How many of you found it easy to get back on track after the holidays?

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Replies

  • callsitlikeiseeit
    callsitlikeiseeit Posts: 8,627 Member
    seeing as i naturally eat close to my maintenance (maintained for 3 years without logging anything), i dont really gain over the holidays. i figure i eat whatever i want 4 days out of the year - thanksgiving, xmas eve, xmas, and my birthday (which was yesterday). it doesnt make a difference in the grand scheme of things.

    its when you turn a day into a week into a month into .... then its a problem.
  • peppermintcaroline
    peppermintcaroline Posts: 151 Member
    I gained a couple pounds but mostly water weight. As soon as my routine was back and I had a look at my upcoming goals it was super easy.
  • collectingblues
    collectingblues Posts: 2,541 Member
    No problems at all. I’ve tracked everything I eat for the past 5 years, and the only difference about Christmas, Christmas Eve, and NYE is that I eat at maintenance calories.

    I gained a couple of pounds of water and glycogen weight, but that’s from being a slug instead of training, and actually having fully repleted glycogen stores. That’s been coming back off, and I recorded a new low weight last week.
  • FL_Hiker
    FL_Hiker Posts: 919 Member
    vanityy99 wrote: »
    Not I. Before the holidays ( while on vacation) i got into a easy routine, to the point where I didn’t even have to count calories.

    I go on vacation and eat outside what I was use to, and that’s it, I come home and the cravings on the rage - not feeling energized and upbeat. We would go out and id skip an actual meal and just order dessert now all I crave is deep fried Oreos with French vanilla ice cream on the side . Now I get why some people try to avoid certain foods altogether. I been good so far; having berries to curb my sweet tooth. But the pounds are not budging quit yet.

    How easy was it for you to get back on track?

    Difficult, I got sidelined with the flu and then a knee injury so exercise has been out. I feel completely off without my running routine and I haven’t been focusing very much on protein because of that. My diets been fine otherwise though and I’ve been unintentionally losing weight I don’t need to lose (trying to maintain here).
  • kksmom1789
    kksmom1789 Posts: 281 Member
    honestly I was sooo off track for basically all of 2018 :s that it wasn't that hard to get back onto track at all I lost 64lbs in 2016 & 2017 then in 2018 I gained 35lbs so I was ready to get back onto track because it sucks losing pounds I have already lost I have lost 6lbs so far since Jan 3rd
  • patrickaa5
    patrickaa5 Posts: 70 Member
    I went off track seriously for about a week between Christmas and New Years. I continued to track calories, but ate everything in sight. I was basically testing the limits of MFP's calorie calculator. I gained 7lbs. As of yesterday, I was back to where I was before Christmas, so I guess that's good. I didn't have any real difficulties getting back on track, but wasted a few weeks.
  • garystrickland357
    garystrickland357 Posts: 598 Member
    I gained a couple pounds but mostly water weight. As soon as my routine was back and I had a look at my upcoming goals it was super easy.

    This was pretty much me. I kept logging except for Thanksgiving day and Christmas day - I gave up, lol. The rest of the time I maintained my exercise schedule. I enjoyed the treats and goodies - but I didn't gorge myself. It was easy to put the goodies away and decide "the holidays are over" and get back to my normal routine. Within a week I was back to the same weight as before the holidays.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 33,907 Member
    I'm still not really back on track. Whatever that means.

    I am back at exercising as long as it stays above 45*F. I did kick the snack food to the curb and adopt a, "I will eat the food I like, and not so much the food I love," approach - which I read on this site somewhere and I really like it.

    However, (go figure) I can still overeat on "like" food.

    I have dialed it back from a daily overage of 700 calories per day to 300 per day so at least I have that going for me.

    I'm in maintenance for years now. Right now (and for a month) I've been hovering at the highest acceptable number so I'm getting pretty serious now. :wink:
  • joaniebalonie088
    joaniebalonie088 Posts: 93 Member
    I did fine, but I wouldn't exactly attribute it to my own willpower ;) I had to work all days except Dec 25 and Jan 1, so my routine was not too far off from usual. It is pretty hard to overeat at my work because I am just so busy. It is those idle hands and free time during the holidays that usually get me!

    I totally agree with your overall point, though. Anytime I go on vacation, or even just 1-2 days where I take a weekend "off" from eating right, I find it so hard to get back on track. I don't usually have a problem resisting cravings, but they seem to be so much more intense when I have been off-track in the prior days! I was definitely craving French fries and a greasy burger yesterday for this very reason :D

    That said I am really proud of my overall progress. I haven't lost a ton of weight yet but I am getting into better habits overall. I restarted logging in September, rather than waiting for the new year. I feel like I have a good jump on things and will be well on-track to be more comfortable with my weight by the time summer comes around :)
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,879 Member
    edited January 2019
    Pretty easy...I'm pretty loose with things Thanksgiving through New Years food wise and exercise is hit or miss, and then I just get right back to things...it's my little mini break and then back to normal. I've been good livin' though for quite a number of years.

    I usually put on about 10 Lbs every fall/winter and start taking it off in January and I'm back to maintenance usually by March or April.
  • CSARdiver
    CSARdiver Posts: 6,257 Member
    edited January 2019
    Smooth as silk.

    It's just following a budget. I eat all the rich luxurious foods around the holidays in the same way I spend a bit more around the holidays on gifts. I simply don't keep doing this throughout the year.

    I plan my bulking phases during the holidays and work on developing muscle and schedule in fat loss once this is over.
  • psychod787
    psychod787 Posts: 4,088 Member
    Never left... just staying my course.
  • concordancia
    concordancia Posts: 5,320 Member
    I didn't overeat over the holidays, although I did eat more salt and carbs, plus just looking at an airplane seems to result in bloat, so I did gain about 5 pounds.

    I was happy to get back to my own routine and the extra weight was gone within a week and I am down another four pounds since then.
  • tigerblue
    tigerblue Posts: 1,525 Member
    I didn't go terribly off-track. I can count the treats I had between Thanksgiving and New Year's on two hands. I still gained 5 pounds between mid-December and New Years.

    Getting back on track has not been hard. I am highly motivated. But getting the pounds to come off is much harder. It always comes on quickly (5 pounds in 2 weeks), but leaves slowly. I actually got back on track the day after Christmas (I didn't even have birthday cake for my birthday 3 days after Christmas, and I only had one glass of champagne and one small scoop of ice cream on New Years). So now it has been 3 weeks, and I have only lost 3 lbs. But at least I am losing it.
  • apullum
    apullum Posts: 4,838 Member
    Never really went off track. We spent a few days visiting family who don’t eat like we do, and were glad to get home and have some vegetables.
  • BaVIP073
    BaVIP073 Posts: 22 Member
    I overate and drank during the holidays and did gain about 1.5 pounds. After the holidays, I just stopped booze and sweets and now I'm back on track. It wasn't really hard for me at all.
  • BattyKnitter
    BattyKnitter Posts: 503 Member
    It wasn't too bad actually. I enjoyed the food, gained 5 lbs, but now I'm enjoying my healthy meals. I make room in my calories for more treats than usual for the first few days back to ease those cravings.
  • oceangirl99
    oceangirl99 Posts: 161 Member
    Ugh. I didn't really gain - some water weight yes, but dropped that quickly but generally my loss has slowed so much for the past 3 months it is driving me nuts. That's because I have less to lose and I certainly haven't been as diligent in tracking as I know I should be.
  • NovusDies
    NovusDies Posts: 8,940 Member
    I was happy to get back to it. I took a diet break (10 days) at Thanksgiving and 3 days of maintenance calories at Christmas and then again at New Year's. In between Christmas and NY I gave myself an extra 200ish calories per day for an additional treat.

    I have learned I am happier and I feel better eating what is now normal for me. By normal I mean in a deficit and the foods I rely on to maintain it. However, I have been eating this way for 11 months now. I am betting I would struggle if the holidays had hit within 2 months or so of me starting.