Eating during the holidays

Try taking the focus off food and put it on something else, like spending time with family and friends who you may not see on a regular basis. As a kid growing up, my mom used to plan Thanksgiving dinner around Easter time... and Christmas dinner around the 4th of July and when the actual holidays came there was food, food, and more food. Why? Why does every occasion have to involve an over abundance of food? Why can't people just socialize and enjoy each others' company? With that being said, I plan on enjoying a glass or two of wine, or perhaps a craft beer (or two)... will have some turkey and what ever vegies there is... and let it go at that. Interestingly enough, this is how I eat every day (may substitute chicken or fish for the turkey)... and yes, I do have a glass of wine or a beer every day... and I've managed to lose one whole person in the process. I find that focusing on what kind of food there will be and how I will manage to eat it (or not eat it) is really setting myself up for disaster. I am focusing on seeing my newborn grandson (who was born on my birthday!) and spending time with his 6 year old brother... and spending time with my new daughter-in-law and enjoying getting to know her family...

I believe in moderation and all that jazz.

But I'll be honest. My normal eating "plan" is to fit in a treat just about every day, balancing it with the most nutritional bang for my buck foods...I am NOT a low carb eater, but I wind up typically eating a lot of vegetables, protein, and small amounts of bread/rice/etc, so that I can fit in chocolate, ice cream, or a cupcake or whatever. It's very important to me to be able to have those "treats".

So basically for the holidays I will allow myself to have the treats, but will not eat much else. Yes it's a bad idea. But it works for me. I may have a day where I eat a few slices of turkey, 4-5 pieces of pie and a cup of coffee. Or a bunch of my mom's fudge and some wine, with 1/2 cup of soup. I will be within calories on every day. I just won't be eating as healthfully as I normally strive to.

I know this is dumb, but it's 3-4 days of the year so I just thought I'd share my slightly different approach ;-)

Pre-logging is my best friend, as well as eating at maintenance. I already have a general idea of what I will be having for Thanksgiving, so I already logged my food and played around with the portion sizes so that I still have a little taste of everything. For about 88g of carbs and 780 calories, I'll have a Thanksgiving dinner that is very satisfying and won't spike me up to 300 right after -and I'll have enough calories for a largish breakfast and hot chocolate for dessert.