Christmas food plans!

mccindy72 wrote: »

Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's, Easter, Fourth of July, and your birthday. That's six days out of the entire year. Don't 'plan out' those six days - just enjoy them. Eat what you want on those six days. No matter how much you eat on those six days, if you stick to your calorie goals for the rest of the year, you won't gain weight, I promise.
And you'll enjoy the holidays and your birthday so much more.

This. Also, I believe that it's not what you eat from Christmas to New Year's. It's what you eat from New Year's to Christmas that matters. IMO.

I plan to eat a smaller deficit the days leading up to christmas and maintenance for the 23rd though to the 27th. I'll work my way down again from that. Christmas is my favourite time of year so I refuse to stress about it or deprive myself

There are a lot of approaches, but I hear you: I like to have a plan too! These are my priorities:
1) there's a lot of calendaring around additional opportunities to eat; I will remind myself to calendar as many extra opportunities to be active.
2) you know that saying 'not my circus, not my monkeys'... substitute 'not my fruitcake, not my sugar cookies.' I resent when I eat things out of obligation, just to be polite. I'm practicing getting really good at smiling brightly and saying 'oh, that looks really lovely! But no thank you.' I just want to enjoy the best of my personal favorites this holiday season, and pass on the rest!
3) be a macro-manager! I feel best when I get all my protein and fiber. I run better on low sugars. I will make sure I'm meeting those needs first.
4) maintenance is my friend. A holiday plateau beats a holiday gain by miles!

You can do Christmas with a low-fat, lower calorie outlook. If you're preparing the food yourself, you know exactly what is in it and how big a portion should be. The difficulty comes with food eaten out of the home and all the sweets and chocolates that are everywhere.
Rosemary Conley's Christmas recipes are great - you can eat everything (three meals, and some alcohol) and still keep within a reasonable calorie allowance. Her philosophy is strongly based on no more than 5% fat, so that automatically cuts the calories - she has even published recipes for lower-fat roast potatoes and Yorkshire puddings. Have a look on the magazine racks for the Christmas issue of her magazine (should be in the UK shops anytime now) or there are some recipes available on the website without subscription.
I wish you luck. There is no harm in planning ahead of time, after all Proper Planning and Preparation Prevents Poor Performance!

SopranoSongbird wrote: »

You can do Christmas with a low-fat, lower calorie outlook. If you're preparing the food yourself, you know exactly what is in it and how big a portion should be. The difficulty comes with food eaten out of the home and all the sweets and chocolates that are everywhere.
Rosemary Conley's Christmas recipes are great - you can eat everything (three meals, and some alcohol) and still keep within a reasonable calorie allowance. Her philosophy is strongly based on no more than 5% fat, so that automatically cuts the calories - she has even published recipes for lower-fat roast potatoes and Yorkshire puddings. Have a look on the magazine racks for the Christmas issue of her magazine (should be in the UK shops anytime now) or there are some recipes available on the website without subscription.
I wish you luck. There is no harm in planning ahead of time, after all Proper Planning and Preparation Prevents Poor Performance!

You can plan - if you're the one cooking. I intend to be the cook, even though my mum is hosting. It's part of my Xmas pressie to her! You know, it does sound like us Brits have less to worry about at Christmas - after all, it's just a supersized Sunday roast dinner, and we already know how to make that fit into our numbers! For me, a meat and veg dinner is so easy to make fit into what I need, even if I've not cooked the meal. The meat is roasted, not fried - and if it's turkey, the white meat (no skin) is such an easy pick. There's always veg that's been boiled/steamed etc - so pick that. Then treat yourself for the rest of the plate - on Xmas Day, for me, it's the chipolata sausages, a bit of stuffing and a couple of spoons of gravy. Of course, you have to estimate cals, but that's doable IMO. Dessert, well, you either have it as your treat, or eat the bowl of satsumas that no one else touches for the entire Xmas period!!! For me, it's the Boxing Day buffets that are the killer! However, with buffets, I can control exactly what lands on my plate, and my extended family eat healthily enough that there'll always be a plain salad bowl, and a fruit platter laid out, and I'll just have tiny bits of the yummy stuff!

If people are looking for tips, I'd suggest just decide if you're going to have a blow-out day, or if you're going to bank calories that week to save for the big day. Either one is a totally viable option. I've not decided, although it's 10 weeks tomorrow, I've got time! if you're moving from house to house on an extended party day, I wonder if you pick one of those mealtimes to restrict yourself (breakfast would be my choice), one to blowout (the main event), and one to have a little and then stop (finger foods are easy to put a few things on your plate, and make them last much longer than everyone else gorging!). And, as someone else said, practice saying 'no thank you, I'm full'! It's not the height of rudeness to refuse food - truly! You may shock some people (and family members can be relied on for making those awful comments), but grow a thick skin between now and Xmas, and ignore them!

Thanksgiving , christmas and new years are only one day each. I will treat every day before and after the same. Those holidays will be anything I want day, but limited to 500 cal above my maintain weight. As an extra precaution, I will increase my exercise on weeks before and after.

I'm more worried about all of the halloween candy right now lol!

Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Years Eve are all no counting days. Its a few more days than I would normally be comfortable with in the time span, but it still works out fine for me.

What matters more is what I do on all the other days those months. I stick to my calorie goal and fit treats in when I can.

Yeah I won't be logging on Christmas eve or Christmas, that time is meant for family and giving presents + eating yummy food! I just try not to go TOO crazy!

cupcakesplz wrote: »

Christmas is coming up in like 10 weeks. What plans do you have?
Do you give your self extra calories?
Do you blow it?
Do you hide from food?
We just had school holidays and I didn't think about having a food plan before going into it and I wished I did.
So for Christmas I am going to have a Big plan. What are your ideas?

I am still thinking about Halloween food.
Last Christmas I planned a meal that fit my calorie goal pretty well. I enjoyed it. It wasn't difficult.
Planning is great but don't stress too much. Having a day where you eat at maintenance is fine.

I'm going to eat whatever I want!! It's just one meal, but I'm not going to over stuff myself. I'm sure going to enjoy it.

I first have to tackle my kids Halloween bags, then business travel (free food every day), then Thanksgiving, and a couple buckets of cookies before even thinking about Christmas.

Seriously? Christmas? We just made it through Columbus day. You must be a retailer by trade.

Yeah I already started watching Mr. Magoo's A Christmas Carol.