Countdown to Christmas

[ItRainsItPours]

All welcome!

Supportive thread for setting goals including self care and fasting, and chat in between!

Could you sneak them back into the packets @Clearingaspace ?
On audience participation the gay prince proposed to the female princess, then ran across to the opposite side of the stage to propose to an audience member then ran ending in a down on one knee skid to propose to ME! Had it been the none gay prince who was wearing Jodphurs and long leather boots I may have said yes.

Happy Christmas all - and especially @ItRainsItPours and @Clearingaspace ... my companions surrounded with festive fare and creating powerful fasts alongside enjoying wonderful food

I am glowing with pleasure - I had power over food last night, a festive dinner for 16 at a mates where I served Sticky Toffee Pudding..... I ate mine with greek yogurt and just a smidgen of ice cream... and didnt overindulge on cheeses, and mains...

Can I do it again today??? Hoping so ... but know that it is often when I am feeling confident that the ravenous side of me reappears, most unpredictably.

SW (Xmas): 11.3.8
CW: 11.5.6
GW: 11.5

Merry Christmas fellow fasters. I walked and fasted this morning and then a lovely huge Christmas roast. Had a couple of quality streets for pud so hopefully not too excessive.
Hooe everyone is enjoying their festivities.

That sounds amazing @ItRainsItPours ... I'm doing okay so far - soup, a wee bit of cheese, a pile of tangles and physalis - and some cold courgette kept in the kitchen for that purpose!

About to sit down for full meal... crossing fingers I can hold back!!! Think it needs more than that... Inspired by you I will power forth...

Happy Christmas! Amazing both of you. I have fallen into the quality street now but this morning I had eggs and salmon with no toast for breakfast, and that felt perfect! I think I will be ready for a fast tomorrow and that is unusual for me as I like to drag Christmas out!

Hi @Clearingaspace - ready for a fast sounds perfect!! Love the sound of your breakfast and the image of you falling into the Quality Street!

I am definitely ready for a shorter healthier eating day- phew I can skip breakfast with relatives and they're gone by lunchtime so then just DH and DC and I can choose what my body actually wants to eat...

And having this thread to muse on and be accountable to is perfect for helping me get straight back into healthy eating - with a few very conscious indulgences which I fully enjoy!!

Like you @Clearingaspace I had a great start to the day, feeling really proud of myself and pleased with my forethought of having loads of tangies everywhere (which I adore) and a plate of roast cauli and courgette stashed away for me to snack on.

BUT ... come 5.30 pm ... temporary very emotional reaction to something, became a bit unbalanced and my eating definitely did so I became semi-conscious rather than fully conscious like earlier....

How are you doing @ItRainsItPours ?? Did the rest of your yesterday go as impressively as it sounded when you last posted??

My eating from 5.30 pm... My reflections....

• A large portion of roast duck, loads of veggies and one roast potato GREAT
• Five large pieces of super crisp ducks skin that no one else seemed to be taking - Enjoyed first enormously then UNCONSCIOUS HOOVER
• One small portion of Xmas pud with large Greek Yogt and spoonful brandy butter ON TRACK
• Two more tiny portions plus LOTS of Brandy Butter UNCONSCIOUS HOOVER
• Small plate of yummy cheese AS PLANNED
• More yummy cheese at 9 pm and midnight UNCONSCIOUS HOOVER
• One chocolate and small piece 90% dark PROUD OF MYSELF
• Loads of tangies - probably about 9 or even 11 in the day! AS PLANNED - ENJOYABLE - GUILT FREE - DEEPLY PLEASURABLE
• Ditto a few physallis - and proud of myself not having fresh lychees as I found them too sweet the day before... coulld have been an unconscious hoover point
• Half glass champagne and two tiny Baileys, second one at midnight with DD with rest of house in bed HUGELY ENJOYABLE
• 4 mini Lindt teddy bears - 3 deeply enjoyable, one an EMOTIONAL HOOVER

I did feel too full after main meal, a little uncomfortable but not a patch on previous years

So overall some damage limitation and proud of not eating more chocolate/sugar or drinking more alcohol - my normal Christmas downfalls and what makes me feel most grungy afterwards..... Yes, the cheese was indulgent but not nearly as damaging as sweet stuff

SW (Xmas): 11.3.8
CW: 11.7.2... so 1.6lbs up from day before
GW for Xmas period: 11.5

This doesn't feel too bad and with a couple of easy days to eat more healthily I'm hoping I'll be back at 11.5 by 28th... lets see!

Thank you team for enabling me to post all of this - Not expecting it all to be read and it is brilliant for keeping me accountable and enabling me to stay more on track - A REALLY BIG THANK YOU!!!!!

@loveyouradvice great idea to have a Christmas log and reflections and thanks for sharing - nice reading all the things you found pleasurable and enjoyed eating.

loved the little picture of you and your dd sharing a late night tipple! On that topic, I had resolved not to buy baileys this year but caved at the last minute and added one to the Christmas order. I did some last minute Christmas shopping on Xmas eve and as I was going to Waitrose I took my coffee mug with a shot of Bailey’s at the bottom. Annoyingly the coffee machine was out of order (I suspect they have turned it off as busy!) so I drank the Bailey’s as a neat shot and it really hit the spot 🤣

So I was a little overstuffed after Christmas lunch but not too bad and I said no to apple pie and ice cream at my mums, which is a favourite so that was something. I was however a bit greedy with the baked Camembert and bread baguette which was my supper when we got home. I made ‘tea’ for the Dteens beforehand but some of them then also wanted to try the Camembert which was obviously fine, but one kept going and when the half baguette was finished dd suggested they get themselves a slice of bread for the kitchen, I said ok but get a plate and I can pour some cheese on for you - as really I just wanted to finish some of it off by myself! Dteen guessed this, took offence at the suggestion and then stomped off crossly. Obviously, I felt bad for not enjoying sharing from the same late more! This dteen often complains that I don’t like sharing because I don’t like her taking bites directly from my food (think pizza or toast) I would rather break off a piece and share it that way. Funny how we have different food boundaries.

i think I am up 3lbs today. But I was super thirsty last night and think that I must have eaten something very salty.

In January I think I will start my weight loss log from fresh as I have yo-yoed between 170s and 190s 2 or 3 times over the last year. Maybe a fresh start will help. Or actually I could start now as my resolution is to stop procrastinating - sw 193.6 lbs goal weight 139lbs.

happy Boxing Day everyone!

@Clearingaspace Very impressed by the No to your Mum's apple pie... and so understand about the baked camembert. It was a regular Camembert that I went back to three times - I do adore the stuff!

Loved your Bailey's story. And good idea to START TODAY on your new weight loss log! Congrats on not procrastinating and Ill look forward to hearing how your day goes

Mine's going great so far - Im finding it easy to eat less as feeling a bit "over-stuffed" from Christmas day....

So:

• Lunch of soup, 2 fried eggs (very little butter) and tomato salad ON TRACK
• Snacks of tangies, raspberries, a square of dark choc and 3 nuts ON TRACK
• Supper planned as squash/calliflower soup, cold salmon, tabbouleh, big green salad and some berries and another square of dark choc... LOOKING GOOD
• Free to eat as many tangies, raspberries and physalis as I want to in my eating window
• Eating window of 6-7.5 hours, started at 1.30 and wanting to be sociable so relaxed

Dropping in quickly to say I am uncomfortably full and have had to unbutton my trousers 🙄 so stopped eating around 4 and will see how long I can hold off tomorrow. Oh for the sagacity to stop sooner!

What a fantastic word @HarpQuartet , a new one on me.
I have had a lovely day of normal meals with some Christmas fayre in addition. It was nice to get a decent amount of plant based food in my normal meals. I have to say after a year of eating cleanly the toblerone I bought as a treat tastes like icing sugar and nothing else. Won’t bother next year.
We also enjoyed a lovely Boxing Day walk despite the fog, if it lifts tomorrow we will walk up a hill to enjoy the view.
The Christmas specials on tv haven’t disappointed, gavin and Stacey, Wallace and grommit plus some older repeats like the good life and porridge.

@ItRainsItPours it came up in a Thomas the Tank Engine story 😁 I also feel better when I eat a lot of plants, it'll be good to get back to my normal cooking and I do want to kick my sugar habit (again). I'm saving Gavin and Stacey, should have time tomorrow ❤️

Love that shift @ItRainsItPours Toblerone used to be a favourite christmas choc in this house too - now Im preferring my 90%!!

Plants and more plants - yes @HarpQuartet and @ItRainsItPours. Absolutely what I want at the mo - I am loving eating lots of tangies as a christmas treat and was very chuffed that my body wanted simple stuff yesterday after such a rich and delicious Christmas Day. Ate in a gently sociable 6 hour window. Made a delicious tabbouleh and ate with cold salmon... just what my body wanted!

So hoping planning how I can navigate pub lunch with family today and then parties in coming days.....

SW (Xmas): 11.3.8
CW: 11.5.0... so down 2.2 pounds from yesterday
GW for Xmas period: 11.5

It is helping SO MUCH posting on this thread - thank you!!! Keeping my motivation up and giving me time to reflect each morning on each day

Not heard of tabbouleh before but it looks interesting. I tend to have coleslaw and salad bits in the fridge. I use the coleslaw as a base and chop and mix in whatever comes to hand. My dd likes to have cheese toasties for lunch in the holidays so I’ve joined her a couple of times with a huge heap of this on the side. Not as good as salmon obviously but better than some of the holiday food.
Not eaten yet today but planning to crack open the festive cheeses for lunch and enjoy with crackers and salad.

Well done @loveyouradvice! One interesting thing for me is that I did a 19 hour fast last night and fully intended pistachio panettone and Bailey’s latte as part of my breakfast but I had zero desire for them (I might have them later though 😉) - all to say perhaps your efforts with a n eating window etc will help with it being easier to sensibly enjoy your pub lunch and parties.

@ItRainsItPours that is so interesting about your toblerone discovery. Enjoy your cheese and crackers - yum!

@HarpQuartet how did your fast go? I am also planning to watch gavin and Stacey.

this thread is definitely helping me too as there is no way i would have fasted yesterday otherwise. This is strange, but I do feel a bit unChristmasy because I associate Boxing Day onward with grazing through boxes of chocolate! I guess it’s a good association to break.

New starting weight (yesterday!) 193.6
cw 192.5
tw 139lbs

I'm happy to say that I met up with a friend this morning and we ate at about 11.30 (so approaching a 20 hour fast) and the food was just what I needed, poached eggs and spinach, avocado, lots of tomatoes... Proper tasty healthy food, exactly what I needed.

Plus have walked 9000 steps, feeling nice.

Weirdly craving a mince pie though! You'd think I'd be sick of them by now!

I definitely associate Christmas with grazing through chocolates too. That's the upside and downside to things like quality street, the variety pulls me back.

Having no desire for the "bad" food is the place I want to get back to (using talk marks for "bad" as I genuinely don't think of food that way. There are just foods that I know deep down I don't really want or need). I want to get back to the position I've been in before, where I didn't want food until I was hungry (wasn't obsessing in between eating), and then, when I was hungry, I was basically hungry for plants. That feels like being on my own team and winning.

@HarpQuartet sounds like a lovely day yesterday! I agree it is a great place to be and I know the foods that steer me wrong in terms of not wanting to eat unhealthy but for some reason I always end up eating them again. My dh had a health issue and I am amazed by how rigidly he is sticking to eating foods he believes to be healthy (we don’t agree on all aspects of whst this includes!). He seems to have stabilised at a healthy weight naturally. I should follow his advantage as I have the advantage of being 10 years older and should try and avoid getting on to the meds he is on - I also know several women not much older than me on heart medication.

I am embarrassed to derail but for full accountability I went crazy eating sugary stuff yesterday! I dropped ds to uni - I have driving anxiety and I kept going wrong on the m25 and it took an extra hour or so than it should have. I hadn’t eaten lunch and my plan had been a late lunch then fast, but when I arrived home much later than planned dd1 was eating a French fancy- well that was probably the worst thing I could have joined in with! Urgh and that was just the beginning, it was bad! The scale was the same this morning so either it will be a delayed reaction or it is a delayed positive from my fast the day before?

Excuse my typos too many Bailey’s coffees yesterday as we ran out of milk

@HarpQuartet I so agree - or at least just desire them in moderation. I felt triumphant yesterday realising I wanted just one dark and totally yummy chocolate, having had no desire for anything "naughty" the day before (yup, I agree we embrace the inverted commas and start moving away from demonising food).

It felt like the "new me" I want to be.... and who is seldom there.

I love the concept of being on "our own team" and "winning" - Let's all adopt that as our January motto @HarpQuartet

And yesterday - The rest was a little less good - I felt very foolish! Pub lunch with relatives, I held back so much I was hungry a couple of hours later while DH and DC were wondering why I wanted supper so early.

So I ate more than I wanted to yesterday - especially delicious cheese - but still not horrendous and useful learning. I'm trying to adopt the approach of everything being great learning when things don't go to plan - it is strangely liberating and I am enjoying it! I was moderate-ish with my snack and supper and stuck to a 6 hour eating window

Today is a day when I can totally control what I eat, which feels very good - and I'm getting better at going to parties where you just stand and talk and DONT eat anything... I love Tim Spector's thought that it is utterly strange to just go and eat triple quantities of food you can have anytime of the year, and is often not particularly enjoyable, at parties.

So today and tomorrow - two meals a day in an 8 hour window, while going to three parties where I do not eat anything, or just the odd olive (my go-to) and a piece of ham.... Let's see what happens.

Your coleslaw salad sounds lush @ItRainsItPours - I'm planning to adopt the concept!

And I love @Clearingaspace both your surprise and your lack of desire for pistachio panettone and Baileys! I felt similar on Boxing Day - just a longing for clean-tasting food Now I'm back to looking for a judicious combination of healthy and indulgent so I've just had a large bowl of berries with kefir and muesli, followed by dark dark chocolate and nuts - with leftover duck with cherry sauce for sups.

SW (Xmas): 11.3.8
CW: 11.5.2... so stable which feels wonderful - now to safeguard!!!
GW for Xmas period: 11.5

@Clearingaspace - Yes Bailey's has a lot that its responsible at this time of the year!!!!

You are NOT derailing the thread at all - its open for us to share what we're doing - what's working and what's not - and hopefully support each of us in doing less of what we fear and more of what we want!

For me, the two times I've eaten not-as-intended this year have definitely been driven by emotion, so I (and I suspect everyone on here) totally get the link between driving anxiety and your high-sugar indulgence. It's great that the scales stayed the same! Let's celebrate that - they are not always predictable.

I definitely fell off the rails in the second part of Christmas Day - but this wonderful thread and the women on it, has helped me clamber back on and it is feeling GOOD. The feeling of pride after a day eating what I CHOSE TO EAT, rather than just hoovering up unconsciously, is HUGE... My 2025 goal is to have full POWER OVER FOOD... not to fear it, and to know I can choose what and when I eat, whether gorgeous chocolate or sticky toffee pudding, or soup, salad and seafood.

That should of course read this Christmas... many many times when my eating has been emotion-driven through out the year....

Reading your messages has been like chatting with friends ❤️

@Clearingaspace I second that far from derailing, describing your experience is what this is all about. Huge sympathy for M25 woes and also a hearty clap on the back for having managed a difficult thing. I have also added miles and miles to a journey by getting it wrong, and it's just a case of having a massive eye roll then getting on with it, gah! Stupid roads.

@loveyouradvice let's treasure those triumphs as a team! All those T's - I feel the urge to touch my toes, must be connected.