{"id":1217,"date":"2009-10-20T16:34:20","date_gmt":"2009-10-20T16:34:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/?p=1217"},"modified":"2009-12-02T02:57:27","modified_gmt":"2009-12-02T02:57:27","slug":"quixs-guide-to-surviving-the-holidays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/2009\/10\/20\/quixs-guide-to-surviving-the-holidays\/","title":{"rendered":"Quix&#8217;s Guide to Surviving The Holidays"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>So, I always hear that the holidays are the hardest part of the year to maintain a healthy lifestyle.\u00a0 And by holidays, I mean the last quarter of the year being Hallo-anksgiv-mas.\u00a0 Which might as well just be Christmas, since ALL THE FREAKING STORES have their Christmas decorations up already.\u00a0 Some were up in Au<img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/www.wonderchristmas.com\/funny_pictures\/christmas_funny_pictures_17.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"288\" height=\"214\" \/>gust.\u00a0 Does that just piss anyone else right the fuck off?\u00a0 Christmas is a holiday on December 25th.\u00a0 Christmas season is from black Friday to Jan 1.\u00a0 I DO NOT WANT TO SEE CHRISTMAS SHIT IN OCTOBER!<\/p>\n<p>Ok, grinchy rant over.\u00a0 Anyhoo, I so don&#8217;t agree &#8211; I think summer is the hardest for me and I regularly LOSE weight during the holidays.\u00a0 The first year, I took off 15 lbs between Thanksgiving and NYE.\u00a0 Last year I took off 7.\u00a0 I&#8217;m hoping to continue the trend although my track record hasn&#8217;t been that great this year.\u00a0 Honestly, the holidays are only as big of a deal as you make it.\u00a0 Here are how I&#8217;ve gotten through them.\u00a0 As always, your mileage may vary.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Healthy Lifestyle Problem #1:<\/strong> There will be candy, cookies, and other random non-healthy eatings around in abundance.\u00a0 Yes, it would be nice if we gave out protein bars for Halloween and made Christmas Salad for santa, but sadly, it&#8217;s not the case.\u00a0 There will be food all around that is not necessarily good and healthy for you.\u00a0 It might even infiltrate your house via significant others picking up some sale Halloween candy or neighbors bringing over Christmas cookies (yes, people in our neighborhood still do that, isn&#8217;t it cute?).\u00a0 How do you deal with sweets being shoved in your face 24\/7 for the greater part of 3 whole months?<\/p>\n<p>Tips:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Allow yourself an occasional treat.\u00a0 Sure, Snickers aren&#8217;t the epitome of good healthy eating, but if see it and want it, you&#8217;ll go nuts about it if you&#8217;re like me.\u00a0 If I see something like that, I&#8217;ll grab it and stick it in my desk drawer at work until I can work it in my calorie count for the day.\u00a0 I still have a reese&#8217;s peanut butter egg from easter in there somewhere.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>For baked goods others are offering, I have a guideline &#8211; if it&#8217;s from a store, skip it.\u00a0 If it&#8217;s homemade, at least have a taste.\u00a0 If someone took the time to make homemade cookies from scratch and is offering them directly to me, I&#8217;ll find the smallest one and eat half.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>If something gets in your house, really think long and hard if you can be trusted around it.\u00a0 If not, take it to work for others to enjoy, ask your significant other to keep it somewhere besides the house, or failing everything, just throw it away.\u00a0 It is not the end of the world to put something you don&#8217;t want to eat in the garbage.\u00a0 It is not doing the starving kids in China ANY GOOD to pad your own hips more.\u00a0 This is probably the most freeing thing I learned during deporkifying.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>If you find you can&#8217;t escape a situation, lie.\u00a0 If your coworker Jeannie McPushypants is INSISTING you eat one of her storebought cookies because they are JUST SO CUTE, tell her you have a mild allergy to flour so you don&#8217;t indulge very often because it makes you feel ill (which is not TOO far from the truth, if you ate every coo<img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/jacks-jokes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/thanksgiving-big-bird.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"209\" height=\"304\" \/>kie offered, you&#8217;d indeed feel ill).\u00a0 For some reason, people seem to respect allergies where they don&#8217;t respect trying to be healthy.\u00a0 Go figure.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Healthy Lifestyle Problem #2:<\/strong> Parties, parties, parties.\u00a0 First there is the &#8220;let&#8217;s all get together and hit the haunted house and go out&#8221; this weekend and then the halloween party proper next weekend, and then the actual halloween weekend will have more parties.\u00a0 Candy and sweets and witches brew in various forms (adult or not).\u00a0 Let&#8217;s not even mention the multiple thanksgivings that most people have (work, friends, family, other family) as well as Christmas parties (again &#8211; work, friends, family, etc).\u00a0 How do you cope with the &#8220;awww, we&#8217;re all celebrating &#8211; loosen up a little&#8221; being thrust in your face every freaking week?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Don&#8217;t participate.\u00a0 It&#8217;s not an option I invoke very often (I like parties!) but if the party isn&#8217;t meaningful to you and is just going to set you off, find something else fun to do (so you don&#8217;t feel deprived).\u00a0 Or if it&#8217;s a work potluck, just have some last minute lunch plans during that time you can&#8217;t cancel.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Some people say to eat a healthy meal before, but if you&#8217;re like me, I eat a healthy meal before, then munch and drink at the party too.\u00a0 I compromise and make sure I eat a super healthy filling lo cal snack, but leave some room to taste the best of the best yummies.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>My plan already allows for 1 or 2 higher calorie days on the weekend with lower calorie days during the week &#8211; I just make those the party days.\u00a0 In that vein, if you make sure and be pretty much saintly the day before and after said party, you shouldn&#8217;t have problems.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Get an extra workout in or go extra hard to burn some extra calories.\u00a0 Gonna have a few glasses of wine tonight?\u00a0 Run a few miles.\u00a0 Too much turkey?\u00a0 Say hi to the elliptical.\u00a0 Just make sure you&#8217;re not overtraining if you&#8217;re already on a pretty rigorous workout schedule.\u00a0 I&#8217;m signing up for a race on Thanksgiving morning and already have half marathon training runs scheduled Christmas Eve Morning and the 26th.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>If it&#8217;s the holiday proper, enjoy yourself and don&#8217;t think too hard.\u00a0 Eat a nice, filling, healthy breakfast and then sit at the table enjoying the company instead of obsessing over how many calories each slice of turkey has, please.\u00a0 Thanksgiving and Christmas are generally days where a lot of love and tradition goes into the preparation of a big meal &#8211; one day is not going to kill you.\u00a0 Just make sure it&#8217;s that ONE day.\u00a0 Again, if you&#8217;re saintly the day before and after, it&#8217;s not going to kill you.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Above all, my biggest tip would be&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>YOU ARE GOING TO SCREW UP.\u00a0 Yes, even you Ms. Perfect over there who is convinced your willpower will keep you on celery and hummus through the WHOLE holiday season.\u00a0 Ok, <a href=\"http:\/\/theantijared.blogspot.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">maybe not this guy<\/a>, but still.\u00a0 <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/halloweencostumesblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/10\/halloween-pumpkin-flashers.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"218\" height=\"183\" \/>Most of us mere mortals will have a day or two where we eat and drink more than we should.\u00a0 Know this&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>IT IS OK.\u00a0 I promise.\u00a0 You are not kicked out of the healthy lifestyle club for falling facefirst onto a stack of cupcakes or having <span style=\"text-decoration: line-through;\">a big<\/span> <span style=\"text-decoration: line-through;\">two<\/span> three helpings of mom&#8217;s famous mashed potatoes rife with butter and gravy at Thanksgiving, or having 6 glasses of wine at the company Christmas party instead of the 2 you had planned on.\u00a0 Just don&#8217;t blame me if you get fired, tee hee.\u00a0 You enjoy your moment of indulgence, wake up the next morning (or next meal or next moment or whatnot), and go back to the healthy living you know and love.\u00a0 This means&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>NO GUILT.\u00a0 NONE.\u00a0 No feeling bad because you screwed up so you&#8217;re going to mope around and you feel worthless so you might as well just eat a cookie because you&#8217;re never going to lose any weight with your lack of self control anyway.\u00a0 Well, since they&#8217;re there, you might as well finish the bag so you can start again tomorrow&#8230; sound familiar?<\/p>\n<p>The best aha moment I ever had was recognizing this (I still succumb to it but not nearly as often) and telling myself, &#8220;Self, we had a good time last night!\u00a0 Those sweets sure were divine and it was certainly fun to get a little tipsy, huh?\u00a0 Let&#8217;s make sure to be extra good today so it doesn&#8217;t put a damper in our week, right? Right.&#8221;\u00a0 And be done with it. And dear fluffy lord &#8211; if you&#8217;re NOT enjoying the cookie or the wine SPIT IT OUT (preferably not on anyone nearby) and throw it away.<\/p>\n<p>What are your tips for surviving the holidays?\u00a0 Does anyone else think I&#8217;m crazy for thinking the holidays are easier than the summer?<\/p>\n<div data-counters='1' data-style='square' data-size='regular' data-url='https:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/2009\/10\/20\/quixs-guide-to-surviving-the-holidays\/' data-title='Quix&#8217;s Guide to Surviving The Holidays' class='linksalpha_container linksalpha_app_3'><a href='\/\/www.linksalpha.com\/share?network='facebook' class='linksalpha_icon_facebook'><\/a><a href='\/\/www.linksalpha.com\/share?network='twitter' class='linksalpha_icon_twitter'><\/a><a href='\/\/www.linksalpha.com\/share?network='googleplus' class='linksalpha_icon_googleplus'><\/a><a href='\/\/www.linksalpha.com\/share?network='mail' class='linksalpha_icon_mail'><\/a><\/div><div data-position='' data-url='https:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/2009\/10\/20\/quixs-guide-to-surviving-the-holidays\/' data-title='Quix&#8217;s Guide to Surviving The Holidays' class='linksalpha_container linksalpha_app_7'><a href='\/\/www.linksalpha.com\/share?network='facebook' class='linksalpha_icon_facebook'><\/a><a href='\/\/www.linksalpha.com\/share?network='twitter' class='linksalpha_icon_twitter'><\/a><a href='\/\/www.linksalpha.com\/share?network='googleplus' class='linksalpha_icon_googleplus'><\/a><a href='\/\/www.linksalpha.com\/share?network='mail' class='linksalpha_icon_mail'><\/a><\/div><div class=\"fcbkbttn_buttons_block\" id=\"fcbkbttn_left\"><div class=\"fcbkbttn_like \"><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/2009\/10\/20\/quixs-guide-to-surviving-the-holidays\/\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\" layout=\"standard\" show-faces='false' width=\"225px\" size=\"small\"><\/fb:like><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>So, I always hear that the holidays are the hardest part of the year to maintain a healthy lifestyle.\u00a0 And by holidays, I mean the last quarter of the year being Hallo-anksgiv-mas.\u00a0 Which might as well just be Christmas, since ALL THE FREAKING STORES have their Christmas decorations up already.\u00a0 Some were up in August.\u00a0 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[17,75,41,42],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paUhDu-jD","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1217"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1217"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1217\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1374,"href":"https:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1217\/revisions\/1374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}