Problem: Christmas Dinner

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Replies

  • PRMinx
    PRMinx Posts: 4,585 Member
    PRMinx wrote: »
    khol1 wrote: »
    The main course.

    I always overload with meat and veg, and I don't want to use up all my calorie intake on one meal. :neutral_face:

    There's nothing wrong with meat and veg. Just roast a chicken or some turkey, make a few nice veggie sides (sweet potatoes, brussels?) and skip dessert.

    Skip dessert? On Christmas? No way.

    Well, I wouldn't necessarily, but it is an option. It's all about choices. I would totally skip dessert for an extra (or so) serving of stuffing on Thanksgiving :blush:

  • jillianedwards
    jillianedwards Posts: 67 Member
    Quest has some awesome holiday recipes if you want some ideas for healthier stuffing and pies! Also mixing cauliflower + potatoes can help too!
  • DawnieB1977
    DawnieB1977 Posts: 4,248 Member
    Turkey is traditional in England, usually with stuffing, roast potatoes, Brussels sprouts and other veg and pigs in blankets. I can't speak for all families, but we've never really done desserts. We usually have mince pies and sometimes Christmas pudding with custard or brandy butter, but we're usually too full.

    We don't have thanksgiving, so it's our one big meal of the year.
  • redversustheblue
    redversustheblue Posts: 1,216 Member
    PRMinx wrote: »
    PRMinx wrote: »
    khol1 wrote: »
    The main course.

    I always overload with meat and veg, and I don't want to use up all my calorie intake on one meal. :neutral_face:

    There's nothing wrong with meat and veg. Just roast a chicken or some turkey, make a few nice veggie sides (sweet potatoes, brussels?) and skip dessert.

    Skip dessert? On Christmas? No way.

    Well, I wouldn't necessarily, but it is an option. It's all about choices. I would totally skip dessert for an extra (or so) serving of stuffing on Thanksgiving :blush:

    I wouldn't skip desert on Christmas, but I am going to try to skip desert on all the days surrounding Christmas. All those leftover goodies laying around for days are the real issue for me.
  • PRMinx
    PRMinx Posts: 4,585 Member
    PRMinx wrote: »
    PRMinx wrote: »
    khol1 wrote: »
    The main course.

    I always overload with meat and veg, and I don't want to use up all my calorie intake on one meal. :neutral_face:

    There's nothing wrong with meat and veg. Just roast a chicken or some turkey, make a few nice veggie sides (sweet potatoes, brussels?) and skip dessert.

    Skip dessert? On Christmas? No way.

    Well, I wouldn't necessarily, but it is an option. It's all about choices. I would totally skip dessert for an extra (or so) serving of stuffing on Thanksgiving :blush:

    I wouldn't skip desert on Christmas, but I am going to try to skip desert on all the days surrounding Christmas. All those leftover goodies laying around for days are the real issue for me.

    Me too. For whatever reason, this year it's been hard for me to stick to moderation. Probably because there's been a million family events already. So, I'm starting to cut things out entirely until the season is over. First time in a long time it's been difficult to manage.
  • AskTracyAnnK28
    AskTracyAnnK28 Posts: 2,834 Member
    Listen - I went 'balls out' on Thanksgiving and still lost 1.6 pounds that week so don't make yourself crazy over it. Christmas is once a year :)
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,139 Member
    khol1 wrote: »
    The main course.

    I always overload with meat and veg, and I don't want to use up all my calorie intake on one meal. :neutral_face:

    what's wrong with meat and vegetables..????

    plus, it is one day out of the year. Why don't you just eat what you like?
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,139 Member
    The big problem with holiday dinner stuff isn't the dinner, it's the desserts. And it's not even the "desserts" (after dinner), it's the _leftover_ desserts that end up getting pigged-on for the next week or so.

    So the best tactic: get one pie or cake, or enough for everybody to have some. Not pie and cake and three different kinds of each plus five types of cookies and few quarts of ice cream. And give away whatever's left to visitors. Prepare the right amount for one meal, no more, which is a good guideline for food prep. anyways.

    pie is never a problem....
  • I have bought the works for Christmas - and I've baked mince pies, sausage rolls and god alone knows what else. Biscuits, chocolates - you name it, it will be in my house. I am going to give myself a break for a week then get straight back on it on New Year's Day. Diet at Christmas? I don't think so!
  • NerdieMcChub
    NerdieMcChub Posts: 153 Member
    I'm not worrying about the Christmas foods myself. To me, it's a time for family and get togethers with celebrating. I'm going to eat the same foods as normal, just less of them. I don't think that the foods are so bad really anyway. Instead of regular mashed potatoes, try sweet potatoes? Instead of ham, maybe do a chicken and have white meat. Instead of pie, have some fruit salad.
  • kaseyr1505
    kaseyr1505 Posts: 624 Member
    I would just practice self control, and be active in the days before/after. I don't really see how one day is going to be a problem.

    Smaller portions, realizing when you're full, and saying "no thank you" are tools we use daily.
  • abbeyjones1994
    abbeyjones1994 Posts: 188 Member
    Listen - I went 'balls out' on Thanksgiving and still lost 1.6 pounds that week so don't make yourself crazy over it. Christmas is once a year :)

    SAME. Balls out on Thanksgiving, at my weigh-in on Thursday I made it under 130 for the first time in years. I did work out before the meal but I don't think it made a huge difference lol.

    The biggest difference for me on Thanksgiving (and what will still matter on Christmas Day) this year compared to all other years was how I felt after the meal. I felt AWFUL from about an hour after finishing eating Thanksgiving dinner to the Saturday afternoon after. I know now that I simply can't eat as much as I used to and if I try to there will be h*** to pay. I'm glad I went all out on Thanksgiving because a) I enjoyed it while it was happening and b) I know my new limits. Does that mean I'm not going to enjoy everything I eat on Christmas Day? Nah. I just know my happy medium between eating at the deficit I'm set to now and the way I used to eat before.

    If I gain the week after Christmas, whatever. It's one week. Hopefully I can keep it together for New Year's (I don't really drink so the alcohol calories won't be an issue, just the massive amounts of finger foods my mom makes for our annual NYE party).
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    We will have a nice dinner on Christmas (and like I said above, probably not diet-friendly turkey, as on Thanksgiving), but I'm definitely not concerned about that at all. It's easy to fit one indulgent meal--even with dessert, as the baby Jesus would have it--in one's plan, and I don't care if I lose weight the week of Christmas. The difficult thing about this month is the numerous parties and cookie exchanges and food-related gifts and treats that just turn up at my office, etc. But dealing with that kind of thing is just life. Plus, makes the rest of the year seem easy! ;-)
  • feisty_bucket
    feisty_bucket Posts: 1,047 Member
    BarbieAS wrote: »
    However, my desire to meet my MFP goals butts up HARD against my desire to not waste food.

    Yeah, I totally get that too. I'm big on eating food when it's "new" and fresh and am very aware of leftovers having a ticking countdown timer on them. So I feel strongly compelled to quickly work through leftovers, like it's my duty or role as goat-man cleanup guy to take care of The Problem.

    BUT! This is a disaster with junk food/desserts. So my solution is to remind myself that this category of stuff is not "real food." It's pretend food, perhaps excretions from Space Alien Sugar Worms. It doesn't have nutritional value for humans, so it's actually an exotic, but largely toxic treat for stimulating my human taste buds and then going to the trash. Much like Romulan Ale in Star Trek.

    You throw out enough treats, and pretty damn quickly you get good at only preparing/buying enough for one serving at a time. Zero leftovers!


  • cantumelia
    cantumelia Posts: 59 Member
    edited December 2014
    Here´s what I do when I have to attend to some "eating party": I don´t eat anything at all during the day and save all my calories budget for that party. I try to keep in my daily goal. Since it´s only 1.200 calories I train more than usual the previous days to get more net calories. And if I find it necessary I fast the next day to keep my weekly calorie goal in track. Fasting for one or two days won´t hurt your metabolism and you´ll find it easy to do if you over eated the previous day. You just need to do some planning, burn more calories the previous days and fast the day after if you need to.
  • loribethrice
    loribethrice Posts: 620 Member
    My Christmas dinner will be the same thing my Thanksgiving dinner was. A small sauceless cheese pizza.
  • khol1
    khol1 Posts: 100 Member
    Thanks Guys, the information here has actually been really helpful. :)
    Really looking forward to Christmas!!
  • Kymmu
    Kymmu Posts: 1,650 Member
    I find I'm still not hungry the following day ( boxing day) till dinner- so if you spread the whole calorie intake over 1.75 days it's ok!
  • Deps
    Deps Posts: 31 Member
    I agree with Nerdie. Christmas Day is 100% a free day for me to enjoy. Leading up to it I'm logging everything though, eggnog, mince tarts, everything. But Christmas isn't for calorie counting, it's for enjoying :)
  • brittanyoneill37
    brittanyoneill37 Posts: 12 Member
    Do what I did last Christmas - get so badly drunk that you can't even eat your Christmas dinner ;)