Staying on target thru the holidays...

[tygab]

We're now in the downward slide thru the holidays - for those in North America, tomorrow many of us will have coworkers or will ourselves be bringing in left over Halloween candy (not sure how it's observed in other countries, if at all) to put at the desk, or in a kitchen or common area. Just as you're getting over the temptation (and availability) of candy, comes Thanksgiving. If yours is anything like my family, the food will go on for days - with that many people around there's almost always food out and someone to sit down and snack with. Of course, Thanksgiving itself will create many leftovers, and items like breads, cookies and so on will once again arrive at the office.

And then come the cookies and candy canes and Channukah gelt and winter holiday parties and more big family gathering meals...

In the meanwhile, it gets colder, and darker, and we may find it hard to find time or motivation to stick with our programs. We fly/drive to other cities to visit relatives, stay in other homes, or maybe have guests at our own. Maybe there's no one to exercise with, no gym to go to, and most likely, not enough time!

Along comes January 2 and we wonder where it all went, and realize we have been derailed from our best intentions!

So, before we're in the thick of things, do any of you have strategies to share? I know as someone who was not exercising regularly before this year, I would look at this time of year as hunkering down for winter with the mindset that I could go out in the spring and regain whatever I was losing by not being outdoors. And I was the typical weekend warrior in summer months - happy to go hiking, kayaking, camping, but no regular exercise. In part, going out in the spring to 'get fit' would become a seemingly insurmountable challenge because I'd done nothing all winter, and it was a vicious cycle.

More often than not, I'd start an exercise plan and abandon it after a few weeks, due to the challenge, or a cold, or a business trip. Opting for weekend warriordom instead (and not too aerobically taxing at that) was ok, and with my young(er) age the risks of injury seemed low.

Last year was possibly the least active winter I've had followed with finally the time, space, and need to get fit but that's a topic for a different day...

This year, I need to break the habit and not fall back into the abyss. I have made too many gains to slide into prior years' patterns. I do think I have the motivation that I lacked before, with my setting goals & choosing events for 2007 imminent. But still, there's a part of me that worries... here we go again...

[Veronica]

At parties and big dinners I'm very picky and try to eat only the things that are holiday specific. I don't really need a dinner roll... I can have that any old time. But stuffing! That's a once year thing for us. Who needs a cookie when there's pumpkin pie?!

Exercise wise - I have a monthly mileage goal that forces me to get out on the bike. I've been a little lazy the last few days because I've exceeded October's goal by a bunch.

But starting tomorrow... I need to get my butt on the bike since my goal is to ride 406 miles in November. And they have to be outside miles.

Our families are all on the East Coast so that makes it a little easier.

V.

[CyclChyk]

Some of the girls I work with know I am on a health kick to drop weight, lower my BP and my cholesterol, and look out for my best interest. They do this by promptly removing any candy/treats I may be given (for themselves of course), sassing me if I even entertain the idea of eating a Krispy Kreme donut (boston cremes are my favorite and we have insurance agents who bring us 2 dozen donuts every tuesday. I am reduced to sniffing the box ). This solves my problem of holiday junk.

My family here is small and disfunctional so we never have big special dinners. Plus my cooking is horrible. Great with wings; that's about it. So we just have the normal everyday stuff. No need to worry there. (My DH's family in Maine goes all out..... sigh.....)

As far as parties go, I am going to make absolutely certain that I eat PRIOR to going. This way if I eat anything while I am there it will be select nibbles as my appetite will be sated from my earlier meal.

I'll let you know in January how well it works out for me.

[mimitabby]

At thanksgiving, since I detest the feeling of being stuffed, and I want to try EVERYTHING, i take little tiny tiny tiny servings of everything. I watch others pile stuff up on their plates. If i am still hungry (probably not, i've been eating olives and crackers all afternoon) i have some more of just the one or two things that I thought were my favorites.

[Offthegrid]

I get weak at the knees for anything pumpkin. That said, I may limit myself to three slices this Thanksgiving.

In all seriousness, I'll probably try to fill half my plate with salad and veggies, have a reasonably sized piece of turkey and a dinner roll (my aunt makes them so yummy!).

Followed by, of course, the three slices of pumpkin pie of different varieties.

Fortunately, being single and not doing any cooking, I won't have leftovers to contend with.

[light_sabe_r]

Halloween's never been big here... You get the occassional trick or treater (and When I say that I mean every 2-3 years we got one... We were never prepared anyway) We don't have thanksgiving here either...

It's CHRISTMAS, NEW YEAR'S and Australia dy that you have to worry about down here. And if you're in year 12, SCHOOLIES happens before that...

So yeah. SCHOOLIES WEEK, Then a whole heap of Christmas Parties leading up until Christmas and Boxing day, then New Years Eve, New year's Day and then three weeks later, Australia Day. So effectivly 2 months of drinking, bbq, stuffing yourself silly, Beaches, Sunshine and did I mention drinking???

[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!