How did you do on Christmas?

There was definitely plenty of food at my home on Christmas Day, more than needed. Overall I ate sensibly and not excessively. HOWEVER, I ate 8 pieces of See's candies which showed a general weakness and gluttony on my part. No one put a gun to my head and said eat them or else, so it was just pure weakness or the addict in me telling me that if one is good, two must be better, and if two is better, then three must be great, and if three are great then four must be . . . .

No alcohol for me as I don't do that anymore. And I'm not a soda drinker, so in the beverage department it was a normal water day although I did treat myself to a bottle of acqua minerale.

So how did you do on Christmas Day? And what do you think the remainder of the year up to New Year's Day will be like for you as I'm sure there's still plenty of food around and the party has just begun.

BE HONEST!

[Rufiedodg]

Great article on Holiday eating:

http://www.cbass.com/holiday_eating.htm

Dont be so hard on yourself Mr. P. I dont see it as being a sign of weakness at all. I see it as a necessary part of the proccess towards maintaining good health over the long haul.

Dont forget--it is about staying healthy throughout a liftime.


Dan

[mike314]

I did pretty good for the night, a fair portion of rice, turkey, mac an cheese, salmon, and a taco. Washed it down with good ol water, but was tempted by soda. But when dessert time came it all went to hell. Had a slice of angel cake, a few slices of bread and worst of all about half of a entire 12" cheese cake which has for a 1/10th slice 14 grams of fat (2 grams of trans fat) totaling 270 calories. Thats just for a 1/10th slice

I was weak it tasted so damn good. I havent had a dessert like that since the end of the summer.

Now that my knees are better from a 1 week rest after some small inflamation I cant wait to get back in the gym and burn it off

NOW COMES THE FUN PART

Hi Dan,

Thanks for the link. Always good reading at Clarence Bass' website. I always visit it at the first of the month when he posts new stuff.

I wasn't trying to be too hard on myself, at least I didn't think. What is interesting is that 2 pieces would have been just as satisfying as 8 pieces, so it's an excellent opportunity to use the experience to better discovery myself. If I know that 2 pieces are very satisfying, why would I want more? That's the interesting question.

[.V.]

I spent a wonderful morning with my family. Made my kids very happy. Managed to get 4 meals in for the day, coming up about 900 calories short of my daily eating goal. My devil-in-law decided to cook a big Christmas dinner so I wouldn't have to do it. When time to go came, I stayed home and took a nap. Just didn't feel up to it.

Did get a great midafternoon KF workout though. Didn't do any bag work, wooden man, or board strikes though. Somehow, it just seemed wrong to practice lethal strikes on Christmas day so I just did forms and practiced the "artsy" flowing movements.

[CF-OC_gal]

Pretty standard for family gatherings here. Only one plate load of food and for some reason the mashed potatoes had been on my mind for a few days in anticipation. The turkey was boring. My BIL did the cooking and shrugged off the need to brown things alittle more since the pan prevented it. That made the gravy unrecognizabley "white", not mouthwatering brown. The bird was a somewhat dry and tasteless.

Oh well I would have eaten more turkey if it had "marketed" itself better. instead the peas and carrots stole the show.

My mom brought out a plate of cheesecake but not one person went for it. (I feel I could eat it now though!)

I had a Guiness and a beer and a shot of Baileys in my coffee. I also am a sucker for the black licorace from the Allsorts mix. Good thing no one else cares about them.

There was no belt loosening last night as we all settled in to laugh at our favourite YouTube finds (check out the "naked magician". She's a riot.) Then we re-bonded the family with a few hours of "Quip-it". Our sides were splitting and adults were falling off the couch laughing - not drunk.

New Years will pass un-noticed. I don't indulge at all.

[sooner_ed]

Much better than I did on Thanksgiving thank you very much!

I spent the night before at my mother's house and she never has any food in the house for breakfast so I took a six inch Subway sandwich to get my morning started. Then graduated to a whole wheat english muffin with natural peanut butter. That was pretty much it until lunch (dinner...whatever you want to call it).
Then I went for the turkey, a very small portion of mashed potatoes, and a semi-small portion of dressing. Some green beans dressed it nicely. BUT I couldn't stay away from my grandmother's homemade chicken and dumplings. Yes, white flour and all. She's almost 84 and someday she won't be here to make them anymore so I will always have them.

Then, throughout the remainder of the day, it was pretty much sugar-free pies made with Splenda, pumpkin and egg custard.

My biggest cheat of the day though was a piece of full sugar pecan pie. All the way baby!!

However, it was not a bad day food-wise and since I have made the decision to start bulking, it could have been worse.

I did, however, go on a three mile run a couple of hours after lunch in a mild attempt to burn off some of the goodies. I think that's why I don't feel so guilty today. Amazing what a good run can do for you on days like that.

[.V.]

Ed, homemade chicken and dumplings are great. Can't blame you for not skipping them, refined white flour and all. Especially if there is enough butter cooking in the broth to turn the white dumplings a bit butter colored. Yes, I did say BUTTER, not margarine, smart balance, healthy choice butter flavored substituete or any of those.

Hmmm, an idea is coming to me perhaps??

BTW, get your grandmother's recipie while you can. I've gotten all of my grandmother and great grandmother's recipies now. Most of them aren't what many of us would consider to be "healthy eating", but they sure are good. I don't remember any of them ever being obese from eating that kind of food, but most of the family has died from heart attacks in their mid 80's, maybe from the pork fat that was in all the green veggies. Interestingly enough, my big weight loss phase of this "body restructuring" included lots of cooking done the way the grandmothers did it. Greens, green beans, cabbages, and other veggies cooked with fatback were a staple. The only difference between my LCD and their meals was I skipped the cornbread every night.

[gymgirl]

i did well until i got to my parents house.

afternoon snackes included, cheese, crackers, veggies, dip, hummus, pita chips...

then dinner: baked salmon with lemon juice (good), smashed potatoes, green beans, steamed veggies, spinakopita, and salad.

dessert: 1 slice apple pie with a small scoop of vanilla ice cream.

drinks: about 3-4 glasses of great italian red wine...i just can't seem to pass that up on the holidays.

then when i got home i wasn't even hungry but wanted to eat more! lol had another slice of spinakopita and a date cookie. woke up starving this morning!

i'll be good this week but might pig out on new years eve. normally on new years day i make a huge breakfast, but leaving for hawaii on the 2nd so i have to watch it a bit. lol funny i should say that after last night!

[.V.]

Does anyone else use gmail for their e-mail service? It reads the contents of forum pages to give you advertisements that you may be interested in.

This thread gives bulemia help advertisements. Interesting. Maybe we didn't do as well as we thought for Christmas.

[The Flash]

Very badly but I don't care...my plan is to have one cheat meal a week and to have chet all day during Holidays so I took full advantage during Christmas!

Now it's time to get back to work and stay away from the leftovers!

[Rufiedodg]

Originally Posted by pierini

Hi Dan,

Thanks for the link. Always good reading at Clarence Bass' website. I always visit it at the first of the month when he posts new stuff.

I wasn't trying to be too hard on myself, at least I didn't think. What is interesting is that 2 pieces would have been just as satisfying as 8 pieces, so it's an excellent opportunity to use the experience to better discovery myself. If I know that 2 pieces are very satisfying, why would I want more? That's the interesting question.

Perini

Here is an interesting answer to your interesting question

I attended a seminar not too long ago which addressed _how_ each individual sells. According to the report, the most effective salespeople are those who most thoroughly and accurately understand themselves and, who, are at the same time willing to implement meaningful strategies to enhance their current level of performance. The course consisted of a pretty thorough multiple choice test developed to rank each individuals values. While taking the test I really didn't have a clue what it was trying to do, I just anserwed the questions as honestly as I could. Therefore I think the test was fairly accurate. Here is how I ranked out of the 6 values

1st Social
2nd Political ( Power )
3rd regulatory ( Rules)
4th Economic (Money)
5th Aesthetic ( Beauty )
6th Theoretical ( Love to Learn)

Here is the first bullet describing a person with a high social value:

Saying no is difficult when others need his time or talent

I take it a step further and say:

Saying no to anything that enhances social connectiveness is extremely difficult

I cannot go to a bar with friends ( or clients ) and not drink. I cannot say no to people who offer deserts ( especially if they made it ), candies, or most anything. My social value _must be_ so high that I sacrifice diet commitments as to not impede social relationships time after time after time. It at least feels like I have no control over it.

The _only_ way I know to stop this from happening is to stay away from bars, and stay away from social gatherings ( where there is unhealthy food ) as much as I can.

I dont know if any of this is relevant to you but at least be aware of the possibility.

You may have eaten extra candy because in some crazy sub-conscience way you may have felt it necessary to fit in better. I believe it can happen

Dan

[sooner_ed]

Originally Posted by a_welch503

Ed, homemade chicken and dumplings are great. Can't blame you for not skipping them, refined white flour and all. Especially if there is enough butter cooking in the broth to turn the white dumplings a bit butter colored. Yes, I did say BUTTER, not margarine, smart balance, healthy choice butter flavored substituete or any of those.

Hmmm, an idea is coming to me perhaps??

BTW, get your grandmother's recipie while you can. I've gotten all of my grandmother and great grandmother's recipies now. Most of them aren't what many of us would consider to be "healthy eating", but they sure are good. I don't remember any of them ever being obese from eating that kind of food, but most of the family has died from heart attacks in their mid 80's, maybe from the pork fat that was in all the green veggies. Interestingly enough, my big weight loss phase of this "body restructuring" included lots of cooking done the way the grandmothers did it. Greens, green beans, cabbages, and other veggies cooked with fatback were a staple. The only difference between my LCD and their meals was I skipped the cornbread every night.

Actually, I'm the only one in the family that has even half of her recipies. I know I have the recipe for chicken and dumplings written down somewhere, but that's the one thing I haven't been able to master yet.

I can make stew and cabbage the way she does. I also mastered the homemade biscuits too. It's quite a compliment when your grandmother says your biscuits are good. I took that a step further and started making my own homemade pancakes as well. But I admit, in the interest of health, I buy buckwheat pancake mix and some kind of pancake mix with flaxseed in them. But when I feel like it, I will make my homemade pancakes. There's nothing like homemade.

This year we decided that I will have to start making Thanksgiving dinner like I did a couple of years ago. We have this one person who married into the family that likes to put herbs in everything, and I do mean everything, and no one in my family likes that. I think she finally figured that out and she has stopped coming in the kitchen altogether. Problem with that yesterday is my grandmother had to do all the cooking before we got there by herself. Can't let that happen anymore so next year I will go to my mother's house the night before and do all the cooking, then take it over to my grandmother's house. Talk about a healthy Thanksgiving next year!!

Actually, it's not that difficult to make all of the traditional Thanksgiving favorites in a healthy manner and still have them taste good.

Maybe we should have a post asking how we did the day AFTER Christmas! I won't even get started on that one.

[CF-OC_gal]

Your grandmother is only 4 year older than my Mom and Dad!

Hi Dan,

That's interesting what you shared. Sounds like you learned a few things about yourself at that seminar.

While it would be nice to think that their were social factors present, I believe it was pure gluttony on my part.

Interesting is that today I had absolutely no desire for any cakes, cookies or candies. And there is plenty of that in my house right now. I had a hard workout this afternoon and real food seemed the most appealing today. I think I'm done with that stuff just how I was for most of 2006 before the Christmas season. I'm a middle-age man. There really isn't any valid reason to be eating that stuff.

Thanks for sharing.