I see all of these preholiday threads and I am so proud of everyone and all of the success they have had. However, "preholiday" means a holiday is coming up... and that is what scares me. Does anyone else feel like if they could just put their life on hold they could lose the weight and then live their life? But I know that's not how it works. We have to balance the social life with our healthy lifestyles.

So Thanksgiving... the "holiday of food." I don't know about you, but it is a very big challenge in my weight loss. I am a college student and at college I follow the Jenny Craig plan but at home I am always going out with my family or friends to dinner, out to the bars with friends to drink, or my mom is cooking dinner and she doesn't want me eating my frozen meals that I have grown to rely on and have done so well on. I met my goal to lose 20 pounds before Thanksgiving (I started at the beginning of the summer so it took me a while).

Anyone have any plans of attack for Thanksgiving "feasts." I'm pretty sure I can handle most of the week by just making healthy choices when ordering... but I have 2 buffet thanksgiving meals (one with my boyfriend's family and one with mine). Any one have any ideas how they are gonna successfuly survive the holiday season with out making too big of a dent in their weightloss?

Thanksgiving, ug. It would be bad enough with just one meal to face, but like you I have have at least 2 dinners to face. My main plan is to eat slow and not mound my plate, but have a little of everything that sounds good! The second phase of my plan is to not gorge on left overs (except for turkey, and not gorging of course). What usually gets me is that it's not just Thanksgiving day, it's like all week I eat that stuff in huge portions. I am not going to try and deprive myself on the actually day, eat within reason and enjoy it, but let that be that. That has been my main thing starting over this time is to not make it about deprivation, but a way to live. I think that for me, Thanksgiving week and week after will be the ultimate test of how far I have come with my attitude and lifestyle change! It's hard to enjoy a holiday that's all about food, when food is the thing that you are trying to control! I hope one day to get to the point where I don't have to dread food events! At least at Christmas and other holidays there are other things going on.

My plan is:
a) not stress
b) drink a lot of water/eat moderately the rest of the day so I'm not starved
c) eat mostly turkey [or chicken or whatever] + a lot of veggies [and not the kind in buttery sauce.]
d) have a little of whatever I want.. A bite of dessert, for example.

I guess these are kind of standard guidelines, but if I set too strict rules then I won`t follow them. Plus, I think that going off plan for one special dinner (or two?) is ok as long as you don`t make yourself sick eating so much food. I never want to spend another Thanksgiving uncomfortable from eating too much.

I guess this is harder for you guys living at home, but I have a plan for Christmas (we don't have thanksgiving here). Since it's just me and DF for christmas, and he's a veggie so doesn't eat turkey, I'm going to buy me some yummy veg and turkey and all the other good food and just have Christmas lunch. I'm even going to buy a christmas pudding. But I'm just going to have what I want for Christmas lunch. Then after that, back onto the healthy eating!

I'm not going to buy big boxes of biscuits or big tubes of pringles or anything like that! If anyone gives me boxes of chocolates (like they did last year) then they are coming straight to work unopened!

If I was having a week of thanksgiving, however, I would really try and listen to my body and have a little of what I fancied (after all it does you good ). Then climb back on the wagon after everything's back to normal. Don't stress, and don't let food get in the way of your enjoyment and don't let a bad week throw you!

I would love to take part in a Thanksgiving...

I'm planning on enjoying my Thanksgiving meal.

I am also planning on getting in some exercise that morning, and maybe a nice evening stroll....

Last year, someone suggested just putting on your plate what you really like. That way your not filling up on extra calories of things that you can go without and enjoy the foods that you really want.

Last year I worked out in the morning, had a healthy breakfast and then ate what I wanted at dinner. Luckily I'm not much into the candied yams etc.. But, I love bread, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole and pumpkin pie. So I had moderate servings of each of those and then we went to a local state park and hiked for a couple hours. I didn't gain any from that, felt satisfied but not overstuffed. I actually probably did better as far as moderation than many other days of the year.

This is what I've done in the past for "family holiday feasts":
1) appetizer round -> If there are raw veggies load up my plate with those (possibly with some salsa to dip it in) and sip a glass of white wine real slowly.
2) dinner round -> Chose the meat (although it's hard to take a "normal" portion cuz my family likes to load up my plate"), my favorite starch (hopefully a normal serving whether it be the mashed potatoes or stuffing... so hard to resist both), and any veggies possible (the problem with salad is the oh so fattening dressing all over it
3) dessert round -> Chose my favorite dessert and had 1 piece of it and then fruit.

It's just hard cuz u want to pig out and u see everyone else pigging out and you are so hungry...

Thanksgiving is so hard and the leftovers are the worst. This year will be the first year that I am out of my parents house so I will also be away from the left overs. I am going to plan my day and then thank god, I won't have to plan anything else around that food. Its yummy and comfort food but its not even my favorite so its really goofey that I totally pig out on it.

Luckily I'm in charge of the menu for Thanksgiving and have managed to keep it 'light' without family members noticing. I no longer live at home so I can avoid the leftovers. But I am still stressing. I usually go to their house once a week for dinner, which is take out. I always make a plan and then give in to temptation. In my head I see two scenarios:

1) I throw my plan out the window and gorge
2) I manage to do well and make my family feel bad about their choices

I think I'm going to make some rules for myself that aren't too hard to follow that way I avoid the feeling of defeat...

1. get exercise that day
2. eat lot's of fruit & veggies

o.k I need more, any ideas?

~jess~

Well, since I'm the one cooking the dinner, that always makes me tend to eat less. I guess I just get tired of seeing the food, and I don't want anything to do with it when it comes time to eat it. OK... so, it's not really like that because I still eat it, but I do eat much less than if I wasn't doing all the work to cook it.

Luckily, I am not a huge fan of mashed potatoes, rolls or stuffing (yuck), so I can avoid all of that easily. Sweets are my problem! I love the pumpkin cheesecake that I've made for the last three years -- sooo good. Pecan pie is also a favorite. That's where my problems come in... so, I guess I really need to work at limiting my desserts. I'll be around the leftovers for two days, too.

My fiance and I are going to his parents' place for Thanksgiving, and we'll be there Monday - Friday. So no leftovers, but we will be there a week beforehand. His family eats really differently from what I make (I have rice or pasta as my grain/starch and either chicken or tofu, they eat a lot more meat and potatoes, so it's not like it's any more calories, it's just from different sources). I just want to avoid eating myself sick. I know I am going to overindulge. If they put five kinds of pie out for options, I know I will end up eating some of each, so the goal is to just take really tiny portions. Ben has been going on for the past couple weeks about all the food we will eat -- pecan pie, yeast rolls, etc. Candied yams are my absolute favorite Thanksgiving food ever, but I don't know if his family makes them (this is my first Thanksgiving with his family instead of mine).

Man, just thinking about it is making me hungry, and I just finished lunch! So, my plan of attack:
1) drink lots of water, avoid the alcohol
2) take a teeny bit of everything instead of a big lump of everything
3) don't eat myself sick
4) hit the gym as soon as I get home!

Mazarin - if you want to take part in Thanksgiving, why not just do it on your own? There's no rule that it has to be only an American holiday. Even though it started with the pilgrims and native americans, the point is really just a harvest feast. You could invite over a bunch of friends and cook up a turkey!

I haven't figured out where I'll be for Thanksgiving this year yet (boyfriend is going to Switzerland without me!wtf?!). If I can make it down to see my aunt and uncle there is a big 5-mile race going on Thanksgiving Day so that would start me off on the right foot. I also don't like dark meat, stuffing, most pies, etc so I would stick to light meat, tons of veggies and cranberry sauce (yum!)

Lizzbabe: We have a Turkey Trot in dallas which is a 3k walk/run on Turkey Morning. A co worker and I are thinking about doing this....would be our first. Where is the 5K run at in TX?

we have a turkey trot too! that is part of my plan of attack...have a good breakfast (eggs, toast...you know, fuel!), run the 10k turkey trot in the morning, have a little high protein lunch when i get back and then hold off until dinner where i WILL NOT stuff myself and make myself feel gross! I will have small portions of everything and eat very slowly. the rest of the week will be tough too, going out to eat and all that kind of stuff with old friends.
on a side note -- i read on one of these forums a while ago that at a family dinner like thanksgiving you should pick someone who eats healthy (for me it would be my mom) and mimick what they eat. i think i will do that with my mom who is 50, looks 30, and wears a size 6!