Skipping Holidays
 

Now that I've gained 60 pounds since February I've decided that I am going to take my eating issues by the horn and not trip up on my weight loss journey no matter what (easier said than done, right?).

Then I realized :devil:"The Holidays":devil: are coming up.

I told myself that, for the sake of my weight loss, I'm going to skip Thanksgiving and the jury is still out on Christmas but it's not looking too good.

I know this may be a drastic measure to avoid food and temptation but it seems like the only fool-proof plan to not tripping up on my weight loss journey. I mean, it is literally a feast that I have to fight. and it honestly feels like a fight.

Has anyone else ever skipped a holiday due to your weight?? Tell me if you regretted it afterwards!

In the past I have skipped holidays and have ZERO regrets. It's all about controlling my environment. I can't be trusted around high calorie foods and with all of the family drama, it makes the wine come out and then the binge eating starts. I can easily gain 10-12lbs over Thanksgiving weekend due to leftovers and splurging. I'm skipping Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas this year. I have to or I will be even heavier and more depressed.

I gained 40lbs since February and have such regrets. I watched myself do it. I can't let myself get any more out of control.

I'll probably be posting here on the above mentioned holidays for support. :)

I haven't, but I just wanted to say good for you for planning ahead and doing what you think you need to do to stay on track. I hope that one day you can eventually enjoy the holidays without this worry! Good luck to you :)

Why do you have to skip Thanksgiving all together? Is there nothing you are allowed to eat that is served at Thanksgiving? Example turkey breast. Fresh vegetables in abundance. Are you going to stay home alone while family and friends celebrate?

I am not planning to skip the holidays, but I am going to be limiting the celebrations to a single day each. One for Thanksgiving, and one for Christmas. We aren't having it at my house, and I won't be taking leftovers home with me.

My situation may differ from yours though. I know one day is not going to equal a breakdown later in the form of "well the week/month is already ruined", and my diet isn't super strict to begin with anyhow. I plan to limit my proportions with the feast.. typically easier because I'm really picky about food so it's never been a problem in the past. I actually tend to eat less on the holidays because of it.

That's just me though, everyone is different. Just because I can limit my portions without difficulty in this scenario doesn't mean everyone can and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. There are other scenarios which I have difficulty with that others find easy.

It's awesome that you're planning ahead to avoid what you know to be triggers so that you can stay on path.

The holidays I've most enjoyed are those where I decided beforehand to skip the crap food and stuck to my decision. I was clearheaded rather than being in a cycle of rich food immersion & withdrawal. Your friends and family are your friends and family before, during and after the holidays imo. if you need to skip parties and feasts to stick to your own priorities, then that is what you should do--it's your life. Do they want to pay for your escalated obesity-related health care costs ?

Maybe you don't need to skip these things though. If you will feel badly by doing so, then you should by all means participate. In that case I'd suggest sticking to the healthier foods as suggested above and don't fast all day to compensate! Then move ahead with your plan. No one becomes overweight from a couple of holiday indulgences; it's indulging regularly from Halloween through New Years that gets us into trouble. Been there done that! :devil: :)

I mix and match. I eat my usual stuff with some of the healthier trimmings so that I can still take part but without a gain.

I don't "skip" holidays. There is so much family around, and if I *don't* eat there's a huge fight about not wanting to try something that "I slaved over all day." And other such guilt trips.

Also, this is not temporary for me. Every change I'm making to lose the weight, are changes I plan to continue long into the future. I don't plan on skipping holiday meals and treats when I get to goal, so I won't skip them on my way to goal. Just like I won't skip fun times out with friends simply because it might get in the way of weight loss.

This works for me... Your mileage may vary.

Wow..I suppose one has to do what one has to do,but skipping holidays seems so drastic.I am not planning to skip holidays but to try my best to control my eating and not go overboard.I will take each day at a time as I have been for almost 1 year in my maintenance.I weigh myself every day and if the scale goes up I control my food intake the next day and I plan to do more of the same.I do understand that some people find it easier to avoid the temptation,but I feel that i can not avoid the holidays forever.
I feel the same way about vacations and trips.

My first year dieting I controlled all of my environment and I knew my limits. Families are funny guilting you into "another piece of grandma's pie" or "just one drink won't hurt you". Missing one holiday season to not totally throw off my momentum was my own present to me. Nothing drastic about it at all. It's about knowing your limits and whatever emotion could be tied into your family gatherings.

I'll be skipping the overeating, but not the holiday.

I totally get where you're coming from, gabrm. I have that fear of falling into a downward spiral around the holidays too. My approach to it is going to be to treat it like every other day, and by that I mean I will make a plan, track my calories, stop eating before I physically hurt, and get some exercise in.

That approach has worked for Fourth of July, Labor Day, Easter, birthdays, and vacations. It should work for Thanksgiving and Christmas too.

Luckily for me, I make dinner in my house, so I'm completely in control. If I wasn't, I think my plan would be to take a serving of meat about the size of the palm of my hand, starches about the size of half a tennis ball, a large serving of any veggie that looks like it's not swimming in cream, skip the bread, and have a slice of pie about the width of my thumb.

My point in the " how I'd eyeball portions at Aunt Fanny's Thanksgiving Throwdown " paragraph is just to say even if you can't calculate the calories exactly, you can still exercise some portion control. And you can stop if you start to feel full.

I can also understand, and I have been that dieter that says " Hey, it's once a year, I'm gonna get my gravy on! " Nothing wrong with that. I just don't do it because my digestive tract, after years of bingeing and gall bladder surgery, is REALLY fed up with me stuffing myself like I was the Thanksgiving turkey. Acid reflux and gastric dumping ( google that ) just aren't worth it. Neither is being crazy hungry for the days afterward until my body gets used to 1500 calories a day again.

Whatever you decide to do, I hope you enjoy all yourself this Thanksgiving. :) And let us not forget, there's gambling on football and binge shopping on Black Friday if you need a replacement vice. Just kidding. ;)

Don't skip a family holiday gathering because you're dieting. If you gain a few pounds over the holiday, you can lose them again. But time with family you can't get back.

You may as well skip the holidays if you've already alienated yourself anyway. Ostricizing yourself may FEEL like you're controlling your environment but it's impossible to control your environment effectively and forever. Meanwhile, all friends and family are merrily enjoying their turkey and parties and sitting home alone is bound to raise feelings of loneliness and frustration which are the real culprits of binging (not food and joy).

So yes, there were times in my past that I limited my exposure to the holidays. I shielded myself from going to parties, fought very hard with the buffets and the pies, ducked out early so I wouldn't have to face dessert and skipped things. I can only speak for myself but it didn't work. I ended up feeling deprived and isolated and found solace in binging alone. I found ways to talk myself into binging anyway.

Skipping the holidays is a punitive measure and why would you do that to yourself? It's really really mean, if someone you love and cared for told you they feel so bad about themselves that they won't allow themselves to participate in something they enjoy what would you say to them? Would you let them do that to themselves?

Here's a great article about the holidays by a blogger who forged into intuitive eating last year. I found it really funny but inspiring. http://www.refinery29.com/2013/12/59...project#page-1

Well, I'll chime in here because I've skipped holidays for a long, long time. My husband has worked for a major dept. store for over 40 years and frankly, he's suffered from holiday burn-out for oh, like 30 of them, seriously. He's glutted with Christmas before most people start shopping for Halloween candy.

Around the same time our kids were moving out all of our parents died within a year of each other. My mother then one year later hubby's mother and father within 12 hours of each other (unrelated deaths, just freaky circumstances, they'd been divorced over 35 years). Anyway, that was all the family we have anywhere nearby. Between his job overshadowing the holiday season and being empty nesters and not much in the way of friends making a big deal out of holidays is really pointless.

The one thing I will say is that you do have this odd feeling of being "left out". Like you're not doing something you should be. Especially if you're not getting together with family or friends, it's very strange and even after having done it for years we still feel it.

Honestly, I don't miss eating the food (I lost a lot of that when I became gluten intolerant) so much as I miss being in the kitchen and preparing it with my mother. She's been gone 10 years now and that's the one thing I think about that still gets me. I really miss cooking with someone who knows what they're doing!

This, just to reiterate what I was trying to say in my previous post.

You never know how much time you will ever have with any person and the amount of "woulda/coulda/shoulda" when they're taken unexpectedly can be crushing. Pass on the pie and mashed potatoes, not your parents (well, unless they're toxic hot messes, but that's another thread ...)