I just found out that I am going to be visiting my bf's sister over Thanksgiving in Arizona. We will be there for several days, and, of course, I won't have total control over my environment or my diet for the time I am there. I am nervous, because I have been at this diet and exercise thing religiously for the better part of a month, and progress has been excruciatingly slow, and not at all commiserate with the effort I am putting forth.
Then it suddenly occurred to me - whereas, in the past, if I am visiting people over the holidays, or whatever, I used to just think - well, I won't worry about my diet while I am here, and will deal with the fallout when I get back. Then, I would gain 5 lbs or whatever, because I would eat myself silly and not exercise.
But you know what? I realized that, if I do that this time, it will take me a solid month of working out every day, and restricting myself to 1,300 calories, just to get the weight off that I would gain in those few days of splurging. And suddenly, going off the rails over this Thanksgiving visit doesn't appeal to me. At all.
I don't know why this never occurred to me before.
I guess that this mind-set shift represents a NSV of sorts.
Hey Jillianfan! This is great news! I'm so excited about your epiphany! Everyone knows that the holidays are notorious for weight gain and temptation. Now that you are on the battlefield for weight loss, you can see how much easier it would be to resist temptation. Kudos to you for realizing this BEFORE the fact. I hope I will have the same will power I have today at the actual meal. My family will be having a potluck Thanksgiving at my house so that gives me some control. I"m planning to have turkey with salad, dip my fork in the dressing. No stuffing, no sugar filled cranberry sauce, no candied yams and no pie. Come to think of it, I'll make my own baked yam (which tastes great without anything at all) and I will have tea for desert and maybe some frozen grapes and then gum. Do you have a plan on how to resist all the foods? I find that a plan is crucial. I would go as far as to find out what will be at the dinner.
Luckymommy - Well, my plan includes making sure that I bring hand weights and at least 1 exercise DVD to the sister's house, making sure that I get my 10,000 steps in. I am not really sure how I am going to manage eating. It is scary, not being able to control the food that I am going to be intaking, without looking obsessive, with my little calorie-counting book. I assume that there will be internet access, so I can continue calorie logging in my livestrong account.
The only good thing is that the sister is supposedly "always on a diet" herself. But I don't expect that the meals, etc. are going to reflect that.
As for Thanksgiving Day itself, my plan is to stick to turkey breast, a bit of cranberry sauce, a roll and probably not much more than that. Maybe a yam. Everything else served on a typical Thanksgiving Dinner is either way too high in sodium (green been casserole, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing), fat (same, also pies) or calories.
I really don't know how I will manage,though. I certainly don't want to make a bad impression as some obsessive picky-eater, but I also don't want to spend another month getting off five pounds that could have been avoided.
We usually have a veggie tray, and that has helped my sister and I in the past. We have a pickle and olive tray, too. We do have healthy foods and we choose not to eat those other foods.
However, I am not superwoman and have fallen for the higher foods before.
But, this year, it will only be me, my husband and our children, and we have already decided to do a non-traditional thanksgiving meal, where we cook only the foods that we want, but still have the atmosphere. That should help. I've gotten hubby into counting the amount of calories that our meals have so that I know. He doesn't have to count his calories, but he knows that I want to.
Good luck!!! Gum, tea, and having things with you that you KNOW will help you out is essential. If your sister is understanding, talk to her about it and get support throughout the meal.
Thanks for the encouragement, Alyssa! I am just a bit more nervous, because this is my boyfriend's sister, not my own blood, and I have never met her before, so I don't know what to expect. I also don't feel comfortable whipping out my calorie counter book for every meal, or refusing food if it doesn't look or seem dietetic. If it were my own family, it wouldn't be a problem - I'd whip out the book, jot everything down, refuse food that is fattening, and not feel like a neurotic freak.
I was hoping that I could continue to go to the gym every day, because I belong to 24 Hour Fitness, and I can use any club in the nation. But her town, Lake Havasu, doesn't have a 24 Hour Fitness, so I will have to make do with my exercise DVDs and hand weights, I guess.
I wish that I could just enjoy myself, and take all the sweets, alcohol and fatty foods they give me. But, like I said, it just isn't worth another month of slaving away just to get off the pounds I would gain if I just threw caution to the wind.
Last edited by jillianfan; 11-13-2009 at 12:51 AM.
It's helped me plan to "offer to help" in the past. Not sure how applicable this is to you. I just know when I didn't do it when we went to my Aunt's, I was sideswiped by an amazing array of goodies Grandma didn't usually prepare. Now I always ask in advance what they've already "got under control." I get to find out what to expect and they have an easy out to admit there's a few little things they don't have a handle on yet.
I know what the menu is going to look like at my in-laws' house, and the news is pretty grim. Last year, I was down about 60 lbs at Christmas, but still very heavy, so I had much more wriggle room in my eating, because my metabolic burn rate was still pretty high, just from hauling my 300+ bulk around. This year...not so much. Thus, I've concluded, I just need to bank some calories in the run-up to Christmas dinner, and do as well as I can with what's on offer. Also, I'm fortunate in that I've been at this long enough, and my weight loss is SO striking that people aren't going to hassle me about not eating much.
Make sure you eat something before Thanksgiving dinner!
Don't be one of those people that starve themselves all day long so they can chow down on all the Thanksgiving yummies. I use to be one of those people. Have your normal meals, breakfast, lunch, snacks...whatever it is you would have in a normal day so when you sit down at the Thanksgiving feast you won't feel compelled to eat everything on the table.
We are going to my husbands sisters house for Thanksgiving. My husbands family are stick thin people by nature...that has always ticked me off a smidge lol
Anyways, my plan is to drink a couple glasses of water within the half hour before dinner so I am not quite so hungry, also I am going to eat slowly...very slowly so that I fill up on less.
There will be alcohol there, probably 24/7 as we also have a wedding planned for that time and the night before Thanksgiving we are all going out to celebrate. I am planning on upping my exercise between now and then and I am also going to go for at least 1 60 minute walk a day. This way I can still enjoy the time with family and get some exercise in and have a small bit of wiggle room. Then I will come back home on Friday and jump on my treadmill and get right back on track.
A thought for the holidays...and an epiphany
