I'm going to need a plan today, and some accountibility, so I'm writing my plan here. If anyone else want's to do the same, whether you're planning to go off plan a little or a lot, doesn't matter. If you've got a goal big or small (to walk after dinner, to get your water in, journal... whatever) and want to write it here we can meet back here tomorrow and see how things went.

Today's going to be tough. Going to MIL's for Thanksgiving. I'm bringing low fat pumpkin muffins I made using cake mix and canned pumpkin. I made two kinds. Chocolate (using devil's food cake mix and 1 lb can pumpkin). And carrot, pumpkin apricot (I used carrot cake mix and tossed in a few chopped dried apricots and a handful of walnuts).

I can't believe how moist and delicious they both are. It was the first time making them, so I had to make sure they tasted good enough to pass the non-dieter's test. So I shared a test muffin from each batch with my dieting husband and his non-dieting friend. Both guys lived them and couldn't believe the chocolate ones contained pumpkin or that they weren't very high calorie (about 175 calories for the chocolate, and about 200 for the carrot-apricot. 3 to 4 WW points. They're very large muffins too).

I hate pumpkin pie, so I've at least got dessert taken care of. The rest of the meal is not going to be so easy. I know MIL is going to push food on me, so I have to be prepared. I plan on using the devious, sneaky method.
I used to have tons of tricks to divert other people's attention from how much I was eating, so it shouldn't be to hard to use them in reverse to divert MIL's attention from what I'm not eating. Bigger portions of the low cal foods and eating very, very, slowly while drinking a lot of water or tea.

My goal is pretty modest, to not gain weight. The food may be a little salty, so if I weigh on Saturday less than I weighed this morning, I will be very happy. I haven't yet decided whether I will weigh myself tomorrow morning or not. I think if I feel that I've done great, I may wait until Saturday. If I feel that I didn't do so well, I might weigh in tomorrow morning. Either way, I'm planning on using the treadmill tomorrow for at least 30 minutes.

So that's it. My plan for today. See you tomorrow and Saturday to let you know how I did.

Hey Colleen! Great idea for a thread.

We are going out to a restaurant, and therefore I'm not sure what I'm getting into. It's not a chain, so I can't look the menu up ahead of time.

My strategy:

Eat light until dinner, which is at 5:30. I have had a 280-cal breakfast and a 120-cal snack so far (11 a.m.). For lunch I'm having a 180-cal Lean Cuisine and a salad with 1 TBSP full-fat dressing (75 cals). During the football game, I'll have some natural light popcorn (110 cals.). That should take me up to 780 cals. So, that leaves many cals for dinner, and I could still end with a deficit for the day.

At dinner, I plan to divide what I'm served into "serving size" portions--I'm pretty practiced at that now. I won't eat anything that isn't worth it in terms of taste or calories or both. For example, I can skip candied yams or sweet potatoes. "Good" leftovers can come home with me.

The only question mark is dessert, and with luck I'll be strong enough to pass on that and have "tastes" of what others get, if offered.

Jay

I think my biggest issue in the past has been more about the after dinner "grazing" then what I actually sit down and eat with the fam. So this year, instead of starting early, I'm sleeping in & will cook so dinner is ready at a normal time (530- 6ish) instead of 1 or 2. This way, I have less time left in the day to sneak in the extra food.

The first part of my plan for today is done ~ I did a 5K this morning so with that 3.25 miles out of the way I plan to eat what I always do for Thanksgiving dinner...but I plan to be more sensible about it ~ I "hope" to carry on with my "journey of better choices" that I started almost 4 months to the day ago and 32 pounds AGO!...another day at 169

HAVE A GREAT THANKSGIVING FRIENDS!

I do the same thing every holiday. What I make, I make with lower fat, lower sodium ingredients. Today I have a choice...whole wheat with Brummel and Brown or regular stuffing with butter. Green bean casserole with low fat mushroom soup. Then I fill up on the veggies as much as I can and have a small sampling of desert or the not so healthy foods. Afterwards? I give it out to my daughter and brother and whomever wants to take leftovers home. I don't want em here.

I ran my 5K this morning! Yeah! I will have normal portion sizes of my favorites, seconds only of turkey, and one piece of pie. Lots of water. No guilt! This is a once a year holiday with my family that I adore so much.

Happy Thanksgiving folks!

Wow, I don't think I've ever had such a great Thanksgiving. I couldn't resist weighing (though I kind of regret it). I'm up a couple pounds, but I know it is the sodium, because I stuck very close to my food plan. In fact, I did better than I expected. The only thing I had second helpings of was the broccoli.
I usually can't resist a big turkey sandwhich in the evening, and instead I measured out some wheat thins and had a couple ounces of turkey on wheat thins.

So, today I will have to push fluids, and still want to get a mile in on the treadmill.

My T-Day went as planned also! And I'm up half a pound, but I can deal with that. And, I enjoyed the leftovers from my dinner out for lunch today.

Jay

Thanksgiving went real well yesterday, not as well as last year when I was in the losing portion of my journey, but just right now that I'm in maintenance.

I completely avoided all of Mom's fattening appetizers and stuck to the cut up veggies that I brought. Dinner was lots of turkey, lots of the cauliflower and tomato/cucumber/onion salad that I brought, a bit of sweet potatoes, and a couple of bites of stuffing (luckily it didn't come out do good, so there was no temptation there). Dessert was some fruit that I brought, a few bites of Apple pie that I made and a few bites of each of the 3 cakes that my uncle brought from the bakery. I am up 2 lbs today. But my history shows that that will be off by Monday. I am so satisfied with how I did.

Sounds like everybody did really, really well. I'm so glad to hear it.