Christmas excesses and how to keep track of everything

I don't usually log days anymore where I'd be wildly guessing, but that's in year 7+ of maintaining. I try to be moderately sensible (but enjoy the food part of the celebration), and remember that it's holiDAYs not holiMONTHs. As long as it's rare, it's NBD.

I did log holidays during weight loss and early maintenance, since I still wanted at least approximately sound data for decision making about calorie needs and nutrition. .

There are a couple of possible things that might help:

For one, I did try to remember what I'd eaten. My family serves holidays buffet-style, so we serve ourselves. I could pay attention as I plated my food to estimating portion sizes. I didn't log right then, but if I got a spare moment where it wouldn't be socially awkward, I might log or at least note what I'd eaten. (Example: In my crowd, it's not rude to play with one's phone while people are mostly watching football. )

For drinks, I usually had a drink budget in my head - 2 glasses of wine or whatever - and tried to stick with that. To slow myself down (even now), I make it a point to have water with the meal and maybe at other times, and thankfully that's normal in my family. That put a drink in my hand that was non-caloric, cut down on other drinks being pushed. ("I'll have another wine when I finish this glass of water" . . . by which time people forget.)

For two - and only if it can be done subtly and politely - I would take a quick photo of my plate with my phone (no flash!). Make sure there's something standard-sized on the plate (like a fork). That makes it easy to remember and to estimate portion sizes.

Honestly, I think our own attitude toward this plays a role in accountability, assuming you do decide you want to log the holiday. You say "there are so many sharing platters etc and glasses tend to get refilled before you notice". That sounds like there might be an implicit script in your head telling you that this is going to be impossible, so you might as well not even try.

I'm not saying it's wrong to skip logging that day. It's fine to decide that's your plan.

But if you do decide that you want to log, spend your energy now planning how you can best do that. (I know that's kinda what this thread is about.) Adopt the idea that it is possible, that it's a skill you can develop. It may not be perfect on the first attempt, but since it's a skill, you'll get better at it with practice, right? There's always going to be approximation and estimation in the picture, but you can get in the ballpark, I think.

Happy holidays!

I am tracking everything and just estimating the best I can when necessary. I think it’s helping be more accountable to myself and probably am being more mindful of what I’m actually eating. All those little cheats really add up and it’s easy to just keep at it and throw in the towel. I’d encourage you to track

CrazyMermaid1 wrote: »

Lots of good ideas here. I always start the day off with weighing myself in the morning every day of the year. That number keeps the impact of my decisions in the forefront. It’s such a pain in the neck to re-lose weight.

So true. Even if I don’t track I know what the scale said and it pretty much guides my decisions throughout the day. I’m new to maintenance so not sure if it’s a good long term strategy but it’s working really well so far.

I log, but most of my holidays are with family and a lot ilof the menu carries over from year to year, so I have a "saved meal" as a starting point from which I can edit amounts and add anything new. After 10+ years of logging, it's an engrained habit to notice and remember what I eat. Of course the amounts are just estimates (I don't bring a scale).

Personally I don't give it any thought, it's a few days or a week of indulgence and over the years it didn't make any difference how much I indulged in the long run and just went back to my intuitive eating pattern which is to eat until I'm no longer hungry. I am low carb and Keto, just getting that out there.

The issue is never a single day, or even a scattering of say five or so days throughout the month. It is going to say, the office Christmas party, eating too much there, then instead of getting back to your deficit the next day and sticking with it until the next individual day, you go off the rails for all those days as well. So far my plan to eat according to my calorie goals all days except that handful of days has resulted in me dropping 3 pounds this month. Of course the big test is going to be today, tomorrow and New Year's Eve. If I can stick to the plan, which I have so far, I will hopefully end the month weighing less than I did at the beginning. On the days I eat freely I don't count or log although I do focus on eating more meat at the start to fill myself up with something that keeps me full.