Holiday Maintenance Skills ~ How Do You Intend to Stay on Track?
Although I have already posted this blog post in the Refuse to Regain thread, I thought that I would also post it here as a separate thread.
In her post, Barbara is asking what skills or tricks others might use for getting through the holidays, and I thought that it might be a good idea for us to share and post ours here too. Quote:
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Here's one of mine that I used successfully last year:
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I think that Sleight of Hand would be a good name for it! ;) :) |
I always bring something that I know is legal. That way at least there is at least one thing for me to eat. I also have been known to pack a lunch box of food so just in case I find myself with little or no food to eat I don't have to be deprived. I just wait until I get into my car and nosh!
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Just thought that it might be an idea to bump this thread :)
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Good bump Demi!! :wave: |
A great article from Dr Judith Beck, author of The Beck Diet Solution, over at the Huffington Post:
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If I can take the liberty of copying an article across from my own blog? This is more for losers rather than maintainers (though there's another recent post where I ponder maintenance issues, though not with a specifically festive bent).
Christmas Is A-coming - Make Sure It's Only The Goose That's Getting Fat! OK, so what's your Christmas / New Year food strategy? If you haven't planned this out, then you're heading for a fall when you eventually manage to hoist your excessive bulk back on the scales sometime toward the end of January. Now, there's no excuse, because you already know what happens over the festive season so far as food and drink are concerned. It would be downright dishonest to pretend otherwise, and to later complain that you'd somehow been taken by surprise, when the scales crack apart beneath you. So this is what you have to do.... Devise a simple schedule of where you're going to be that's a festive event and will present you with food and drink choices over and above the quotidian. Then write in against each of these events precisely what - and how much, because portion control is vital here - you will allow yourself to ingest, taking account of the parameters determined by your individual diet. For instance, as a low-carber, I shall be having turkey with sprouts (which I love anyway) cauliflower and braised celery, but eschewing the carrots, and making do with just one roast potato (when I could easily eat the lot). I'll not be allowing that to happen any more and my meal will be a good, healthy and hearty plateful nonetheless, which I shall relish it. I'll not be drinking, but that's because I don't. I can't remember seeing too much low-carb booze about, mind. Now, having determined what the festive bit is going to be, you've then just got to give thought to the rest of the day and decide how you need to adjust your usual routine, and what you can sensibly allow yourself for your other meals. You need to think about this in order to avoid destroying your diet and undoing the good work you've put in up to now. Write the eating plan down, and don't allow yourself to be deflected. You know you're worth it - even at Christmas. Let everybody else outstrip you in the trencherman stakes this year. It's OK, you'll be able to relax things and cut yourself some slack in twelve months time, because you'll be at your target weight, you'll have come to understand and accept the importance of portion control, and you'll have learned precisely how to redress the little weight variations that will inevitably creep in, particularly at times like this. So, you put on five or six pounds over the holidays? Then you go abstemious for a couple of weeks and take it off again, because you know how to. Putting on five or six pounds does not mean that the rule book's been torn up so you can just pile it all on again! It means you apply the sensible disciplines of abstention before you revert to the everyday disciplines of maintenance. All you have to do is be conscious of your actions, and accept that you are entirely accountable for them. I know it's simple and obvious but it's effective. It really works. And I just think it's far better to plan than to unthinkingly fall off the wagon in the way I discussed in the Boot Camp earlier today. So get out the pad of A4, a couple of pens and a ruler, and your diary, and plan your festive feeding now. It will save you so much self-loathing later, because that's something we really know about, and we ought to know it's a good and, in this case easy, thing to avoid. |
Another good strategy to use for not overdoing it during the holidays, courtesy of Dr Briffa:
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I received the following in an email newsletter from Cassandra Forsythe and thought I'd share it here.
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A bit early, I know, but I've just come across this article which also contains a short video featuring Dr Berkeley:
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What a great thread, Demi! Thanks for telling me about it!
Thought I'd bump it by sharing what I plan to do to keep myself on track this year: I am planning our holiday meals ahead and testing lc recipes before hand to make sure they are good and will work for us. I will be making lc baked goods to have on hand in the freezer so that if I am tempted with any hc treats I will have an acceptable alternative. I will take a dish I can eat to any outside parties. I will also have my little ice chest filled with acceptable foods that I can sneak off and eat or eat after the event if necessary. I will of course weigh every day. And I will hold myself accountable by participating in these forums. That's all I've got for now. I've only ever made it through one holiday season staying lc - the first one back in 2003. Ever since then I indulged. Some years I was able to get it together afterward, but most years not. For that reason I feel that it is crucial for me to make it through this year unscathed. By that I mean saying no to anything that isn't lc. I'd be okay with a <small> gain due to over-indulging in lc stuff. Maybe that's naive....but for me it's saying no that is the most important this year. |
Although I've already posted this in the Refuse to Regain thread, I think it is also very appropriate for this Holiday Maintenance Skills thread too. :)
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For the holidays, I am going to have my camera in my hands and be occupied with taking photos of my loved ones! It's a more lasting reward than food in the end.
Besides, after being seriously ill from carbs, the urge to gorge on them is just not there. Its like ipecac for me. KAK!! ... and thanks to this thread, I have an idea of why my protein shakes seem to make me lose weight! I just need to figure out an egg nog variant, and I'm all set until next year! Awesome!! |
I can deal with the holidays regarding food for myself, but I'm torn about whether to give out candy to Halloween trick-or-treaters. I don't know how avoid them: I live in an apt. complex with solid doors and outdoor lighting that comes on automatically at night. Perhaps I should count on the adults accompanying the kids to read a "no trick-or-treaters" sign on my door.
I feel bad for not participating in an American tradition, but it's so destructive to kids' health that I can't. |
Give out an apple or healthy treat! Or toothbrushes... :) The tradition can and should change.
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