The Gluttony of the Holidays.

The Holidays….. Ugh, right? This post is prompted by a response to my post yesterday. A poster sympathized with me about being low carb over the holidays and how difficult that can be. It was reading that post that brought me to the realization that I have somehow unknowingly compartmentalized “the Holidays”.

I used to look at the Holidays as the span of weeks between Thanksgiving and the first day back at work after the New Year. That often gave me license for 5, 6, or 7 weeks of poor eating because, after all, it was “The Holidays”, right?

What I do now is segment “The Holidays” into discreet events. Thanksgiving is a meal and a dessert meal later in the day. DONE. Work Holiday Party comes next. That is four hours max! I can make good choices for four hours or so. I also bring something with me that I can eat and drink  since it’s a potluck type of event. Then there is nothing until Christmas Eve. Again, Christmas Eve is a four-hour event and a single meal that I cook and control. DONE. Christmas Day is next and again it’s just one meal. I can always navigate a single meal. So, another day DONE. Finally, comes the New Year. New Year has been a dinner out and a movie for years now, so that’s really not a big deal. New Year’s Day is a normal food day, but with a good protein based breakfast (I just forgo the carby parts!), and a day for cleaning up and “un-decorating” – again a tradition for many years.

I made a rule about no grazing during these events. Grazing can be my Waterloo at these types of gatherings. I decide before hand if I will or won't have a dessert or a carby food. I can tell you that on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day I will have a dessert. New Year's Eve I most likely won't - haven't made a final decision yet.

“The Holidays” is no longer a season for me in the sense it once was. It is no longer a season of eating whatever crossed my path with reckless abandon! It has become a series of events that really don’t amount to a great amount of time over the span of 6 or 7 weeks.

For new post ops, I know this season is pretty easy to navigate. However, once a post op is 3 or 4 months out, food is much easier to eat and for some the “treats” start calling. For those who might need a plan of attack, maybe this approach and mindset will be helpful.

Great advice.  I really actually enjoyed Thanksgiving so much more this year than usual -- last year was terrible b/c I was on my pre-op diet.  This year I enjoyed the company, I enjoyed the food, but I wasn't insanely full afterwards :)

Now it's December -- I'm not fighting xmas cookies and bingeing left and right.  I will have people for xmas but it wont be ALL about food.

My girlfriends work had a cookie exchange yesterday. She brought home 6 dozen cookies of various types including my favorite (peanut butter cups in peanut butter cookies). The person that made them wrote "get in my belly" on the container. Pre VSG I would have eaten most of them in 3-4 days. Today I just say F**k you cookies every time I walk past them. I love me sleeve and new attitude toward food. 

I'm going to try flipping off the cookies and saying (mentally) "F*ck you" every time I walk by them.  Maybe it will make it easier for me :-) 

You have me in stitches.

So if you flip them off, this is what I'm going to do: when I have to deal with them.

As you know I have the cookie lady bringing in cookies next Monday. I'm storing up my strength and willpower and all my neener neener neeners!

LOL! This just made me laugh :) Thanks!

"F*&# you, cookies."  I'm going to try that with french fries the next time I see them! :)  I'm a fatty/savory eater.  This holiday season, I'm worried about ham biscuits, chex mix (CHEX MIX!!) and all those great cheese balls and sausage balls and all other fatty things that get rolled up and squished into a ball for the holidays.  

F*&# you, balls of fatty yumminess. 

Thank you for your insights and reminding us at 4 months out that we can let old habits creep back in with relative ease.

I really like how you broke down this season into distinct events that we can control and mentally plan for.  In my former pre-sleeve life I ate whatever I wanted from Thanksgiving to New Years and assured myself that I would get back on the wagon in January.  This will be the first time in my life that I didn't gain weight between Oct and Dec 31st.  EVER!!! I love my sleeve.

Thanksgiving was so much easier than I ever imagined.  I cooked all of my traditional dishes for my family and sampled a little of each at dinner.  I was satisfied but not in my typical food coma.  There was no room for dessert and I didn't need it.  My sweet potato carrot puree was my dessert. 

Happy Holidays.

Good advice!  Thanksgiving became a crazy graze fest for almost 2 weeks for me.  "Oh, there are cookies?  I might as well have one!"  I'm glad it's the only holiday that's at my house :P

For me, I always figured the holiday season started at Hallowe'en!

I think this mindset is so helpful. I came across something similar when I read "It's a meal, not a season." After much debate I decided to allow myself treats on Thanksgiving, but after that one meal, that was that. If you do it all the time, it's not special anymore!