Will you be giving yourself a break over Xmas?

NOOOOOOOO! I am going to get up and exercise before we open presents! My health is my gift to myself! I've spent toooooo many years putting everyone else first.

The family has been warned that we are having healthier food for holiday meals, no need to over indulge. Trying to find healthy new traditions cuz the old ones obviously didn't work out too well for me!

Thanksgiving, I will log breakfast and lunch, and work out.
Christmas can be alittle tough for me, since we have christmas eve dinner , christmas day early dinner. I will exercise for sure, and eat in moderation.

I once learned some great pointers on Holidays from a very smart Weight Watchers leader... Everyone says "It's the Holidays and i can't help myself during those days - they are so hard". She handed us a calendar showing a full year and told us to circle the actual holiday days, Jan 1, Turkey Day, Dec 25, Halloween, Valentines.... when we finished she asked us to add them up. We all said 5 days. She said that's right! The Holidays are only 5 days out of 365 days they don't go from Thanksgiving day until Valentines day and if you can behave on 360 then the Holidays should not be that hard. She said to treat the other 360 days as usual and on those 5 days, watch your portion control, exercise a bit more and track track track your food. She also said to choose wisely on holidays. If you can have those mashed potatoes and gravy ANY day, maybe skip them on that day and have a small piece of Gramma's pie you can only get when Gramma makes it for that Holiday. I find that on Holidays, i skip the stuff i can have anytime and enjoy those items that are only available on that holiday.
another suggestion she gave us was to sit down and write down what you plan to have on that holiday, you'll be surprised how many calories are in some of that food. even if you don't skip some of that food, i bet you take a smaller portion.
That's my 2-cents. Me personally, on Thanksgiving i'm going to my daughter-in-laws. She is a very health conscious person and her whole meal will totally fit into my diet that day. Christmas will be harder - but i'll pre-log to get an idea and then make good choices.
I'm not going to take the Holidays off - all 5 days of them - i will log and i will exercise, but i will be more conscious of what i'm eating, even if i do overindulge a bit.

I'm going to visit my youngest DD and her family on Christmas. Will be there 3 weeks. We are going to a historical area so will be doing lots of walking, so I think I'm OK for excercise. The eating will be a bit rougher as we will have to eat out almost every meal when we are on our week away vacation.

When we are at her house, no problem as she'll make me follow my eating plan. Seems she wants me around to watch her DD grow up. :happy: We always make at least two/three trips to the commisary so I can get things I want/need to eat. I take my own laptop so I'll be logging daily. If this is going to be a way of life for me, then it's going to have to be a big part of my life.

No, this lifestyle isn't something I put on hold over the holidays. I will exercise pretty much at the same level, and eat right, but I will eat some holiday foods, but I still plan to loose weight during this next month of holidays, which is technically only 2 days, 3 if you count New Years. So, why do we put on weight for 3 days ? ? ? or put our health on hold? ? ? things we should ask ourselves. . .

I may increase from 1200 calories to 1500 calories to add a cookie or two and may add a cheat day or 2 on Christmas day or a Christmas party but then add more exercise to accommodate. I won't even worry about my husband's Christmas party and chalk that night and the next morning up to a party but I may see if the hotel it's in has a work out room so that I can help with a little of the destruction (it's out of town and always a gorge fest) but then I'll be harder on track for the next week!!!

I want to maintain my weight loss or lose a few extra because I've put too much work into this to add more.

I plan to keep logging and stay on track except for Thanksgiving, whichever night we eat latkes for Hanukkah, Christmas, and New Year's Eve, when I won't log. But will still try to exercise on those days.

I will still workout throughout and on the holidays. If I want cake or pie I'll eat it. Just not a whole pie like I've done in the past.

on thankgsgiving day and christmas day i may allow myself a slice of pie. other than that its business as usual. ive been cheating for the last 10 years.

I plan on having a Slimming World Xmas as much as possible, I break up from my job at school on the 16th until the 5th January so I plan on hitting the gym for extra time when it is open, don't know yet when it will be closed.I weigh on a Wednesday evening so that will be the 21st, if I could weigh the same on the 28th I would be really happy

I want to come home from Christmas vacation having lost weight!!! I'll be at my parents but since they have heart problems, they basically eat the way I do, whole grains, low fat, low calorie items. I know they will want the traditional Christmas dinner, and I will partake but I will remember to portion out and log my meal!!

I plan to make some of my own food dishes to share with my family (at least there will be some healthy options available for me, and I won't have to question every ingredient in everything). Thanksgiving is usually rough for anyway, as I'm the only one in my family who doesn't eat meat.

I plan on loading up on clean foods (lots of fresh veggies) and exercising a LOT the day before - in case I do end up overindulging.

I like the idea of estimating calories the day before. It makes sense to be aware.

Also, Christmas will be the first time some of my family sees me since I've lost weight. I don't like the idea of them watching me stuff my face all night.

As Christmas is like any other day for me (and I'm quite possibly working on it), I plan to keep doing what I've been doing. I do celebrate the solstice, so I'll probably have a special meal on that day, but I'll still track and try not to overdo it. Same for Thanksgiving, though I'll probably give myself some wiggle room on that day, as I'll be with my family and therefore drinking.

I haven't read any replies, the title of this just really urked me. Giving myself a break? From what? life? That is why diets fail. There is some kind of mental block where people can't except that until we take the power away from food, food will always win.