I feel like I should be SO overjoyed and thankful for all the food that will be laid before me next weekend. But argh - I don't want to undue hard work!

So, what is your plan?

I'm a weekly calorie counter/cycler now. I'm going to be eating pretty low Mon-Friday and then kick it up to the 2000-3000 mark. I don't want to ingest this much, but I have no control over the ingredients, there will be a few glasses of mandatory spiced wine, which I just found out, has 2.5 x's the amount of calories as coca cola!! Wow, how is that even possible???

Given that we are not able to weigh the food, etc. I'm going to try and do some secret head-calculating at the table as I eat - mainly with the more calorious items, such as sweets.

For each small cookie: 30 cal.
For each bite of cake: 25 cal.

I'm also going to eat slowly, otherwise you have to fight people off from refilling your plate. After the meal/s are finished, I'm also finished. No snacking on sweet, roasted almonds after dinner! I'm going to drink the wine SUPER slowly and have a glass of mineral water there.

We will be at a relatives house, but I'm going to bring my jogging shoes to try and get a good 5 mile run in on Sat. and Sun.

Anyway, may sound overthought. But, I have a tendency to overeat, ergo my weight problem! My relatives also have a tendency to keep piling up my plate.

That is my plan to undue the high calorie days in order to REALLY enjoy X-mas!! What is your plan??

My plan is to have small portions of food and not worry too much about the calories. I can eyeball portions and sort everything out caloriewise when I get home to count my calories online. I would like to stay under 1800 to 2000 for the day. My normal day is 1200 to 1400.

Like you, Unna, I will eat lower during the week and save my calories for Christmas. I'm doing an Italian Christmas, which means a seafood meal on Christmas Eve. I will be doing the cooking, and if I can unobtrusively do it, I'll broil some of my seafood. I won't feel deprived because I like broiled seafood anyway, but of course, I may get the "Can't you just indulge for one meal??" comment from others. I hate when people try to make me feel guilty for what I do or do not eat. When I eat now, I think about "Is it worth the calories?" and sometimes the answer is "no!"

My bigger challenge will be the week of New Year's when I visit my family for 10 days. It is often a food fest and there are some major goodies there. Fortunately, my sisters are into working out and they're much more understanding about my need to cut back on certain foods.

I suppose all we can do is try our best. At least we're thinking about it, which in my case is much different from last year when it was a food feast from Thanksgiving - New Year's (and beyond!)

Lin, my mother's side is of Italian descent and we used to do the whole seafood meal on Christmas Eve. Luckily we've stopped that since it's usually just six of us and nobody can eat that much anyway. We generally just have a nice portion of food on Christmas Eve that is enough for six people.

I'm going to stick to my Thanksgiving plan, but eat a little more since I was planning for weight loss over Thanksgiving. I'm not going to calorie count, but I am going to watch my portions. It worked nicely at Thanksgiving so I'm hoping it works over Christmas.

I'm making cake-mix cookies and I've promised myself one of them.

We will be visiting family between Christmas and New Years so I'm going to try and say no to the cookies/desserts and really try to not snack. I'm sure meals will be a tasty challenge so I will just watch portion sizes. I am planning to take some healthy stuff with me for the long car ride so I won't be tempted by the fast food at the rest stops. Most of all, I'm going to be mindful of what I'm eating and remember that I have to weigh in when I get home!

My last weigh in of the year will be this Friday, December 23rd. My first weigh in of next year will be Friday, January 6th. I will not be calorie counting between Christmas and New Years, but like others, my goal is to keep my portions reasonable and choose my treats wisely. The first week after New Years is my designated "repentance" week, lol. I am going to work hard to undo whatever damage I do over Christmas. (of course I hope not to do ANY damage, but realistically I have to accept that I might gain a little.)

If my December 23rd and January 6th weigh-ins are the same (or at least very close), I will call it a success.

None at all, i will just eat meat that nite. Since last weekend saying no to desserts, so one extra nite won't be a problem.

All I'm doing for Christmas is staying home with my partner and having a nice meal, whatever we choose. I just need to work out what I can eat that will be a) suitably festive; b) vegan; c) low enough in fat that it won't get the gallstones a-jumping; d) preferably requires little more work from me than slinging something in the oven or microwave.

Everyone sounds prepared - I totally agree with upping protein and not weighing during this tumultuous period.

Esofia: If I were you I would do roasted sweet potatoes, tal ronnen's celery root/cashew cream soup, a breaded seitan steak, and a fig dessert, among others. I wish my boyfriend's mother would make this menu! I would be in heaven! She sort of just makes traditional German fare - so there will be different variations of pork with sauce and some sort of potato blob with a typical vegetable - made with too much oil.

She is a good cook - it is just sort of traditional and bland to me. But reliable! Anyway, her strong suit is her ability to bake - WOW. That is where my mental calorie calculations will be utilized.

I've had a successful Sun/Mon/almost Tues of low calorie counts: 11-1200.... saving up for the big weekend and lots spiced wine and treats!

I'm going to have ONE OR TWO plates of the things I think would be tastiest...and ONE dessert. Which is going to be pretty hard, because my husband's familiy is full of amazing cooks...there are going to be 6-7 main dishes, 15-20 side dishes, and dozens of different desserts....all served buffet style.

Then I'm going to sneak off the the bathroom and write it all down so I don't forget or underestimate the portions later when record it.

then I'm going to keep it low cal for the rest of the day.