Holidays...

CGVeronica · April 2019

I’ve got a question about holidays.

Today is Easter and like all holidays, there’s going to be lots of food at my house. Lasagna, ham, carrot cake, cheesecake, chocolate, chocolate, and more chocolate.

My question is, on holidays, do you just say to hell with it and eat whatever you want all day? Or do you try to maintain a healthy breakfast and lunch and then eat whatever you want for dinner and dessert? Or do you maintain a healthy breakfast and lunch and try to have a semi well balanced holiday dinner?

whmscll · April 2019

I do the last item on your list; healthy bkst and lunch (with maybe a few less calories than usual) and then I try to have small portions of whatever is being served for dinner and dessert. I also don’t try to stay at a deficit, but eat at maintenance or a bit above for that day. And I try to get some exercise in to help the whole process. Next day, back to my deficit. One day will not make or break your weight loss efforts. It is the sum total of what you do over time that counts. Enjoy the holiday with friends and family while eating mindfully and not going nuts but enjoying the special day.

lthames0810 · April 2019

Whichever meals I eat at home (or at least without company) are my normally restricted calorie meals. The holiday celebration meal with family and friends, I eat freely.

For my family, the food is an essential part of the celebration and there are certain foods or recipes that only come out on holidays. Also, as I get older, I am painfully aware that some of these special people won't always be with me. I don't want to do anything that takes away from the pleasure of the occasion.

MikePTY · April 2019

There's nothing that any one day can do to your progress. I think it's healthy for us to sometimes not worry so much and just enjoy food with friends and family. That doesn't mean that you still can't exercise some restraint: like have one cupcake instead of 4 for instance, but I don't worry about it too much.

Today we had Easter refreshments at church after mass and I pretty much just went for it and ate what I would enjoy. I resisted having a few extra wings and sweets that I could have had if I really had just went for it. But I certainly didn't just stand in the corner munching on the vegetable platter.

keenest37 · April 2019

I've been counting calories for about 6 weeks, haven't missed a day. This is the first holiday that's come up. I've decided to enjoy myself. I get full pretty quickly anyway. Now that I'm super aware of the calories in everything I'll probably be a little cautious but I can't wait for dinner! Tomorrow back to normal again.

sarabushby · April 2019

I’m eating all the treats but by being active I should be able to stay either under calories or at the very least at maintenance (which is my current aim).
This weekend we’ve had croissant, steak and chips, pizza, birthday cake, Easter nest cakes, Simnel Cake, Easter chocolates, ice cream & chocolate sauce, Wine, Beer, Roast Hogget... the list goes on! It would be very easy to overeat but I’m trying to exercise some level of restraint - choosing lower calorie cream and ice cream & switching cream for yoghurt, having smaller portions, saying no to a second chocolate egg etc.

lemurcat2 · April 2019

CGVeronica wrote: »

I’ve got a question about holidays.

Today is Easter and like all holidays, there’s going to be lots of food at my house. Lasagna, ham, carrot cake, cheesecake, chocolate, chocolate, and more chocolate.

My question is, on holidays, do you just say to hell with it and eat whatever you want all day? Or do you try to maintain a healthy breakfast and lunch and then eat whatever you want for dinner and dessert? Or do you maintain a healthy breakfast and lunch and try to have a semi well balanced holiday dinner?

Depends on the holiday and specific traditions. On Christmas and Easter I tend to have a slightly more decadent than usual breakfast, usually more like a brunch so no lunch, and then a big feast. The feast isn't crazy calorie-wise, though. We then will typically have dessert, something I would not normally have like cupcakes (today's Easter plan) or pie. I'll eat what I want for dinner and dessert. (Easter's menu isn't crazy -- some sort of lamb, rack of lamb this year, plus roasted small potatoes, spring veg, salad, and deviled eggs.) My tradition involves either a full or semi fast on Good Friday, so when I've logged Easter I've tended to find the week as a whole isn't higher than normal calorie-wise. Christmas is different since Christmas season for me tends to include various days when logging is hard, and I tend to eat more cals than usual on Dec 24-26 always. I usually do gain a few lbs around Christmas and then lose them quickly in Jan.

My Thanksgiving is basically just the dinner feast -- I eat light at breakfast and skip lunch since dinner is early. And then I eat whatever. And then I eat leftovers the rest of the weekend, but with the exception of pie (which I always have as breakfast on Friday), most of the leftovers are pretty calorie-reasonable. My Thanksgiving traditions include a lot of pretty healthy dishes, I don't care for stuffing (I love mashed potatoes, though), and turkey itself is low cal.

For us the 4th of July is all about grilling out, so unless it's an unusual year it doesn't tend to be super caloric.

kbmnurse1 · April 2019

I eat whatever the hell I want. It is one day. Tomorrow back to it.

lalalacroix · April 2019

I'm planning to stay at least within my maintenance calories. And I've already earned some exercise calories so I should have enough to eat dinner which is salmon, risotto and broccoli (?) and a small piece of the white coconut cake that I all about to make. The question is whether I have enough calories for wine.

pierinifitness · April 2019

Why not eat it all but no more than 25 percent more than maintenance? Seems the best of both worlds.

Suuzanne37 · April 2019

I’ve eaten Easter goodies that I love; Bun and cheese plus banana bread; all within maintenance. I am a consistent logger; so even with approximations for dinner; everything is logged. I weighed my bun because I had it at home and I had the Banana Bread at Starbucks so I used the listed calories; family dinner was guesstimated. It’s the holiday; so I enjoy but with constraints (max - maintenance calories).

Holidays...

Replies

Categories