I'm with Howie on this one :)

Those days are so special to me that I will not be worrying about what I eat. The individual days are not the problem for me...:lol:

It's the halloween candy that lasts until Christmas...and the days worth of leftovers from Thanksgiving...and the MONTH of wonderful goodies around Christmas...then on the 30th of Dec. it's my birthday and the next night is New Years Eve... :crazy:

I will just have to be EXTRA good on the in between days, although this time of year..it doesn't seem that there's very many of those!

Will be doing my best..to be sure ;)

xoxo
Linda

Hi guys, looks like you've got some wonderful and achievable goals set here. I also love that they are behavior based goals, rather than scaled based, since changing the behaviors is what will determine long-term, lasting success. Good job everyone; I believe each one of your goals can and will be met. Good luck!!

Beverly

Hmm, I don't do all of these, so I think my plan will be to celebrate the ones I do celebrate properly and ignore the rest.

Thanksgiving - don't do.

Halloween - nothing special here. I'll be with my family in Spain where, as far as I know, it's not a big thing, so I can't envisage there being much temptation around.

Bonfire night - if I was here I'd probably go down to the big local bonfire, but I'm not, so I won't, and it's not celebrated in Spain. I probably wouldn't overeat anyway, as it's more a standing around watching fireworks thing for me rather than an eating related thing.

Christmas - I'll eat what I want. I may try to cut down my drinking a little, although this may be more from necessity than choice - I just can't drink like I used to!

New Years - I doubt I'll be celebrating this one particularly. It's not a particularly big one for me, last year I spent it setting up my new computer and getting ready to paint my study over the long weekend!

In terms of motivation, I'm going for the making it count theory - I want to be wearing a fantastic slinky dress at the work christmas party to really show off all my hard work. Incidentally I won't be overindulging there either, as I'm on the 7.10 train to Edinburgh the next day for some christmas shopping.

The bigger challenge for me is to cope with actual holidays away from home. I've got 4 days in Marrakesh and 2 separate trips to see my family before the end of the year. I think the behaviour thing will revolve around keeping up some exercise and being a bit more sensible with the booze (the booze thing shouldn't be a problem in Marrakesh during ramadan at least!)

What the heck is Bonfire Night?

Here you go Goddess J:

http://www.infoplease.com/spot/guyfawkes.html

I loved this night as a child! We'd go from door to door in the neighbourhood and plead for "a penny for the Guy, please", then we'd take whatever money we'd collected and buy the materials to make a Guy Fawkes effigy and burn him all to **** in the bonfire! Actually, we'd already have most of the materials on hand (old pillows for the head and dad's worn out clothes for the body), so we'd use the money to buy paints and brushes to make the face and spend the rest on sweets to eat during the burning!

That sounds like fun and good memories.

Great idea this challenge.

Halloween: My oldest daughter reacts strongly to processed sugars so we just don't eat them. We will be celebrating Halloween more as a Fall celebration with friends and costumes and plenty of fall/harvest healthy foods: soups etc. We leave town or go out somewhere Halloween night so as to avoid trick-or-treaters since we ourselves don't go trick-or-treating (it would be mean to go TOT when dd cannot have the loot).

Thanksgiving: If we are home, it will be easy. DH will make a fruit-sweetened, wheat-free (dd is allergic) cherry pie since I am not a fan of pumpkin; With youngest dd's allergy to wheat, no stuffing for us either. If we go to someone's house, though, it will be tough. I think I will fill up on turkey, despite my recent return to pesco-vegetarianism, and we will bring a healthy salad and maybe my healthy cookies or dh's pie. I don't do well having a free day so I will not make it one.

Christmas: the challenge will be getting ALL the treats that get sent to us by sweet, well-meaing relatives out of the house before they are even opened. I am lucky this year because I am nursing the baby dd, the one allergic to wheat, so I cannot have any wheat myself -- which knocks out A LOT of treats. I will focus on other components of Christmas besides the food. For Christmas eve dinner, we always have soup, French Onion, since it is the soup dh proposed to me over at a French Restaurant, so that should be easy (hmmm...though this year we'll have to make it without the croutons and with veggie broth). For Christmas dinner, I think we will buy some really high quality salmon or maybe some lobster and do it totally untraditionally (without all the stuffings and creamed veggies etc.). My new favorite thing to do it to steam cauliflower and mash it with olive oil and garlic and salt instead of mashed potatoes, so maybe we'll have that.

New Year's: We have 3 kids, 5 and under. There will be no New Year's for us until at least 2012 and I'll be thin by then and so enjoying maintenance I will not want to do anything but dance all night.

This helps. I hadn't thought about this yet. Now I am going to print this up. It is so helpful to plan ahead like this.

Ok, here's mine.

Thanksgiving - It's this weekend. We haven't made any plans yet, but I should do ok. I was never a big pie fan - I just need to remember to go easy on the gravy.

Halloween - I'm buying the candy I don't like. I don't have any little ones around in my house to swipe candy from so buying something I don't like should keep me on track with the sweets intake.

Christmas - This is going to be a challenge. We're travelling to my parents house for the holidays. It's not just Christmas dinner to worry about but all of the great restaurants and home cooked meals that I miss out on living away from my hometown. I'm going to make a restaurant schedule and choose the meals I'll be ordering before we fly home. If I know where and what I'll be eating at those wonderful places I'll be able to rearrange my menu for the rest of the day to compensate for it.

New Years - I've been making out ok with Virgin Caesar's for the most part, but I don't know if that's something I can drink all night long. I think I'll try 2 waters for every light beer that I drink. That should help with any hangover that is to be expected the next morning.

Good plans everyone - we can do this!!!

~Dee

That's a good idea. I have a football party to go to this weekend. I think I'll give that a try.

Paula - I love your humour! 2012 New Years sounds about the time I will be busting loose to go out. However, I am thinking by that time I will be thin but too old to dance!!

Newfie: What is a virgin ceaser?

Nah -- you'll be in such good shape, you'll be boogying with the rest of us and amazed at how wonderfully your body keeps up! :hat:

This challenge is a great idea! Here are my goals:

Halloween Not a problem, since we don't celebrate it.
Thanksgiving The baby is due that weekend, so I'll either have a newborn or be 40 weeks pregnant. Either way, no big turkey dinner for us :)
Christmas I won't be working at the office, so at least I can avoid the temptation of all of the treats surrounding me 8 hours a day. :) We have several celebrations/dinners to attend. For each family gathering, I will snack on veggie sticks (instead of nuts and sweets), and limit my dessert to one piece of pie (instead of the usual sampler plate).
New Years Same as Christmas, since we're getting together with one side of the family to celebrate Chirstmas that weekend. We don't drink, so NYEve won't be a problem.

Caesar (or Bloody Caesar)
Celery Salt rimmed glass
Vodka
Clamato Juice
Tobasco Sauce
Worcestershire Sauce
Pepper
Celery & Lime garnish

Virgin Caesar - minus the vodka

Excellent drink! I've noticed that since I've started drinking them virgin I never really tasted to vodka anyway (kinda like the cheese on subway subs).

~Dee

I know what you mean about the cheese on Subway subs. I quit that a few months back and don't miss it what so ever. I realized with all the veggies I always get you can't taste the cheese anyway. I am a huge cheese lover but I don't notice a difference.