Egg nog, cookies and pies, Oh My!.....

This is a great time of year to live alone when it comes to food.  My son isn't visiting until after the New Year but he's an excellent eater and there won't be any junk in the house.  My office isn't littered with junk food.  Yesterday someone left some lovely fuyu persimmons on the kitchen table.

That said, I just spent 4 days eating hotel and restaurant food and my scale is up the 2 pounds to show it. I hope it's sodium weight because I haven't had a home meal since Thursday lunch and restaurants use so much sodium.

I'm going away for 8 days, leaving for the east coast on Christmas day.  I need to get myself in check right now or it will spell disaster for me.  Back to the old protein first.  I hope I'm done pushing the envelope!

Hopefully your hosts on the east coast will not push fattening foods on you, Lee.  It's so much easier to stick to our eating plans when we are in our normal routine in our own homes.  Just keep your eye on the prize and stay strong. Maybe you can bring your protein powders with you. 

You know I lived on the east coast for 4 different periods in my life, right (Boston twice. Wash DC. and NJ/New York)?  So I am always interested in where people are going when they are visiting the east coast.  It allows me to reminisce.  So where are you headed?
:)
Kathy 

My mom and I are doing our annual cookie baking marathon on Saturday, then off to my husband's company Christmas party. I am home on Christmas break from school, so I don't have the office treats to deal with like some people. I eat a little bit of stuff now. I figure if I eat low calorie during the day, I can have a little stuff at these parties. I work out super hard, and most of the time am too low calorie anyway. It's all a balance. As long as you don't go nuts eating, it will be fine.

I think I need to start working out Shannon. I've had some spinal cord injury and there are things I just cannot do anymore, but I think it's time to revisit the Physical therapist to see just what I CAN do.  i used to be SO active so I have always been able to relate to your posts and relate to your passion for working out. I was on the rowing team in college and over the years I was big into running - every day about 3 miles/day for years. And then working out was a serious thing for me too until the spinal thing. So I really get the endorphin thing and how great it feels to really think of your body as something  you are in contol of and something you can push to greatness!  So rock on with that Shannon!  At this point in my life, I just want to see what I can do with how things are now. 

So how exactly do you manage the cookie baking thing and just having a little bit of the xmas goodies?  Like when you are baking, how many tastes do you allow yourself and what exactly do you prevent one cookie from turning into two cookies, then three cookies, etc.  Do you talk to yourself? Do you cover them up so you can't see them?  What do you do?   

So sorry about the injury! I bet you can power walk or do the elliptical or something though. I usually just don't start on the cookies. It will be an all day baking event, so usually I am so sick of looking at the things, I don't even want to eat one. I do talk to myself. I think about how hard I have worked or how hard I worked out that morning, etc. It feels like I worked out for nothing if I ruin it by eating crap. I will eat some raw veggies before a get together so I am partially full by the time I get to the bad food too. Sometimes, I just let myself go and eat whatever I want. But this is rare. I eat only what is on my menu all week long, then let go a little on the weekends. This has only been the past few weeks though. I am pretty comfortable maintaining, so I am usually up a couple pounds on Monday, then lose them during the week.

Well - I'm not doing so good today.  I've had 3 cookies already this morning and it is not even 10:30.  One of our patrons brought them in yesterday and somebody told me about them.  Some days they would not bother me, but today is not one of those days......

Oh Linda!  (I haven't been on OH for a couple of days).   I hope the last couple of days were better than Tuesday.  And I hope those cookies were good ones.  There is nothing worse than wasting calories on mediocre goodies.  When you said patron, it made me wonder if you work at a library.  I worked at our local public library throughout high school.  I LOVED being in a library and being around books and people *****ad books. Is that where you work?

I do work at a public library.  I love books and love to read.  This is like my dream job most of the time!!

She brought in a pound cake yesterday.  I resisted all day yesterday.

Linda

I'm with Christina on this one!  Part of having the tool is to help all of us to learn to eat in moderation.  A taste of things here and there isn't going to kill us!  Now if you sit down and eat a pound of fudge you should pay the price, but a bite of your favorite holiday treats isn't going to do you in forever.  I think many of us have the menality that because we had a sweets day our whole life is now off track and we will be obese again by the end of the next year.  Sorry that's just not possible unless you are completely out of control......LOL  Learning to enjoy the holiday without guilt is one of the hardest things for most people on the planet!  Why would we be any different??  So I remind myself just like any normal thin person......MODERATION!.....You will be fine Kathy....just like the rest of us! 

Thanks for the pep talk, Heather.  Of course you are absolutely right.  But I seem to be forgetting that I have even had WLS these last few days!  I don't know if i'm being hynotized by the lights or if I'm distracted by the excitement of having my kids home or what, but it's the unconscious picking at food that is killing me.  Like the gourmet popcorn that my son's girlfriend sent us that is sitting on the kitchen island or the muffins that I made for the family (first time baking since WLS).  It's as though my brain shuts off and my  body behaves robotically and snatches a muffin and then it's in my mouth, chewed and swallowed before I even have time to think about it! Oy...give me strength!