What's Your Holiday Eating Strategy?

MsCzar
MsCzar Posts: 1,039 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Here, there will be some parties, restaurant meals and cocktails, along with some general indulgence and holiday baking. I don't much worry about it and treat it like vacation food- enjoyed, but not adopted as a way to normally eat. On the days without a celebratory occasion, I pre-plan, cut back on calories, up the protein and eat fewer carbs - sipping mugs of hot spiced tomato juice instead of hot cocoa.

What's Your Holiday Eating Strategy?

What's Your Holiday Eating Strategy? 50 votes

I am a paragon of perfection and stick to my eating plan throught the holidays.
4%
goal06082021Gisel2015 2 votes
I indulge in a few extra special occasion foods, but mostly stay on plan.
48%
mirthegeologistPipsqueak1965sandielewis2001mookybargirlcw106cmjohnson53debtay123dejonnyToronto6fanjennypapagemusicfan68JBanx256Carriehelenenatasor1chris89topherKarenSmith2018Arual102179lemurcat2ChickenKillerPuppyevanessen59 24 votes
I allow myself a small weight gain that is quickly gone after the holidays.
38%
londoneyelaurad1978callsitlikeiseeitonyxgirl17comradelemonviajera99cwolfman1339flavoursMaggieGirl135scarlett_kxxronexxAnnPT77rainingribbonsMise_enPlacetufntendersarah7591MsCzarSpeakeasy76HylesGallii 19 votes
I hide my scale at the back of the closet until January and indulge.
4%
Elphaba1313blkadr 2 votes
I am completely undone. It's a major non-stop bing-fest.
6%
kshama2001ahoy_m8GoblinQueen999 3 votes

Replies

  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,094 Member
    edited December 2021
    It's three days in my case.
    I skip breakfast those days and keep the other non festive meals light and make sure to exercise when I can.
    But the festive meals themselves : I enjoy everything in moderation, a bit of everything and some more of the best foods. The past years that was around 2500-3000 calories per day, not a big deal in the grand scheme of things.
  • springlering62
    springlering62 Posts: 7,403 Member
    Omg…..

    the only thing I got out of this was “hot spiced tomato juice”!!!!!!!

    Once I saw that, everything else was background noise.

    Tell us more!!!!

    Can I just say one more time how fricking awesome it is to not have GERD anymore and to be able to eat any tomato-y thing I please?!
  • callsitlikeiseeit
    callsitlikeiseeit Posts: 8,627 Member
    I allow myself a small weight gain that is quickly gone after the holidays.
    I eat what I want. I'm on maintenance this month, and actually lost a pound since the beginning of the month. go figure lol

    We dont really have any parties though, and do a nice, if not slightly larger than normal dinner. and theres more sweets in the house for around a week or 2. so, the scale may go up a tad before the end of the month but thats okay. Ive been at this a LONG time, and lost 230 pounds. the few i may gain will be mostly water weight, and any real weight will drop off within a couple of weeks. Not a big deal.

    Life is too short not to enjoy the holidays and our loved ones. learning how to live with the special occasions and holiday festivities is part of weight loss and maintenance.
  • Luke_rabbit
    Luke_rabbit Posts: 1,031 Member
    Aside:

    @springlering62

    Did you have reflux surgery? My surgery consult resulted in him suggesting just staying on PPIs for the rest of my life, and never again having tomatoes, coffee, alcohol, etc.

    On topic:

    I'm in maintenance. I tend to cut back a little during the early part of the month (losing about 1/2 a pound), and then indulge as desired. In January, I'll cut back if needed, but I doubt it will be much. I prefer a pre-emptive strike approach for holidays and vacations. (Tomorrow is actually our biggest celebration day, with both our birthdays and our 35th anniversary!!)
  • springlering62
    springlering62 Posts: 7,403 Member
    bold_rabbit wrote: »
    Aside:

    @springlering62

    Did you have reflux surgery? My surgery consult resulted in him suggesting just staying on PPIs for the rest of my life, and never again having tomatoes, coffee, alcohol, etc.

    On topic:

    I'm in maintenance. I tend to cut back a little during the early part of the month (losing about 1/2 a pound), and then indulge as desired. In January, I'll cut back if needed, but I doubt it will be much. I prefer a pre-emptive strike approach for holidays and vacations. (Tomorrow is actually our biggest celebration day, with both our birthdays and our 35th anniversary!!)

    Congrats! We’re 35 years, too. What a joy to have a partner who is your best friend, who you can lose your sheet at, and he just shrugs and carry on.

    I didn’t have reflux surgery. I had it bad, too. Throwing up daily, burning acid at night, waking up from a deep sleep choking, carrying a purse simply so I could carry extra underwear (mine gave me terrible incontenince). My docs kept telling me weight loss would resolve the problem, and I kept increasing and taking the blockers and jars and jars of Tums.

    When I finally buckled down and started losing weight, I think the good lord had sympathy with me. The GERD was gone within the first ten or so pounds and that motivated me to keep going. It was like having an elephant lifted off my back, and is why I am so careful in maintenance not to put back on, or have another 10,000 calorie day. Even the 5,000 one I had the other day led to “GERD Tickles”. Stuff like that scares me straight.

    If you suffer, you have my utmost sympathy. It is indeed suffering.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 31,965 Member
    I allow myself a small weight gain that is quickly gone after the holidays.
    None of these options fit exactly, but I voted for the one that felt closest.

    I'm in the throes of my usual "want to eat more because Winter" impulses, which sits alongside reduced exercise volume (because my ReallyReally Fun exercise is the outdoor stuff, so I drop from enthusiast-level volume exercise to maintenance-level volume exercise in the off-season). Then there's a mid-November birthday, US Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years.

    I figure I can work at moderate eating, within my usual calorie banking maintenance strategy, and fit in some indulgent-eating days, if I keep in mind that it's holiDAYs not holiMONTHs. Over the Winter months, maybe gain a bit, maybe lose a bit again come Spring. If that loss doesn't happen automagically and there's ongoing scale up-creep, I'll need to do some managed down-creep, which is usually easier in Spring through Fall because of the higher TDEE.

    It'll work out. It has for 6+ years now, so I'm reasonably confident it will again. 🤷‍♀️
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,886 Member
    edited December 2021
    I am completely undone. It's a major non-stop bing-fest.
    I was exaggerating a lot with my vote, which more reflects what I WANT to do than what I'm actually doing, although I do feel a bit untethered at times.
    springlering62 wrote: »
    bold_rabbit wrote: »
    Aside:

    @springlering62

    Did you have reflux surgery? My surgery consult resulted in him suggesting just staying on PPIs for the rest of my life, and never again having tomatoes, coffee, alcohol, etc.

    On topic:

    I'm in maintenance. I tend to cut back a little during the early part of the month (losing about 1/2 a pound), and then indulge as desired. In January, I'll cut back if needed, but I doubt it will be much. I prefer a pre-emptive strike approach for holidays and vacations. (Tomorrow is actually our biggest celebration day, with both our birthdays and our 35th anniversary!!)

    Congrats! We’re 35 years, too. What a joy to have a partner who is your best friend, who you can lose your sheet at, and he just shrugs and carry on.

    I didn’t have reflux surgery. I had it bad, too. Throwing up daily, burning acid at night, waking up from a deep sleep choking, carrying a purse simply so I could carry extra underwear (mine gave me terrible incontenince). My docs kept telling me weight loss would resolve the problem, and I kept increasing and taking the blockers and jars and jars of Tums.

    When I finally buckled down and started losing weight, I think the good lord had sympathy with me. The GERD was gone within the first ten or so pounds and that motivated me to keep going. It was like having an elephant lifted off my back, and is why I am so careful in maintenance not to put back on, or have another 10,000 calorie day. Even the 5,000 one I had the other day led to “GERD Tickles”. Stuff like that scares me straight.

    If you suffer, you have my utmost sympathy. It is indeed suffering.

    I'd read you posting before that just a little weight loss helped with your GERD and was optimistic that the same would be true for me but it wasn't :(

    However, I'm having great success with DGL, once I found a format that worked for me - the stevia sweetened chewables did not.

    @bold_rabbit with the DGL, I don't need to avoid caffeine and sometimes take an extra DGL or a PPI when I have something like pizza due to both the tomatoes and the high calories. I don't take the PPI regularly - I think I'm still on my original fill.

    Here's my brand, but if you can take the chewables those are more common and probably cheaper:

    https://smile.amazon.com/Terry-Naturally-Advanced-DGL-Caps/dp/B01KC0OKNA/ref=sr_1_5
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,876 Member
    I allow myself a small weight gain that is quickly gone after the holidays.
    I allow myself a small weight gain that is quickly gone after the holidays.

    Kinda. Diet wise, I may have a few more indulgences over the holidays, but for the most part my diet isn't a whole lot different than my usual maintenance diet. Thanksgiving is the biggest feast day but Christmas is nowhere close to that and everything in between is pretty normal living. Christmas dinner for us isn't really a big feast...it's more of just a very nice formal dinner. I usually to a rib roast and this year will have sides of green beans and slivered almonds and a mushroom risotto. I don't have a substantial sweet tooth so I may have a few holiday cookies along the way, but nothing crazy.

    I do usually put on 8-10 Lbs from October through December, but it is more a result of cycling season ending in October and I'm usually a bit burnt out on training so I just go do fun things instead of actively training. But even those fun things and general activity dips with it being dark in the morning and evening when I get home and the cold blowing in. I become much more of a weekend warrior type Oct-Dec. I've actually more or less maintained this year, but I'm maintaining at a weight that is about 20 Lbs over my usual maintenance. I figure I've been able to maintain because it's been unseasonably warm so far this winter and I've been out and about more than usual this time of year.

    Training resumes in January in preparation for the cycling season which I usually kick off in April/May. I usually also cut some calories and whatever I've gained over the last few months of the year is gone by March if not sooner. It may be a bit longer this year since it's 20 lbs vs 8-10 Lbs...but dry January alone will probably lop off a good 8-10 Lb in that month alone.
  • Xellercin
    Xellercin Posts: 924 Member
    I don't drink alcohol, don't eat much sugar, and only have one holiday day with my family, so there's really not much to worry about.

    On the 25th I will eat whatever I want and not worry about it.
  • springlering62
    springlering62 Posts: 7,403 Member
    I’ve cut loose and am eating all the nomnoms. Will get serious again on December 26. But Christmas without baked goods and chocolate is more than I can bear.
  • nanastaci2020
    nanastaci2020 Posts: 1,072 Member
    Will eat for enjoyment when it comes to food traditions that are once or twice a year, and aim to still get in some level of basic activity each day. Will not worry about calories on those few occasions.

Categories