I've had success on Atkins before and am currently counting cals with not much luck and hunger always!! But my hesitation, does anyone follow Atkins but indulge some on thanksgiving and Christmas? Not for a whole week, just the day? Thoughts, advice?

Yes, a lot of people do I'm sure. I plan to. Perfection will defeat me ever time. If I can't do it perfect why do it at all. That was my motto. Now, not so much. I slowly push the weight down by not being completely compliant, all the time every day. I've learned that lesson the hard way. So I'll be low carb right up until an event, and resume right after. And I don't mean taking off the day of the event, but the actual events. Then try for moderation, not a binge.

My turkey day plan is to go low carb all day, until we eat the "grand meal," then kick off with a LC salad, followed by generous low carb turkey serving, with my aunt's mothers green bean casserole (it's not a holiday without it), maybe small spoon dressing, and loads of healthier veggies that will be there. Then I'll probably choose a couple bites of a couple desserts after with coffee - one of my Aunt's is a baker extraordinaire! I do not plan to exclude myself, nor to gorge myself. I just have to psych up before and plan it in my head a little beforehand to keep moderate.

Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner meals aren't really an issue for me. I am not fond of turkey so I will eat ham instead. I'll make my own "mashed potatoes" with cauliflower and I'll have some green beans -regular- not green bean caserrole.I make little quiches for me and use some poultry seasoning and it resembles stuffing enough that I don't feel deprived. Our Thanksgiving and Christmas meals are very similiar so that usually is not my downfall. What DOES get me is the sweets at Christmas. All the homemade candies, fudge, ect. are soooo hard to resist I'm pretty sure I could eat my weight (and then some) in homemade peanut butter fudge and hershey's homemade chocolate fudge.

Arkansas Kel

Im right there with you with the all or nothing attitude I have lost and regained over 100 pound twice in my life because of it. I plan to eat "regular" food on thanksgiving and the day after (my birthday) but normal portions and then right back on the wagon.

This will be my first Thanksgiving on Atkins, but I plan to stick to the plan. Mom always makes 2 meats and 2 veggies (among other things).

Plus I've found that if I use Half and Half to make SugarFree FatFree Butterscotch pudding, I get impossibly full and I don't want any more dessert! I'm going to make a batch and saw no to the pie!

I went all out last Thanksgiving, but ate a low-carb sugar-free pumpkin cheesecake for dessert. I even ate a little bit of leftovers in the days following. Christmas was semi low carb, I had slow cooked roast with green bean casserole and a salad with sugar free candy for dessert. Nobody is perfect, I did the best I could do for the holidays without binging. As long as you can control your cravings in the days following I don't think there's anything wrong with indulging on important holidays (or even every few months when you just want a slice of pizza--I've done that too!)

Now I want sweets lol U are doing a great job don't let the holidays ruin it for you, if u can have 1 or 2 pieces of sweets have them and if not skip it all together and reward yourself with something sweet on the last day of the year.

Thanks for the pep talk I did ok at Thankgiving now just keeping my fingers crossed for Christmas

So, I found some Holiday Champs!

First was Broccoli Salad. If you've ever had it, you know that it's nothing but Broccoli, Cheddar, Onion, Bacon and Salad Dressing. I've seen some complicated recipes, but I used Hidden Valley ranch, and it was delicious! Of course you leave off the raisins, you can keep the nuts if you want... I didn't!

Second was cheesecake! I got the recipe off of the Knox box. I just left off the crust.

1 env. Knox unflavored gelatin
1/3 c. sugar (Splenda)
1 c. boiling water
2 pkg. (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 graham cracker crust
In large bowl mix gelatin with Splenda. Add boiling water and stir until gelatin is dissolved. With electric mixer beat in the cream cheese and vanilla extract until smooth. Pour into graham cracker crust. Chill until firm, makes about 8 servings.

I put in a tablespoon of vanilla, some cinnamon and nutmeg. My family said it tasted like "Egg Nog Pie" and they all liked it. I put in a 1/2 cup of Splenda. It was WAY TOO MUCH. For Xmas, I'm going to start with a little and add to taste. But the moral of the story is even the carb eaters though it was palatable and I felt like I was eating dessert with the family and not missing out!

Hope that helps!