Thanks guys, lots to think about here, and glad to know I'm not the only one thinking about it. Loribell, you had a good point. By Christmas, I do hope to be in the range of soon being able to hit onederland, and I KNOW that will help a little bit. Because I never ever thought I could be under 200 pounds, and if I am close in December I know I won't want to mess that up! I am going to come back on in December and post a plan of attack for each and every party so I will feel as though I have to stick to it!

i allow 3 guilt free cheat days a year, thanksgiving, christmas, and my birthday. splurging on one day isnt going to do any damage, its all the parties, cookies, etc that float around for months that you have to be wary of.

just watch your portions at parties, try to find a fruit platter or some pretzels to snack on. you'll be fine. ;)

You have to decide what is more important - cookies and junk or being thinner and healthy. I eat before I go to parties. I choose not to eat sweets, or other snacks like chips. I usually have a club soda with a twist of lemon or lime to drink. I'll have one glass of wine on Christmas and one on New Year's Eve. Once you quit eating that stuff, you lose your taste for it and it no longer tastes good. I decided to give me friends fruit and nuts for Christmas instead of cookies. Most of them don't want the cookies, either, or get too many.

I love to bake at the holidays too. I am just going to try and be as careful as I can and accept my mistakes then move on! Good luck!

I totally agree. This is what I do, too. I had friends stay with me for 4 days last weekend and as a result I had 4 "high-calorie" days...I think. I say "I think" because for 4 days I didn't count calories I just relied on my brain to tell me when I was full. **NO BINGING** I had cheesecake, french fries, key lime pie and other good stuff (not horrible stuff but certainly not "diet" foods). In the end, I lost 3.2 pounds that week.

I try to plan for these types of events by having low-cal days prior to the event so that I can have the high-cal days without too much worry (I zig zag my calories). My body seems to react well to this. This is how I plan on approaching the holidays: listening carefully to my brain when it says "I'm full" and enjoying the foods I want. This is life, afterall.

Oh my goodness, I'm totally in this boat as well!

I usually do pretty well over Christmas - I bake a lot, but don't really eat much (after I bake 20 dozen shortbread cookies you couldn't pay me to eat one! I'm so sick of looking at them... I use my dad as a tester!). We have two sittings on Christmas Day, and with the exception of the copious amounts of rye I have been known to drink to tolerate some of my relatives ;) I usually do really well....

However, I have been living in Africa for almost a year now, and I am finally going home the first week of December. And I am TERRIFIED! lol! Every time I talk to people about coming home they're planning some event involving copious amounts of food and drink! My best friend is already planning a visit to a 'poutinery' (for those of you unfamiliar, poutine is french fries with cheese curds and gravy, and this restaurant serves different variations on that recipe... like adding bacon), my coworkers are planning some kind of party involving a cupcake tray, everyone wants to go out for dinner...

And the best part is that these are not things we would normally do! Cupcake tray?! I don't even eat cupcakes! I'm super flattered that everyone's excited to see me... but I'm worried about the amount of food they're already planning! Plus they don't know that I've lost so much weight. This should be interesting.

I'm counting on being too busy talking about my adventures and catching up to actually eat that much garbage!

It`ll be maintainingfor me at Christmas. No need in even contemplating to try anything more than that...

I am so glad that this topic was brought up. I was just talking to a friend the other day about how nervous I am for the holidays. I started my journey in June of this year and I know this will by far be the toughest season for me. Some of you had some great ideas! Unfortunately, I am not the baker....people usually bake for me. I have already told my co-workers that anything that comes to the office goes home with someone else. I just don't want it around me.

As far as gatherings, I have decided, like some of you, that I will have certain days that will be "freebies". I will allow myself to splurge a little bit. The rest of the days will be a struggle if need be.

I want to be in onderland by new years eve. I don't want to go into another year weighing in the 200's. That being my motivation, I know I can do it.