Staying on target thru the holidays...

[mimitabby]

so what exactly happens during Schoolies week?

[emily_in_nc]

My Halloween strategy: Live in a neighborhood with no kids down a long, dark, gravel road (no streetlights) on acreage. No candy to buy, no temptation.

My Thanksgiving strategy: Always go to someone else's house for turkey day. Take a couple of dishes to help out, but come home with empty platters and a full belly, no leftovers. One of these years my family is going to revolt and force me to have Thanksigiving dinner at my house, but it hasn't happened yet!

My Christmas strategy: Don't bake Christmas cookies. And repeat "My Thanksgiving Strategy". Also, instead of going to the mall to Christmas shop on my lunch hour, go to the gym. I never see any women there in December so suspect they're all shopping. I do most of my shopping online.

It doesn't always work, but typically I don't gain over the holidays. The years we go to my in-laws for either turkey day or Christmas, I can count on a couple of lbs. to lose when I get home because the food is constant and excessive, and there's not a lot to do there but eat. All that driving (one full day in the car each way), and then being in Ohio during such a cold time, it's hard to get any exercise. This year we're going to the coast (NC) with my Mom and step-dad for Christmas, so we can walk on the beach every day. I'm sure there will be lotsa food and restaurant meals, but plenty of time to walk it off!

Emily

[light_sabe_r]

so what exactly happens during Schoolies week?

Most of the high school graduates from Around Australia gather at designated spots and party. Free events are put on, many national radio stations braodcast their nightly and weekly countdowns from the event, It's just FUN. (and the underage drinking, surf sun and sand, and just hanging out with all your high school mates, not just from your school but all over your state)

The gold Coast is the biggest hot spot of them all (been there done that! Was the best week of my life for about 2 years. ) They even made a movie about it...

I guess the closest thing to liken schoolies to is SPRING BREAK... only it's the start of our Summer holidays too.

Most schoolies come back from that week and get a job until it's time to go to University 3 months later...

[crazycanuck]

Ummm....light is actually toning it down...Schoolies week is just an excuse for teens to get very very inhibriated and kick poor Quokkas on Rottnest Island here in WA....Some even stuff them in post office boxes...

c

[Pedal Wench]

My strategy, which I really hope works...

Starting a modified diet now, to go into Thanksgiving a few pounds down, now when it's 'easy' to diet.

Have a 12-hour endurance race in February that I need to train for, so that will get me on my bike when it's cold and nasty out.

Spending Thanksgiving with my BF, and we plan to ride as much as possible, stopping for a turkey sandwich to celebrate the holidy while we ride and ride and ride.

V- I love your idea of only eating the special foods. "Don't get distracted by the cheese...." That was the advice someone gave a friend of mine at a buffet in Vegas. Don't fill up on a piece of cheddar cheese you can eat any day of the year when there is something only served now.

[HappyAnika]

Tygab, I share your sense of despair looking at the start of "Seasons Eatings", to quote my favorite cable channel's slogan. I'm a foodie (aka food snob), and I really enjoy eating good food as one of the great pleasures in life. Our friends also appreciate fine food, so going to parties is often a disaster for my thighs. Coupled with the lack of motivation to exercise when its 25 degrees and pitch dark outside when I leave work at 5, this usually leads to a few pounds gained. However, I have a few strategies that help minimize the damage. At parties, I will start out by filling up on vegetable crudites, easy on the dip. If I'm going to eat a lot because I'm hungry, I want to fill up on good stuff first, rather than heading straight for the artisinal cheese and fancy crackers. Once I have a good base of healthy foods in me, I'm less likely to over do it on the rich stuff. I know that self deprivation doesn't work for me. If I try to stay away from something that looks really good but I know is bad for me, I will obssess about it all evening which pretty much ruins the party for me. So I look at it as sampling. I've had my veggies, now I'm allowed to sample small bits of the good stuff. Now, I know that this goes against conventional weight control wisdom, but drinking helps me. This is probably due to my personality type, I'm inherently shy, particularly with strangers. However, after a glass of wine I'm much more comfortable engaging in conversation, which keeps me from shoving food in my mouth. I find that if I'm relaxed after a drink, I'm also less likely to obssess about the food and more likely to stop eating when I'm full. One last thing for parties, plate your food! If I put everything on a plate, I can see and better control how much I'm eating, rather than just standing next to the cheese board and eating piece after piece until I've lost count.

As for meals, like others said, eat the things that are special. I was also surprised in recent years to find that if I put very small portions of things on my plate, thinking "I can always have seconds if I really want them", I was pleasantly full after eating and didn't feel the need to go for another spoonful to stuff myself beyond belief.

As for exercise, I always take my running shoes with me when I travel. I absolutely love running on Thanksgiving morning, its always quiet out and I feel so much less guilty about the meal knowing I burned some calories that morning. If its really too cold to run, I try to get a good walk in, even if it means walking in a shopping mall.

Now if I can just keep myself motivated to keep exercising on a regular basis during the week. The cold and dark just makes me want to go home and curl up on the couch under a blanket. Yesterday morning I told DH I wanted to ride the trainer in the evening so a)I could reserve the trainer for myself, and b) I would be held accountable. On the way home I was dreading it, thinking I would just cop out, but I didn't want to disappoint DH (which would have really been just disappointing myself). So I trudged out into the freezing cold garage and hopped on. Once I got going I felt so good, and I actually wanted to stay on longer, but I had to get off because DH had dinner ready. I was so amazed that I actually wanted to keep exercising instead of going to eat. There is hope! Good luck!