What is YOUR Holiday eating strategy?

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  • 43501
    43501 Posts: 85 Member
    anewell28 wrote: »
    With Halloween, Thanksgiving, and winter celebrations coming up, what is your strategy when it comes to holiday eating?

    Have you used a strategy before and been happy with it after?
    Trying something new this year?
    Do you log everything still or neglect logging at all?

    I'm very interested in these answers because I haven't figured out my plan yet!

    I'm Australian and thankfully don't have to think about Halloween or Thanksgiving at all. Hah. Take that.

    On the 24th/25th I throw out all restrictions and macro targets and everything for two days and that's one of the only times of the year I well and truly eat without restraint, often going 2x or even 3x my usual allowance. Feels good.

    Regarding "holiday eating" in general, here's the thing: as long as you do the right thing most of the time, that's all that really matters.
  • ahoy_m8
    ahoy_m8 Posts: 3,053 Member
    The challenging part for me is not the actual holiday meals (I'm the cook) but the disruption to normal routine in December, mainly because of holiday events. Also, we celebrate both my & DH bdays, our anniversary, Xmas and New Years within a 3 week span, so there is a lot of celebrating. It's more alcohol than normal and it adds up. Here's what helps me.

    1) cocktail parties- A glass of wine on a hungry stomach will rapidly descend into eating & drinking more than planned, so I eat something substantial before I go. And then I pass on hors douvres. I've realized that they often look nice but rarely taste special. They're also difficult to log accurately.
    2) dinner parties- bank calories day of (and following day if necessary) and enjoy the meal (logging best I can)
    3) weeknight wine- add cardio mileage to offset (4mi ~ half bottle wine for me)
    4) food gifts- choose my one favorite to enjoy and let the kids ravage the rest

    Above all, I aim to genuinely enjoy the people I don't often see and the generosity of friends who host gatherings. Ultimately, that's more important to me than the calories (which I do my best to count anyway). Cheers, everybody!
  • Strawblackcat
    Strawblackcat Posts: 944 Member
    I'll be working pretty much every day other than Christmas and Thanksgiving Day themselves, so eating junk is a non-issue then since I'll pretty much just be on my feet all day. On Christmas and Thanksgiving I'll probably just be too exhausted to bother to cook anything fancy, so I'll probably just chill, sleep, and work out at my normal time
  • runningforthetrain
    runningforthetrain Posts: 1,037 Member
    I pick out all the M&M with peanuts, the Reese's peanut butter cups, and the Almond Joys out of the Halloween candy for myself. I turn the lights out early.

    I like to go to parties with an empty stomach and hit the cocktails hard. Then I shovel in the appetizers & go for seconds if they have bacon or prosciutto. I watch a lot of Christmas specials, sit on the sofa with a blanket, full milk hot chocolate, and snack on kettle corn.
  • elisa123gal
    elisa123gal Posts: 4,324 Member
    I'm actually toying with the idea of making some healthy versions of mashed potatoes and Thanksgiving fixings this year, and try to stay on my plan. Halo Top ice cream is so good... i could have a half pint of that for dessert and be happy. For me it seems there is always an excuse to off my diet , there is always a special celebration or event and or holiday. I've just started back here..and I'm tired of never getting it done.
  • shirgify
    shirgify Posts: 35 Member
    My plan is to eat all my kids Halloween chocolate the first day that way it's gone and I can move on like normal. That or my husband can try to hide it.

    Christmas is fine, the rest of my family is vegan so I just volume eat plenty of veggies and track accordingly.
  • deannalfisher
    deannalfisher Posts: 5,600 Member
    eat mindfully, realize that my weight will be up the next few days because of sodium, drink lots of water, enjoy and move on
  • theresa961
    theresa961 Posts: 37 Member
    I will make sure I get exercise! Then I log everything! Every lick bite and chew. I enjoy myself and eat what I want. It then amazes me to see how many calories one can consume on Thanksgiving. I read an article that said on thanksgiving the average American consumes a full stick of butter! I remind myself that these holidays are just a few days intermixed throughout the whole year.
  • Keladelphia
    Keladelphia Posts: 820 Member
    I don't change my eating at all in regards to Halloween, I'm not a big candy person anyway. In regards to Thanksgiving/Christmas/New Years I don't log what i'm eating and drinking. I figure whatever calories I consume on those three days a year won't impact me overall. I give myself permission to indulge however I please on those holidays but i've noticed that I've tended to eat pretty similarly to normal anyway just with the addition of some drinks and decadent desserts which I rarely choose to have in everyday life.
  • Lasercat666
    Lasercat666 Posts: 4 Member
    Thank you for all the nice tipps! I hope I will do better during the christmas holiday time than last year :dizzy:
  • bebeisfit
    bebeisfit Posts: 951 Member
    kommodevaran wrote: »
    "It’s not what you eat between Christmas and New Years, it’s what you eat between New Year’s and Christmas".

    I love this so much!! I often say the same about exercise/general weight loss: great to get in the gym for an hour a day, but what happens in the other 23 hours is what matters most.
  • nndarden
    nndarden Posts: 16 Member
    I was thinking about going in to hibernation about now and emerging sometime in the Spring. Seems like the only way for me.
  • Cyprus_Girl84
    Cyprus_Girl84 Posts: 12 Member
    I don't treat holidays any differently from any other day. If I know I'm going to have a Thanksgiving meal, I'll have a light breakfast and skip lunch so that I don't go over on my calories. I never get seconds. But I don't do "cheat days" ever. Not overeating is a lifestyle that I commit to 365/days a year. It's not for everyone, but that is just how I do it. Everyone has to find what works for them as an individual! <3
  • Mellykay88
    Mellykay88 Posts: 307 Member
    I officially started my weight loss after New Years this year. So, I haven’t really decided quite what I want to do. I’m thinking I will just eat at maintenance on Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve/Christmas Day. I’m going to have to be most careful with leftovers!! That is my downfall. I can’t do too much damage with a couple of big meals, but snacking on leftovers can add up quickly.
  • JillianRumrill
    JillianRumrill Posts: 335 Member
    Halloween: Last year I threw candy corn at people...literally. Treating junk food just like it is...junk...kept me from nibbling on it. Plus, I THREW FREAKING CANDY CORN AT PEOPLE! How fun is that?! Very! I even got into a fun-sized candy fight with one of my cousins....I'm not right in the head ya'll. LOL
  • nickssweetheart
    nickssweetheart Posts: 874 Member
    I log the same on the holidays as I do any other day of the year, with perhaps a bit more guesswork since I don't do all the cooking myself, but I don't stress about being over on the actual day. My goal this year is to lose 10 lbs between 11-1 and 12-31, which is about half what I normally lose in two months.

    I also don't eat either rolls or salads on holidays. I eat green salads all the time anyway so there's nothing special about them, and non-green salads are usually calorie bombs that don't taste nearly good enough to make me want to eat them instead of, say, mashed potatoes or wild rice stuffing. The only exception is fruit salad dressed in nothing but lime juice, which just feels festive to me.

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