...holiday survival strategies! My goal this year is to avoid the gain/lose cycle that always happens at the holidays. Maintaining through the holidays! Is it possible? I say yes. But for me at least, I have to start planning NOW, so that my plan is so ingrained that I can stick to it without thinking about it come November. Holi-DAYS, not holi-MONTHS (who was it who said that again?).

Is anyone else working out survival strategies? What are you planning? I'm still working on mine...

I'm thinking about them already as well. I mean, you kinda have to, because of the way stores are putting holiday decorations and foods out earlier & earlier in advance.

As I see it, there are at least two big problems around the holidays:

1) The once-a-year foods come out, the foods that you only see at the holidays, and they may be incredibly loaded with memories, so that when you are tasting them, you are often transmitted back in time to feeling like a safe, well-loved child. This is when your favorite candy bar is suddenly in abundance, in the fun size, the one you rooted through all your Halloween spoils to find. This may be the only time of year your mother makes that particular kind of cookie. This is when your aunt makes a bread or a cake using your grandmother's recipe, and this dish is always served at family gatherings. Food & love are never more blurred than around the holidays. Not to partake feels like upsetting the natural order of things and sometimes almost like a personal insult of the maker, or the memory of the recipe's originator. Problem is, when you're surrounded by many once-a-year-foods, all at one time. Or when you're eating & suddenly latch on, and can't get enough, and want the good sensation to repeat itself over & over again, even as it's already evaporating, because memories are so fleeting.

2) The feeding time mentality that promotes herd-like behavior is never more rampant. Bingeing is contagious. That's not just my theory; that's a fact that I see demonstrated time & again. If you're on the edge, ambivalent about the immediate pleasure of eating compared with the long-term pleasure of saying "no" & fitting into nice clothes, and you see nearly everyone around you overindulging, you're more likely to believe you've just been given permission to do what they're doing. I think we're hard-wired for this imitative behavior. To use a "Wizard of Oz" metaphor, it's terribly hard to wrench yourself out of the trance and walk away from the field of poppies whose fumes are slowly overcoming your defenses & your consciousness.

So all my strategizing goes toward countering those two holiday factors: "It's a special time of year, the only time you'll get a chance to eat this" and "Everyone's doing it. This is the time of year when it's perfectly okay to overeat."

I think this says it all and will be my stategy.

I started this journey November 9th of last year, so just before the big holiday craze. I got through it by not eating. I remember Thanksgiving in particular. I literally did not eat all day. Then dinner consisted of ONE tablespoon of absolutely everything. I can not use that method again! This year it's time to get real!!

However, my one tablespoon of everything was not a bad rule. When you have a spread of 20+ items, one tablespoon is actually plenty. It's a little taste of everything. I think the problem with these holiday meals is the quantity of items available. A normal meal consists of 1-2 veggies, and a protein. That's it. A holiday meal may consist of three meats, a couple veggie casseroles (which aren't veggies at all), fruit dishes, starchy dishes, etc.

But this year, I plan to eat my normal breakfast and I plan to have a healthy veggie loaded salad for lunch. I may skip snacks that day.

As for the other holiday garbage that's around daily, I plan to stay out of it. The only time that really happens is at the office, so I just avoid the lounge.

Oh, and my biggest pitfall: chips and dip. I can NOT eat just one, no matter what I may tell myself.

My strategy, as always, is two-fold.

First, holi-days, not holi-months, as we've all stated. I'm actually going on vacation between Thanksgiving and Christmas, but it's a "healthier" cruise and we're going to be doing some very active excursions, so that's a separate thing.

Second, decide what I REALLY WANT. I'm not, for example, a fan of stuffing. It may be a quintessential Thanksgiving food, and some people might genuinely LOVE it. I'd much rather have two tablespoons of mashed potatoes than try the stuffing. So my holiday plates will be half vegetable, and the rest filled with things I really LOVE, and not with things that are just THERE.

It's the same with Halloween. I LOVE my great-grandmother's recipe for handmade donuts that my mom made for us every Halloween. I don't love cheap candy. So, one donut, no candy.

Christmas - my grandpa makes breakfast every year, and I look forward to the eggs with kielbasa and mimosas. The coffee cake is a "could take or leave", so I have my eggs and my potatoes and fruit, and leave the coffee cake alone.

My boyfriend says that to me...It's holi-DAYS...NOT holi-MONTHS LOL

Saef, you are so right. The problem isn't that there are once-a-year foods. Once-a-year foods are fine, like a slice of cake on my birthday. The problem is that ALL of the once-a-year foods occur at the same time in the same place. Why do I never eat candied yams in March? Why couldn't I roast up a turkey in July? Some of them make sense, they are seasonal foods. Cranberries are ripe in the fall so we eat cranberry sauce when the cranberries are ripe. Sure you can get them year-round now, but I do try to include local and seasonal foods in my diet (which, BTW, I learned from Midwest Living a couple weeks ago that half the country's cranberry crop is grown in Wisconsin. Who knew?).

Amanda, I like your strategy. I think I need to incorporate that. I don't care for stuffing and I'm not really interested in mashed potatoes. I also don't care about pecan pie, chips & dip, cheese & crackers, or even most of the other holiday pies (apple, pumpkin, etc.). Here are the things I actually care about. We'll see if I can limit this list and stick to it. You are all going to start laughing at my sweet tooth when you see my list...

Thanksgiving:
- cranberry sauce
- grasshopper pie, my family's traditional dessert
- persimmon pudding, the Indiana traditional dessert
- sweet potatoes (casserole or candied)
- turkey, but that's a reasonable food any time of year

Christmas:
- Baskin Robbins winter white chocolate ice cream
- buried treasure cookies
- baked brie
- roast beef
- my dad's super-ultra-buttered potatoes (seriously, it's like one stick of butter per potato almost), either oven-roasted or twice-baked

Now if I can just avoid all of the OTHER holiday foods that are appearing during the days surrounding the holidays I should be okay.

The only frustration I have with Holiday meals is if I'm eating something someone else prepared I have difficulty with logging it, not knowing what the ingredients are. But I wing it, keep portion sizes small and keep my exercise up and made it through last year ok. Going for same strategy this year, but at my lower weight, won't have so much wiggle room on calories.

Howdy,
I am a planner as some might recall. Already planning my strategies for my 30th anniversary cruise to Alaska in June 2011!

My weight loss began Oct 6, 2009. I lost during the most challenging time of the year and I intend to do the same this year except just maintain my weight range. I had numerous dinners, galas, parties, functions, etc. Most of them I was involved with leadership/planning and I would have thought that would have been a stronger temptation than it was. In fact, a key component is knowing the menu ahead of time and planning accordingly. I can know what the family will be serving as we devide up the cooking, so I will be able to find ways for it to work for me.

As with all of these challenging times, I have found for me, my anxiety decreases and my joy increases when I preplan my meals. I use my pda, have color coded meal bullets, and input the selections. I also use Fitday specifically for the ability to input meals ahead and tabulate nutrition easier. It is harder to do with an app. I do this planning in my own home, with internet accessible and emotions under control. Minor tweeking might occur at the time but it is minimal. I would have thought the plan would end up completely skewed but it really isn't. I also have gained enormous confidence from this strategy with my traveling this past year.

Good habits breed good habits. I also think really hard about what do I want to spend my calories/carbs on. I can't afford it all so what do I want to the most. Pumpkin pie isn't my favorite, pecan is. Stuffing isn't, sweet potatoes are. My one other thing I have developed are ways to say I am full. And I like the sweet potatoes plain so I see to it they aren't loaded up with sugar.

DH & I set aside $$ each paycheck for the holidays. We don't do debt. Likewise, I eat more modestly leading up to the big meal days so I have room to splurge. I also weigh daily while at home to keep me grounded in reality.

It is possible to eat healthily during the holidays (& traveling). I don't think it is probable without fore thought. Great, great thread.

It's not so much the holidays as the season that's problematic for me. I work from home so there are no office parties. For Christmas, I usually either go to my sister's or have it at home with my husband. He did not celebrate the holiday as a (Jewish) child, doesn't bother with Hannukah either as an adult so doesn't expect a ton of extra food in the house - plus he's trying to lose more weight anyway so he's similarly motivated. If I go to my sis there will be loads of unhealthy food but it's only a 24 hour thing. Last year I gained 3lb overnight but by the next weekly weigh-in, it was gone.

No, the problem for me is that I get seasonal affective disorder and this makes me fatigued and subject to more food cravings than in the summer. I am simply not as hungry in the summer and more inclined to be active. This is my second time at goal and looking back at my weekly weigh-ins from the previous time, my weight dropped low in the summer than steadily climbed all winter. By the next spring I was used to eating more and didn't cut back. So I am anticipating that being a challenge, but then again this time around most of my weight loss was done in the winter, so I know it is not impossible. I think the exercise is key for me both for the maintenance benefits and to help alleviate the depression somewhat. I know I have been slipping lately so I need to get back into a solid routine by winter.

This is the first time I have ever seen anyone specifically mention this pitfall. It's mine, too. I can literally eat a whole bag of Lays chips and a container of bacon and onion dip. I will eat it until I feel sick (and frequently have). It's like the crack of party foods to me. The last time I bought it was last Christmas and I'm not buying it this year, but man.....this is my biggest pitfall. This, and carrot cake.

My holiday plan is this: To eat a yummy thanksgiving dinner--just one. No big plates of leftovers, no letting Mom talk me into bringing home an entire pie. Because the kids *won't* eat it; I will. And for Christmas...same thing. I will enjoy my party that I host(and make sure there is healthy fare along with the junk) and Christmas dinner. That's it. Not weeks of eating crap that people bring to work, or buying bowls of treats to set around the house for "the boys". The boys are men in their twenties and they don't need it, either.

If I can maintain till the end of the year, I'll be doing well. Work is horribly stressfull and it's all I can do to stay above water.

The thing about chips and dip for me is that I CAN say no to them, quite easily! It's just that I always think I can have just one, and it's downhill from there! I CAN have just one of about everything else.

As far as bringing home leftovers, I gave up saying "no". I've started thanking my MIL for the entire cake and then I pitch it when I get it home. That worked great until the last time I was there when the children told on me!!! But she never accepts "no"! She thinks I'm being all high-and-mighty not accepting the food she slaved over or that I'm depriving the boys of their God given right to cake.

I tend to focus on my favorite items as well. My faves tend to be dessert, so I have to be careful. Last year I had a tiny breakfast, small plate of food with lots of veggies and thin slivers that all weighed 25g or less of several pies. I never ate pumkin or pecan pie before I lost weight, oddly enough, so a small sliver is very satisfying to me and feels decadent, not like I'm cutting back on something. I also then finish the day with a small dinner. I try to avoid chips and snack items those days, but will eat sausage balls if my aunt makes them because I love the heck out of those.

I do bring leftovers sometimes, but limit them to turkey and ham or veggies, and in small amounts.

Holid-days, not holi-months. Absolutely. (I think that might have been Meg who said that, too...)

The word "holiday", is a contraction of "holy day", which for me, means eat cleanly, avoid crowds, traffic, or buying things, and be more mindful in everything I can, and to think about what matters most in life to me.

For many people, holy days are days of fasting and prayer, with a carefully planned meal afterwards.

I don't eat sweets, and am learning increasingly, to celebrate life without the celebration including eating.

When I want to eat something special, on any day, I try to make sure that the calories are nutrient dense and that the choice of food is very thing that will be the most satisfying. My food plan doesn't have much room for extra calories.

How right you are. Thanks for that reminder.