I've been getting a lot of questions about how I survived the holidays-- you know, considering my new, healthy lifestyle and weight loss goal. (Can you believe it will be one year this Friday since Hubs and I started focusing on getting healthy?) In response, I want to tell you exactly how it all went down.
First off, it was not easy! Hubs and I traveled north to my parents for the holidays and the house was overflowing with chocolates, potato chips (including my favorite barbecue variety), fudge, cookies, pie, cheeses, and so on... and so on.
As a first line of defense, I traveled with a lot of my own food items or I bought them up there on our first day in town. I made sure I had my essential bagel thins close at hand. I also took my fat free sweet Italian cream coffee creamer, fruit leather (snagged from Trader Joes), homestyle popcorn from Pop Secret (incredible stuff), baby carrots, cuties, double fiber bread by Brownberry, light string cheese, and some light sour cream (my parents don't like sour cream, so we would have had to buy this anyway). Having these snacks/low fat options around the house helped a lot. When my family was munching on chocolate turtles, I grabbed some fruit leather and consumed only 1 weight watchers point instead of 5. When we had Italian beef on Christmas Eve, I had my homestyle popcorn and carrots with my meal, instead of potato chips. And when everyone else was eating my uncle's fried cornmeal mush for breakfast, I was more than happy to eat a bagel thin coated with oohy gooey peanut butter and a cutie.
Inevitably, I knew I couldn't avoid all of the holiday indulging. I tried to do it wisely though. When we went out for breakfast the day after Christmas, I ordered oatmeal with a side of scrambled egg whites instead of the bacon and cheese omelet I would have ordered before. When everyone was ordering fish fry on Christmas Eve's Eve, I got a salad with grilled chicken and cranberries (delicious). And in my stocking this year, I requested no candy. It was a big change because normally my stocking would be full of Snickers, Kit Kats, and Lifesavers. The one surprise was a package of Weight Watchers chocolate, caramel, pecan candies. They were just like turtles, but only cost me 1 point each- hooray!
When it came to Christmas dinner, Mom generously let me introduce a number of healthier options. 2 years ago, we had: broccoli rice casserole, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes loaded with butter, ham, white jello, cranberry sauce, gravy, buttery dinner rolls, candied yams, and wine. This year, we served up: roasted parmesan green beans, honey ham, 7-up casserole (made with diet soda and 1/3 fat cream cheese), rosemary garlic parmesan biscuits, regular mashed potatoes, baked sweet potatoes, gravy, and wine (from the winery behind our house). It was a scrumptious meal, filled with healthy dishes (many of the recipes from where else, but Gina's skinnytaste).
To balance out the copious amount of eating going on over the holidays, I purposely included plenty of exercise. Thankfully, there was enough snow Up North to do cross-country skiing. I was so excited to dust off my skis and glide across the fresh powder to my heart's content. It had been too long since I'd gone skiing. It is such a good cardio workout- my arms and legs were really feeling sore by the end of the second day. In addition to skiing, I managed a couple of yoga videos, walks in the snow with the dogs, and 2 really good 5k runs (the runs happened while we were still at home and I had access to the gym--I'm not one for winter running out of doors).
So how did it all work out? Well, my original goal starting way back in January 2011 was to lose 100 pounds by January 6, 2012. You already know that I've lost at least 90 pounds and I will tell you that when I left for my parent's house I was 3 pounds away from reaching my goal. I will also tell you that I gained 1 pound over the holidays. Oh the suspense...
And the verdict is...
Like I could really tell you today when tomorrow is January 6th. You'll have to check back tomorrow to see whether I met my goal of 100 pounds lost or not.
First off, it was not easy! Hubs and I traveled north to my parents for the holidays and the house was overflowing with chocolates, potato chips (including my favorite barbecue variety), fudge, cookies, pie, cheeses, and so on... and so on.
As a first line of defense, I traveled with a lot of my own food items or I bought them up there on our first day in town. I made sure I had my essential bagel thins close at hand. I also took my fat free sweet Italian cream coffee creamer, fruit leather (snagged from Trader Joes), homestyle popcorn from Pop Secret (incredible stuff), baby carrots, cuties, double fiber bread by Brownberry, light string cheese, and some light sour cream (my parents don't like sour cream, so we would have had to buy this anyway). Having these snacks/low fat options around the house helped a lot. When my family was munching on chocolate turtles, I grabbed some fruit leather and consumed only 1 weight watchers point instead of 5. When we had Italian beef on Christmas Eve, I had my homestyle popcorn and carrots with my meal, instead of potato chips. And when everyone else was eating my uncle's fried cornmeal mush for breakfast, I was more than happy to eat a bagel thin coated with oohy gooey peanut butter and a cutie.
Inevitably, I knew I couldn't avoid all of the holiday indulging. I tried to do it wisely though. When we went out for breakfast the day after Christmas, I ordered oatmeal with a side of scrambled egg whites instead of the bacon and cheese omelet I would have ordered before. When everyone was ordering fish fry on Christmas Eve's Eve, I got a salad with grilled chicken and cranberries (delicious). And in my stocking this year, I requested no candy. It was a big change because normally my stocking would be full of Snickers, Kit Kats, and Lifesavers. The one surprise was a package of Weight Watchers chocolate, caramel, pecan candies. They were just like turtles, but only cost me 1 point each- hooray!
When it came to Christmas dinner, Mom generously let me introduce a number of healthier options. 2 years ago, we had: broccoli rice casserole, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes loaded with butter, ham, white jello, cranberry sauce, gravy, buttery dinner rolls, candied yams, and wine. This year, we served up: roasted parmesan green beans, honey ham, 7-up casserole (made with diet soda and 1/3 fat cream cheese), rosemary garlic parmesan biscuits, regular mashed potatoes, baked sweet potatoes, gravy, and wine (from the winery behind our house). It was a scrumptious meal, filled with healthy dishes (many of the recipes from where else, but Gina's skinnytaste).
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| Picture taken from skinnytaste.com |
So how did it all work out? Well, my original goal starting way back in January 2011 was to lose 100 pounds by January 6, 2012. You already know that I've lost at least 90 pounds and I will tell you that when I left for my parent's house I was 3 pounds away from reaching my goal. I will also tell you that I gained 1 pound over the holidays. Oh the suspense...
And the verdict is...
Like I could really tell you today when tomorrow is January 6th. You'll have to check back tomorrow to see whether I met my goal of 100 pounds lost or not.
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