Hi Everyone! I was able to get on at work on my lunch. Hope you have all been well

So the challenge is that it is coming the holidays. Today a local radio station is already playing Christmas music...crazy! And as we get in the throw of holidays with the business and all the food, a lot of us get a bit off track or a lot off track & gyms and even MFP turn into a ghost down mid-Dec to mid-Jan.

Part 1 - Come up with & post your game plan to survive the holidays. Most of us won't be perfect, but what can you do better than last year. Or you don't want to eat lots of cookies at a party, so you decide you'll keep gum stocked in your purse & chew it so you can't put food in your mouth. Or you know you will be too busy to get to the gym, so you come up with some things you can do at home like run outside for a quick walk around the block. Or maybe instead of sitting around watching xmas movies the whole month of December you decide to be more active.

Part 2 - Get your family on board if you have one. Do you live at home with your parents? Talk with them about idea you have for things to do during the holidays for things to do or meals. Last Thanksgiving, I flew home to be with my parents & my sis & her husband. I discussed in length with my mom about meals and what they were willing to change & what they weren't...I knew I was messing with tradition:) In the end, we ended up making 2 of some things, like mashed potatoes for everyone & mashed cauliflower for me. The previous Christmas, I got all my mom's recipes & entered them into MFP to figure out the calories, then we made healthier versions of them and I had pre-planned the meals & calories before every flying out there. That was the only xmas I didn't gain weight (didn't lose, but didn't gain either). I also took an exercise DVD that I did in the living room...not every day but at least I did something.

Part 3 - Find a holiday accountability buddy. By now hopefully you have found some MFP folks that you have gotten to know a little bit or people in this group. Ask them to be your accountability partner thru the holidays and tell them exactly what you want to do...like that you want to walk each day for 30 min or you want to not give in to eat cookies or something or you want to still log each day. Then commit to each other to look out for each other over the next 2 months. (You can always report back to me if your accountability partner starts slacking in the accountability portion You can message each other once in a while asking how the other is doing or when you notice the other one doesn't seem to be doing what they say their goal was & encourage them to keep at it.

Don't forget to read up on your teammates posts. You might come up with some great ideas. And if you need any recipes....