Christmas is hard!

[Benlucysam1_]

My willpower has gone. I was doing well with logging calories and exercise, bringing home made food, reducing portions. But, Christmas has hit. Several meals out a week, not in chain restaurants so hard to work out calories with any accuracy. Instead of doing the sensible thing of maintaining moderation I have just gone back to eating and drinking whatever I fancy. I need to engage in damage limitation until after the festive period. I have no idea why I'm so useless at this. I am highly functional in most other areas of life but I am such a child around food. Any advice on how to grow up and take some more responsibility for this poor body of mine?

[Lherring]

I totally understand your frustration! I'm the same.. I was doing well until about a week ago and then people were bringing in Xmas chocs to work and mince pies etc and I just sort of gave up trying but this weekend I sort of hit rock bottom and this week I am doing so well again. I think it's just all about remotivating yourself. Remember why you are doing this and that end outcome will be far better than the 5 mins of joy you will get from eating badly. Keep up the physical activity too because if you find little bits of naughty slipping in if your compensating by exercising it makes it slightly less worse.

You can do it! Xmas is an extremely hard time for us but just believe you have the willpower to stay strong and you will be fine!

Good luck!

[Bigmama99]

exercise is always a good motivator for me... use an app and see how much exercise it will take to work the treat off... then see if it's worth eating it in the 1st place x

also found this on mfp

What to Do When You Blow Your Calorie Budget - Under Armour blog.myfitnesspal.com/what-...

[IndigoBlue61 in reply to Bigmama99]

Great advice 😊 Good article, well worth s read 😊 Thank you for sharing

[DartmoorDumpling Restart Feb 2024]

Christmas is to be enjoyed, but maybe try only having a small amount of whatever is on offer? Mince pies and Christmas cake at work can be gratefully received...and then wrapped up and taken home for someone who is not trying to cut their calories.

Chocolates...yes, take one, but pocket it, sometimes just "having" something nice is enough...it can be eaten another time. Treats need to be spread over a longer period of time where possible.

Christmas drinks can perhaps be just half drunk, or topped with diet lemonade even?

Sometimes - eat the Christmas meal, and promise yourself some extra activity to "pay for it" - a good winter's walk can help no end.

Whatever you do, don't beat yourself up; January will soon be here and the TV will be full of motivating programs to get you back on the straight and narrow!

[HubbysMissMouse]

I went out for a buffet with my epilepsy group for Xmas on Saturday and I was worried because it was a buffet. I did very well with this though because they cut you the meat you chose then gave you the plate to choose anything else. I chose turkey because this is one of the lowest calorie meats they had. I then only chose two roast potatoes and mostly veg there was six different of veg to choose from and I did choose all six as well as stuffing because I can't resist this. I then made sure I ate the stuffing and veg before I ate anything else. The good thing was I knew veg wasn't too many calories each and ended up leaving over half the turkey some stuffing and one potato? Make sure you eat mainly lower calorie items first and only mix small amounts of higher calorie items you want some of with the vegetables and you will become too full to eat the higher calorie items. We did still have pudding but the only fruit options they had was a crumble which was full of sugar and Xmas puds, so I chose Xmas pud. I managed to do a little more of a walk and bowling on Sunday to try and stop me from gaining weight and I still managed to lose 3lbs by Monday. You can still do this, don't lose faith in yourself.

[IndigoBlue61 in reply to HubbysMissMouse]

Well done! That's great HubbysMissMouse 😊

[Hidden in reply to HubbysMissMouse]

Excellent advice!