Yellow Light Flashing: Holidays Up Ahead

[Blood Sugar 101]

Like a lot of people here, I'm heading into the holidays at the best weight I've been for years.

But it's getting cold, it's getting dark and I'm noticing the faint beginnings of the urges deeply programmed in the primate brain that inevitably lead to holiday weight gain.

I'm really waffling on how to deal with this. In the past I've taken several approaches.

1. Get strict about the diet through Nov and Dec. The Plus is that I don't gain. The Minus is that I feel deprived and miserable.

2. Keep blood sugar normal but, if I can do that, eat what I want. The Plus is that I enjoy the holidays and family get togethers. The Minus is that I spend Jan and Feb and perhaps even March eating extremely stringently. This isn't necessarily bad--I'd rather diet in January than when everyone else is enjoying our family's traditional holiday foods. But I'm at the point where it's a daily challenge to maintain, and I am not convinced I will be able to lose any pounds I pack on at this point. It gets tougher every year.

I'm not sure what I'll end up doing. But it seems like it might be a good idea to think it out clearly, now, and make my plans before the season actually kicks in.

I'm curious what the rest of the folks here who are close to goal or in maintenance are planning to do about holiday eating.

[misty1028]

You read my mind, I've been thinking the same thing. Being my second time around trying to get back to goal and finding it a lot slower this time. I'm planning on staying right op and working harder at the gym. I'd like to loose as much as possible before the actual holidays begin. I will be doing most of the cooking so staying lc for the meals should be pretty good. I'ts all the holiday parties and family get togethers that are hard. I just know one thing I don't want to restart again.

[Bobbin]

I'm not close to goal, but I do have one sure plan for the holidays, when the treats start to show up at work:

I'm collecting and trying out new recipes for dips and nuts. So far I've made Italian roasted almonds, cinnamon almonds, and rosemary dill almonds. I'm going to start on dip recipes this weekend. They've already got Halloween candy everywhere, and in a month or so all the Christmas goodies will show up, my plan is to appeal to the masses with healthy yet tasty foods.

Also, I've set a strict induction plan as my goal until Christmas.

[tamari]

I'm not yet close to goal, either, but I am putting more effort than usual into mentally preparing for the holidays. Since Thanksgiving dinner is at my house, I'm controlling the menu.

I've delegated the tasks of preparing high carb side dishes to other family members, so the ingredients won't be in my house until day of. Since I'm not making them (only heating them up), and therefore am not dedicating time/energy to making things that I won't eat, I'm taking advantage of it and preparing side dishes that are legal for me. For example, I have relatives bringing mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie, etc. Since I don't have to prep these, instead I'm making cauliflower fauxtatoes and Jennifer Eloff's LC Fudgey Peanut Butter Coconut Squares for myself and anyone else that wants some. I find that this method works well, since everyone always asks what they can bring and won't take "nothing" for an answer, this approach makes everyone happy.

When going somewhere else for a get-together, I'm sticking to the tried and true method of bringing one or two dishes that are legal for me.

[laureninva]

My mom and I were just discussing our Thanksgiving menu this morning. We're having:

Turkey - we're going to stuff it with chunks of veggies instead of traditional stuffing, I'll make a LC gravy

Mashed cauliflower
Asparagus and Roasted Red Pepper Caesar Salad
Steamed green beans
Baked potatoes and cresent rolls for the non LCers

for snacks/appetizers we're going to have a veggie/cheese/meat tray and deviled eggs

I plan on completely staying on plan throughout the holidays. There are just too many great LC recipes not to!

[snaggle]

I am only 8-9 lbs from my goal and I am bound and determined to not let the holidays get the best of me this year. I have a mexico vacation also planned for early December.

I am heading into this period at a 25 year low and as healthy as I have been in my adult life. (49 years old- menopausal).
I have been doing the Eades' 6 week cure for the middle aged middle as an added push to get to goal, but that ends soon. My plan all along was to use the Alternate Day Diet, (JUDDD) as my maintenance plan. I may not hit goal by late October, but I should be close. Starting this week, I plan to incorporate 3 "down days" a week to my plan. These are not too tough for me on work/weekdays and usually mean just one good low carb meal a day, and maybe a protein shake. These allow me 3 "up days" a week. On these days I can have some carbs (no junk!) and enjoy either a nice dinner out, or party fare, whatever. I plan to use these for days like Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc.
On vacation, I will just try and keep active and not go totally overboard, but I will not deprive myself of all the wonderful food that Mexico has to offer. In general, vacations add 3-4 lbs for me. I have also found that a week of strict JUDDD afterwards usually will eliminate those lbs and then some.

This is my plan. I hope it works. I have no delusions about losing in Nov/Dec, but I do not want to gain!

[stinkybubble29]

I have been thinking about this for the last couple of weeks and I have decided that on thanksgiving dinner I will eat my parents turkey , stuffing , mash potatoes and gravy and pumpkin pie just one serving of each I will not have 4 or 5 plates like others years past :blush:
and on christmas dinner I will do the same
these days are days we are all together and I just want to enjoy these days with my family

[Carleigh]

Nothing will stop me from having my grandma's sweet potato pie...nothing! But fortunately, I'm very close to goal and everything else will be completely LC and acceptable for my chosen plan.

[rene50]

I have been thinking the same thing and you are right that thinking it out clearly and having a plan is important.

Thanksgiving is potluck with DH's family and I don't plan to eat off plan that day. I will have to be careful with the veggies because older Southern cooks tend to add sugar even to veggies like turnip greens and green beans. I will stick to turkey, ham and a veggie that I make.

I cook for our little familiy on Christmas and I have decided to choose ONE holiday favorite that is off plan. It will probably be the dressing made with cornbread and chicken.

Luckily, all the sweets don't tempt me because they have never been my weakness.

Thanks for the reminder about planning!

[sistertzu]

I am in such a good place right now. I am not attached to food as I once was. Sure I love all the off plan holiday foods, but I don't feel I need it or will feel deprived without it. I will make subs for high carb items. I won't miss a thing. I am not worried about gaining. If I really want something I will taste it. My obsession is controled I must say it feels good but also feels weird and very differnt from the life I always knew.

Sis

[LJB]

I'm glad that it will be just me and my Dad for Thanksgiving. I can make him all the special treats while I have mostly turkey, eggs, low-carb veggies, and for dessert, cranberry salad.

[RyanS]

Maybe you can give in a little, but be very selective, only eating the ones you really want that mean the most to you, in small portions, and giving the others a miss.

I'm at my GW but unfortunately maintenance for me is basically induction with a higher calorie count, so I won't be eating anything off-plan during the holidays. I see avoiding weight gain as more important than a meal that will be over in an hour anyway. My mother won't really care - I have to avoid a lot of her Thanksgiving foods anyway due to gluten intolerance, so the only difference this year is I'll be skipping the cranberry sauce too. But the turkey is definitely a go and there should be some allowed vegetables.

[verbqueen]

I'm not at all concerned about Thanksgiving. It's not a hard day to stay low carb. You can eat a ton of turkey, green beans, asparagus, broccoli, salad, whatever green veggies you have to choose from. And sugarless, crustless pumpkin pie taste exactly the same as the regular stuff to me, and it's easy enough to whip heavy cream and sweeten it with Splenda for the entire family.

Christmas, on the other hand, is TOUGH. As a director of children's choirs, I always get homemade breads and cookies and such as gifts, as well as multiple boxes of See's chocolates. My husband is in the food biz, and we often get food oriented gift boxes/baskets as gifts, too. But I intend to stay low carb through the season. My plan is to make and freeze some low carb treats, and allow myself a few sweets on the really festive days. If I am as close to goal as I hope to be by then, I hope I will be highly motivated!

[Joy-FL]

The holidays = 2 days. I'm not worried about eating carby for 2 days out of 365.

My mom makes special traditional dishes just for me (e.g. grits), and would seriously have her feelings hurt if I told her I was on Atkins now. She's neurotic that way.

Plus, they're not bad.
.

[La Bruja]

Originally Posted by stinkybubble29

I have been thinking about this for the last couple of weeks and I have decided that on thanksgiving dinner I will eat my parents turkey , stuffing , mash potatoes and gravy and pumpkin pie just one serving of each I will not have 4 or 5 plates like others years past :blush:
and on christmas dinner I will do the same
these days are days we are all together and I just want to enjoy these days with my family

This is what I've done in years past, and what I'll do this year. On Thanksgiving day and Christmas Day, I eat reasonable portions of whatever I want. My appetite isn't out of control when I've been on LC for months, so I have to prioritize! Stuffing and mashed potatoes are favorites that I never eat at other times, so I will definitely have some. And a piece of pie.

The key for me is that each holiday is one day only. The rest of the time, I stick to LC choices.

[Houston Heather]

If I go up on my carbs, I am very specific. Preferentially, I go for veggie carbs, for instance, I added in some butternut squash to my chicken soup tonight.

I was very nauseous today, so I ate small portions of white potatoes. Ideally, I would have eaten sweet potatoes, as they have a lower GI.

I have certain "never again foods". It certainly made it easy for me a few months ago, when wheat began giving me hives.

[Sherry26]

I'm planning on eating smaller portions of carby stuff like turkey dressing..i'm from the south and i know the veggies like greens and beans will probably have sugar in them...so i'll probably eat a big salad and the meats...and i'll probably bring a low carb dessert for myself..cheesecake?

[torister]

I started Atkins the week before Thanksgiving last year and was able to stay on plan. It was easy as I was enjoying the initial big weight loss, etc. I am planning on making sure there are LC options for me at my brother's house where we will be enjoying dinner this year. I am glad I am not the only one who starts thinking about this right about now!

[Dreams]

Nove-Dec have proven to be horrible months for me on LC.

This year, I plan to make Thanksgiving dinner but I'll be able to eat most of it besides stuffing/potatoes. I will probably eat more than I usually do in a day, but it will all be low carb. I've made up my mind about that.

[FloridaShell]

Marking my spot....coming back to this.

[Blood Sugar 101]

A few years back when I didn't have access to insuiln I did the "Thanksgiving and Christmas are free food days" and let myself eat whatever I wanted on each day. I'd get horrifying blood sugars which would make me feel pretty sick and that would make me remember why I didn't eat like that any more. But it did give me a safety valve.

Insulin normalizes my blood sugar now so I don't feel sick if I eat a lot of carbs. In fact, if I eat them in relatively small quanitities ( which is all all insulin will cover effectively) I can keep my blood sugar under 120 mg/dl all day long and munch continuously--which is where the problems come in!

I have noticed in the past that there seem to be two groups of people--those who feel terrible if they get blood sugar surges--who find this reinforces their diet, and those who feel nothing when they eat a high dose of carbs even if it raises their blood sugar. These seem to be the people who get into trouble because they don't feel horrible after they overdo it. With the insulin I have moved from the first camp to the other.

My suggestion to anyone going into this for the first time--or who had problems with it in the past is to realize that there are subtle psychological things in the air that time of year which trigger emotional responses that can be EXTREMELY powerful.

If you assume you can get through it with will power, you might find the whole emotional atmosphere overwhelms you before you know it.

The main thing I remember from the past is how the actuality of the holidays swept away a lot of my intentions and how my emotional relationship to food and all it represented came thundering into the spotlight, sometimes with bad results. Getting angry at family members over food-related issues in particular.

Working on what the deeper meaning of food might be to you, and on the relationships you have with people who fed you--or didn't feed you--in the past, or who used food to control you or humiliate you etc, before you go into the holidays might be very helpful.

All of us have emotional issues tied up with eating. It's the most primal drive we have. Far more powerful than sex even.

Dieting isn't just about carbs and calories or will power. It's about deeply buried experiences that shape us and emotional issues buried because they are difficult to deal with.

My own issues make it very easy for me to do a very rigid "will power" thing, as it makes me fee "safe." But the reasons why I can force myself into very uncomfortable self-denial are NOT healthy. SO for me, learning to treat myself and my emotional needs and food needs--even ones that weren't "perfect" in a loving rather than rigid way has been extremely important for my long term success not only in dieting, but in my important love relationships.

[Portia]

I have a slightly different view of things, because my holiday season has just ended (Jewish High Holidays). It didn't go well, and it took me nearly a month to get back on track, but I finally did.

We celebrate Thanksgiving, of course, but when I was growing up, we always vacationed that week. We'll do a special meal at my moms now that we have small kids, but it's not such a big deal here. Fall harvest, pumpkins etc. take precedence. Also, my husband is Scottish, so it's not a holiday for him at all!

We don't celebrate Christmas per se, although I do make a big roast beef dinner for DH - I wanted to make a Yorkshire pudding with Carb Quick last year but didn't order it in time - so thanks for reminding me. For our Hanukkah party, it's more games and snacks than food.

I still have to watch it at parties etc.

If I could do my holiday season over again, I would have tried to have small portions of special foods instead of avoiding them, feeling deprived and going off plan.

[oyvey]

Originally Posted by Blood Sugar 101

My own issues make it very easy for me to do a very rigid "will power" thing, as it makes me fee "safe." But the reasons why I can force myself into very uncomfortable self-denial are NOT healthy. SO for me, learning to treat myself and my emotional needs and food needs--even ones that weren't "perfect" in a loving rather than rigid way has been extremely important for my long term success not only in dieting, but in my important love relationships.

BS101--I was so glad to read this, as I was really surprised at your first post that seemed to give only two extreme options for what you felt the options were--free for all or super rigid. I feel like what's more desirable for me might be what you suggest here, to learn to be nurturing of yourself in a time of year that has so much pressure and issues built in, to cultivate an approach to eating that's not about good and bad, but is checked in to all of your needs during the time that it's happening.

That's my goal, at least.

And yeah, I'll eat very moderate amounts of things that I wouldn't normally eat, and I'll enjoy them according to the law of diminishing returns (in other words, only eating a bite or two, knowing that those are the most delicious ones anyhow), and then I'll walk away and eat how I normally eat for the rest of the year. I'll eat a latke when my mom makes them for Hannukah, and my grandmother's byrek at Orthodox Christmas, but pass on all the holiday foodbombs (and the crappy candy and sheet cakes and all that other jazz), because I don't really care about them. I'll eat small amounts of what's meaningful and delicious for me, and receive the loving gesture of people that love me.

I think that eating these special foods (which happen to be made with real ingredients, by hand) intentionally and mindfully is probably more important for eating healthfully in the long term.

In fact, I'm working on cultivating that approach to food all the time. That's quite a bit harder for me.

[lawmom]

I plan to try to stay "close" to plan but may have a few more carbs than usual. I am going to stay away from stuffing, potatoe casseroles, and broccoli and rice and am going to try to modify my favorite dessert using carbquick and a LC chocolate mousse .... I am sure my sister in law will make the original and I think that if I don't have the alternative version I would likely cave ... The broccoli and rice casserole and squash will also be hard for me to resist. I am going to fix some plain squash and broccoli to have available for me. My family always buys one of the honey baked hams and my DH fries a turkey so I will have those as well as deviled eggs. I am sure the honey baked ham will contain some carbs though! I am also going to try to make some of the carbquick biscuits to try to help me avoid the rolls...

[lawmom]

Can't have the ham either... checked the nutition facts and there are 9 carbs for a 3 oz serving! Unfortunately, skipping the family dinner is not an option

[wicked]

The key for me on holidays is to eat a large, full fat breakfast a little late. It's much easier to stay on plan when you are full.

[GME]

Originally Posted by wicked

The key for me on holidays is to eat a large, full fat breakfast a little late. It's much easier to stay on plan when you are full.

Me too. I have a big bacon & egg breakfast and then mostly stick to plan for the holiday dinner. If something looks really good I'll have a small serving, but food just doesn't have the emotional hold on me that it used to.

[realityjunkee]

I haven't had any trouble staying OP the past 2 years. On those 2 days of the year I will make some LC "treats", like a dessert and a side dish like mock sweet potato pie that are a bit higher carb than my average day, but still no sugar, etc. To me that's a treat.

The day is more about being with my family and enjoying the company than it is about the food. Another beautiful thing about LC and the amazing lack of cravings you have!

[momof9]

my plan is to get some ideas for the things i love and make them without sugar or flour. i have chocolate bean cake and candy and pumpkin bake for dessert and i have always enjoyed the low carb end of thanksgiving. i have always been getting ready for a trip to hawaii after christmas with my husband so i have always been on a diet during the holidays so its not too hard for meto stay on plan. no hawaii this year but my atkins anniversary is in feb so i'll stay clean.

[FloridaShell]

I might, I don't know for sure yet...have a free day on Thanksgiving. Not go totally crazy, but be a little more lenient on what I eat. Last year I was totally l/c on Thanksgiving. When Christmas came around...I ate whatever I wanted. I baked cookies, I ate them. New Years Eve was a free day also. Then, I got back on plan with no problems. I didn't gain at all, thank goodness. I drank a lot of water though. Not saying any of you should do what I did. I am a strong l/cber now and NEVER eat off plan, but holidays I like to indulge, I'm not going to lie.