It’s a jungle forest out there!
Last week, we hit up IKEA and I could not resist the wildlife cookie cutters. I had tried my hand at Eat, Live, Run’s old-fashioned gingerbread men the week before, and they were delicious, but I made them too thick and they appeared to have suffered molasses-dripping gunshot wounds. I knew the little animal shapes would be perfect for the cookies I was planning to make and send to family in Pennsylvania.
This time, I rolled them out nice and thin, and the end result was much better. But when you roll your dough out super thin, it creates a ton of cookies, so a lot of them ended up being squirrels because it was the easiest shape to use.
The moose were by far my favorites, though.
Holiday weight gain
I’m not going to tell you how to avoid gaining weight this time of year. Because you already know. Eat an apple before you go to the party, squeeze in extra minutes on the elliptical, take the stairs, choose the cocktail or dessert, but never both.
I knew those tips verbatim when I weighed 300 pounds, and I think most fat people do. They devour the “avoiding weight gain” features plastered across magazines, newspapers, blogs and morning talk shows, mentally archiving the tips but never actually doing any of them.
At least, I didn’t.
I will tell you that my usual holiday strategy was to eat whatever I wanted — within reason. Have a cookie, try that dip, but don’t go nuts. There was the occasional cheese-and-cracker bender, for sure, but I never gave it much thought. It’s life. It happens.
Until this year.
I’m not sure if it’s the wedding (just more than six months away!) or the fact that I’ve started seeing a registered dietitian, but I am much more aware of everything I’m putting into my mouth. Because my RD is reinforcing what I already know: You can eat this stuff and maintain your weight, but you can’t eat it and continue to lose.
I know it’s the holidays. I know it’s important to treat yourself. I know indulgences are OK.
I also know that I want to lose more weight. And I know that these fabulous cookies, cocktails, dips and spreads will be around forever, but I want to lose weight now. So this year, I am much more conscious of exactly which treats I’m eating, and I am eating far fewer than any other holiday since 2005, when I started to lose weight.
It’s not easy, but it’s not as difficult as I thought it would be. I’ve spent the past five and a half years learning to be conscious of everything I put in my mouth.
And on that note, be sure to visit Bess’ post on Hollaback Health: Driven to Drink … By Health Magazines’ Holiday Issues. I’ll raise my glass to that! (If you missed it, my latest Hollaback Health post was Monday: Putting a Cap on Your Recaps.)
9 comments
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December 23, 2010 at 9:49 am
Ale
I am sure that having a wedding coming in 6 months it is a GREAT incentive! What you are saying is so true, the food will be here forever but I want to lose weight today or at least not to gain more!
Thank you for the reminder, I will keep this in mind during the next two weeks, I will try to choose what to eat instead of eating it all…:)
Happy Holidays!
December 23, 2010 at 10:52 am
MelissaNibbles
Fantastic post. It’s very rare to see people admit that they want to stick to their diets during the holidays and are going to try to. Maybe we’re all telling everyone else to indulge so we don’t feel as guilty when we do ourselves?
I’m sure the cookies are delicious no matter what shape they’re in. I love the cookie cutters.
December 23, 2010 at 11:18 am
Dawn Hutchins
I am right there with you girl. I know it’s the holidays and there are lots of delicious foods but I just joined the WW meetings again on Tuesday becuase I feel the same way. I don’t want to wait to lose weight or wait and have gained and then have to work to lose even more. I’m in my sister in law’s wedding Jan 15th and just want to look and feel great but so many people seem to have such a hard time with me not eating the cookie/cake/butter laden mashed potato etc. I was actually hazed about eating a cookie on Tuesday. “Here have a cookie”, “You know you want it, just have a bite”, “C’mon have HALF at least”. What part of I DON’T WANT THE DAMN COOKIE didn’t they understand? I’m glad to know there is someone else that feels the same way!
December 23, 2010 at 10:29 pm
Ashley
I really, really hate that, but you know what? Sometimes that happens because people just do not understand how we can control ourselves and refuse the cookie. And I get it, because for a long time, I didn’t understand it either, but that doesn’t make it any less annoying.
December 23, 2010 at 12:09 pm
Rachel Wilkerson
It’s so tough because I feel like there is this constant battle — the messages telling you to indulge and the messages telling you how to not gain weight. My plan last year and this year was to just maintain, not gain…but even that can feel really frustrating if you are trying to lose!
In other news, I LOVE THAT MOOSE COOKIE CUTTER! I’m not sure I can brave Ikea for it, but I do love it.
December 23, 2010 at 10:30 pm
Ashley
We went on a Thursday afternoon and it was sooooo much different than an outta control weekend. From now on, all of our IKEA outings will be during the week (not an easy feat, since the closest one is 2.5 hours away!)
December 23, 2010 at 3:19 pm
Kendra
The title of this post made me LLOL.
This year I’ve just plain decided that I want to enjoy the holiday festivities and indulge carefully. Day to day I’m sticking to my usual habits but I’m definitely indugling at the parties.
I decided that I was fine with the setback so that I could have a good holiday season without the stress. I might feel differently next year, though. Who knows.
Honestly, most of my indulgences are of the liquid variety anyway.
December 27, 2010 at 1:33 pm
Lisa
I imagine that wedding stress can cause a lot of stress eating. I hope you can still enjoy the wedding process and not get too stressed out!
December 28, 2010 at 10:15 pm
Bess @ I Dream of Greenie
Really good post. I like how you made the difference between going through flurry of holiday parties when you are content to maintain, versus trying to lose (or gain for that matter). No matter where you fall on that spectrum, the holidays can get pretty decadent and the parties seem to never end.