What is your Personal Holiday Healthy Eating Plan?

I have so enjoyed all of your postings and e-mail about your plan for a healthier Thanksgiving and plan to use many of them. Thanks for sharing.

(For our last weekly challenge you have to read all the way to the end of this long post)

So it is the last week of our competition and what are you going to do next?

Many sources estimate that the average holiday weight gain between Thanksgiving and New Years is 7-10 pounds. Is that what you want for Christmas?

Regaining the weight you have lost through good habits and hard work on this competition is not inevitable: Recent studies show that some people are able to lose a substantial amount of weight and keep it off at least a decade. So what is their secret?

Researchers have been tracking successful dieters in the National Weight Control Registry, a group of 10,000 people who have lost 30 pounds or more and maintained that loss for a year or more. Participants fill out lifestyle questionnaires every year.

For the latest analysis, researchers reviewed the questionnaires of 3,000 members who have been in the registry for 10 years. About three-quarters are women; most are college-educated. Among the findings presented recently at a meeting of the Obesity Society:

1. Participants weighed an average of 224 pounds before their weight loss. They dropped an average of 69 pounds.

2. They had maintained an average of a 52-pound loss at five years and an average of a 51-pound loss at 10 years.

Some gradual regain over time is typical, but almost all participants maintained a substantial weight loss even after 10 years.

SO WHAT IS THEIR SECRET TO SUCCESS?

MOST OF THOSE SUCCESSFUL TO LOSING WEIGHT AND KEEPING IT OFF CONTINUED TO:

1. Track their daily food intake.

2. Count calorie or fat grams or use a point system (like weight watchers) to maintain proper portions.

3. Follow a low-calorie, low-fat diet. They take in about 1,800 calories a day and less than 30% of calories from fat (no gimmick here they continued to eat proper portions and amounts of food)

4. Eat breakfast regularly.

5. Limit the amount they eat out. They dine out an average of three times a week and eat fast food less than once a week.

6. Eat similar foods regularly and don't splurge much on holidays and special occasions.

7. Walk about an hour a day or burn the same calories with other activities.

8. Watch fewer than 10 hours of TV a week.

9. Weigh themselves at least once a week.

Does that surprise you at all? One of my favorite sayings is “If you do what you did you’ll get what you got!” That applies to the good habits we have worked on during this competition as well as the poor ones we may have had in the past.

We could all easily come up with the following list as well.

HOW TO REGAIN ALL OF THE WEIGHT I’VE LOST ON THIS CHALLENGE BY CHRISTMAS TIME

1. Stop keeping track of what I’m eating. It takes too much time and it’s too much trouble to keep doing that myfitnesspal.com.

2. Skip breakfast and other meals when busy with holiday preparation. Go hungry to parties and events.

3. Let yourself snack on dough and warm baked items when baking…. Don’t keep track of nibbles and bites.

4. Eat lots of meals out: fast food on the run, company Christmas party at a restaurant, church party, lunch out with friends. Go to these events hungry and tired and fill up on whatever. It’s Christmas time don’t worry about it

5. Fill up on foods at parties and events that you have no idea as far as calorie count etc. It’s yum- it’s party food.

6. Eat every holiday treat that is offered. Junk dropped off by the neighbors, leftovers hubby brings home from office party, treats from the visiting teacher. Gift baskets that come in the mail. Eat them all, eat them on an empty stomach and eat them before your family comes home to share in the eating.

7. Don’t worry about drinking your water. Egg-nog, holiday punch, hot cider, soda- mmmmm.

8. Don’t keep track of fruits and veggies. No worries there is always fruit cake.

9. Cut out exercise. It is the holidays and your to do list is a mile long. You have no time to exercise.

10. Wait to weigh yourself until the New Year. You don’t want to weigh yourself today as the party food you ate last night has probably caused bloating and won’t give you a truly accurate weight. So put it off until tomorrow, or maybe next Thursday or heck it’s stressful just wait until January 1.

I HOPE THIS ISN’T TOO SIMILAR TO LAST WEEK’S CHALLENGE BUT YOUR CHALLENGE FOR THIS WEEK IS TO DECIDE BEFORE HAND ON YOUR PLAN FOR YOUR HOLIDAY (Thanksgiving to New Year) HEALTHY LIVING. You very well may want to vary the habits we have been working on and perhaps choose a goal to maintain your weight rather than to try to lose during the holidays. Go over the reporting form and what we have been tracking and decide one by one what habits will you keep and which ones will you take a break from during the holidays.

TO RECEIVE YOUR BONUS POINTS FOR OUR LAST WEEK YOU NEED TO FORMULATE A HOLIDAY HEATLTHY HABIT PLAN FOR YOURSELF AND EITHER E-MAIL IT TO THE GROUP OR POST IT TO THE BLOG.

There is no wrong answer here. Whatever you decide will be wonderful. You can even take the $5 a week you have been spending on our competition and continue to set aside that money to purchase a reward for yourself if you stick to the plan you make. Or you might want to continue your healthy habits for a charitable cause and donate the funds you earn through sticking to your plan to a wonderful charity (I’m so excited about the new fund to raise money for those that live very far from the temple to get to travel to complete their own ordinances.)

One of the things we need to overcome is all or none thinking as far as weight loss.

We can be moderate during the holidays. We can enjoy the best of the holiday treats but we need to learn to enjoy them with temperance rather than abandon!

Sandee