Making a "fence" around the holidays...

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kccc
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Making a "fence" around the holidays...

Post by kccc » Tue Nov 24, 2009 10:45 pm

This is a time period I always find a bit hard. Technically, Thanksgiving and Christmas are S-days... but I tend to want to stretch my S-days from Thanksgiving to Christmas! (Actually, I want to start NOW!)

When I was growing up, my mom started baking around now and didn't stop until Christmas. It was non-stop-sweets all month, and that's the pattern I'm used to. In addition, there's all the time at home for the holidays, and I have always found No-S more difficult without my workday structure. So, this time is a challenge on several fronts.

I'm keeping in mind the "fence around the law" idea in the "strictness" podcast (my favorite, as you've all probably figured by now). But I'd like your tips too: How do you focus on keeping the holidays ON the holidays, and limiting the "creep" that is all too easy?

(And yes, there can be additional S-days for things like the extended-family-Christmas not actually falling on Christmas.... I just want to keep the total within reasonable bounds.)

Today, I went shopping for Thanksgiving items, and the grocery was FULL of tasting opportunities and wondrous sweets for the season. I didn't partake or purchase... but I did treat myself to a decaf coffee when I got home. I take mine as cafe au lait, so it's like having a glass of milk. My limit is 2/day normally (because I also add one sugar), with an optional 3rd on difficult days. So, that was a special thing that I only occasionally allow on N-days, and very satisfying.

The reason I chose to have it - beyond that it's a nasty day here and I really wanted it - is that I've learned that I tend to "snap" after prolonged periods of resistance, and I'm trying to head that off.

So... how do you deal with the holidays?

Starla
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Post by Starla » Tue Nov 24, 2009 11:16 pm

I am really interested in this topic; this is my first holiday season on No S, and I'm a little concerned. I bake a lot of Christmas cookies and use them as gifts. I usually take a couple days off work, add in a weekend and bake for four days straight. How do people handle this? I can't imagine not tasting cookies that I'm going to be giving as gifts, but I sure don't want to take 4 S days! Help!

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gratefuldeb67
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Post by gratefuldeb67 » Wed Nov 25, 2009 4:20 am

Just think how proud you will be of yourself, if you,at least, give it a good try to stick to the actual holidays KCCC!!!

Not sure about you, but I know that if it took me four or five months to lose ten pounds, I certainly don't want a few weeks to totally undo all my hard work in establishing habits and losing weight.
Enjoy the holidays fully, but don't do the other days in between.
Not worth it..
That's my take.. :wink:
Have a Happy Thanksgiving!!
8) Debs x
There is no Wisdom greater than Kindness

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gratefuldeb67
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Post by gratefuldeb67 » Wed Nov 25, 2009 4:22 am

And I mention ten pounds as a kind of random amount, but just trying to say, it takes so long to lose and it's just so easy to gain.
That's my own experience.
Take care,
8) Debs
There is no Wisdom greater than Kindness

masher
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Post by masher » Wed Nov 25, 2009 12:33 pm

Hi KCCC,

I'm back! Good to share. And like you thinking about planning for Christmas parties which are now starting with a vengence. NoS has really worked for me, and I feel great when I stick with plain vanilla.

I want to continue to feel energetic, slim and healthy. I know if I succumb to the siren calls of nibbling, tasting, multiple courses and desserts or chocolate on NoS days then I will NOT feel good. The idea of being sluggish and bloated is horrible.

So my action plan is to PLAN. I'll enjoy my designated S days and I'll add (up to) 2 extra S days for the month of Dec, in case I really want them. Then that is it. If I feel weak I either have coffee with milk or a small glass of juice which is enough to get me through to dinner. I know that I'll enjoy my treats more if I ration them and plan for them. And, best of all I will feel great. Sounds easy but it is a challenge!

So that is my take --I did this last year and it worked.

Good luck,
Masher

wosnes
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Post by wosnes » Wed Nov 25, 2009 1:03 pm

Starla wrote:I am really interested in this topic; this is my first holiday season on No S, and I'm a little concerned. I bake a lot of Christmas cookies and use them as gifts. I usually take a couple days off work, add in a weekend and bake for four days straight. How do people handle this? I can't imagine not tasting cookies that I'm going to be giving as gifts, but I sure don't want to take 4 S days! Help!
I allow myself a handful of cookies daily! Seriously! However, there's a huge difference between sampling a cookie and eating cookies. You don't need to eat a whole cookie when tasting it -- a bite is enough for "quality control."
"That which we persist in doing becomes easier for us to do. Not that the nature of the thing itself has changed but our power to do it is increased." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"You are what you eat -- so don't be Fast, Easy, Cheap or Fake."

kccc
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Post by kccc » Wed Nov 25, 2009 3:52 pm

Great advice! To summarize for myself...

1) Plan ahead (which is what I'm trying to do with this post!)
2) Remember the benefits
a) Don't un-do hard-won progress
b) Remember how much better I feel when I eat properly, in contrast to when I overload. (This one really resonates for me!)
3) Choose what holiday indulgences matter, but keep them reasonable (no need to eat half the batch of cookies to know the recipe works!)

And one I'll add... yesterday, I kept telling myself "Today is not Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is Thursday." Somehow, it helped to remind myself that today was an N day, but the S day was soon. So that would be...

4) Find a mantra that works for you an use it.

Thanks, everyone! Will keep checking back to draw on the accumulated wisdom of this board.

(And Masher, nice to see you back!)

3aday
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Post by 3aday » Thu Nov 26, 2009 12:59 am

I need to hold myself accountable too during this time of year.
If I am not careful, I can fall fast! LOL!
I was going to do a blog for accountability (even posted a link but I later deleted the entire post and may even disable the blog) but then I remembered that for me, pure Vanilla No S works best this time of year instead of journaling.
My fence is I stick to 1 plate. But, my plate is BIGGER and I may have juice and more coffee/tea throughout the day.
I also allow 2 extra S days by default in December, because if I don't...well then I set myself up for failure.

It's so hard. Especially now that we are living with my parents.
I believe they were solely put on this earth to stockpile every kind of snack and sweet ever known to man in their home. It's tough.

:shock: :shock:

Blessings and I know that you can do this!

Masher...you must be my No S twin!

I don't bake holiday cookies, but if I did, I would just have one to tasted and call that my fence. If you bake 4 times in December, than that is 4 cookies. No biggie.

Just make sure you build a fence and don't cross that line.

clarinetgal
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Post by clarinetgal » Thu Nov 26, 2009 6:59 am

KCC, I really like what you said about remembering how you feel when you eat properly versus how you feel when you overload. That's been a tough one for me the past few days, so I need to do that.
One thing I plan to do is freeze what I bake and parcel it out in small amounts. I plan on doing a lot of baking this Christmas, and I don't do well if it's all sitting out on the kitchen counter, so I figure if I freeze most of it and just parcel it out in small doses, I'll be less likely to binge.

noni
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Post by noni » Thu Nov 26, 2009 6:48 pm

I used to do alot of cookie baking for the holidays but my daughters do it now and it is my Christmas gift from them. The cookies aren't warm and they are put in containers so that's easier for me. But I do make all kinds of fudge for extended family Christmas gifts. Nine large trays of it. I fill my sink with soapy water and immediately plunge the dirty utensils in there so I don't start licking spoons, bowls, pots, etc... Any cookie baking I do, I think I'll do them on S-days because it's way too temping to refuse warm cookies from the oven.

KCCC...
I'm doing the 21-day challenge that Renee started in the Wannabe thread and it keeps me accountable. She is going to extend it into Dec. I wasn't going to do that but now I'm getting nervous about all the S days and messing up my N-days during Dec. I'm mainly interested in keeping N-days N and not worry too much about the S-days. Maybe that would help you, too.

kccc
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Post by kccc » Fri Nov 27, 2009 2:10 pm

My goal is definitely to keep the N-days N-days... I don't intend to worry about the S's, because they tend to be self-correcting if there aren't too many in a row. It's only when I let them string out that real problems arise... it's like I get pulled down into a perma-snacking hole that I can't get myself out of.

I stayed on track until Thanksgiving day, which I'm pleased about. Thanksgiving was definitely too much food, though all delicious! (And a wonderful time with family.) But the over-eating for one day IS self-correcting... I am GLAD today is an N-day. Yogurt and fruit for breakfast is WONDERFUL. (In past years, I would have had pumpkin pie for breakfast, and extended the holiday-stuffed-feeling for days on end, until I couldn't pull out of it. Today, I have no desire to.)

Looking at the calendar, most of our parties are falling on S-days anyway... still want to keep them not-too-wild, but as long as they are S-days, I'm just not going to worry about them a lot.

Keeping the N-days as N-days allows the holidays to be special. I'm really going to focus on that.

noni
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Post by noni » Fri Nov 27, 2009 4:29 pm

KCCC...you sound like you have a good focus. Sometimes it helps when we talk things out with others and then we see we have the answers within us.

Kathleen
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Post by Kathleen » Fri Nov 27, 2009 5:37 pm

KCCC,
I agree with you that having all weekends as S Days definitely helps with the holidays. Last night, I had pecan pie as my mother in law looked on disapprovingly, and this morning I had steel cut oatmeal. Today I'm making biscotti (again) but waiting until tomorrow to actually eat it. I also feel better today. S Days are self-correcting, and N Days are self-promoting!
Kathleen

kccc
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Post by kccc » Fri Nov 27, 2009 7:39 pm

noni wrote:KCCC...you sound like you have a good focus. Sometimes it helps when we talk things out with others and then we see we have the answers within us.
Sometimes we don't recognize the answers until they come from someone else. :) (Then there's the shock of "oh, yeah..." recognition.)

“A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words.â€

This site is special because it has a lot of friends who help each other remember our goals.

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gratefuldeb67
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Post by gratefuldeb67 » Fri Nov 27, 2009 9:00 pm

Kathleen wrote:KCCC,
I agree with you that having all weekends as S Days definitely helps with the holidays. Last night, I had pecan pie as my mother in law looked on disapprovingly, and this morning I had steel cut oatmeal. Today I'm making biscotti (again) but waiting until tomorrow to actually eat it. I also feel better today. S Days are self-correcting, and N Days are self-promoting!
Kathleen
Hi Kathleen, I think that's awful that she's scrutinising what you chose to have at Thanksgiving.. I'm sorry. Hope you still enjoyed your evening and meal..
We are being completely NoS adherent on non S days and yes, the weekend days are plenty enough to help get thru..Thank goodness for the inherent genius of this plan!!!
And yes KCCC this board is the best!!! Always was, and always will be!!!
Good caring people are here.
Have a great weekend all :)
8) Debs x
There is no Wisdom greater than Kindness

Kathleen
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Post by Kathleen » Fri Nov 27, 2009 10:40 pm

Debs,

That's OK. It was very obvious to me that several other female members of my family were using restraint to limit their intake of the Thanksgiving feast, and I was not. It might be similar to an ex smoker being among smokers for them to see me eating away without any sort of guilt or shame, despite my obesity. Their memory of my enjoying pecan pie may be stored away in their brain with the expectation that I will be bigger next July when we all get together for the 4th. If in fact I am thinner, they may want to join me in this diet.

After all, what's not to like about being able to eat as much as you want of whatever you want? It's preposterous that you could actually lose weight eating the way I did yesterday, and yet here I am today having had oatmeal for breakfast and leftover chicken drumsticks for lunch with no snacks in between and the plan for one serving of a turkey casserole for dinner. They saw the Thanksgiving feast but not the normal day to day eating of this diet. It's no wonder they are skeptical!

Kathleen

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reinhard
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Post by reinhard » Wed Dec 02, 2009 7:36 pm

This is a tough one.

I find four things helpful:

1) permit yourself to enjoy the actual holidays to the fullest (there aren't THAT many of them).

2) focus on keeping N-days N-days

3) using the habitcal to fess up any extra yellow and red. Even if some dubious yellow gets in there (holiday parties, etc), at least you have some kind of handle on it -- and a visual incentive to keep them limited.

4) Resist the urge to just give up and wait till new years if you get a bit off track. This is probably the biggest problem to watch out for. Again, the habitcal can help.

Reinhard

guadopt1997
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Post by guadopt1997 » Thu Dec 03, 2009 1:15 pm

This is a really good thread.

I had a weight watchers leader years ago who told us to count how many occasions we would have between Nov 1 and Jan 1 to go off course. There would be 186 meals. If you were so socially active as to have maybe 15 holiday events, that was a small percentage of the total. Helped put things in perspective!
Liz
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Basic goal: doing no-S for life

wosnes
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Post by wosnes » Thu Dec 03, 2009 2:55 pm

guadopt1997 wrote:This is a really good thread.

I had a weight watchers leader years ago who told us to count how many occasions we would have between Nov 1 and Jan 1 to go off course. There would be 186 meals. If you were so socially active as to have maybe 15 holiday events, that was a small percentage of the total. Helped put things in perspective!
I've found that most of the social things occur on S days anyway -- not many occur on N days.
"That which we persist in doing becomes easier for us to do. Not that the nature of the thing itself has changed but our power to do it is increased." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"You are what you eat -- so don't be Fast, Easy, Cheap or Fake."

kccc
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Post by kccc » Thu Dec 03, 2009 3:03 pm

Liz, that's a very helpful thought! Thank you.

I took a hard look at December (93 meals, lol!), and there are a total of 8-9 actual parties. Of those, 3 fall on normal S days. One more is simply a lunch out with colleagues, which I think is an easy N. That leaves 4-5 events to consider. Two are okay for normal NWS days... so I need to address the others.

Of course, there are the "little things" too. For example, we're going to see the holiday parade tonight, and we usually stop and get a treat afterwards while we wait for traffic to clear. I am thinking I can find a hot drink that is N-compliant, though.

Just being clear about my goals is helping a good bit already.

I'm considering some "one-month mods" - like keeping some Sundays as N-days, and using the S's elsewhere - even though I normally advocate plain vanilla no-S. I say "considering because I see the danger of that particular mod. (S-days normally vary, with some being heavy and some closer to N-days. If I move them all to "days I want to eat a lot," the overall intake will be higher.)

Another possibility I'm considering is to use some "S-events." For me, an S-day works out to about 3 S-events... so I may spread out "one event" per party and allow 3 to equal an S-day. That one may work better for me... but I'm still a little reluctant to modify, knowing that it's a slippery slope.

So, if I go either route, that mod will be GONE on Jan. 1! :) I've learned that the hard way over and over that vanilla is best for me in the long run.

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