Thanksgiving Gluttony Trauma !

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callherbeautyxo
callherbeautyxo Posts: 124 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
To me thanksgiving is the worst holiday ever! why? because every year i always put on atleast 20lbs. Every year my family make all of my favourite meals and none of them are healthy. This year i really don't want to gain any weight over the holidays because i've worked so hard at losing weight and eating the right foods, i don't want all of my hardwork to go to waste. I would like to know how i can enjoy the holidays without putting on any pounds or starving myself. give me all the advice you can please :) thanks!

xoxo mera <3

Replies

  • robin52077
    robin52077 Posts: 4,383 Member
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    20 pounds is 70,000 calories over maintenance.
    This is not physically possible. You would either go into a coma, have a heart attack, or your stomach would literally rupture before you could consume enough calories to gain ten pounds, never mind 20.
  • tunktunk5583
    tunktunk5583 Posts: 76 Member
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    20 pounds is 70,000 calories over maintenance.
    This is not physically possible. You would either go into a coma, have a heart attack, or your stomach would literally rupture before you could consume enough calories to gain ten pounds, never mind 20.

    ^^^^^
  • callherbeautyxo
    callherbeautyxo Posts: 124 Member
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    It's not only thanksgiving, it's christmas also. and all of the dinners we have in between i have a big family, we like to cook and eat. I always gain 20lbs.
  • KiyaK
    KiyaK Posts: 519 Member
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    Eat the foods you like, just eat less. You don't have to gorge yourself at every meal. Drink a big glass of water 20 minutes before you eat (to help fill your stomach). Eat slowly. Chew more than you normally do. Stop when your stomach is full.

    Check out the foods in the MFP database before you eat. Then you will know which foods you can have a little more of and which foods to take smaller portions of.
  • heykatieben
    heykatieben Posts: 398 Member
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    Great post idea, I'd love Thanksgiving survival tips, too. :D
  • KiyaK
    KiyaK Posts: 519 Member
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    Good luck! You can do this!! The holidays are a hard time for everyone :)
  • meg0013
    meg0013 Posts: 102
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    20 pounds is 70,000 calories over maintenance.
    This is not physically possible. You would either go into a coma, have a heart attack, or your stomach would literally rupture before you could consume enough calories to gain ten pounds, never mind 20.

    good job ignoring everything but the first sentence.
  • meg0013
    meg0013 Posts: 102
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    Eat the foods you like, just eat less. You don't have to gorge yourself at every meal. Drink a big glass of water 20 minutes before you eat (to help fill your stomach). Eat slowly. Chew more than you normally do. Stop when your stomach is full.

    Check out the foods in the MFP database before you eat. Then you will know which foods you can have a little more of and which foods to take smaller portions of.

    water is a big factor for me. the better hydrated i am, the less i crave food. same goes for exercise. the days i don't do anything active, i feel hungrier. but it all comes to mind over matter! if you think you can do it, you will.
  • Samiwhereareyou
    Samiwhereareyou Posts: 281 Member
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    I had a talk with my family about how I was losing weight and I still wanted to enjoy all of the holiday foods so we are going to make a pretty healthy dinner this year. No candy sweet yams but instead baked sweet potatoes. Mashed potatoes made with low fat milk instead of cream. Pumpkin custard *a no crust pie* instead of pecan pie and pumpkin cheese cake. More veggie trays and less cheese trays out for snacking everyone seemed on board and this ways everyone wins.

    also work out that morning before heading over to the family's.
  • AnneHolland
    AnneHolland Posts: 4
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    Robin, that may be the case for you, but I've gained 10 lbs in a week, certainly 20 isn't that hard over a whole holiday season. Our bodies aren't all the same, some of us have screwed up our metabolism so much with yo yo dieting that our maintanance level is crazy low.
  • BatedBreath84
    BatedBreath84 Posts: 7
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    Oh I would go for broke and pig out on Thanksgiving and not worry about exercise until after Black Friday shopping!
  • lawkat
    lawkat Posts: 538 Member
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    Make sure you get in some exercise. Maybe you can get your family to go for a walk or something to burn off some of those calories.

    You should also try to take smaller portions of your favorites. Don't take seconds and eat slowly. Don't deprive yourself, but don't overindulge. Moderation.
  • robin52077
    robin52077 Posts: 4,383 Member
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    20 pounds is 70,000 calories over maintenance.
    This is not physically possible. You would either go into a coma, have a heart attack, or your stomach would literally rupture before you could consume enough calories to gain ten pounds, never mind 20.

    good job ignoring everything but the first sentence.

    ok, fine...say it's a WHOLE MONTH of overeating that causes the fabled 20 pounds...I did read the whole thing, thanks...just pointing out the 20 pounds is not possible...

    70,000 divided by 30 = 2333 calories over maintenance a DAY for 30 days straight. She's trying to lose 80 pounds, so her TDEE is pretty high, at LEAST 2000, so she would have to eat at LEAST 4300 calories a DAY to gain 20 pounds in that month.

    Here's an idea...just don't do that.
    Eat a LITTLE BIT of the yummy stuff and lots and lots of healthy stuff.
    Don't completely deny yourself the good stuff, because you'll feel deprived and more likely to slam down a whole pie when nobody is looking.

    And even if you did "gain" 20 pounds, MORE than HALF of that is bloating and water weight from excess sugar and sodium for a month. Eat really clean for a week and drink a ton of water and MOST of it will be gone.
  • LyneLM
    LyneLM Posts: 76 Member
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    Hi,

    You might consider having a bowl of soup to begin every meal, this works wonders to eat less of the main meal and it is a healthy way to eat vegetables.

    In particular for Thanksgiving, a spicy pumpkin soup for starters: warm up chicken broth (2 cans of condensed broth - do not add water), add in a diced potato, once the potato is about cooked, add in a can of pure pumpkin, salt, pepper and pureed ginger to taste, cook a bit more and liquify with a hand blender). This one is a success all year round at our house.

    Another easy recipe is straciatella, a favorite of my kids: again, chicken broth (1 carton + 2 cans of condensed broth - do not add water) which you bring to almost a boil, add in pepper, pesto or pureed dill, stir, slowly add in 3 or 4 eggs while wisking them in the hot broth. Lower the heat, cook 3 to 5 minutes. Serve with grated parmesan. Myself I cut up some aragula or spinach in my bowl and pour the straciatella over, then I add the parmesan.

    This might be helpful, good luck!
  • callherbeautyxo
    callherbeautyxo Posts: 124 Member
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    Thanks! i'm deffinitly going to try that =) sounds good
  • stevwil41
    stevwil41 Posts: 608 Member
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    The holiday season is challenging for me as well but I'm not going to stress too much about it. I always end up having 2 Thanksgiving dinners and 2 or 3 Christmas dinners (Mom's family, Dad's family, work) and my birthday is right between the 2. I changed my goals from 1 lb/week to 1.5 lbs/week to offset the various meals. I will try to watch my portions but I don't plan on passing up anything I really want. I plan to exercise diligently and eat as healthy as possible when I'm not with the family and to not sweat it. I'm going to consider it a victory if I make it through the season maintaining my weight and if not then I'll do what most other healthy people do, work it off after the holidays.

    For me, part of leading a healthier lifestyle means that I'm going to have to deal with holidays, vacations and whatever else life throws at me. I spent a lot of my life sidelined because of my weight and I'll be damned if now that the weight isn't an issue I'm going to let "dieting" do the same thing. I plan on making the best choices I can and when I want to make a bad choice (I'm talking about you, Five Guys burgers and fries) I plan on doing it knowingly and talking full responsibility for the consequences. Coincidentally, the first time I've ever in my life ran 4 miles was motivated by a trip to a Five Guys. I'm a firm believer in earning my less than healthy foods.

    Enjoy the holidays!
  • MJ7910
    MJ7910 Posts: 1,280 Member
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    i think if you just stick to turkey, vegetables (corn, green beans, etc) you should be ok. even pumpkin pie is not that bad for you. the ones that are bad are the heavy carb loaded stuff like stuffings, mashed potatoes, yams, etc. green bean casserole would be worse than just green beans. if you want the heavy carb stuff just take a tiny amount. fill up the plate with turkey, vegetables, etc.

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