Christmas Temptations

[ethreeguy]

Hi All,

I'm going to be 100% honest, Christmas in our household could be better described as a never ending banquet.

My partner has a large family and she always put on an amazing spread of food, plenty of naughties, and a few healthy sides.

Last week, I ate, kind of what I wanted to, almost as an experiment to see the effects, well I weighed myself and had gained +3lbs, no biggy as I knew I'd lose it before the next weigh in.

I'm concerned that come Christmas I'm going to slip back into old ways, eating naughty foods, consuming a little more than my current alcohol level, which is next to 0.

I've worked hard this Summer and Autumn to lose close to 3 stone, and I want to keep it that way. Have already decided I'll be running over Christmas (Monday, Wednesday, Friday).

Any tips on how I can avoid the Christmas temptation?

Cheers

Rob

[Slowandeasy]

i am similarly worried. Last year I gained 8 pounds over Christmas and New Year and was not back to my pre-Xmas weight until nearly Easter. I'm trying to be a bit more abstemious this year but self control was never a strong point and this time of year you can rely on friends and relatives to stop you - others do not police you so well in the season of cheer and goodwill.

[AlMorr Ambassador Graduate]

Happy Christmas ethreeguy, what I would do is whenever someone offers you a large Xmas meal, say to them "sorry I am now going out for a run, a marathon to be precise," even if you are just going for a short run, that way you should avoid taking all that food.

[Amerynthe Graduate]

Hi Rob, first of all congratulations on the weight loss - it's taken me 18 months to lost 3.5 stone and, like you, I don't want to spoil it all now (says she, with a mouthful of pork pie that was left over in the kitchen from another team's buffet. This was after already having my own lunch ...) Could you organize a few more healthy options for yourself so that you have plenty of waistline-friendly foods to choose from? I know it's hard to say no to all the lovely food and that's before people say, 'Go on, just one won't hurt you.'

As AlMorr suggests, you could say you're just about to go out for a run (even if you only walk round the corner) and will eat when you get back. Or that you're going out for a run in the evening (after they've gone, so they won't know if you're going out or not) and are therefore sticking to fruit and protein before you go.

My plan for when I'm at other people's houses over Christmas and they come over to me with a tray of sandwiches/pork pies/other highly-refined-processed carb-based delicious naughtiness, is to start telling them in great detail about the C25K programme, starting with the 8 individual one-minute runs in week 1, through all the subsequent weeks, until they start to glaze over and walk away, taking the food temptation with them. From my recent/limited experience, it's usually by the time you get to telling them about week 4 and they realize that you're not even halfway through that they excuse themselves. If anyone stays to listen right to the bitter end, I am then going to launch into my plans to run 10K. I suspect that will be the final (cheese) straw and they will be on their way.

Good luck to us all over the Christmas period! At least Lycra stretches ...

[UnfitNoMore Graduate]

Difficult with all the temptations, but you could grab a load of any healthy stuff and some high fat stuff and eat it slowly. High fat foods can fill you up faster. The odd drink is gonna happen I guess, but then maybe every other day works? I don’t drink the day before a run... after a run I can... haven’t upped what I drink in a day, so I drink half what I used to... the bloke on the ikea till now gets through more units than me😂

During my weight loss I gave myself 12 weeks on and one off... my off week I had what I fancied only in smaller portions than I used to have... I put a couple of pounds on, but knew it was going to go the week after. It slowed my progress but didn’t stop it. After a while I didn’t crave many of the same foods, so I went to 12 days on 1 off... and of course both christmases I did I made sure I was off the plan for the big day.

[ju-ju- Graduate]

Monitor your eating on Myfitnesspal with the exercise allowing you extras. Twofold bones: The more you run , the more you can eat, and it will be eye opening having to list what you are eating!!!

[Tartancat Graduate]

I don't know about you, but I can't eat much before I run, so that will motivate me to be sensible on my run days.

However, Christmas day is another matter entirely - I fully intend to eat whatever I want for that day only!!