Is food part of your holiday celebrations?

Trust me I get it... my title is just that, a rhetorical question.  Yes food is always part of your holiday celebration.  So is spending time with loved ones, attending your favorite church or religious affiliated service, opening up presents and maybe even singing "Happy Birthday" to a Baby Jesus near you (that one my kids still love doing each year).  Food is always part of your holiday celebrations - whether it is breakfast cooked Christmas morning, a brunch with family after opening up your presents, dinner with the extended family (either home cooked or out to eat) and then there are all the holiday treats that are baked for the celebrations we attend.  Food is EVERYWHERE!  And the food that is available isn't necessarily the most healthy choices, especially when you are counting calories.  


As someone who never worried about what I ate, and no that isn't because my body burned off food quickly, but more because I just didn't care about what I ate and what it meant to my body, health and weight, the holidays were always a time for indulgence.  I loved everything about the holidays... especially the food!  Ham, scalloped or mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, turkey, dips, spreads, cheese, wine, beer, cookies, pies, cheesecake and candies.  Nothing on the aforesaid list screams HEALTHY!  But this year had to be different... I have been working so hard at counting the calories that I ate and as of 12/18 had lost 14.2 pounds.  This is huge for me and definitely is something that I didn't want to reverse.  


Unfortunately I will say that I allowed food to take over during the holidays.  I did not track anything  from December 22 - today (December 28).  I ate what I wanted - when I wanted it.  I didn't even think about actually attempting to figure out the calories that I was eating.  We had family come in from Michigan and we went to Primanti's for dinner and I ate what I always eat when I go there... #2 Best Seller - the Pittsburgher!  It tasted fabulous... as did everything else that I put into my mouth (The Texas Pecan dip was AMAZING but totally loaded with calories).  No calorie counting... none what so ever.  And to be perfectly honest I don't think that I could have calculated all of the calories that I had eaten.  There were so many homemade treats that I couldn't find in my tracker and this would have left me guessing for what the amounts would have been.  I also want to disclose that this obsessive compulsive person that weighs in every day did not weigh in at all during this time.  I felt that I would be entirely too depressed by what the scale was telling me.  So I essentially ignored what I was doing that was working in the preceding weeks.  


Today was the day that I came to terms with what my holiday over indulgences did.  I had to weigh in to see what the damage was to my weight loss journey.  I stepped onto the scale... ready to face the truth of my holiday food loves... and when I saw the number in front of me I actually started to dance!  I danced because it was only 0.6lbs that I gained.  Less than 1 pound over the Christmas holiday period!  This was a reason to celebrate and I was ecstatic!  So how do I attribute this success when I know that I didn't eat right for 10 days... I believe it is a few things.  First, I have an understanding of my body and it's telling me that it is full.  I have become more and more aware of when my stomach is starting to feel full and at that point I shut off the food.  This gives my mind time to catch up with my stomach and really determine if in fact I am completely full.  The second thing that I believe helped with my success is understanding what foods are better to eat and will "fill" me up.  Foods with high fiber will help to make you feel full and stay full longer.  So while there are foods out there that may taste super good, they may not be higher in fiber and thus won't stay with you long enough to make you satisfied.  Looking back at this 10 day period, I chose foods that were higher in fiber and therefore allowed me to stay full longer (and not snack as much).  Finally, I attribute this success to a little bit of luck.  Yes I said luck!  I don't think that I did all that much to keep the weight off.  I didn't exercise (that's starting after the new year), I ate things that I wanted but just not as much as I would have loved to have eaten, and I gave into many of the temptations that are all around my house (buckeyes being the worst offender).  I think lady luck had been on my side over these last 10 days.  


So while the Christmas holiday is behind me, there is definitely a long road ahead of me.  Many days of temptations that I will have to either ignore or divulge in.  There are many hours of me worrying about what I have eaten and how it will affect the bottom line of my weight loss.  Time spent worrying that the scale will tip in the wrong direction and send my mindset into a tailspin.  But when those times come up, I have this Christmas holiday period to reflect upon and remember that I can be successful when I least expect it.  I thought that I needed to take the food out of the holiday celebrations but I have learned that isn't necessarily needed :)


Be happy, be safe and celebrate the New Year and a new you!  I know that I am!  

Holidays and outcomes...

Well I haven't written in a little over a week and it isn't because of failure.  It is because the Thanksgiving holiday was upon us and that time is more about family and spending quality time together.  For my family, it meant traveling from Pennsylvania to Michigan to spend time with loved ones we don't see often enough.  It was great to not be in front of the computer every day... and even better not thinking at all about work, school and the diet!  

Yes I said not thinking about the diet.  I intended on tracking what I was eating, taking daily walks with my oldest daughter and not giving into the holiday temptations (pumpkin pie, chocolate pie, stuffing and loads of mashed potatoes).  What I intended and what actually occurred, well let's just say they didn't necessarily meet in the middle!  The first thing that I failed at was tracking the food that I ate.  We left Wednesday evening and that was the last time I entered anything into my Lose It! app.  Now I don't want you to think that I was shrugging off my responsibility to my diet... it's just that I thought that I could do this eating thing without tracking for a few days.  Besides that, I wasn't the one cooking so I didn't know how many calories the food would be!  I know mashed potatoes are just mashed potatoes, but I needed to know butter amounts, what type of milk used, etc. in order to correctly calculate out the calories.  And trust me, I wasn't asking all those questions while a family member was cooking dinner and playing hostess to close to 30 people.  So I winged it... ate what I thought would be smaller portions; ate those things that I thought would be less in calories; and I didn't go back for seconds, instead I was happy with what I ate the first go round.  

So my second fail was believing that I would actually exercise while I was in Michigan.  I told my oldest daughter that I wanted to walk at least 2 days of the 4 that we were there.  Ummmm... yeah that didn't materialize.  I did have feelings of guilt because all it would have taken was a 2 mile walk to achieve the feeling that I was going for.  But honestly, I kept thinking that the reason why we were in Michigan was for family.  I know a 2 mile walk wouldn't have been hours upon hours away from them, but it was still time away from them that I didn't want to give up.  We don't see these family members daily or even monthly, so our time with them is precious.  Not giving up time with them meant that I had to be OK with not exercising.  Definitely something that I could live with!

The third fail for me was the holiday temptations.  I LOVE PUMPKIN PIE!  I LOVE STUFFING!  I LOVE CHOCOLATE PIE!  And then to top it off, there was cheesecake!  Oh My Goodness... all the temptations and I didn't want to give in to eating them and I didn't want to give in to not eating them.  So I compromised.  I had a small serving of stuffing and skipped the bigger portion of mashed potatoes that I would have loved to have had.  I did eat a dessert, but skipped the pumpkin pie.  Instead I opted for a fruit based pie and only ate a small slice.  Now we had another family dinner on Saturday and again the temptations of pie were there, and I had a little slice of the chocolate pie and a sliver of cheesecake (trust me before I would have eaten 2 large pieces of each and probably went back for seconds).  It felt good to eat those things.  I think if I would have skipped them on Thanksgiving, it would have made it worse at the family dinner on Saturday.  Yes I ate pie and I am proud of it!

So how did i fail... I gained 1 pound for the week.  Yes it is a gain, and yes that is not the objective.  But I think of it as a win and not a fail.  You see, people gain on average of 5 pounds over the Thanksgiving holiday.  Also, I know that in the past that I have stuffed myself to the point of being sick just because things "tasted good".  I never felt stuffed and never felt that I deprived myself.  I felt satisfies with how things went and what I ate.  Yes I gained a pound... but that's a win for me and at this point in the game, I will take it!  

Oh by the way... I do feel a little bit more prepared for the Christmas holiday.  Hoping for another win for me then :)