Christmas is coming, are you prepared?

How are you preparing for the holidays coming up?

Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years Eve?

Do you have a plan in place to help you get through?

I'm lucky cos over here (England) unless you have kids, Halloween isn't really a thing so I would have to worry about avoiding sweets .. No Thanksgiving here but Christmas as my Nan's house ... Gonna have to do some serious time on the exercise bike to work off one of her dinners.

I am always smart about the holidays. I have learned over the years, always snack on something healthy before every get together. This helps with not being starved when you get there or eating things just b/c they are in front of you. And it gives you the will power to SAY NO!!!  I love the Holidays b/c I get to be with my family, just being happy and feeling loved helps me stay focused on why I'm losing weight in the first place, to live a long healthy life with my family and to see my children grow!!!!   

hmm..I'm not quite sure what to do.

But I'll stay with my weight loss plan and minimize the amount of food I used to eat and use other alternative and stick with the healthy stuff.

I think During Thanksgiving I have school. Maybe it sounds crazy but I'm attending a Early College High School just to clear things up. But even so, in the evening, I guess they'll force me to eat. Maybe I'll just go do something else.

Well my goal is to lose enough weight to be able to do a cartwheel. I am 47 years old and have done a cartwheel every new years eve for many many years.  Last year was the first time i did not accomplish this. I have a bulging disc in my back and I think my weight gain is part of the reason for my problem, so I hope to lose enough weight to be able to get back on track. Wish me luck. January 2010, here I come.

I have the added problem of a divided family - which requires a minimum of two holidays per holiday! I'm going to stick with small portions (as best I can) and just plan out meals from the leftovers that emphasize the veggies and soups. Holloween will be hard - my two year old can't eat half of what gets passed out, my mom's diabetic, and, well, someone has to eat it! My daughter's birthday also falls in the middle of all this - and she wants Winnie the Pooh's hero cake (strawberry with chocolate frosting) so this should be interesting!

I've been having trouble with Christmas Cookies, we have about 4 dozen in our fridge right now (we had more) that are from a cookie exchange. I have a hard time not eating more that 3 a day. That always brings me to my maintain calories. Whats a girl to do?