Hey there CC's I was wondering how everyone's Thanksgiving day went? Mine was wonderful, no dishes, no cooking, no cleaning..woohoo. We went to my in-laws to see everyone. What a nice day it was.

So my question is this....DID YOU COUNT/ESTIMATE your calories during the day, or did you just "watch" your portions and types of food you ate?

Personally I watched portions, and if I wanted something, like pumpkin pie, I ate a piece of pumkin bread instead (I brought this, much lower in calories and so good my mother-in-law told me she was keeping the leftovers )

So I think I did pretty good, I estimate I had around 1500-1800 cals yesterday which is UP from my normal 1200 but for a holiday I think it is totally acceptable!

So what tricks did you use???

Well we will be having thanksgiving tomorrow but my plan is to count calories all day until dinner time and then just be careful with what I eat but not really counting calories.

I didn't count -- I didn't go crazy,but I know I was probably over what I normally eat. I figured one or two heavy days around a holiday aren't going to kill me, I'm just making sure I keep things even the rest of the week. I know I didn't as much as I normally would have if I had not been aware of my weight loss goals and successes so far though.

Thats great FLchickie. That is what I think too. I usually graze throughout the day, but I was good, I stayed away from the snacks and when I felt hungry, I grabbed something pretty healthy. I also found that keeping a glass of water with me helped me. If I felt the urge to snack I could take a drink.

I did count. My husband said a couple days ago that I wouldn't loose weight this week because of thanksgiving and I wanted to prove him wrong.

I had 1303 calories yesterday. All I had at dinner was turkey and a tiny bit of stuffing and a big plate of salad!

I was feelign a big deprived watching all my family eat mashed potatoes, candied yams, cranberry sauce & pumpkin pie. But it was worth it

I dont think i did that good. I am fro the south so my family doesnt make very healthy meals, I usually make my own. And of course they dont want to tell u what was in it because they dont want u to steal their "secret recipe". But overall, i did pretty good. This is what I had. Tell me what u think. This includes breakfast which started my thanksgiving. This reason why i ate thanksgiving food is because unfortunately I ate at my grandmother's house, plus my mom cooked at home so it was everywhere. The good thing is I ahvent gone over 1350 cals this week and worked out 4 days including today which is usually about 45 min. of Tae Bo and weight training for 30 min.


Breakfast (lol):
1 chicken wing with skin (about 99 cals)
about 1/4 cup of cornbread dressing (no telling how much was in this)
about 1/2 cup of collard greens
about 1/3 cup of potato salad (made with miracle whip--45 cals, 3.5 fat so not too bad)
cornbread dressing (about 1/4 cup)
Water: about 50 ouncez

Lunch?:
1 very small slice of white meat turkey
about 1/3 cup of dressing (someone else made so dont know what they made it with)
1 tbs cranberry sauce
about 1 cup of chicken casserole( grandmother told me what was in it--not bad--rotini noodles, light miracle whip(25 cals, 1.5 fat), cream of chicken, broccoli, shredded chicken breast, shredded mild cheddar cheese
1/2 cup green beans

Dessert: banana pudding ( great autn made homemade and wont tell recipe lol)

Dinner (i guess u could call it that):
1 chicken wing
1/2 cup dressing
applesauce ( about 20 cals)
1/4 cup potatoe salad

Pretty bad huh?

Well we just came back from our official dinner and I don't think I did that bad at all. I figured it up and I came in at roughly 400 calories for dinner.

Well today (Sat) we had our second thanksgiving (YES TWO!!)..lol
I did good today as well, no munching/snacking today at all
I ate a bowl of wheaties for breakfast, and then a mid size meal for lunch, now for dinner I will eat a nice salad. SO I think I can now officially say I survived the holiday!!!

We spent the entire week out of state with my in-laws. I didn't officially count calories but I was aware of what and how much I put on my plate all week. Since I had very little control over the foods offered I decided that I would use my best judgement and relax my usual eating standards. It actually turned out to be a good exercise in using what I've learned while losing weight this past year. I tend to be a little compulsive with my eating and this week taught me that I can trust myself to make the best food choices under any circumstance - and that an occasional piece of pie isn't the end of the world!

I didn't count precisely, but I did a couple of things. Ate very lightly for breakfast that day (we celebrated on Sunday, since I had to work on the holiday), and then we ate the meal around 2:00. I had small portions of everything during the main meal, and then stuck to fruit salad for the dessert, after having one bite of pumpkin pie (I baked it, so wanted to check how it tasted -- but no full slice for me).

So I guess I'm sort of in the middle -- not sure how many calories I had, but I doubt I went over my quota that day. I can't explain all that well, but I wasn't willing to sacrifice progress, you know? If I'd felt REALLY deprived, it would have been otherwise, but I did have a nibble of the fattening things, just not a full portion, and otherwise let myself have more of the things that weren't quite so off-plan. Seemed to work pretty well overall.

I was bad, I didn't count. I didn't even want to know how much i ate. But I did go to the gym for an hour friday morning.

Me either! I didn't count but keep my plan. I had each spoonful of each dishes but twice or third spoonful of sweet potato cassorle. It's sooo good. I made that cassorle by added fat free eva. milk, splenda sugar.. also Pumpkin pie.. i made too.. fat free eva milk also splenda sugar/brown sugar. The next day I walked 5.0 incline/an hour on treadmill. It's killer! Whew!

I mostly watched portions, drank water, and basically had a small helping of everything I wanted (turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, squash, 1 bread roll). I estimated later that night on Fitday about how much I ate that day and it came to just under 2000 calories which isn't great, but as the week ended yesterday I averaged 1381 for the whole week and as I am aiming for 1200 I will consider this a maintenance week and work harder this coming week.

I counted, but I gave myself permission to go over my normal 1500 limit for the day. I ate oatmeal and strawberries for breakfast and a small sandwich for lunch and came in at about 2070 calories for the day. I was a little over my calories again on Friday (1627) but by Saturday I was back on track. I also worked out for at least 30 minutes each day. For the entire week I averaged 1458 per day, which is under my 1500 limit.

I also counted but didn't worry about staying within my normal daily limit. I usually think of my limit as a weekly average anyway, so that works. And my week worked out fine!

I also had my normal breakfast and a small lunch to tide me over. I avoided the appetizers (which didn't look appealing anyway), but let myself have extra stuffing and a piece of cake.

I felt like the day was a success not so much because of the calories (which were fine), but because I felt IN CONTROL -- what a difference THAT is.