How are you going to avoid holiday binging?

My plan for holidays or going out is just to make up for it before or after, and try to be reasonable with my choices/portions.

During Christmas I'm planning on eating the hell out of the veggie trays we always have. Instead of ranch I'll be using hummus, and I plan on hopefully cooking a little myself. It's weird because my parents don't accept my dieting (even though it's my mother who's been calling me pregnant for 3 years,) but my fiance's parents would totally accept and praise not just my dieting but my vegetarian lifestyle. It'll be easy there, but more difficult at home.

For those weeks I plan on exercising more and possibly changing my goals to .5 lb a week instead of 1 to help alleviate my stress.

I'm going to eat sensibly as if it were a normal day, except for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Years' Eve. Three days of binging in the grand scheme of things isn't going to make a difference and you only live once.

I will work it all into my calorie goal, with moderation. I plan eating everything.

Why would I avoid holiday binging?

In terms of long term mental/emotional health, it is important to learn to not vilify food. And part of learning how to do this "right" in a way that is both emotionally and physically productive, is learning to accept that there will be days when you let it go, and learning how to get right back on the wagon. First thing is not seeing it as a binge. Drop that word from your vocabulary.

I'm not going to avoid holiday eating. I'm going to try to be strict enough about my overall nutrition habits the rest of the days to ensure that going over by a significant amount on those days does not have an impact in the grand scheme of things.

Same way I avoid binging on the other 350-some days out of the year. I know how many calories I have available before I sit down to eat. I know how miserable I am when I binge eat. My stomach is so sore when I try to make it stretch to fit all that food in. I feel sluggish/run down/yucky after the binge on the foods (especially tons of carbs). I don't like that feeling. It's true (to some extent) that nothing tastes as good as skinny feels (yes, I know that's a mantra of the eating disorder folk, but for me, it works...in moderation). Truth be told, I probably won't be in the situation of a huge spread with friends/family this year anyway, but then again, someone may invite me to eat...they may have a banquet at work...who knows? I know I will be ready, since I've been in this mindset for three months now (more when the banquet comes around). I just know...I GOT THIS...and if I do go over my calorie counts, it'll be OK...so long as I'm not more than 250 cals over (since I'm on a 250 cal deficit).

Best of luck to ya! :drinker:

I try and set a limit of 5000-6000 if it's something like thanksgiving or whatever... It's not a huge deal if you go way over once and while; especially if you train hard and eat right most days... Being that in even in a caloric surplus carbs and protein have a hard time being converted to fat; so assuming your not eating butter balls dipped in straight fructose; the amount of fat gain won't be too much; and hey you have more glycogen reserves and thyroid hormones to carry your way through to achieve performance goals. You may or may not be able to actively control holiday over eating; or maybe you don't care. But in any case; an extremely shredded Swedish man named Martin Berkhan put out tips to passively control the extent of the damage.
http://www.leangains.com/2010/11/cheat-day-strategies-for-hedonist.html

Otherwise as my imaginary friend Johnny DeCasto says "Fohget aboudit, and let the good times role son". Because balance between fitness and real life; gotta have it; the people that take weight and fitness way too seriously don't last; or they fix their issues. I'm telling you this as a man of experience; whose been playing the game for 3 years and built a decent body with a good amount of horse power for the time and hiccups (pretty massive hiccups at that) experienced. The liquor cabinet on the left of the shoe box is under your command Captain Levinsky.

The days after your 'hiccup', the absolute wrong thing to do is to do drastic dieting because it will probably cause more brutal 'hiccups' in the long run. In other words, the run was located in Camp Rilea, near Seaside. Texas is big.

I'm going to eat sensibly as if it were a normal day, except for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Years' Eve. Three days of binging in the grand scheme of things isn't going to make a difference and you only live once.

This!

portion control and moderation are valuable tools....they are learned tools and you learn by practice. This is of great importance to long term maintenance of your weight.

I agree! Besides the words "no thank you," are also very helpful.

I am having a hard time trying to understand the relationship between holidays and binging, and why people assumes that everybody will binge during the holidays. Self control is so powerful and gratifying than more people should try it.

On the other hand, if you really love food that much and you need, have, must or choose to eat everything on sight, then just enjoy it without regrets and don't call it binging.

Such great advice... I think it's all how you handle things individually. Personally, I work out very hard up to days I know I will "splurge" I allow myself portions of things and then get right back on after.. it doesn't always work but I think admitting that you may have a hurdle and then making some type of game plan is way better then just being like "f it".. my whole thing is.. I work hard, I'm not blowing a month of hard work on a couple days of binge eating that honestly will make me feel crappy because I'm not use to eating those types of foods.

Christmas I will just eat whatever I want. Depends if I'm working Christmas Day or not - last year it was cakes, chocolate, samosas, then Xmas dinner at night.

Then for NYE I'll go back to normal so I can fit in my outfit!

I'm going to eat really well and exercise a ton this month so on Thanksgiving I wont' have to worry.. and the same for December and Christmas.

12 pounds by Christmas! I GOT THIS!

Thanksgiving is at my house this year, I will be putting out heathy things and I will weigh my turkey and stuffing. I really don't care if my family gives me weird look because of it. I'll eat all the good stuff, just gonna make sure it's portion controled. Now for Xmas at my sister's house, do I wanna bring the food scale with me?? I'll think about that one!