eat. If grandma makes that special cake or pie, go for it. Pick those special treats and enjoy. The biggest thing is not to stress. That will cause more trouble.