<p>We are lucky that we don’t have very many holiday parties to attend. Fiance and I were just strategizing last night. We have Thanksgiving, Dec 21, and Christmas Eve to get through. I eat pretty normally on Christmas Day so that will be okay. Thanksgiving and Christmas eve will both be turkey and stuffing, and I think we are having pizza and cake Dec 21. It’s the stuffing that is really going to do me in. I can’t get enough of it. </p>
<p>I think since we are limiting it to the three days, I might be okay. I am going to be giving myself permission to risk gaining a little weight within reason. I normally eat two or three huge helpings at thanksgiving and I am going to shoot for one generous helping of only my very favorites. I anticipate I may gain a little, there’s no getting around it with how low-cal and low-carb my diet normally is. Any amount of stuffing will be a shock to my system.</p>
<p>We are eating extra well this week to minimize the damage. We are trying new recipes from the WW site which are more nutritious and lower points than our normal fare… got to save up those flex points for Thursday. I ancipate this weekends weigh in to be a bust but by the week after I should have sufficiently recovered.</p>
<p>I only managed to maintain this last week but my weight spiked a bit on Monday as it likes to do so it was to be expected… I didn’t have that spike this morning so I would anticipate a loss next weekend if it weren’t for Thanksgiving!</p>
<p>I will report back next weekend on how I did… maybe that will motivate me to put down the stuffing. :)</p>
<p>I’m finally back in the hunt. I’ve lost almost 7 pounds since November 1. Last week, I ran 20 miles, the best I’ve managed in a few months. At my daughter’s XC banquet tonight, I took small portions and didn’t get any cake.</p>
<p>My next big challenge is the road trip I’m taking with my daughter and sister-in-law. We’re leaving early Thursday morning and driving down to Florida. I’m trying not to think of all of the restaurants we will be going to!</p>
<p>MaineLonghorn congrats on the weight loss and the run. When I am at a place with dessert I ask myself is this a dessert that is worth the calories. A banquet cake is usually a no. A homemade cheesecake a yes.
On my last trip I packed a healthy lunch and snacks for the car. I also packed plain oatmeal packages in case the continental breakfast in the motel did not have any healthy options.
Restaurants are still an issue. I have a difficult time making healthy choices. I try to at least eat less.</p>
<p>My tip given to me by my health coach: plan your eating ahead of time so you can pace yourself at a party or family gathering. If you do fall off the wagon, don’t throw in the towel and continue to gorge, but instead, stave off the sugar drop that is likely to come by eating a low carb protein snack before you go to bed. This will reset your eating binge so you don’t wake up with a sugar drop that then could drive more binges the next day.</p>
<p>I have had one setback while visiting my family, but did a nice long walk this morning and am getting back on track with drinking enough water.</p>
<p>I think it is great that we are mindful of the fact that the holidays are coming and trying to plan how our new lifestyle will fit in with our holiday plans. Even if we slide a little, this will help us stay in the right mindset so that we can recover after. It is easy to just throw in the towel for two months at this time of year and then take a few extra months to get back on track. That isn’t going to happen to us this year.</p>
<p>I think I will try and take a walk with my fiance after dinner tomorrow before we have dessert. The extra activity won’t hurt and maybe getting out of the house for a while will prevent the urge to “graze.” Some alone time will certainly reduce the urge to stress eat. I love the advice of the low carb protein snack, I used that after my pizza misadventure last week and I did feel that it helped. It is so easy to give up after you make a mistake but you have to remember that one mistake doesn’t make the whole day a wash and continuing to gorge just magnifies the mistake, bringing it back under control by resuming healthy choices and having that protein snack to set you up for success for the next day is a really great recovery strategy. One little error in judgment doesn’t kill your weight loss goals, it’s how you react that really impacts you!</p>
<p>^LOL Even my DH (who normally eats whatever he feels like), has been cutting back on carbs at dinner time and snacking on carrot sticks! Cause where we are going for Thanksgiving there will be a LOT of carbs & desserts.</p>
<p>I was in on this thread wayyyyyy back when it started, did pretty well, dropped off the wagon, regained, but DH & I have started back 5 weeks ago and are both doing really well. We’re doing it old school: low carb, lots of veggies/proteins, planned meals and shopping, take out only twice in 5 wks (!!) because we bring lunch to the office and don’t come home from work without a clue about what to make for dinner, tracking everything. Exercise still to be jumpstarted. I have lost 9 lbs (back to 8.5 this AM, but let’s go with 9), and he has lost more. So we are really motivated not to let this coming weekend of holidays and food galore derail us. This AM, first temptation: cutting up the challah that I use as the base for our stuffing. I resisted it … and resisted it … and then at then end, ate a couple of little cubes. I’m thinking that if I had been chewing gum while doing the food prep, I would have resisted even the little bite. So that’s my tool that I am going to try for the rest of today, and that I share with you: put something else in your mouth so you can resist the tasting while cooking. I’ll let you know how it works.</p>
<p>I just want to announce that I have lost 9.5 pounds (133 to 123.5#) since 9/12 mainly using MFP combined with daily walks (which I was already doing - but I go faster now :-).</p>
<p>I just wanted to be able to post this TODAY because tomorrow I plan to eat freely without calculating any calories!!!</p>
<p>Way to go, AllThisIsNew, I hope you had a nice visit with your family.</p>
<p>I had a few too many evening treats visiting family, but tried to balance it with more walks for a longer time several times during the week, which was easy because some family member was always interested to walk and talk and catch up. No pounds lost, maybe a half pound gained with all the food and drink, but am back home now so my regular routine and tracking is back.</p>
<p>We have 3 weeks before the next big holiday challenge week, let’s all try to encourage each other to stay on task and even build a buffer.</p>
<p>Yes, Snowflake - We really do need to encourage and support each other. Christmas is three weeks from today, the New Year is 4 weeks away. </p>
<p>Anyone up for a challenge? Four weeks - how many pounds? Two? Three? Four? It is the holiday season, very hard to lose during this time of year. </p>
<p>Or maybe an activity challenge - Get 30 minutes of activity at least five days a week (or four days a week?) for four weeks? Something along those lines. Perhaps eating 5 (or 4?) (or 3?) servings of fruit or veggies, etc. Maybe just keeping track of what we eat (privately). </p>
<p>I’d be really happy if I could lose 3-4lbs by Christmas but I’m not sure more than maybe 1-2 is realistic… we’ll see.</p>
<p>I gained about 2lbs after Thanksgiving and then ate a gallon sized bag (EACH!) of turkey, stuffing, and chocolate chip cookies for three days afterward-- complete with pizza and wendy’s. I never eat like that, and didn’t even when I was overweight, but apparently when I go off the deep end I really make it count… I skipped my weigh in on Sunday for my mental health since I probably gained 5+ pounds, but caved and weighed in today and weighed in at 1.5lbs over, so it seems like I’ve undone most of the damage. I had hoped to be at my pre-thanksgiving weight by Sunday but now I am revising that goal for the Sunday after, which seems attainable. I am back on track now and have been all week.</p>
<p>As a result of this little episode, I have changed the menu for Christmas Eve. We were going to have turkey, stuffing, and chocolate chip cookies again (my favorites and different people are coming) but I think I am going to go with a roast beef and mashed potatoes instead. We eat that more often and though it’s still a treat I won’t eat it like it’s going out of style, and we won’t have any leftovers-- which is really what killed me! Maybe bakery cupcakes for dessert so I can just get one for each guest and limit the amount of damage I can do… sending me home from Thanksgiving with a gallon sized bag of homemade cookies was cruel and unusual!</p>
<p>Yes, let’s have a challenge … Each person defines their challenge unique to them. I am on track for weight loss now, so the challenge for me is to force in 1 hour of dedicated exercise 3-4 times a week so I can continue on my path towards optimal health. For me, that is either a very long fast walk, or if it snows enough, an hour or more of cross country skiing. Work has been busy this week, so I am behind, but by documenting it here I will be more accountable.</p>
<p>Ema, don’t look back … We’ve all been there. Just remind yourself that you are fueling yourself with healthy and nutritious food in line with your health goals. If you made the choice to gorge, you also made the choice to slow down your progress towards meeting your goals, but it was your choice so don’t beat yourself up for it. Hop back up on that horse and join us for a challenge!</p>
<p>I could never have survived a gallon bag of chocolate chip cookies. As it was we had three quarters of an apple and half a pecan pie, but I had some family to help us eat it and my sister-in-law took the pumpkin pie home with her. Ema, I think you’ve got a good plan to figure out how to have a festive meal, but reduce the leftover danger. </p>
<p>I gained five pounds in one weekend, but luckily most of it doesn’t seem to have been real weight gain, since I am already down three of them. I need to lose three pounds to be back at my lowest point this year. I’d like to at least do that by Christmas, but it won’t be easy. I think there are parties every Saturday from now till Christmas and we are going out to dinner before the theater tomorrow.</p>
<p>I think my main goal is to get some sort of exercise every day. Yesterday I took a walk around a local pond (a little under a mile) and then did some kettleball swings, push ups, and squats at home later in the day. The walk hadn’t been part of the plan, but it was a gorgeous warm day and I was driving right past it, so I just parked the car and did it.</p>
<p>Good job on the walk. One of my new “favorite” exercises, if there is such a thing, is kettle bell squats. I think about doing them when I’m running uphill and remind myself how much stronger my legs are getting.</p>
<p>One of my bright ideas over Thanksgiving was for son’s birthday “cake”. Knowing that there would be other treats around I made individual tiramisus, one for each person, so no leftovers. I will do that again when I have people over. :)</p>
<p>Sometimes I feel like, just as I was once able to eat whatever I wanted and maintain my weight, I am still able to but the number is higher. I had been doing really well with the exercise but DS’s fianc</p>
<p>Well gang, after 3 months of getting married, voyaging, retiring (and thereby losing my built-in walk commute) and then an indulgent honeymoon in Kauai just now, I’m not GOING NEAR the scale:). My husband took a photo of me coming out of the water, in a bikini. Looks fine, OK for being 57, except the belly…</p>
<p>Back to discipline. Hard to do, but worth the work. </p>
<p>And to add to it, my cholesterol has been creeping up since I finally hit menopause last year. Husband is a big red meat eater, so that’s been my cooking practice for a while. Time to dust off the old fish recipes. Sigh. Au revoir, pulled pork my love.</p>
<p>I’m going to throw my hat into the challenge. I lost 53 lbs over 2 years by just cutting out white foods and my 3x a day Caribou coffee habit. I increased my green vegetables to two pounds per day. This is not hard to do with vegetables in egg white scrambles, veggies for snack with a protein along with salads at lunch & dinner. I also ALWAYS have a bowl of clear or vegetable soup at lunch and dinner. And fruit, I increased my servings to include at least 2 a day. I cut out starchy carbs outside of breakfast (hot cereal, 1/2 bagel, 2 small pancakes or 1 home made waffle) and one serving at dinner (1/2 cup of pasta, pilaf or brown rice or a 4 ounce sweet potato). </p>
<p>I stopped exercising and plateaued at a size 6. I’m still a bit flabby, so will go back to exercising, and also watch my diet, which has been bad these last few months. I have not gained any weight, but want to drop the last 15 pounds before summer rolls around. </p>
<p>I Look forward to your meals and exercise routines along with moral support!</p>
<p>I have not been tracking my food intake for about 3 weeks. Beginning today I will do it again, even though I don’t want to Keeping track means that I can’t just eat mindlessly at the two Christmas Parties we are invited to - and I REALLY want to not think about what I am eating on those evenings. Oh, well. </p>
<p>And I will commit to getting in physical activity at least 4 times each week.</p>
<p>Don’t know if I will lose weight between now and New Year’s, but I probably won’t gain any, which will be an accomplishment for me.</p>
<p>I need a challenge- I have so many options to chose from since I have not been doing any of the things that help keep my weight down. I could track my food, commit to getting out and moving.
1moremom- I also don’t eat well when I don’t feel well and I am exhausted. I have had an infection that has left me exhausted. A couple of days ago I ate 4 slices of toasted sourdough bread with real butter. I can’t tell you the last time I ate toast.
I did brave the scale this morning and I am still at 150. My lowest in the past year was 140 but my high when this thread started was 170. I was 115 when I got married. I will never see that again. I am happy to be at 150 after Thanksgiving and three Hannukah meals complete with fried potato latkes topped with a generous amount of sour cream.</p>
<p>My challenge will be to drink more water. Get closer to 10000 steps on my Fitbit. To eat smaller portions. I just want to maintain till January.</p>
<p>Still struggling here to keep weight from creeping up. I was just getting back into my Wii fit routine after Thanksgiving/Chanukah when I twisted my right knee (probably while avoiding straining my recovering left ankle). Then three days later I most likely broke my right little toe bumping into the corner of a cabinet (probably while avoiding straining my right knee). Sometimes I think I should just stay in bed all day :(. </p>
<p>My challenge: absolutely have to regain my portion/self control. I have been way too indulgent. Partly that’s because DS boomeranged back home so we have more food around and eat out more. But I know better because my system worked for me for two years.</p>
<p>Bunhead, I am in awe of your vegetable consumption. I am lucky if I eat a serving or two a day of vegetables, and only recently started having one serving of fruit most days because apples are 0 ww points and make a good snack. I am working on trying to work more and more veggies in, I never ate them growing up so I am just getting used to them. What kinds of soups do you make? We have been making chicken and beef soups for lunch and I am so sick of them after two weeks, I need fresh ideas.</p>
<p>I don’t officially weigh in until Sunday but I checked today out of curiosity and I am 1lb off from my pre-thanksgiving weight, so it’s feasible I might hit it by Sunday or a couple days after, I have been on a downward trend all week without fluctuating back up. That makes me SO HAPPY and it means I could meet my Christmas challenge. I only worked out half as much as I normally do this week due to an injury and it was heavenly… I wonder if this means I can scale back at all. The doctor thinks I am seriously over-exercising but I am earning 28 ww activity points a week which is what they say to shoot for. My exercise routine has really taken over my life, so if it turns out I can scale it back a bit and get more like 10-15pts and still be fit and healthy instead of 28 I would be a very happy girl. But we’ll see, I suspect much of what I gained from thanksgiving and lost this week was excess water retention so I am not sure if I would have lost real fat working out this little.</p>
<p>And Marilyn, I want to wrap you in a bubble!</p>
I ancipate this weekends weigh in to be a bust but by the week after I should have sufficiently recovered.</p>