Although I enjoyed a nice holiday at home with family and friends, I was afraid to get on the scale this morning after lots of free for all munching through the day.

I can't say that I went crazy with anything, but the bites and tastes and handfuls really add up- especially when the foods were stuff like nuts, cookies and dark chocolate.

So I am back here...

How did the day go for others?

It is Jan 1. I said I'd start afresh this year.

I have a set of issues I need to adress, but I need a good plan before i jump in.

Here we go...

quote:

Originally posted by GoingSkiing:

But will power is sort of overrated... and it is easier just to not keep it in the house.

Yup. Willpower is a very limited thing for me. I know I need to use it at times, but in general I need a clean, "safe" environment so that I don't always have the stress of resisting.

I thought I saw you post something a day or two ago about my stress around foodfest seeming significant. I appreciated that post. Thanks.

I am mostly back to a cleanish house. But we are going to 2 or three parties tonight. I am bringing stuff to two of them so that I am still baking. (I chose stuff that does not tempt me, though.) Luckily the parties are after dinner and I am generally not tempted to do might time eating.

Getting back to a clean, normal house/pantry has been a gradual struggle for me this holiday season. I am not there totally, but have made good progress. How are other pantries coming along?

quote:

Probably the control freak in me.

I think that CHOICE is huge...

It bothers me when calories are gifted upon me... and I end up eating them... and then have to juggle and not eat food that I really like and enjoy and look forward to OR gain weight and look forward to losing mode for a month.

Of course, if I was a "better" person or had more "will power" I could just pass up candy and/or cookies that I don't even really like. But will power is sort of overrated... and it is easier just to not keep it in the house.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: GoingSkiing,

quote:

Originally posted by jillybean:
I was just sitting here wondering if homeless shelters take cookies/candy donations.

Yes. Most shelters will take any kind of food.

quote:

Why is it that my future sister-in-law agreed to NO adult gift exchanges-just the kids-and then proceeds to give us a giant package of cookies she baked? Jill

Because some people don't consider "a giant package of cookies" to be a "gift", especially if they baked it themselves rather than buying it.

This is what I like about being in theater, you can make/buy junk and take it to rehearsal and it is gone. If you don't have a local homeless shelter (and a lot of grocery stores have places where you can drop off foods) you could always contact Child Protective Services, etc and see if they want it, or give it to your local community theater...

I tend to try to only eat the 'good stuff', when I was growing up we always had a few Christmas treats, mostly cookies, but it wasn't this marketing blitz....

Brie-so sorry to hear your ankle is not any better.

Jill

Our out of town family left this morning. We had a FANTASTIC holiday and visit. Super relaxing and wonderful.

I ate "in" every day since x-mas but despite having control over what was being served, I drank wine and had dessert every day.

I haven't had the nerve to step on the scale yet to see the damage. I'm in denial mode right now and also am feeling like what's the point as we have two more parties this week for New Years.

My plan is to eat very moderately today and tomorrow but seriously get back on plan on the 2nd. That's not usually my style as I tend to get right back on the wagon but I feel like it's kind of pointless ; )

Oh, and my ankle has been really really bad this week since the air cast came off so any pipe dreams about getting right back into cardio went right out the window. I even got some of my stengthening exercises taken away by my PT : (

i think battle fatigue is the phrase that really captures it, eh?

at the gym this morning--tired---first day back to work--still too much chocolate around the house. and it hit me--i am tired of the hamster wheel of workout and watch what i eat all the time. i wanted to leave the gym--tired of this S__T! but i stayed and tried to improve my attitude. honestly, i just want to go back to bed and read a good book. and forget about the ongoing struggle to eat right and exercise. maybe i just need 48 hours (or more) of vacation form this.

oooh--i am a bad attitude chick today!

I appreciated reading the posts here.

As far as bringing the cookies and candy to the homeless shelter. That might be a possibility. Honestly, though, I am just not willing to call them to see if they will accept that type of donation (many shelters do not) and then drive 30 minutes to the church, look for parking in an area of town that does not feel safe to me and go in to a place that does not feel safe. The idea of donating to the shelter is great, but I am not willing to do the follow through.

Not seeing the food is helpful for me too. I brought the chocolate mint things to the basement freezer where I will likely forget about them.

Battle fatigue is a great description for what I am feeling. There is just so much food and food pushing this holiday. (Maybe I am noticing it more because we hosted the holiday this year and have lots of friends who are focused on handmade food gifts this year.)
I am tired from planning, resisting and deciding "no" over and over again. Just sick of it.

I usually keep a very clean enviornment at home. Plus, we do not eat out much so that things fall into place pretty easily with my food. I just know that I have soup on the stove so that McDonalds is not ever a real option. But now my home environment is trashed and I am feeling the huge food pull all over. Again, I can see how people just can't resist over the long haul without a clean home where there are satisfying options.

Here's what I have thrown out today:
*1/5 Bouche de Noel. I made it- it was wonderful, but I can't take a bite here or there.
* more of the candy I found in the back of the fridge - really did not want to toss this, but I knew it was pulling me
*caramels my mother brought- did not want to do this either.

I am still left with a lot. Most of it is Sophia's. She is going to need to get rid of some of it, but we will talk about it after dinner.

I did a very calculation of the food calories I trashed. I think it was about 34,000. That is nearly 10 pounds.

I know I ate at least 6000 extra calories this past week.

The excess of food all over is hitting me hard this year. So many easy, quick ways to get fattening food, so many overweight people and so much push to eat, eat eat. Not sure why it is hitting home so much now as opposed to other times... sigh...

For me, it's all about what I can and cannot see. For most items, as long as they are not in plain sight, I can keep them in the house. Most batches of cookies head straight into the freezer, partly so that they stay fresh, and partly because I don't often scrounge in the freezer for something to binge on.

Most of the time, store bought goodies (organic pop-tarts, newman o's and other stuff) reside on the next to top shelf of my pantry, where I can reach them, but again, where I'm not likely to scrounge for binge worthy foods because I rarely get in there.

The most chronic offenders of stuff (pretty much just terra chips, quaker cheddar flavored rice cakes, or homemade caramels) that I have trouble being trusted with get hidden either by DH or in the back of the shelf mentioned in the previous paragraph. I have an 8? week old bag of terra chips that I never finished there because being that far back in the cupboard, I have to a) remember that they are there, and b) get DH to reach for them when I do remember. But they are still available to me if I really want a few.

I try really hard to keep my fridge free of anything that I can do any real damage with, but DH can thwart me pretty easily because he doesn't usually put things away where they belong when he does have snacks in the house (like last night's issues with hershey kiss cookies left on the kitchen counter).

I was just sitting here wondering if homeless shelters take cookies/candy donations.

Why is it that my future sister-in-law agreed to NO adult gift exchanges-just the kids-and then proceeds to give us a giant package of cookies she baked?

I want them out of the house. I cannot be trusted around them. I am going to have Jay and dd pick a few favorites and the rest are history.

It is impossible to keep a healthy body weight with that kind of junk around. I am having a hard enough time making time for the gym right now so I don't need extra calories.

Jill

quote:

Originally posted by Sandy:
I honestly don't know how people can maintain a healthy body weight and keep lots of junk in the house. How are others handling the extra food and weight loss/maintenance?

I don't know either. Obviously most people don't/can't handle it well... since 75-80% of Americans are overweight.

I think that I was given (and bought) 8,000-10,000 calories worth of candy and cookie kinds of stuff this year. It has occurred to me that "My Pyramid" gives me 200-250ish "discretionary" calories a day. But I also like to use "discretionary calories” on cheese or mayo or French Fries or other things beside cookies and candy. If I ate 100 calories of candy a day... and I would consider that "moderate" and "reasonable"... it would take me 3 months to eat the candy we've had in the house over the past two weeks (if I lived alone…). And THAT is assuming that I didn't buy ANY new candy or make any new pies or anything...

I found the books "Mindless Eating" and "The End of Overeating" very helpful. They both do a good job of explaining how/why we overeat.

I know that we have all had that experience of not even thinking about a food at ALL… and then seeing it… “I opened the freezer to get ice and I saw the chocolate mints. I got the ice and closed the freezer. Found some amazing peanut butter chocolate balls in the back of the fridge. I also found a bag of my favorite caramels on the pantry floor…” and all of a sudden wanting it and eating it regardless of physical hunger. The two books do a good job of explaining it all...

I have to say that I feel a little bit of “battle fatigue”. We live in a world with too much food… or specifically “too many calories”. I’ve read “somewhere (Marion Nestle? Mindless Eating?) that there are just too many calories in the US. And if we don't eat them... the US economy will suffer... Thus we are heavily marketed to insure that we eat 800 calories a day too many.

There is a TREMENDOUS amount of research being done on biology and why we eat and when we eat. The BEST and BRIGHTEST neuroscientists are employed by food marketers.

And then there are people like “mom” who bring our favorite caramels. I know that my mil and fil found it “unthinkable” to show up to our house empty handed. It never occurred to me that they would/should bring food/candy/cookies/treats. After all… I’ve been hearing all my life that my roll of hostess is to provide too much food and it is rude not to overfeed the guests. And I guess… as guests… they have been hearing all of their lives that it rude to show up empty handed…

So here we are… we’ve got too much food in the house… some bought by me… some bought by guests.

Last month marked my 6th year of actively watching what I eat and what I weigh… and part of me just feels battle fatigued. I feel like a puppet with the strings pulled in a gazillion directions. Half of me is slammed with marketing from Food Network and magazines and cookbooks, etc, etc, etc… and half of me is being slammed with “Lose Weight!” or “Flat Belly!!!!! You CAN have one!!!!!!” messages. The puppet is being pulled apart.

Me personally, I was out with friends at dinner… and my skirt was tight for the FIRST time in 6 years. Thus, I’m going back to weekly WW’er meetings <sigh>.

But I can’t help but feel that “The Weight Loss Industry” has control of my puppet strings right NOW… today. And yesterday… the food industry had control of the strings. I’m in the middle of a tug of war.

But I know from LOTS of reading that when confronted with too much food… we are hardwired to eat it. It is very “unnatural” for most of us to leave food on the plate and say, “I’m full”. And we are REALLY hardwired to (over)eat sugar and salt and fat.

Thus, I do better when a lot of foods just aren’t around… even mints in the freezer. Fighting biology gets old, though... Fighting marketing and propaganda gets old.

Oh... a heads up. During/after menopause... we get a whole BUNCH of propaganda (and marketing) directed at us. It is BAD. And it is REALLY, REALLY hard to sort out the science from the hype. Really bad. Add THAT in with all of the other "normal" American food and diet hype... and it is overwhelming.

It is really hard to sort out what is "normal"... between the food industry... the diet industry... and the youth industry. I don't think that we are handling it very well, as a nation. Me as an individual... I handle it better some days/months/years than others.

There is still a lot of pretty unhealthy food in my house. I am starting to feel the pressure of its presence. Sounds weird, but its real.

I opened the freezer to get ice and I saw the chocolate mints. I got the ice and closed the freezer. Found some amazing peanut butter chocolate balls in the back of the fridge. I also found a bag of my favorite caramels on the pantry floor. My Mom brought them and tucked them away...

I have a food plan today. It does not include sweets or crackers or any of the stuff that has been all over the house for the past days. So far I have stuck to my plan.

And I need a plan about what I am keeping and throwing. I know Dh and dd want some of it. THey are both gone. Will need to talk to them at dinner and sift through more food.

I honestly don't know how people can maintain a healthy body weight and keep lots of junk in the house. How are others handling the extra food and weight loss/maintenance?

Hi All,

We had Xmas here for the first time in YEARS AND YEARS. Actually, I think that this is the first time that my in-laws have come over for Xmas... EVER... That would be going back to 1986.

My mil has always done it... but turned 80 this year... and she just can't do it any more.

Christmas night dinner turned out awesome! Roast beef, baked potatoes and a Rachel Ray recipe Brussel sprouts/broccoli with bacon ... which believe it or not... I think that Brussels Sprouts was everybody's favorite dish.

I also made an awesome apple/blackberry pie. I've always made awesome pie crust (if I do say so myself...), but tried this America's Test Kitchen recipe (with vodka...) and it is incredible.

Having dinner at our house... I had LOTS of food control. Bad side is that we had virtually NO "Christmas Spirit" (due to colds, etc.) and didn't put up the tree until 11pm Christmas Eve. Had it been left to us... we would have put the audio book "Skipping Christmas" (WAY better than "Christmas with the Kranks") and left the tree in a box in the garage and sort of “skipped Christmas”… but we felt an obligation to decorate… so we did.

We only went out to eat once… or twice (depending on how you look at it...) We went on this Train of Lights thing (which turned out to be more fun than I thought it would be...) and had hot chocolate and 1 cookie on the train. And then we went to Red Lobster and I split a dinner with Nelson. He got some surf and turf kind of think with shrimp and steak... and really we could have split the dinner three ways.

But I avoided IHOP TWO mornings. mil suggested we go... but we didn't and I made breakfast at home. Breakfast yesterday was 1 egg, 1 piece of bacon, 1/4th of a bagel, fruit, and a small piece of apple pie. I don't normally eat apple pie for breakfast. It was a bigger breakfast than "normal"... but less calories than IHOP (I'm guessing... I suppose I COULD have gone to IHOP and had oatmeal...).

My in laws brought a lot of "Hostess Gift" kinds of things... cookies, boxes of chocolate, etc. I ate too many, but luckily for me... I didn't like them THAT much... so it could have been so much worse. But as we can all attest... just because something "isn't worth the calories"... we sometimes STILL eat it.

Fortunately, there were many items that I ate one bite of... and gave a way. The damage could have been way worse... but it is STILL very possible to (over) eat 500-1000 calories a day in bites here and there of things both worth the calories and not worth it...

RIGHT NOW... today... there are only two sort of kind of tempting foods in the house. Some Brach’s peppermint nougat candies (which aren’t exactly “To Die For”… but I like them…) and some INCREDIBLE Pt Reyes bleu cheese. But a little goes a long way… and I’ll put some on a salad today.

So anyway… I’ve got a plan for today… which includes, “NO candy” (since we’ve been eating candy for 3 days now…).

Also, plan is to go back to weekly WW'er meetings. There is one tomorrow... think I will go to it...

we have tried to get to the gym every day as a family. i have put in over an hour of exercise at the gym every day, and then there was the 5 miles of walking at the zoo, the ice skating. and planning a swim this coming week.

but definitely, too many brownies.

christmas was great. i had my birthday cupcakes for breakfast, and then muched on some tamales late in the morning but di dnot eat again until dinner time when we had chinese food. back to running the next day, and then to the gym. i got new running shoes for christmas so i am breaking them in. even though i have had my share of brownies, i have only been eating 2 main meals a day. i am looking forward to getting back to regular eating, and getting rid of pastries. almost there!

We had our Christmas dinner at my sister's yesterday. Chili and Turkey Stew with cornbread. Dena made an apple/cranberry tart and there were cookies for desert. I also made two kinds of bread from the Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day book (beet bread & brocolli rolls).
I did good on the food. I had one bowl of chili with cornbread, 1 brocolli roll and no desert.

I am surprised because I have not been watching very strictly this past week or two but I am actually down 3 lbs since the first of the month.

Foodfest still not over yet. Lots of the candy is gone (eaten) and we're slowly getting back to normal food. I've been taking daily walks (pretty strenuous due to the snow), and I landed in an impromptu hydrobics class yesterday when we all went to an indoor water park and spa, but that isn't enough. Today I was up 2-3 lbs.

I'm not too unhappy about the gain right now - it'll come off. A larger gain would make me pretty angry.

Foodfest continues here...
neighbor brought a chocolate orange,a huge (14 ounce) Toblerone (sp?) and some mint melt-a-way things- at least a pound.

I froze the mints- they make a nice after dinner treat for company. I am debating about the others...

I wonder how many calories... many thousands... or is it tens of thousands?

OMG! Just 5 minutes since I posted about dumping so very much candy/cookies...

There is a box of Ghirardelli chocolate under the tree- tossed it.

There is also a huge tin of biscotti- chocolate covered sitting near the piano. It's like my house is growing its own food. Tossed that too.

I must say that it was not easy getting rid of perfectly good, newly wrapped packages. I kept thinking I ought to take them to the food drive or I could re- gift. But, I am tired and I know I am way too vulnerable to eating them. I can buy canned veggies for the food bank or drop in some $. UUUGHH. The stress of holiday food.