The Holidays!!!

newwed412
newwed412 Posts: 68 Member
in Goal: Maintaining Weight
Oh my I am having such a hard time during the holidays!! Anyone else struggling?? I keep telling myself to just hang on and keep working out. I don’t want to lose control of my eating again and I feel like it’s spiraling out of control!!!

Replies

  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
    Overeating every day is spiraling out of control. Enjoy the holidays.
  • Brendalea69
    Brendalea69 Posts: 3,863 Member
    I will give myself a Holiday Pass and then I will get back into losing mode :)
  • Spencerport
    Spencerport Posts: 270 Member
    Christmas and New Years are a couple of the days that I wont log anything as I know I'm going to overindulge with family and friends and I wont care. However the times around those days I still try to eat within my calories to maintain my weight.
  • Back_2_Fit
    Back_2_Fit Posts: 33 Member
    newwed412 wrote: »
    Oh my I am having such a hard time during the holidays!! Anyone else struggling?? I keep telling myself to just hang on and keep working out. I don’t want to lose control of my eating again and I feel like it’s spiraling out of control!!!

    Same here - I actually do quite well during the week while at work, NORMALLY! My problem are the lunches out with people from work to celebrate the holidays that I tend to make bad choices along with the little holiday events (last night - Champagne and Wine tasting with my aunt) turned more into a night of drinking. While an absolute blast - when i logged today i cringed just a little bit looking at all the calories I drank last night!
  • BeccaLoves2lift
    BeccaLoves2lift Posts: 375 Member
    I'm not going to log on Christmas Eve, Christmas, or New Year's Eve. Otherwise I'm logging all my food and working out as usual.
  • brenn24179
    brenn24179 Posts: 2,144 Member
    yes it is a whole month of people bringing goodies. I try to log every day and then get serious after first of the year
  • rileysowner
    rileysowner Posts: 8,328 Member
    newwed412 wrote: »
    Oh my I am having such a hard time during the holidays!! Anyone else struggling?? I keep telling myself to just hang on and keep working out. I don’t want to lose control of my eating again and I feel like it’s spiraling out of control!!!

    What exactly do you mean? Are you upset at yourself because you are eating a lot at special events? Are you eating a lot all the time even when it isn't a special dinner or event? What exactly is the issue?

    If you look at the whole month, the 5-10 days where you eat more should not have that much effect if you eat your calorie goal the rest of the time. I know my weight loss has slowed, but it continues because while I enjoy my time at special events like our family Christmas dinner last Saturday and the like, on the other days I have been quite good at sticking to my calorie goal. I realize that my time with friends and family is far more important to me than maintaining my deficit at those events, and I realize that unless I learn to eat in light of the importance of gathering together around a meal with those family and friends, I will fail in the long run.
  • StarBrightStarBright
    StarBrightStarBright Posts: 97 Member
    edited December 2017
    In the past I let myself eat whatever I want between Thanksgiving and New Years and then spend the rest of the year losing the 10 - 15 pounds I gained (sucks!). This year I'm letting myself have the holiday itself (and any surrounding family celebrations) and then back on the wagon immediately after.

    I gained 4 pounds over two days of Thanksgiving celebrations and got back down to goal the day before I left on a work trip that included 2 large holiday parties. I just back from that trip and had gained 5 pounds. I'll probably lose most of it by the time I leave for a week long Christmas celebration (where I will probably gain another 5).

    The difference this year is that I'm hoping to only be 5 pounds up on Jan 1 rather than 10-15. I'm excited to start my spring and summer at goal instead of USING the warm weather to get to goal.
  • Iamnotasenior
    Iamnotasenior Posts: 235 Member
    I understand your struggle. The temptation is to just give in and eat everything in sight for an entire month "because it's the holidays" but December 1st - 23rd are not holidays. Dec. 24th and 25th and New Years Eve and New Years Day are holidays and those are the days that I will indulge. Until then, I'm sticking to my plan. I will enjoy all of the holiday treats I want on the "holidays" but I will also log what I eat on those days just so I am aware of how many calories I'm taking in and to remind myself that I can't eat this way every day.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    Really hard this year. Cookie swaps, hanging out with friends, so many bad excuses to eat too much junk!
  • fiddletime
    fiddletime Posts: 1,868 Member
    Really hard for me this year also. So much yummy food being given to us at work. If I eat one piece of candy, I often eat many more. Then there are the Christmas parties, lunches out,etc.. I was determined to not go over calories for most of the month, but that hasn’t happened. Sigh.
  • apullum
    apullum Posts: 4,838 Member
    This is the maintenance board. A lot of comments to the effect of "eat what you want and then get back on track" work for weight loss and do not work for maintenance.

    Will a couple days of overeating take you out of your maintenance weight range? Probably not, although you'll likely have some water weight gain if you drastically alter your eating pattern.

    Will a few weeks of overeating take you out of your maintenance weight range? Depending on how much you overate, it's quite possible.

    Treat the holidays as a small number of specific special occasions: one day of holiday meals and three weekend parties, whatever you have on your schedule. You know those occasions are coming up, so you can bank calories for them. When I'm pre-logging my food for the day, I also find it helpful to reserve a few calories if I think there's going to be a nice looking cookie at work. If I didn't eat that cookie, then I just have more calories to eat later or save for the weekend.
  • Magnum_Opus
    Magnum_Opus Posts: 23 Member
    edited December 2017
    I get where you're coming from but honestly speaking no one can make you over eat but yourself. Here me out. If you're telling yourself "you're afraid, you're gonna get out of control" you're already setting yourself up for failure. We're not there just yet, let the day come and eat a tad over maintenance if you will, nothing drastic will come of it. Even if you ate just over maintenance on all the eventful days ahead, that's not your normal way of eating. After the holidays you'll simply go back to what you usually do. I feel the fear sets in when you're thinking in black or white terms, on or off, good or bad etc. Chuck that out the window and focus on enjoying good food. Savouring the taste rather than inhaling it down your throat, stuffing yourself beyond comfortable fullness or eating to punish yourself. You can always eat that extra plate or bite the next day.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    apullum wrote: »
    This is the maintenance board. A lot of comments to the effect of "eat what you want and then get back on track" work for weight loss and do not work for maintenance.

    Disagree.
    If you seek to "balance your books" every day then yes a few high days would result in a gain but many people treat maintenance in a far less restrictive way and seek to balance their calories over an extended period of time where lower days cancel out higher days.
    It's worked for me for four years and I commonly go into January near the top of my maintenance range. As my Spring training ramps up my weight drifts back down again. Maintenance doesn't have to be a flat line, that would feel like a permanent diet to me.
  • apullum
    apullum Posts: 4,838 Member
    sijomial wrote: »
    apullum wrote: »
    This is the maintenance board. A lot of comments to the effect of "eat what you want and then get back on track" work for weight loss and do not work for maintenance.

    Disagree.
    If you seek to "balance your books" every day then yes a few high days would result in a gain but many people treat maintenance in a far less restrictive way and seek to balance their calories over an extended period of time where lower days cancel out higher days.
    It's worked for me for four years and I commonly go into January near the top of my maintenance range. As my Spring training ramps up my weight drifts back down again. Maintenance doesn't have to be a flat line, that would feel like a permanent diet to me.

    I mentioned banking calories, which is the same thing as having low days that balance high days.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    apullum wrote: »
    sijomial wrote: »
    apullum wrote: »
    This is the maintenance board. A lot of comments to the effect of "eat what you want and then get back on track" work for weight loss and do not work for maintenance.

    Disagree.
    If you seek to "balance your books" every day then yes a few high days would result in a gain but many people treat maintenance in a far less restrictive way and seek to balance their calories over an extended period of time where lower days cancel out higher days.
    It's worked for me for four years and I commonly go into January near the top of my maintenance range. As my Spring training ramps up my weight drifts back down again. Maintenance doesn't have to be a flat line, that would feel like a permanent diet to me.

    I mentioned banking calories, which is the same thing as having low days that balance high days.

    It's one of many ways of achieving a balance - which is why I said I disagree with " A lot of comments to the effect of "eat what you want and then get back on track" work for weight loss and do not work for maintenance.

    Maintenance isn't one day or one week and it's extremely personal how you choose to maintain around your goal weight range. That you want to keep a tight rein and bank calories is your choice, mine is different and both work for maintenance.



  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    apullum wrote: »
    sijomial wrote: »
    apullum wrote: »
    This is the maintenance board. A lot of comments to the effect of "eat what you want and then get back on track" work for weight loss and do not work for maintenance.

    Disagree.
    If you seek to "balance your books" every day then yes a few high days would result in a gain but many people treat maintenance in a far less restrictive way and seek to balance their calories over an extended period of time where lower days cancel out higher days.
    It's worked for me for four years and I commonly go into January near the top of my maintenance range. As my Spring training ramps up my weight drifts back down again. Maintenance doesn't have to be a flat line, that would feel like a permanent diet to me.

    I mentioned banking calories, which is the same thing as having low days that balance high days.

    Or you could just go back to a small deficit after the Holidays.
  • PinkyPan1
    PinkyPan1 Posts: 3,018 Member
    I "bank calories" too. I have not eaten back exercise calories in years. This way on special occasions or holidays I am free to enjoy a few more calories than usual without guilt or weight gain. It is all about balance. Maintenance is a lifestyle not a diet.
  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,575 Member
    I always gain weight over the holidays. And in January I diet until it's gone. No big deal.
  • SuzySunshine99
    SuzySunshine99 Posts: 2,989 Member
    I'm in maintenance and like to do a "preemptive strike" in the weeks before Christmas. I do this before vacations, too. I'll eat at a slight deficit for a few weeks, maybe drop a pound or two, and then have less of that guilty feeling. I think it's probably just all in my head, but it helps me to not stress about it.
  • Angieve1
    Angieve1 Posts: 65 Member
    We have our familly dinner at my sister this year. I already told her I'm coming over to cook with her and I'm bringing my food scale. I don't usualy over splurge but I remember how bad I feel after over eating so I try not to. So if I'm going to treat it like any other day then the food scales follows as well.

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