Keeping our *kitten* Together Over the Holidays

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Replies

  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,011 Member
    edited November 2018
    josiereside1 wrote: »
    WinoGelato wrote: »
    josiereside1 wrote: »
    kimny72 wrote: »
    josiereside1 wrote: »
    snowflake954 wrote: »
    Read the thread "Who gained weight during the holidays? I have a solution". By winogelato. It's a classic.

    Great read!! But when you have social events every weekend through New Years it is tough not to gain more than just a pound or 2 and yes tracking consistently would help but I know when I am spending time with friends/family, I am not sitting there with my phone taking the time to log.

    Not saying this will work for you, but it did for me so maybe it will help! When "special occasions" become too frequent, I had to decide that some social events would have to still stay under my calorie goal. So I would decide ahead of time which events were worth the calories. Then at the other get-togethers, I wouldn't drink, I wouldn't sample everything, I wouldn't mindlessly eat everything in front of me. If anyone asked why I wasn't doing any of those things, I simply told them I'd been doing so much eating/drinking this holiday season that I needed to pace myself a little and laugh it off. Most of the time, no one actually noticed.

    One of the things I had to do to lose the weight and keep it off was to make a conscious decision that I could enjoy myself without drinking all the beverages and eating all the foods at every single social event. And if the people I knew didn't want that for me, they could go jump in a lake :smiley:

    It all sounds good in theory but I just have no control in social events. I go with the best intentions and blow it. It really seems I need to avoid social events but I won't do that. No one would judge me for not eating all of the food or not drinking but to me that is what social events are all about.

    I’m curious what your goal is with this thread - throughout it people have given you some suggestions on how to focus on other things, navigating the social aspect of the holidays to mitigate weight gain during the holidays which is what the original post said you were interested in, but every suggestion you get you say that you won’t be doing that because these social events and the eating/drinking is just too engrained for you.

    So what are you hoping to achieve with this? Just a place to vent about the inevitable weight gain since you seem resigned to the fact that you aren’t going to change your behaviors around eating/drinking this holiday season?

    Perhaps it is to vent.. talk about successes, failures.... I did not realize things need to be so black and white here... Seems like a few of you are very rigid in your thought processes.

    Suggesting ways you can make it easier to eat and drink a bit less while celebrating is being rigid? Most of us offering advice in this thread didn't follow a diet to lose weight and are now in maintenance. We all have to make decisions about where we are willing to utilize control and where we'll splurge regardless. I just think it sounded like you wanted folks to help each other find ways to limit over indulging but then dismissed all the suggestions. If you feel you need to over indulge to have fun, go for it. Some of us managed to find ways to work around that and thought we were helping by chiming in. Regardless, I think the thread will be super useful to folks who would like to relearn the social habits that might have contributed to them becoming overweight in the first place.

    Have fun over the holidays, I'm sure it will all work out.
  • WinoGelato
    WinoGelato Posts: 13,454 Member
    josiereside1 wrote: »
    WinoGelato wrote: »
    kimny72 wrote: »
    josiereside1 wrote: »
    kimny72 wrote: »
    josiereside1 wrote: »
    kimny72 wrote: »
    josiereside1 wrote: »
    snowflake954 wrote: »
    Read the thread "Who gained weight during the holidays? I have a solution". By winogelato. It's a classic.

    Great read!! But when you have social events every weekend through New Years it is tough not to gain more than just a pound or 2 and yes tracking consistently would help but I know when I am spending time with friends/family, I am not sitting there with my phone taking the time to log.

    Not saying this will work for you, but it did for me so maybe it will help! When "special occasions" become too frequent, I had to decide that some social events would have to still stay under my calorie goal. So I would decide ahead of time which events were worth the calories. Then at the other get-togethers, I wouldn't drink, I wouldn't sample everything, I wouldn't mindlessly eat everything in front of me. If anyone asked why I wasn't doing any of those things, I simply told them I'd been doing so much eating/drinking this holiday season that I needed to pace myself a little and laugh it off. Most of the time, no one actually noticed.

    One of the things I had to do to lose the weight and keep it off was to make a conscious decision that I could enjoy myself without drinking all the beverages and eating all the foods at every single social event. And if the people I knew didn't want that for me, they could go jump in a lake :smiley:

    It all sounds good in theory but I just have no control in social events. I go with the best intentions and blow it. It really seems I need to avoid social events but I won't do that. No one would judge me for not eating all of the food or not drinking but to me that is what social events are all about.

    So this is going to sound blunt, but if you honestly have no control over your actions at social events,, you might want to consider therapy. Not having any control of your own behavior is not normal or something you have to accept.

    Otherwise this is a conscious choice you're making. In which case, you just need to accept the consequences which is that you will gain a few lbs over the holidays, and re-losing those lbs will slow you down a bit. If you want to avoid that, you need to tweak your priorities. Sometimes we get stuck in a rut where we tell ourselves we aren't capable of something and it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. So if you really want to change it, you almost certainly can. If it's not that big a deal, just do the best you can and get back on track as soon as you can.
    kimny72 wrote: »
    josiereside1 wrote: »
    kimny72 wrote: »
    josiereside1 wrote: »
    snowflake954 wrote: »
    Read the thread "Who gained weight during the holidays? I have a solution". By winogelato. It's a classic.

    Great read!! But when you have social events every weekend through New Years it is tough not to gain more than just a pound or 2 and yes tracking consistently would help but I know when I am spending time with friends/family, I am not sitting there with my phone taking the time to log.

    Not saying this will work for you, but it did for me so maybe it will help! When "special occasions" become too frequent, I had to decide that some social events would have to still stay under my calorie goal. So I would decide ahead of time which events were worth the calories. Then at the other get-togethers, I wouldn't drink, I wouldn't sample everything, I wouldn't mindlessly eat everything in front of me. If anyone asked why I wasn't doing any of those things, I simply told them I'd been doing so much eating/drinking this holiday season that I needed to pace myself a little and laugh it off. Most of the time, no one actually noticed.

    One of the things I had to do to lose the weight and keep it off was to make a conscious decision that I could enjoy myself without drinking all the beverages and eating all the foods at every single social event. And if the people I knew didn't want that for me, they could go jump in a lake :smiley:

    It all sounds good in theory but I just have no control in social events. I go with the best intentions and blow it. It really seems I need to avoid social events but I won't do that. No one would judge me for not eating all of the food or not drinking but to me that is what social events are all about.

    So this is going to sound blunt, but if you honestly have no control over your actions at social events,, you might want to consider therapy. Not having any control of your own behavior is not normal or something you have to accept.

    Otherwise this is a conscious choice you're making. In which case, you just need to accept the consequences which is that you will gain a few lbs over the holidays, and re-losing those lbs will slow you down a bit. If you want to avoid that, you need to tweak your priorities. Sometimes we get stuck in a rut where we tell ourselves we aren't capable of something and it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. So if you really want to change it, you almost certainly can. If it's not that big a deal, just do the best you can and get back on track as soon as you can.

    LOL! I certainly don't need therapy... I am well aware of what I am doing and chose to say F-it... After 3 surgeries this year, the first one causing complications that could have killed me, my priorities are having as much fun as I can and alot of my fun includes lots of food and adult beverages! I am a total foodie. I have had instances in my life where I used to binge eat (never purged though) and I have not done that in a very long time. This is just enjoying all the food and everything else.

    Well now I'm completely confused because just one post earlier you said
    josiereside1 wrote: »
    kimny72 wrote: »
    josiereside1 wrote: »
    snowflake954 wrote: »
    Read the thread "Who gained weight during the holidays? I have a solution". By winogelato. It's a classic.

    Great read!! But when you have social events every weekend through New Years it is tough not to gain more than just a pound or 2 and yes tracking consistently would help but I know when I am spending time with friends/family, I am not sitting there with my phone taking the time to log.

    Not saying this will work for you, but it did for me so maybe it will help! When "special occasions" become too frequent, I had to decide that some social events would have to still stay under my calorie goal. So I would decide ahead of time which events were worth the calories. Then at the other get-togethers, I wouldn't drink, I wouldn't sample everything, I wouldn't mindlessly eat everything in front of me. If anyone asked why I wasn't doing any of those things, I simply told them I'd been doing so much eating/drinking this holiday season that I needed to pace myself a little and laugh it off. Most of the time, no one actually noticed.

    One of the things I had to do to lose the weight and keep it off was to make a conscious decision that I could enjoy myself without drinking all the beverages and eating all the foods at every single social event. And if the people I knew didn't want that for me, they could go jump in a lake :smiley:

    It all sounds good in theory but I just have no control in social events. I go with the best intentions and blow it.

    But now you say you know what you're doing, and you don't want to change it.

    I guess hopefully my answer was helpful to someone else!
    If you don't want to not eat and drink too many calories, then just enjoy yourself and you can lose whatever weight you gain after the festive season is over.

    I'm confused also. So no actual desire to change holiday behavior or create accountability - might as well start with cookie recipes like one of the other holiday threads has morphed into!

    Wow, you look at things so black and white... sure I have desire to reign it in but I don't live a rigid life in any aspect.. Sure I would like to count every little bite that goes into my mouth but unrealistic. Good for you if you can and do. And no, don't need to start with cookie recipes..... but I could if I wanted to because no food is off limits and I could eat a cookie a day if it fit my macros when counting my macros which I normally do 6 days a week.

    So I’m thinking you didn’t actually read the thread that I wrote that was linked above?

    I absolutely am a proponent of all things in moderation and enjoying the holidays, all aspects of them, and not overly stressing about the calories.

    That said, it’s also important to prioritize and mitigate the impact where it makes sense, but every suggestion you’ve gotten here about picking and choosing your holiday battles you’ve dismissed.

    Best of luck in your holiday journey.
  • snowflake954
    snowflake954 Posts: 8,399 Member
    josiereside1 wrote: »
    WinoGelato wrote: »
    josiereside1 wrote: »
    kimny72 wrote: »
    josiereside1 wrote: »
    snowflake954 wrote: »
    Read the thread "Who gained weight during the holidays? I have a solution". By winogelato. It's a classic.

    Great read!! But when you have social events every weekend through New Years it is tough not to gain more than just a pound or 2 and yes tracking consistently would help but I know when I am spending time with friends/family, I am not sitting there with my phone taking the time to log.

    Not saying this will work for you, but it did for me so maybe it will help! When "special occasions" become too frequent, I had to decide that some social events would have to still stay under my calorie goal. So I would decide ahead of time which events were worth the calories. Then at the other get-togethers, I wouldn't drink, I wouldn't sample everything, I wouldn't mindlessly eat everything in front of me. If anyone asked why I wasn't doing any of those things, I simply told them I'd been doing so much eating/drinking this holiday season that I needed to pace myself a little and laugh it off. Most of the time, no one actually noticed.

    One of the things I had to do to lose the weight and keep it off was to make a conscious decision that I could enjoy myself without drinking all the beverages and eating all the foods at every single social event. And if the people I knew didn't want that for me, they could go jump in a lake :smiley:

    It all sounds good in theory but I just have no control in social events. I go with the best intentions and blow it. It really seems I need to avoid social events but I won't do that. No one would judge me for not eating all of the food or not drinking but to me that is what social events are all about.

    I’m curious what your goal is with this thread - throughout it people have given you some suggestions on how to focus on other things, navigating the social aspect of the holidays to mitigate weight gain during the holidays which is what the original post said you were interested in, but every suggestion you get you say that you won’t be doing that because these social events and the eating/drinking is just too engrained for you.

    So what are you hoping to achieve with this? Just a place to vent about the inevitable weight gain since you seem resigned to the fact that you aren’t going to change your behaviors around eating/drinking this holiday season?

    Perhaps it is to vent.. talk about successes, failures.... I did not realize things need to be so black and white here... Seems like a few of you are very rigid in your thought processes.

    OP please reread your first post. This is confusing to some of us. When you want to vent you say that upfront. You asked for accountability friends for the holidays. A lot of us have been there and done that and have tips for people to enjoy themselves without a huge guilt trip. Winogelato's thread is very useful--for those that read it.
  • JessiBelleW
    JessiBelleW Posts: 836 Member
    JessiBelleW wrote: »
    I have a plan! I’m going to hit the gym hard the day before thanksgiving, and thanksgiving morning. I’m going to burn a million calories so I can eat as many potatoes as I like.
    Same for Christmas.

    I will eat any meat and veggie carbs but I will send the carbs home with other people/ toss them so it’s just one day and not weeks of derailing

    Well ladies and gentlemen I did it :D hit the gym hard the day before thanksgiving and T-day itself. Haven't eaten any of the left over potatoes (my extreme weakness) and I've tossed the last of the wine. Happy to be headed back to the gym today, maybe a little heavier but with the right mindset and less three weeks of derailment
  • josiereside1
    josiereside1 Posts: 199 Member
    JessiBelleW wrote: »
    JessiBelleW wrote: »
    I have a plan! I’m going to hit the gym hard the day before thanksgiving, and thanksgiving morning. I’m going to burn a million calories so I can eat as many potatoes as I like.
    Same for Christmas.

    I will eat any meat and veggie carbs but I will send the carbs home with other people/ toss them so it’s just one day and not weeks of derailing

    Well ladies and gentlemen I did it :D hit the gym hard the day before thanksgiving and T-day itself. Haven't eaten any of the left over potatoes (my extreme weakness) and I've tossed the last of the wine. Happy to be headed back to the gym today, maybe a little heavier but with the right mindset and less three weeks of derailment

    Good job! My workouts have been on point... the food not so much but I anticipated that... lots of leftovers of my favs... I am at least tracking them now! I did not track Thanksgiving, Saturday or Sunday...
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    I do IF most weekends year around for social reasons. I exercise regularly and have no problems maintaining my weight while including a lot of social activities.
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