Eating during the holidays

[wbens]

With the holidays approaching comes Thanksgiving and X-mas dinner. What is some good advice to keep in mind when dinning at the table. Do you tend to eat less in the day/days leading up to the dinner or do you just look at it as a cheat day/meal and make sure to hit the gym big time the following day? I know moderation is a major thing but this is coming from someone that use to goto McYukies for breakfast and get to sandwhichs,hasbrown and a medium pop.

William

[.V.]

Dude, you've lost your weight. Enjoy your life now. It's a meal...eat it. One meal doesn't have to be tortured off the next day at the gym. Now the weeks of candies, cakes, cookies and such. Maybe one serving on occasion just to be sociable. Otherwise they should be left alone. If you are in the middle of a cut, you can still enjoy the meal. Just avoid the desserts, mashed potatoes and gravy, white breads...you know the fattening stuff. Have the turkey, green beans, even for those who gotta have their carbs, the sweet potatoes might be OK - just not the ones swimming in syrup. Even for the low fat people - check out the ham if you want - a reasonable sized serving should be fine. Even though it is pork, pork is not too high in fat - taken in moderation. Granted ham is higher in fat than tenderloin.

Good thing you aren't in italy with my aunt Luchia - she makes big sausage/beef/tomato sauce/pasta/pizza/breads/wine meals for holidays.

Have fun, eat some food, enjoy your life...let me be mental about my food - you enjoy yours.

[Maxgain]

tend to actually lose weight in the holidays even though i am bulking, I just can tstand junk food or simple carbs so am resrticted a lot in the festive food. In fact my diet is no differnet really at all just lie ins so not a s much time to eat so many meals.

I know if i was in Italy with aunt Luchia i would lose another half stone like th elast time I was in that country for a week. They eat the most disgudsting foods cant stand it and the lack of meat it drove me insane.
Maxgain

[maverick]

Just bulk up during the holidays, put those extra calories to good use. It might not be a bad idea to take a run or workout before dinner too, get that metabolism roaring.

How about putting on a pair of supertight pants and a tight shirt buttoned all the way to the top, then sit next to your fat aunt and uncle and stare at their triple chins and puss guts while they slam down their food as if they are famished!

Might put a damper on your appetite. Enjoy your food. Eat your age not your appetite. Eat slow and chew your food completely. Drink lots of water. Stay away from the alcohol. You'll do fine.

[threenorns]

you already KNOW what i'm gonna say, rofl!

but for the benefit of anyone else reading who doesn't: there's a time to be anal about your diet and a time to enjoy being with loved ones, including your fat aunt and uncle with the triple chins. even if you scarf your brains out for a week solid, you have the entire year to work it off again. hurting your family's feelings isn't as easily rectified, particularly if you know your gramma made what used to be your favourite dessert especially because she thought you'd enjoy it.

[gcs118]

If you think one big meal is enough to ruin your weight/diet or whatever think again....losing and gaining weight doesn't happen over night.

[KayakJones]

Eat, drink, be merry. Enjoy the meal, then enjoy the turkey sandwiches for 2 or 3 days afterward. It's Thanksgiving for cryin out loud. Get back on your routine after it's over and you will likely notice no weight gain and even if you do were only talking a couple of pounds or so.

[threenorns]

on the bonus side, you'll also notice your strength will have skyrocketed. if you're carb-depleted, you might notice a five-pound gain, but that's water (each grab of carbohydrate stored as glycogen requires 2 to 3 grams of water to be bound to it) - i regularly gain up to ten pounds overnight just from water gain, but i lose it again just as fast.

[Streetman]

yep, water gain is all you'll see. I gain weight every Sunday, with some salty eggs and bacon or sausage, and carb heavy french toast (or whatever other rotteness I stuff in my gullet.) EVERY Sunday, still. And I maintain 11% BF.

If you are going to torture yourself over Christmas and TDay, then just work out an hour before your meals. You CAN NOT burn it off the next day, but that day? Get the fire burning first, and it's no problem. You'll burn anything you throw in the furnace an hour after, say...heavy deadlifts.

However, eat one day, and store that fat, then try to reverse it the next? It's already stored, and must be converted from stored fat, into fat in the bloodstream, before it can be used as fuel. Not the efficient way to do things.

Work out hard, eat, drink, and be merry after.

[Joanne]

Hi Maxgain,

I couldn't help but not notice your comment about what you said with regards to 'Italy having some of the most disgusting food.' I think Italy has some of the finest and best food in the world. I'm sure there are some foods that I would choose not to eat but the same goes with foods here in Canada as well. I don't remember my friends complaining over my italian meals. In fact, they still continue to ask me to cook meals for them. I guess I took your comment personally because my family background is Italian.