To track or not to track on Thanksgiving

Just a thought. If you do decide not to track for one day, pre-log the day after, or maybe two days, so that there is no temptation to let the day turn into the weekend, which turns into weeks. Right back to it.
Whether you really need to track that day depends on you. Are you a numbers geek who needs those numbers for that day?
For myself, I just log quick add 1000 calories for a big holiday meal. Keeps me in the habit of logging without any stress of guessing numbers.

ChickenKillerPuppy wrote: »

I love the idea of not worrying about trying to track and really just taking this one night off, but I also have been really diligent about tracking and wonder if it’s better to stick with the habit.

I also like the idea of taking a break from the "work" of logging but if I felt like logging on the holiday "for fun" I'd do it. I've taken a day off before just because I didn't feel like it and I still was able to stick with the habit afterwards. I have no deadline for my weight loss goal, I'm doing this for me and will take breaks when I want to.

I hope you find a good solution for you- congrats on your success and good luck with your future goals!

For me tracking allows me to relax. It’s likely your scale weight will be up after a holiday due to water and waste gain, and knowing how many calories I ate means I know it’s not “real” i.e. fat gain. I am also diabetic and need to be careful because Thanksgiving food is heavy on the carbs.

I think maybe there's a slight difference between logging and tracking.

Tracking, to me, implies precision. It implies measuring/weighing. This would be inconvenient at best at an event like a communal Thanksgiving feast, a potluck, or many other situations. If I were going to a Thanksgiving dinner, I would not TRACK.

Logging, to me, implies just that -- journaling what you eat. I will do this every day. Some days it's not precise at all. Before I go on a dive trip or river trip, I pre-log my days with one of two "recipes" I created that are just a combination of fat, carb, and protein to add up to what actually is way more than my daily goal. It's good enough. Surely the more often someone is precise, by weighing what they cook and eat, the better one gets at estimating when that's more appropriate.

The research suggests that simply WRITING DOWN what you eat leads to eating fewer calories. It suggests that writing it down WHEN YOU EAT IT is better than trying to remember at the end of the day. People tend to underestimate what they eat, so just the act of writing it down helps. I do this too. I carry a little pocket notebook, and if I'm eating something and don't want to log it right away, I make a note in my pad and log it later.

I have found a lot of value just logging what I eat. There are many ways to approach our goals, and I think we all need to find what works for us. But yeah -- log but not track on some days. This is what I did on Sunday. That's when I had the closest thing to a Thanksgiving meal. Annual tradition at a local tavern -- free Thanksgiving dinner for the entire community. I was moderate in what I put on my plate, but I didn't measure it. I did find a reasonable entry in the database for "Thanksgiving meal," and I said that's good enough.

Does that make sense?

I have worked hard to get into shape. I agree with the above-mentioned post though, it'one day...live a little bit!

tracydnevins wrote: »

I DID track... what a disaster!!!!! But, this is ONE DAY!!! If it’s Christmas, Thanksgiving, things like that, I’m gonna splurge! I feel like depriving myself just makes me more likely to give up. I ate almost double in calories. Not good. But tomorrow is a new day. ☀️

It's fine. You're in a long term deficit, an occasional blip won't hurt you. You're the tortoise not the hair.

hobbitses333 wrote: »

One day is not going to be the end..it took you a lot longer to gain all the weight... I track freely on holidays...no way to really know calorie counts so I just put in a quick 3000 cals and forget about it for the day. Back to careful tracking the very next day..

This year is really different for me.
"Normally" I have downed 5 pumpkin pies by now with whipped cream. But this year I have had maybe 5 pieces. Dont miss it and just kept putting it off till later.

Same with the Christmas treats...years before it would begin as soon as they hit the store...now I am saving them for later. Dec 24 to Jan 01 will enjoy all my "not nows" like baileys, after eights, rum and egg nog, stained glass cake, boursin cheese then right back at it on Jan the 2nd!

I find I dont like the way I feel when I over indulge now. To think I used eat whatever until absolutely stuffed everyday!

Yes, I didn't have seconds of dinner or dessert and didn't miss the "turkey coma."

I enjoy my pecan pie so much more if I've had time to digest a little beforehand. We had just enough daylight left to get in a 1.5 mile walk after dinner and before dessert. I told everyone "Walk or do dishes" and the two who didn't want to walk got all the dishes done while we were gone, which was wonderful.

I pre-logged yesterday to figure out what to eat in order to keep my blood sugar within safe limits. Ended up eating about 800 calories of stuffing, green beans, salad, turkey, and low carb pecan/pumpkin pie (my own invention) and tested at under 100 2 hrs after eating. Yay! The day as a whole was a little under calories because we went to bed early and had a light supper.

Woke up heavy today but I think I’m retaining water due to sore muscles from my race yesterday. We went hard, and I can feel it.