The Holidays Scare Me....

I am so nervous about the holidays coming up. I am already binging almost everyday (but I am going to try harder starting tomorrow :)), and I can not imagine what's going to happen over the holidays. Egg Nog, Cookies, Turkey, oh my! Does anyone have any advice?

Anyone?

After much consideration, I've decided that the smartest thing that I can do around the holidays is hang out ONLY with health nuts .... I sort of imagine bowls of raw broccoli florets and brussell sprouts and glasses of carrot juice. 

Unfortunately, I seem to be the nuttiest (health or otherwise) person I know, so I've decided to just keep doing what I know to do ... plan my meals, count my calories, get some exercise, make reasonable and wise choices, manage my portions, and stay the heck away from egg nogs, cookies, anything with sugar and anything deep fried.  The holidays = gluttonous overindulgence only if we let them, ya know?

Turkey, I am pleased to report, is perfectly fine for you ... eat all the white meat, skinless turkey your heart desires.

If you must nibble, be prepared to do more exercise! (That's my plan!)

=^..^= MOLLY

Thank you for the advice. The only problem is, I usually get together with my family over the holidays and they do not eat very healthy. I get tempted very quickly. Over Thanksgiving, I had turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, pie, cake, everything under the sun. Sure, I enjoyed it then, but I highly regretted it later.

Panda, go ahead and have everything under the sun at christmas dinner but stick to just having everything under the sun for that one day and then hop back onto the healthy eating waggon the next day.

There's gotta be some healthy food within your reach with or without the family around you.

I screwed up on Thanksgiving and ended up eating more than five pieces (NOT slivers) of pie. My mindset at the time was restricting and denying myself during the week, and then going completely overboard on cheat days/weekends. It got to the point where I was binging/cheating more than I was following my restrictive plan. I was either hungry/unsatisfied or stuffed and disgusted with myself. So now I've relaxed my plan and allow myself more calories throughout the day, along with small indulgences. That said, on Christmas I plan to allow myself one serving of everything that I want to eat, including sweets. That way I'll -hopefully- avoid the icky bloated feeling that comes from stuffing my face, but I'll still feel like I've indulged enough to be satisfied.

You might take the amy approach -LOL when you know you just at a horrible for you meal, have a really low cal. high protein and veggie meal. Atone for sins.

keep in mind if your like me the holiday season means a lot more activity. More time up cleaning, cooking, shopping. That helps a little bit. Good luck.  

Oh man, I know the feeling. The holidays are terrifying for me. I'm going to give myself leeway not to lose weight, but I cannot -gain- weight. My dad just baked a ton of delicious cookies and fruitcake and nutbread, so I finished off most of that. Greaaat. But now it's time to make sure I count my calories, so that if I end up going over I can at least attempt to make up for it. The only thing I've been able to do to offset my holiday overeating seems to be calorie counting and getting regular activity and exercise - walking the dog, going out dancing, going swimming, walking instead of driving. I'm not good at food control, which is how I gained 20 lbs last year from November to February. But, this year, so far so good - no weight gained - and I'm going to watch myself a little more now that the cookies and breads are mostly gone.

The only problem now is that I just got really sick, too sick to exercise in any form for the last 4 days, and then it's supposed to snow here big time for the next week (and make it impossible to drive - people in Seattle can't drive in snow) and so when I'm better, my gym will probably be closed... :P

I don't want this to sound like a complaint, but I really don't know why everybody makes such a big deal about avoiding food on the holidays.  It really is not that complicated.  You do it all the time when you are on your regular diet, so the holidays should just be like any other day.  That being said, it's not like there is nothing out there that you are allowed to eat on holidays.  I am on the South Beach diet, so my choices are pretty limited, but there are always things I can have.  For example, on Thanksgiving the meal consisted of:  turkey, sweet potato casserole, stir fried green beans, crash potatoes (very good way of making potatoes more exciting), pumpkin pie, salad, cake, cookies, our own version of bailey's, cranberry sauce, homemade bread etc.

From this list I had turkey, green beans, salad, and I took one piece of pie cut it in half and ate that across two days.  I did not feel like I was missing out on dinner because I didnt have any of the other stuff.  I also made myself some brown rice so I could have a whole grain starch and not miss that aspect either. 

I think if you really can't resist trying everything, then the next best thing is portion control.  Try everything, but don't eat more than you would on a normal day.  Just take smaller portions until you feel full. 

The hardest part, I think, is the presence of snack foods and drinks at non-meal times. On regular days, I can budget out my calories between three meals and a snack, but I know from spending Sundays at my parents' place that when there is food around ALL THE TIME, it's much harder to stay within a reasonable limit. What worked for me at Thanksgiving was wearing tight jeans - was brilliant for portion control at dinner - but that won't work with the all-day grazing because you never really get full. You can take in a lot of calories grazing on nuts and chocolates and cheeseballs and crackers and poppycock and and and...

So here's what I think. I am not going to torture myself trying to count the calories of every morsel (I am usually very exact about it), or deny myself all the once-a-year treats either. It's just two days. And knowing that those two days are coming, I have been trying extra-hard to follow my eating plan for the last few weeks, so that I won't feel bad about having two days of no counting.

I look at it in a long-term sense; two days of poor eating will not negate the two months of dillegence that came before, or the entire year of making mostly good choices. It will not derail me, because I know it's coming and have been planning for it. Christmas does not scare me.