Atkins during the holidays!

[IrishIrish]

Let's all just take a deep breath.

I know a lot of us get stressed out by the holidays ... the family gatherings, the get togethers with friends and work functions. There are so many carby temptations out there during the holidays.

Before the chaos begins, take in inventory of how well you have been doing with Atkins and reestablish your goals. Look back at past holidays and know that rarely have we ever reached January and been happy to see what looks back at us in the mirror or when we daringly step on the scale and gasp when we see what indulgences have done to our hard work.

Now is the time to take control of your life and not suffer post holiday regrets from that slippery slope. Give it some thought. Stay close to the . Decide how you can use the Atkins phases throughout the holidays to keep in sync with what your goals are for the rest of this year and into 2010. Don't wait until returning to the post holiday routines to struggle to get back to where you left off.

So many people here, newbies and long termers alike have continued to inspire me. Let's all have safe, healthy holidays this year! Bless you all.

[RitaCeleste]

Re: Atkins during the holidays!

Funny, this has really been on my mind. I think I am going to do much better this year. One year, I gained 10 pounds during the holiday season. I have decided I will have one slice of pie on Thanksgiving off plan to shut people up and that's it! At Christmas, we are having chili and I am allowed a bean now so I'll be fine. I may have A cookie if Craig is a real pain about it. But I don't have to sit down and have 20 cookies with milk or anything. I may not loose weight those weeks but the weeks in between those two meals I can see to it I eat right! People keep telling me I'm small enough, and I keep telling them I'd like to stay that way!

[atkinsgal08]

Re: Atkins during the holidays!

>>I have decided I will have one slice of pie on Thanksgiving off plan to shut people up and that's it!>>

Really???

Why do you care so much about what other people say?

If you "have to have" a piece of pie, then make it yourself so it's Atkins friendly!

Let people yap away.

[RitaCeleste]

Re: Atkins during the holidays!

I would never make an Atkins friendly pie. I don't ask food to pretend to be something its not. I can't have fake sugars, they stall me just as if I ate the real thing anyway. While I want to see my goal weight, I'd be perfectly happy to wait a little longer to get there. I figure if I hit it before next Christmas and stay there, its no problem for me. I'm not racing at this point. I am doing what I need to do to maintain and inch forward. I want to be smaller, but its been so long since I was, I need to go slower for my peace of mind anyway. I have just maintained for the last two months. I'm learning to eat like I need to eat to do that as I go. I have gained, I have lost. Staying the same is a new thing for me and its just as exciting an option. Actually, sometimes I am more excited to find out I can have something and stay the same. Like a preview of what life will be like when I do get my goal weight. I do care what other people think. I may not agree with them all the time, but I care. I've lost weight before and never kept it off. I am thrilled with slow progress because its training for maintaining! I could jump right back into eating like I was on induction, but I'd rather just go slow. Mostly good is good enough for me.

[atkinsgal08]

Re: Atkins during the holidays!

>>I would never make an Atkins friendly pie.>>

Ok.

>>I don't ask food to pretend to be something its not.>>

Neither do I.

However, that doesn't mean I can't enjoy a cheesecake or even the flan from DANDR.

They're not "faux" ... they're both quite real.

>>I do care what other people think. >>

I must be older than you then.

One of the things I've learned is that what I eat only matters to me. It simply doesn't matter to <insert person here>. It's not really any of their business, just as what they eat isn't any of mine.

[RitaCeleste]

Re: Atkins during the holidays!

How old are you? I don't think time will change that about me though... It hasn't mattered thus far.

[atkinsgal08]

Re: Atkins during the holidays!

>>How old are you?>>

Over 50.

[RitaCeleste]

Re: Atkins during the holidays!

Maybe by then I'll get wiser! Once I got too thin and I didn't see it in mirror. I've never really dropped below 145 since I gained the weight back. Its a comfort zone 145 to 155. I'm not the right weight there, but the extra makes me feel safe from being too small. I also I am on meds for bipolar disorder. I've been fine for years but it still means I listen to other people and tend to trust them and their opinions more than others would. I suspect if I was normal they wouldn't be trying to pull this crap on me either. Some days I feel comfortable at this size and just want to appease them too. I still need to learn how to eat to maintain a weight instead of going up and down. So even when it seems like I'm not getting anywhere, I'm maintaining. For me that's huge.

[atkinsgal08]

Re: Atkins during the holidays!

>>tend to trust them and their opinions>>

Hopefully you can start listening to your own opinion and trust yourself.

>>I'm maintaining. For me that's huge.>>

Maintaining what one has lost is huge, that's for sure ... for all of us.

[Whatsername]

Re: Atkins during the holidays!

Thanks Irish! Good post.
The way I feel is that I will stay on plan for the holidays. It is my WOE and why should the holidays change that? I am going to try really hard to have Atkins friendly meals/snacks. I also realize from past "indulgences", that the high carb/sugar foods really haven't been all that great anyway. I have just decided that I am not going into the holidays giving myself permission to cheat. I try to not make the holidays all about food. Yet I am not perfect so we will see.

Challenge #1 is an annual party that my friends do. We all bring appetizers and do a cookie swap. I am bringing an Atkins friendly appetizer plus will eat before I go. The cookies, I will swap as normal but at this point, think I can do it and not be tempted. I already know I can make things for other people (like pizza) and not eat it. The thing I think to myself and sometimes say (which probably gets annoying to my kids lol) is "its full of sugar!"

My in-laws come for Christmas and despite any little issues I have at times with them, they are easy to please and my MIL actually tends to eat low carb too. So, it shouldn't be too bad.

[Gnimpish]

Re: Atkins during the holidays!

Still being so new to Atkins I think I am still so fired up that if anyone tries to push me to eat something I don't want to they might get a smack alongside the head

I decided that I will treat the holidays the same way I did this weekend.
My brother was here (haven't seen him since Feb) so we had a braai (barbecue) at my sisters place on Saturday.
All the usual carb loaded fare was there but I ate my steak and a red cabbage salad that I made (1 cup ), and that was it....

I passed the after dinner cookies on to all the others and didn't even feel tempted, that was HUGE for me!!

So.....let the holidays come...I'm ready for them this time round!!!!!!

[liv]

Re: Atkins during the holidays!

That is the attitude. Let's fight the food. Everyone regrets eating it anyways come January and the reality of its impact sets in.
We can embrace the beautiful spirit of the holidays without gorging.
I will plan to make some legal treaty items for myself and have some good things here and there that are within my eating plan.

[Eama]

Re: Atkins during the holidays!

I'm having a lot of fun thinking and planning about what to make on plan for Thanksgiving. No green bean casserole... if I look at it objectively, it's not that great anyway. My sister's pretty much an open-the-can-throw-it-in-a-pot type of cook. So, I'm bringing a squash and mushroom casserole with cheese and bacon and maybe sundried tomato slivers for zing. Yum!

I'll be baking cookies for the family at Christmas too, and I'm having fun planning what I can eat instead. I think tackling the holidays without focusing on the "deprivation" (Oh, man... I can't eat almond crescents. Pout. Pout.) will get me through.

[stephinextremis]

Re: Atkins during the holidays!

I've been back at this (my second time around on Atkins) long enough now to have seen some good results - almost twenty pounds gone in two months. These results have really given me the resolve I need to stay on plan. I KNOW from past experience that if I cheat, I'm going to have five to ten pounds of water weight reattaching themselves to me, not to mention feeling the sugar highs and crashes and the sick stomach. Wearing my new smaller clothes to the holiday events I do choose to go to is reward enough for me!

I am attending a Thanksgiving celebration with some girlfriends on Wednesday (since I work double shifts on T-day). They all know that I am on Atkins, and they are respectful enough to not harass me about what I eat anyway. There will be turkey, green beans, and broccoli there for me to eat, plus I am going to bring one of Linda's panna cotta recipes to share, so I will have an on-plan dessert available.

That said, I'm skipping this year's cookie exchange for the women at work, because WTF am I going to do with five dozen non-Atkins friendly cookies? Even my husband (who is not on Atkins, but losing weight) said he didn't want me to bring those home! I suppose I could go socialize and decline the cookies, or leave them at work the next day, but I'd rather not have THAT MUCH temptation sitting in my house overnight. Or staring me in the face.

Stay strong, everyone...it's worth it! I'd rather be celebrating another X pounds lost come New Year, instead of getting back on the wagon yet again...wouldn't you?

Stephanie

[IrishIrish]

Re: Atkins during the holidays!

Your plans and resolve with this month long landmind of temptations are key to being happy with yourself in January! Congratulations to all of you. I know that there are many others out there that look to this board for support.

Stop by the boards during the holidays. It may help you and it probably will help someone else.

Safe and healthy holidays!