Are you guys gonna quit the diet for christmas?

I don't plan to, on account of gaining weight during the 3 months that I moved twice and had no access to a gym. I'm now working that mess back off.

HappyCampr1 wrote: »

amusedmonkey wrote: »

Likichina wrote: »

I'm quitting Christmas for my "diet".

Seriously though, I've been living in the US for a little over a year and it feels like everything here has to involve food, and lots of it! Family reunions, weekend gatherings, birthdays, holidays, hang outs, everything. If I was going to "make an exception" for every "special" day... Wait, oh, that's how I gained a lot of the weight that I'm trying to lose now. I don't believe I have to binge only because everybody else is, I'd much rather treat myself to something nice in a random day when I'm craving it really bad and I feel I deserve it, but never because it is the "norm"!

Christmas should be about family and being with those who you love anyway, and not about food and consumerism. But this is just my personal view, of course...

One Russian teacake cookie (my favorite) is more than 500 calories.

That must be one good cookie, because I've never tasted a cookie that was worth that amount of calories to me.

Trust me it is! Made with honey and stuffed with a jam or condensed milk concoction. It's one of the things that I'm willing to bargain for in calories even if it had more than a thousand.

I'm trying not to but just failed miserably at work. I'll try my best.

Likichina wrote: »

amusedmonkey wrote: »

Likichina wrote: »

I'm quitting Christmas for my "diet".

Seriously though, I've been living in the US for a little over a year and it feels like everything here has to involve food, and lots of it! Family reunions, weekend gatherings, birthdays, holidays, hang outs, everything. If I was going to "make an exception" for every "special" day... Wait, oh, that's how I gained a lot of the weight that I'm trying to lose now. I don't believe I have to binge only because everybody else is, I'd much rather treat myself to something nice in a random day when I'm craving it really bad and I feel I deserve it, but never because it is the "norm"!

Christmas should be about family and being with those who you love anyway, and not about food and consumerism. But this is just my personal view, of course...

It doesn't even have to be binging. You don't have to eat until your stomach hurts to have a lot of calories. It's the types of foods around around this time of the year that make weight loss diets a bit harder to maintain. One Russian teacake cookie (my favorite) is more than 500 calories. Eating one will not leave you stuffed but it still has the ability push your calories forward quite a bit and that's without even touching all the delicious mayo-laden salads, mashed potatoes, high fat main courses and so on. Even if you fill your plate with small portions it's near impossible to stay under 1500 calories, and that's without dessert.

I believe social gatherings and their rituals, which include the food people share, are too special and important to miss. No one gets fat because they eat too much on special events, people get fat because they eat too much every day. Any thin people in the family are a great proof of that, they eat the same food in nearly the same quantities as the overweight people on these events but they tend to eat less in their day to day life so they still manage to stay thin.

I actually thought that "to binge" meant something like "to have something special" instead of "eating in excess", pardon my faulty English! So what I really wanted to say was more like I don't believe I need to have a cheat meal or something special only because everybody else is, I think it's better phrased now, lol! Also, I do agree with you 100% that we get fat based on what we eat at normal days and not "special" days but that's exactly what I was referring to, I don't know if it is an "American thing" or just a thing of my husband's family but the problem is that they have at least 3 "special" occasions a week. Every time we see the family, there's a feast, and my body really can not keep up with that. And if I don't eat or politely refuse something, my in laws get offended (which I don't really understand why). Where I am from (Brazil), social gatherings do not necessarily (and often don't) include food... We gather to party, dance, chat, etc, so I have been having a lot of trouble to adapt and watching my weight here without offending anybody or being perceived as anti-social.

That is definitely a family-specific thing. Or, I should say, a certain-cultures-in-the-U.S. thing. There are definite groups where food is the expression of how much you care.

:Note to self - find out how many calories are in Bailey's Irish Cream, plan accordingly:

I will eat on cookie day, sample espresso crinkles and pistachio cookies to try and guess temperature. I generally will workout -- going on walk.

Yup haha. I lost 100 lbs this last year, being an avid baker, I plan to enjoy the next week. I still workout daily and make reasonable choices through out the day, just with cookies now haha. Anything I'll gain, I'll lose when I stop baking as much, gotta enjoy my life still haha.

I'm going to eat what I want to. And log it.

candylilacs wrote: »

I will eat on cookie day, sample espresso crinkles and pistachio cookies to try and guess temperature. I generally will workout -- going on walk.

I'm pretty sure you meant 'Christmas day' but if there really is a designated 'cookie day', I'm totally not skipping that

LaceyBirds wrote: »

:Note to self - find out how many calories are in Bailey's Irish Cream, plan accordingly:[/quote

I'll have to find out too but unfortunately I know I could drink 1200 calories worth of baileys, no problem!

I will do what I did for thanksgiving, and what I'm doing for this coming weekend, extra cardio without eating back most of the calories. Going to Star Wars at IMAX on saturday night, so there will be dinner out (healthier choices), alcohol and popcorn (no butter, I hate that fake stuff).

Sunday we're going to Universal Studios, not too worried there since there's lots of walking involved, though I'm sure I'll be enjoying more adult beverages and food thats normally not on my 1200 calorie list. Monday will be back to cardio to get me back on track.

Christmas, we're not going anywhere, just the 2 of us, I'm cooking the turkey, I will enjoy stuffing, sweet potato (baked not marshmallowed ewww), a veggie TBT and homemade apple pie ( I can control the amount of sugar I put in that, and not eat all of the crust). I will skip buying eggnog, normally a favorite holiday treat for me. Good chance we'll walk dogs and maybe cycle in there somewhere. Of course more alcohol, my biggest calorie vice.

If I keep up the workouts I expect holidays to be nothing more than a maintainence level calorie count. One day won't hurt, as long as I have calories saved and keep up with the activity. I just hit 10 lbs lost today and I'm really not interested in messing up my progress!

100% back on track December 26th!

I am going to eat whatever I want and however much I want on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Years Eve. Other then that I will try and stick to the normal routine. These three days come once a year.

I'm with the others that I'm not on a diet (well now I'm in maintenance but even when I was losing I didn't consider it a diet). I've never cut out any particular food, haven't radically changed my behavior when dining out or at special events/holidays - so I definitely won't this year. Plus, I weighed in actually a pound below the bottom of my maintenance range this morning, so I have a very large buffer to work with in the next couple of weeks. Which is good, since I have a holiday open house tonight, dinner out with friends tomorrow night, movie day on Sunday, holiday work lunch on Monday, Mexican feast with my family Tuesday, brunch Weds, brunch Thurs, Ravioli dinner Thursday night, Monkey Bread and Baileys on Christmas morning, husband's family celebration Christmas evening.

In between all that eating, I will still work out, maybe more than usual since I will be off work for a lot of this time.

I just checked last year - I was 3,119 cals over my weekly goal for the week of Dec 22-28th. That's with no restrictions whatsoever, eating and drinking basically whatever I wanted. If I did that again, I would gain a pound since this year I'm in maintenance. Definitely not something that is going to cause me stress or angst, or cause me to change my plans for the next couple of weeks.

tomteboda wrote: »

I'm going to eat what I want to. And log it.

This.

That being said, we don't focus so much on food on Christmas as much as we do on Thanksgiving in my family. I also don't deny myself foods I'd normally eat so what we do have, I'll be eating, just not in excess. I may go over my cals, but I definitely won't stress about it. This is a lifestyle and there will always be holidays, birthdays, anniversaries and so on. If I let myself eat as much as I use to because of a special occasion, I'll be right back to where I was.