Planning & Chat for Dec. 3 - 9
 

Got all your shopping done yet? :devil:

Stress season begins! How will we cope? More workouts? Hiding under the covers? Binge eating fruitcake ;) ?

What are your strategies for minimizing the damage during this festive eating season?

Have a great week everyone!

Dagmar

Damage from last week
 

I gained a lot less than I thought I would - 1 lb. only. Of course almost fasting for the last 2 days helped.

Good news on the DH front. He complained that he's "too fat" :o to come to my relatives' Christmas do. I said that maybe a diet was in order and he agreed :D.

He's also talking about going to the gym and has officially dropped down to 2 days a week at work. No excuse about being too stressed to work out :carrot:.

I will be very supportive. I want him to be as successful as I have been in dropping the weight. Now for my last pesky 2 lbs . . .

Dagmar :cool:

Good morning!

That's good news Dagmar! A common interest is very good for a relationship.

I maintained this week! I'm thrilled... Thursday through Saturday were big eating out and drinking lots of alcohol days for me, so I went over my calories by 600-1000 each of those, and really barely exercised. Bad Laura. I was definitely expecting a gain, so I'm so excited that I maintained. I'm attributing it to the fact that early in the week I was way under my calories (though not even intentionally - just happened to eat lots of low cal foods).

This week I am getting back on track and trying to stay at fairly constant calorie levels. What makes me feel so much better is that I have a theory that once I lose the weight, I can be a little less strict about what I eat, and hopefully I won't gain. Not pig out necessarily, but maybe not have to count every calorie that goes in my mouth. This week seemed to prove that I may be right about that, so I am optimistic!

Have a great day everyone :)

I was hoping to get DH to the gym to sign us up for our freebie month, but we didn't have any extra time yesterday.

My weight is at an all-time high (although I'm certain it is very temporary--I really overate last night, apple pie included). I should preface that all-time high: the highest since I lost the weight, so perhaps the highest in the past 18 months.

Laura - good job maintaining and feeling good about it. I agree that after eating a lot, sometimes that is as much of a reward to see on the scale as weight loss :)

Allison - I'm glad you're still optimistic, though, since you're most of the way there despite going up a little bit! ;)

As for me, I'm still working on losing the Thanksgiving 2 pounds (1 left to go). My boyfriend and I are spending the holidays on vacation, and I feel like I don't really have a choice but to lose this last set of pounds. It's a good motivator. But when I get back (and when I've lost the weight), I'm going to spend a weekend eating whatever I want. I might gain back a couple pounds, but having that out there to look forward to is so very worth it. In fact, I've started a list of the things I am going to eat on that weekend... it's too delicious to look at.

A tiny whoo hoo
 

So my scale registered 129.8 lbs this morning. I should be jumping :dance: up and down but I know that it's dehydration, rather than fat loss.

I'm getting really honest with myself I guess. :whoo:

So I'll drink more water this week and find out what I really weigh :p on Friday.

Dagmar :D

I used to use dehydrated weights for motivation.
When we lived in the country, I walked almost 3 miles almost every day. I'd weigh myself when I got home. I figured if I could weight that little ever ... then I could weigh that much less fat. Did that make sense?

Perfect sense Susan. I'm using that 129 dehydrated weight to actually get to that 129 "real" weight. :D

Dagmar

I love my dehydrated weight! My favorite time to weigh myself is when I've worked out in the morning before I've eaten breakfast, after I've taken a shower and dried my hair (and gone to the bathroom, of course, probably a couple of times). Even better if I sat in the sauna for 15 min after working out! Once I hit 111 lbs! :broc: Sadly I don't think I'll ever see that number again.

I always weigh dehydrated (when I first wake up, after the bathroom, but before I shower, just in case my pores are sucking in water!), so at least it keeps it consistent. Today I was a pound down from yesterday, which may be because I didn't eat enough fiber Sun night for my Mon weigh in. I'm not counting today's weight though. If anything, it will just show up bigger next time!

Scenestealer By dehydrated I mean really dehydrated - like not being able to blink my eyes cause they're sticking together. I had to drink a bunch of caffeine to keep going and that had a major diuretic effect. Did not replenish any water in the evening and woke up with my tongue sticking to my throat at about 3 a.m. A loss of 2 lbs overnight indicates that it was not a "real" weight loss - 7000 cals overnight? I don't recall doing the triathlon in my sleep ;)

Dagmar

Ouch, that is not good. Do you track your water everyday? I use DailyPlate's little sliding scale to chart mine. I find that I drink a TON of water at work (I keep a waterbottle filled next to my desk all day long), but when I'm home I tend to forget. However, it's a rare day when I don't get at least 8 (8 oz) glasses. My only disappointment is that they don't let you track above that, because I usually hit 8 glasses around 4 PM, so I'd be curious to see which days I go way above and which days I just go to 8 glasses. Maybe I will write that in as a suggestion for them... :)

Yesterday I went to an evening sculpting class at my gym. It's at 6:30, so usually I'm not done with work early enough to go, but this has been a slow week. I don't know what it's usually like, but this week it was just me and one other woman, so we got a lot of individual attention and it was great! The class definitely kicked my butt (literally). So far my butt is the only place I'm sore, but my muscles usually take about 18 hours to get sore, so I'm sure my arms, legs, and abs will catch up by this afternoon. And considering my butt is already sore, that will probably get so sore I won't be able to walk! Sounds like a bad thing, but I love being sore after a workout, so I'm excited :)

I'm down another 1/3 of a pound from yesterday, which is 1.3 below Monday's (official weigh-in) weight. I know it's probably just water, but it makes me feel confident that this week I may post a loss. We'll see though... tomorrow is our company holiday party and I know despite my best efforts I will probably have way too much wine and then start gorging myself on every delicious hors d'oeuvre in sight.

Hi everyone. I haven’t been here in a while. I fell off the wagon in October and I’m slowly getting back on. I sprained my knee at the end of September and I couldn’t exercise for 2 months except for upper body weights. :( A couple of weeks after the sprain I lost my motivation to eat right and I started eating a lot of drive-thru, takeout, etc. :jeno: :burger: :chockiss: :cookie: :mcd:

I haven’t weighed myself since October because I don’t want to see the number. I do know that I’m still wearing the same pants and jeans I was wearing before I sprained my knee, but they don’t fit as well. At least I didn’t have to get my larger pants out of the closet. So now I’m getting back on track…..

Dagmar, it’s great that your DH wants to lose weight and he has your support.

Allison, I think you’re right about the high weight being temporary.

Nimbus, good job losing Thanksgiving weight.

Laura, you’re doing great!

I also have a holiday party to go to tomorrow. It’s not my company holiday party – it’s an awards banquet and Christmas party that everyone in my dept. at work was invited to. Cocktails at 6:00, dinner at 7:00. It’ll be easy for me to avoid the cocktails because I don’t enjoy alcohol. I know some of you can’t imagine not enjoying a glass of wine, a cold beer, or a mixed drink! I would rather have coffee, juice, or pop. :coffee2:

GreenT I agree with you about the alcohol. I used to drink quite a bit in my 30's and then just socially in my 40's. Now I find that I don't want to drink at all because I know just one glass of wine will wreck the night's sleep for me :tired:. The pain is so much greater than the gain with alcohol now.

I am quite addicted to diet Pepsi now:lol:. That's probably not the best thing for me either but one has to have at least one vice in life ;)

Dagmar :p

I'm in my early 20s, so drinking is definitely big in my social scene :) I try to only drink once a week though. It's not THAT hard, because my work is pretty demanding so I never do anything on weeknights (unless it's a company event). Basically, of the two nights a week I go out (Fri and Sat), I usually just cut the drinking on one. Lately on Fridays I've been staying in the office late to socialize and then go to a dive bar with a few of the managers, so it's a great networking opportunity, and I generally don't mind not drinking. It's a lot harder when I'm with all my peers who are tossing back shots.

Speaking of company events, tomorrow is our company holiday party, and I think I am not going to drink. In general, I don't like to have just one drink - it's not worth the calories. I either drink nothing and stay completely sober, or I drink a few and get completely drunk! I'm not entirely sure what kind of event this is, but since it's on a Thursday and I have a busy day of work on Friday, I'm assuming it's more of a professional event than an "everyone get drunk" event. We'll see. What's going to be toughest are the hors d'oeuvres, for sure.

Once a month our company sponsors a conference call with a nutritionist, and it was today. This month's topic was how to get through the holiday season without gaining weight, which I was very excited about. Unfortunately, the strategies weren't very practical. For example, the nutritionist said that she brings her own salad to corporate holiday parties so she can eat that instead of the unhealthy foods. I can't IMAGINE doing that! My coworkers already think I'm a crazy health nut because I bring my own lunch instead of ordering from whatever steakhouse or fattening Italian place is the choice of the day. Anyway, the best idea I heard on the call was to set one goal (just one, so you focus on it) for the holiday season. Mine is to work out at least 30 minutes/day, 6 days/week. And also to earn more DailyPlate badges for logging exercise on consecutive days :)

Anyone else have any good tips for surviving the holiday season with all its parties?

I really want to maintain during the holidays this year. Every year I work my butt off and get pretty lean and then I eat, eat, eat like a starved maniac once Christmas rolls around. How can I get it through my head that I need to eat sensibly and not blow it at every meal "just because it's christmas!" I defintely need tips from all of you to keep it off this season. It is just too painful to start all over every new year! To me it's more of a mental thing because 99% of the time I am very disciplined!

Help!

For the most part, I plan on just relaxing and enjoying the holiday season. If I gain weight, well...I lost it once, I can lose it again. I do plan to keep up with my exercise, but that's just a given for me. The only time I don't exercise is if I'm sick or injured.

But if I am trying to stay on track at parties, here are my strategies:

1. Grab a non-alcoholic beverage as soon as I arrive and hang onto it the entire time. It's hard to eat and hold a beverage at the same time. Also, if I have a beverage, people are less likely to wonder why I'm not eating.

2. Don't stand by the buffet, food table, etc. Especially don't sit at a table that has a bunch of food on it.

3. Talk to people. It's also hard to eat and talk at the same time. I've been at parties where I've intended to eat more and didn't because I ended up in a long conversation with someone.

4. Load up on salad and crudites.

5. Don't arrive at the party hungry.

6. Remind myself that this party is not my only chance to eat decadent foods. Often when I see all the yummy looking foods at parties, my first thought is that I ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO EAT IT. :tantrum: It's like I'm afraid I'll never get another chance to eat food like that. It really helps to just take a step back and remind myself that the food that I eat is completely my choice. I can eat whatever I want, whenever I want. I can stop at the store on the way home, buy a giant chocolate cake, and eat the whole thing if I want. Although I would never do that, just reminding myself that I can really helps take the pressure off.

7. Don't drink. Not even one glass of wine. Because once I have even one drink, 1-6 above all go to :censored:.

I cannot imagine bringing my own salad to a party. But if the party isn't a catered affair, I'll often offer to bring something and I usually find that these offers are accepted if I suggest actual items I might bring. And I just happen to suggest things that are less caloric. But that won't work for a catered event, like your work party.

Such good advice Barbara
 

I think it applies to both work and family events.

I found just not having an alcoholic drink first made a big difference. And I drink diet Pepsi so no one knows it's just a soft drink. Juice can work too although I find the juices at events are usually pretty low quality and not at all fresh.

There's just one point I differ with you on. Reminding myself that I can have the goodies anytime doesn't work for me at Christmas. I really like fruitcake (yes I really am a space alien as my DH says) and mince pie and ham and gingerbread and etc. etc. I never even SEE these foods any other time of the year.

This year I'm going for portion control and conversation. I'm lucky in that I hardly ever talk to my own family members (long story) so I catch up at Christmas. And my DH's family eats everything at the dining table and puts it away right after they're done.

I'm going to make sure I have some "blank space" on my dinner and dessert plates and no seconds. I will really think carefully about what I'm going to eat since I only have "one go" at the food. I will limit myself to two items for dessert.

Think I'll be hiding in the bathroom a lot, looking at my stomach in the mirror ;)

Dagmar

My first Christmas event
 

So I'm going to an "all you can eat" Chinese place today with a bunch of the dogwalkers.

Will try to limit myself to one plate of vegetables/steamed rice/ etc. It seems kind of pointless though as I ate an entire fruitcake :o last night and DH and I polished off a box of Belgian chocolate cookies :o :o the night before that :barf:.

I have to get all of my Christmas shopping done before Dec. 19th as I start my annual Christmas sleep-over that night. This year I'm in charge of desserts at one gathering and appetizers at another. I'm trying to buy the stuff before and just put it out of sight :devil: but it's not working.

Just had an idea as I look at this post! I will take all of the dessert stuff over to my dad's :D! He has no interest in it and I never go there so that should work!

Sometimes just posting here helps so much. Now to lose the 5 lbs I'm sure I've just put on in the last two nights.

Dagmar :tired: