Right. So. The last few weeks I have taken my eye of the ball in terms of both food and exercise and low and behold I have put on 3 pounds. This morning I weighed 11 stone 5. Not a happy bunny.
As Christmas season is approaching I feel as though it would be all too easy to give in to temptations now and think "I'll worry about it in January". This attitude could easily take me back to square one where I started last January, 2 stone heavier than I am now.
So, instead of adopting this mentality, I am setting myself a challenge...
It is five weeks today until Christmas Eve and I am not going to allow myself to stray until then. I want to be AT LEAST 11 stone by the 24th (1 pound a week) but ideally I will be below the 11 stone mark. I am also going to give myself the challenge of being at 11 stone or below that on 31st December so that Christmas doesn't ruin my progress. I am going to allow myself Christmas Day and Boxing Day to treat myself (but still not go OTT) and then get straight back to business as usual from the 27th.
I'm hoping that by creating this action plan I can stay focused. I know that I'm going to find it very hard and undoubtedly I will eat and drink things that I shouldn't (I already have several Christmas gatherings in my diary) but I will not allow it to send me off-track completely.
So, expect a post a week from me for the next 5 weeks at least and hopefully I will have good news to report.
I'd love to hear about how everyone else is planning on staying focused over the christmas period, so please comment if you have any tips or suggestions!!
11 Replies
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rachel1991, you seem really determined and I have no doubt you will reach your goal within the timescale. You've made a plan, which is absolutely key. I don't go out to work and am going to miss out on work gatherings, but there will be plenty of other gatherings as Christmas draws closer.
What I tend to do, is plan a weekly menu and where possible cook the meals in advance, keeping them in the freezer or refrigerator. The meals are calorie counted and split into two meal portions. I can then flex my calories up and down with breakfast and lunch and of course the occasional snack.
The reasons I go to the trouble of planning a weekly menu are because:
1 It makes shopping a lot easier.
2 It reduces the amount of washing up.
3 It gives me a far greater choice of main meal.
4 If we have unforeseen visitors, it's easy to cater for them.
5 I know exactly the quality and contents of the meal.
I should say that I also have a vacuum sealer, which enables me to produce a number of single portion, boil in the bag meals and soups. So it's no problem if one person wants curry and another wants casserole. Both meals simply get heated in the same saucepan.
We also prepare breakfasts the day before, because my wife works in an office. Greek yoghurt topped with granola or refrigerator oats etc.
At gatherings I generally ask for a glass of water to sip with my wine or whatever drink I'm having, if food is available I tend to tuck in without too much concern. I can always tweak the daily calorie intake over the next few days.
I hope you can pick something useful out of this ramble.
Best of luck
PS I avoid snacks like nuts, crisps and cheese biscuits.
That's exactly what I do, but once they are frozen, I turn them out and put them in vacuum bags to save room and free up Tupperware boxes.
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Thanks for your detailed reply! Sounds like you have some excellent healthy habits! Eating out is definitely my downfall as I tend to eat healthily the rest of the time. Love your tip about the vacuum sealer. I live alone so that would certainly come in handy when I freeze extra portions!
Like your tip about the water. I try to do this but I'm not convinced it cuts down my overall alcohol intake!
I think that planning ahead for Christmas rather than being indenial about it means that we (hopefully) won't get caught out! I'm absolutely desperate not to undo all my good work!
You can do it, try to spoil yourself with non good treats............things that don't effect your weight, fab scented candles, great herbal teas, nice smellies, and one of my favourites, lovely matching undies ( to be fair it's only the cat and I who see them), I picked up a reduced set for £7 at tesco online, I feel better inside.
You don't want to be the ad mans dream, stressed, fat and need a big hol, you know the pic
Morning Rachel, wow reading your post has made me feel more determined!! I had started already thinking about this five week mark! But love how you sound so focused!! You will do it!! Think Dianas comment about the candles and nice smellies is also good cos busy time of year and its so easy to think that after a hard day lets sit down with a cuppa and big bar of chocolate!! 😭
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The Christmas dilemma
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