100 lb. Club - Will you stay on plan for thanksgiving?

With my Halloween Goal in site, (2 pounds to go!!!) I have started thinking about Thanksgiving. I know what my goal will be and I am sure a post will go up soon, but I was wondering?

Will you eat what you want on Thanksgiving or will you be careful and stay on plan? I don't know what I will do. Just wondering where you gals stand before I make a decision.

I think I will eat what I like but in moderation... no heaping plate or second helpings.

For me being "on plan" includes making allowances for things like Thanksgiving. So ... um ... both? :)

I kinda posted about this in another thread on T'giving but basically I'm not stressing out about it. I'll eat all of my favorites on the day, but I won't gorge or pig out like I used to. I'll have a piece of pie and some stuffing with gravy, but I'll eat more turkey and veggies first and have those things as treats instead of heaping my plate with them. I plan to enjoy T'giving day and not make it a bigger deal than I should ... for me it's just another day and another set of decisions to make about what's healthy and what's not.

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What Photo said. My "plan" for lifetime maintenance allows me the indulgence of special days. When I ate a cupcake on my birthday, I considered that to be "on plan". This Thanksgiving, I'll eat less just because I CAN'T eat as much as I used to, but I will certainly still indulge more than usual..

Ditto what Photo and mandalinn said.
;)

Well, not sure what I will be doing on thanksgiving but no matter what, I'll be cooking whatever I eat so yes it will be 'on plan'.

Well, not sure what I will be doing on thanksgiving but no matter what, I'll be cooking whatever I eat so yes it will be 'on plan'.
I really like your mottos Nellie!

Well, there are Thanksgiving foods that I will eat that are not part of my normal eating routine, but that's life.

What I am not going to do is stuff my face until I can't move. I will have small portions of tasty stuff. And then make sure I am back on track for Black Friday.

I also am signed up to run a 5K Turkey Trot that morning, so I will already have my exercise done for the day!

I am planning to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner - one plate, one piece of pie. Just one meal, the rest of the day will be as usual and I am not going to take any leftovers home.

I'm going to enjoy all my "once a year" favorites though - mashed potatoes and stuffing with gravy, cranberries, sweet potato casserole (my mom's recipe with the pecan/brown sugar/butter topping), pumpkin pie with cool whip.

I will eat more food, more fat and more sugar than usual ;). But I won't stuff myself and I won't eat things that aren't fabulous. And I won't make the holiday a week long. I won't feel any guilt. I will focus on family more than food, they are the real value. The end. :D

i'm planning on enjoying the holiday with my family! as far as eating goes, i plan on letting myself eat, just making sure it is in moderation and not over the top! my family makes some KILLER dressing that we only get once a year, i can't pass that up! i'll just have to eat a little less of it this year and fill my plate with white turkey and veggies! i know that i will go over my ww points that day, but i also know that it is one day and it will not completely derail me!

I will be visiting my brother in Las Vegas which is the buffet capital of the world. Since it is just the two of us, if we stay in town, we will be eating at a restaurant. If we go out of town it will be the same. The way I am looking at it, is if I am hungry, I will eat until I am satisfied. I don't like pumpkin pie so I won't worry about that. I think one serving of turkey, dressing, mashed taters, a roll, a bit of cranberry stuff, will be fine. If I have room for dessert, a couple of bites of something sweet will be OK.

I've been planning for Thanksgiving to be my 'metabolic boost' day for quite a while now. I will have been on track for six weeks by then, and on 20 carbs a day for that whole time, my body will need the boost to remind itself it's not starving... plus, thinking about all those yummy carbs I'll get in just a few more weeks really helps when I'm tempted to have them now... so far, so good!

I've been planning for Thanksgiving to be my 'metabolic boost' day for quite a while now. I will have been on track for six weeks by then, and on 20 carbs a day for that whole time, my body will need the boost to remind itself it's not starving... plus, thinking about all those yummy carbs I'll get in just a few more weeks really helps when I'm tempted to have them now... so far, so good!

I am also doing low carb (5 - 10) a day, and I can't wait for potatos with gravy and a hot buttered roll and APPLE PIE!!!!

Hurry Thanksgiving, Hurry!!!

I've been on low carb for 4+ years, I treat holdidays & birthdays like any other day... on plan:) The beauty of low carb is, there are so many delicious foods, you don't ever have to feel like you're deprived. Turkey, faux mashed potatoes, veggies, cranberries, even pumpkin pie with real whipped cream!!!:carrot:

Hey Jersey Girl, what are faux mashed potatos??? I'd love to try them

I should have no problem staying on plan. I'm working Thanksgiving (WOOOT extra pay!) and afterwards, I will definitely be going home. So no going to my mama's house to partake of my stepfather's cooking.

the way i figure it is, its only one day. Its a special occasion and I think we deserve to treat ourselves on holidays. I will probably try not to make myself sick, but i will eat the yummy stuff :)
last year, and the year before that.....we deep fried a turkey. this year, i will NOT do that!!!! I will also probably only have one dessert, not several ;)

I am also working on Thanksgiving - I'd rather take the extra pay, and I'm not a huge fan of the holiday. (When we were younger, we used to go to Plymouth, MA for the holiday, and they made us dress like Pilgrims and Indians to re-enact the first Thanksgiving...I'm still traumatized) I figure I'll bring a turkey sandwich or something to work that day, but really, I'd rather not deal with the holiday at all.

;)I love this thread! I really need a strategy going in, or it's going to be a disaster!! ;)

I just know I'm going to eat everything I like, so I've decided to give myself permission, that way I won't feel like a loser the next day. I like the idea of loading up on white turkey and veggies, and having moderate amounts of the real yummies. It's so hard for me when stuff I love is all laid out in troughs in front of me, so I'm going to do my best. :o

The biggest problem for me (because really, you can only do so much damage in one day), is turning the holiday into a week-long leftover fest. I absolutely LOVE a turkey sandwich on soft white bread with lots of mayo and salt. I might have to have one of those the next day, then cool it. If I tell myself I'll never have another one of those, I'll freak out and eat 10 of them. :dizzy:

Maybe staying on-plan near-perfectly till then (a little off lately) will give me the motivation to be moderate and get right back on afterwards. And I LOVE the idea of a good workout that day before the festivities!

Thanks for the strategies, everyone!!!! :D

I'm making dinner again this year for my family so I get to control what we're having lol My problem is that I snack while I'm making holiday dinners so I'm planning on having a bunch of veggies out for me to snack on instead of junk! I know I'm making turkey but I'm not sure about everything else yet. I was thinking of making green beans amondine and maybe some grilled pumpkin. Of course my dad is bringing his crazy good mashed potatoes (he puts lots of cheese and butter in them! yum) but I'll measure some out for myself so I don't get tempted to overeat. :) I'm going to try really hard to stay on track for the holidays

we have two thanksgiving traditions that help a LOT: 1) my mom and i do a 10k in the morning (it'll be our sixth year in a row!) and 2) we have our dinner at a fabulous buffet downtown. so, no leftovers to speak of! i'm planning on eating small amounts of whatever i want. not a big turkey fan but they usually have really great fish like sea bass. the desserts are also amazing - mom and i scrape the spatulas on our plate instead of taking whole pieces, so we can try every single one of them. :) we're hoping that one of these years my sister gets on the wagon with us for the 10k and dessert plate, but we're not going to preach or push. it wouldn't have worked with me before i was ready to hear it.

oh yeah - the other part. friday i'm 100% back on plan. :)

I will be cookin dinner at my house for my family. Which means....I can choose what I want to cook. I will have a sugar-free dessert and one that is not. My neice and nephew don't like sf or they think they don't, but I love fixing their favorites . I will eat and really try to eat in moderation!!!

the way i figure it is, its only one day. Its a special occasion and I think we deserve to treat ourselves on holidays. I will probably try not to make myself sick, but i will eat the yummy stuff :)
last year, and the year before that.....we deep fried a turkey. this year, i will NOT do that!!!! I will also probably only have one dessert, not several ;)

It depends on the person and their habits but there always seem to be 'special occasions'. The special part of any holiday, to me at least, isn't what you get to eat but rather the people you get to spend it with.

I always used to gain weight between Thanksgiving/Christmas because it was always filled with food/special treats. A month of treatdom can do a lot of damage. Life is a little easier for me dealing with these occasions now though.

Thanksgiving will be easy because I'll cook everything myself. Christmas will be a little harder and I'll have to figure that one out. My mom/grandma will be cooking but both know somewhat what I'll eat and what I won't. I'll have to provide guidance and also probably provide some food for myself/husband.

I will eat what I want but very sparingly on the carbs - we are eating late and I have to work the next day and I don't want to be in a sugar daze on Friday. I guess it's a bit different for me than most people b/c I can take a day off of watching my intake due to calories, but I can't make my body take a day off from Type 2 diabetes, so it will react to the sugar and carbs no matter what. I will have a small piece each of my 2 favorite pies, without the crust. (Not that that will help a whole lot with pecan pie!)

Since I'm on the Flex plan with WW I'll be on plan....it's easier for me to be on flex instead of core so I can have a little of my favorites :) Plus I'll be cooking so everything will be healthy!

PhotoChick is my hero, and like she said, I'm including reasonable holiday indulgences in my plan, so I won't be going off plan to celebrate. It's a matter of moderation. All my usual rules apply (don't eat when I'm not actually hungry and don't keep eating when I'm satisfied, write everything down). I find that I can enjoy special occasions even more when I don't feel bad about it afterward. :)

My thankgiving strategy is that I'm going to be dining at a friends house who is diabetic, and her and I will do most of the cooking, so aside from watching carbs and sugar we'll be watching fat too. Other then that I plan to eat my favorite dishes in moderation and I'm even going to have a peice of pie for dessert. Its the wine consumption I'm really going to have to keep a handel on, good friends, good food and good wine. I have a huge family, and I spend christmas with them, but Thankgiving is for the girlfriends.

I'm totally staying on plan - because it is ONLY one day. I like the way I feel eating good, I like the scale's feedback, I like the way I'm looking lately (does that sound jerky, if so I'm sorry) and no treats will feel as good as all of that. I'd also likely make myself sick if I ate badly, after staying on plan all year and it's not worth the headache of the scale's feedback later on. I don't want to agonize over water weight, that doesn't feel good.

There are plenty of awesome options on Thanksgiving, I'll load up on turkey and veggies, same as I do any other day. I'll pass up on unhealthy options, just like any other day. I'll laze around with my people and visit - which I don't get to do everyday.

Oh, I just thought of something to add...

On the day of my birthday party, I wrote at the top of my Journal: Today Counts! and I made a mental note to myself that my body can't tell the difference between calories I eat at a party and calories I eat at any other time. Since my body is treating food the same way, then my mind should also.

I'm with you, FB. I've worked too hard to let myself get off track. I've been figuring out how to work in my favorite Thanksgiving treats while staying within my calorie count. I know that I will feel terrible if I let myself go, even just for one day. I only have less than 7 pounds to go until goal and I don't want to blow it.

Oh yeah, I am staying on plan. I screw up frequently enough that I have to stay on plan every time I *can.*

Although, actually Thanksgiving dinner is pretty healthy if I don't overeat and don't have a bunch of buttered rolls. Turkey is healthy, I always make my mashed taters low fat and my gravy low fat, and the veggies are good for ya. I have my Thanksgiving recipes posted on my blog in case anyone is interested... http://escapefromobesity.blogspot.com/2007/11/recipe-for-thanksgiving-success.html

I plan on staying on plan. If I decide to go over calorie wise, it will not be over my maintanance cals (I do this a few days a month anyway). I don't plan to eat if I'm not hungry or make myself sick. I will also get my 60 min exercise in that morning.