Every month we have a get-together for individuals in the area who are on (or who have been on) 5&1. Last night was one of our get-togethers and we talked about how to survive the holidays. With Thanksgiving a month away and Christmas less than two months from now, it really IS time to start thinking about how to successfully navigate the holidays. I'm pretty passionate about this because I've seen far too many people fall off program around the holidays and struggle terribly to get back on plan. Sadly some of them find it almost impossible to restart once they're off.
Three years ago I faced the upcoming holiday season and knew I needed a survival strategy - and fast! I didn't have the option of sitting out the holidays because the entire family gathers at my house for our holiday meals. We had 26 people at our house for Thanksgiving dinner that year and 23 for Christmas. We also hosted family member and friends for both a Christmas Eve supper and a New Year's Eve dinner party. Because I had been on plan since June 24 of that year and had lost a lot of weight by early November, I really didn't want to mess up what was clearly a good thing. I felt great and was seeing consistent results and was really afraid to go off plan. At the same time, I knew I wouldn't be happy eating a simple lean and green (or worse, sipping a Take Shape for Life/Medifast shake) while everyone else was enjoying a traditional holiday meal.
One of my friends who is very creative with recipes put together some great "legal" holiday recipes. Her efforts resulted in a great - and legal - recipe for stuffing, a couple of different recipes for pumpkin pie, as well as recipes for mock mashed potatoes and green bean casserole! These recipes enabled me to have the flavors of a traditional holiday meal and my plate looked a lot like everyone else's plate, but I stayed on plan and my total calories on Thanksgiving Day 2007 were right around 900. Best of all, that year I lost 18 pounds between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day!
By making the decision today to stay on program through the holidays, you will be making a choice that will keep you moving toward your goal. Once the decision is made, planning now what you're going to do is key. You'll never regret making the choice to stay on plan and this choice will, Lord willing, enable you to enjoy countless holiday seasons in the years to come - healthy and looking and feeling fabulous! The choice is yours . . . choose wisely :-)
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If you would like the holiday recipes, I have posted the recipe collection as a note on my Facebook page. If you do a search for "justpraisin" you will find my page :-)
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