Hi everyone! I am new here and just started counting calories this pass Sat. and I am feeling great! My only concern is that on Christmas I am going to my parents house and my in laws..Both houses are going to be filled with candy and cakes and not great choices. Can anyone give me some pointers in how to count my calories without really knowing what ingredients people put in their food..And am I better off eating the ham or turkey?? I really don't want to get off track because I just started. Thank you for any and all suggestions! Merry Christmas!'

Lisa

I calorie count as well ... and here's what I plan to do.

First of all, I don't plan to count on Christmas day. That doesn't mean I plan to eat like a madwoman, but I know that I'm going to want dressing and gravy and a slice of pumpkin pie and so forth, so I'm not going to let myself feel guilty about that for ONE day.

But I will still make healthy choices where I can.

I will have white meat turkey breast, no skin.
I will have 1 SMALL serving of dressing w/ gravy.
I will have as many veggies as I can fill the plate up with unless they're drenched in butter.
I will avoid the casseroles, especially anything with fried onions on top.
I will have ONE slice of pie and NO whipped cream.
I will eat the veggies that are set out before dinner as snacks and I will not eat the cheese ball and crackers.
I will drink lots of water and only one glass of wine with dinner.

In other words, I'll make healthy and reasonable choices, but I'm not going to freak myself out about counting calories, since this Christmas dinner I have no control over and there's just no way I'd be able to accurately count the cals.

And then on the 26th I will drink LOTS of water to offset the sodium, eat LOTS of fruit and veggies, and more of the lean turkey breast, and get right back on plan.

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Photochick-Thank you for your reply..I am just afraid of gaining those few pounds back that I just lost..If I eat not so good on Christmas will all that weight come back on?? I am sorry to sound clueless, but I am

CM, ias PC said, I wouldn't even try to count calories at something like that. I'll be having whatever I want, but in moderation: a tablespoon of anything that looks good, a small portion of meat, gravy, whatever, smaller slice of pie. Let it settle. If I want some more, I'll go back and have a couple more spoonfuls. You can help yourself if you have a big serving of something low cal first, like steamed veggies or a salad if it's not loaded down with dressing. Get a cup of coffee or whatever drink you like, sit and let the veggies settle for about 10 minutes. THEN go back for whatever else you want to sample, meats and such...the veggies help fill you up, so that when you get to the more calorie dense stuff, you don't feel like you're starving and could eat half a turkey yourself, KWIM? You can do this...enjoy your special meal, then you can get right back to the day to day on Friday!

I LOVE the cheese ball! LOL It's my weakness

I'm also not counting calories on Christmas, but i am going to pass on things like egg nog, any appetizer dips, and those little bacon wrapped sausage/brown sugar balls on toothpicks. LOL (love those!) I'm also going to stay away from most condiments like dressings/gravy, butter and sour cream ... hopefully doing all that should save me some calories!

Well, 3 lbs is 10,500 calories. So if you eat 10,500 calories MORE than your maintenance calories, then yeah, you'll gain it back. But it's highly unlikely that you'll do that much damage in one day if you're careful.

What's more likely is that you'll gain back some water weight from a higher sodium intake - and that will take a few days to flush out of your system again.

What's also likely to happen is that you'll stall - not lose any more weight this week and maybe not even next as your body deals with the extra calories.

For me, I'm ok with that. I know it's harder though when you're just starting out on the whole weight loss journey and you've only lost 3 or 4 lbs - so stall out so soon or even see them come back as water weight can be incredibly discouraging and frustrating.

The thing you have to remember is that as long as you are careful and reasonable about your choices - in the long run it doesn't matter if you go over your calories for the day BY A LITTLE BIT (i.e. no pigging out and deciding to throw caution to the wind). And it's easier to have a non-stressful day if you go into it with the attitude of: I can't control what's put into this food, but I can control how much of it and what I eat. So I will do my best and NOT FREAK about the next 2 weeks of scale readings.

In the short term I know it's easy to get discouraged. But remember that the changes you're making are LONG TERM. They're for life. And I don't know about you, but I've got 40-50 more Christmases ahead of me - and I'm not going to deprive myself of a slice of pumpkin pie and dressing and gravy for the rest of my life.

I hope that helps some.

What Photochick said.

Photochick-You are so right! I just don't want to backpeddle when I just got on the bike..lol..I guess for me I will stay away from the cookies and cakes (they are my weakness) and stick to veggies and meat..:-)

Thanks ladies for your words of wisdom!

yes.. you have to take it in moderation. That's all that counts.