Well I don't know about all of you out there, but I love this time of year. Unfortunately, one of the reasons I love it is food. Cookies, chocolate covered pretzels, pie, and your favorites, too.

My family and I were putting up the Christmas decorations last weekend, and at some point, it just started feeling like Christmas. And then I started thinking about the Christmas themed butter cookies covered in green and red sugar. You know, Christmas trees and wreaths. And then I thought about snowy, hot chocolate days.

I don't know about all of you, but I think I might need a place that I can check in on a regular basis this month where there is an on-going supportive dialogue going on among like-minded people.

I haven't acted on those cravings, but it's kind of a long month.

My goal is to lose 5 pounds in the month of December. Screw that New Year's resolution nonsense.

Let's talk, people! Together, maybe we can help each other get through the holidays relatively unscathed. Holding ourselves accountable to each other can only help, right?

Hi Leo,

I know exactly what you mean. I have different temptations because we join my wife's family for Christmas and she is Vietnamese. I just happen to love Vietnamese food -- well, all the unhealthy stuff. I could gorge myself on it if I didn't think about it.

Luckily, there is always enough healthy food there as well that I can fill up on. I think that trick that I used for Thanksgiving may work for Christmas as well: plan each meal and stick to that plan. I gave myself room to have the pork dumplings, though. How could I go without that?

I think along with the planning, if you save some calories for some of the "treats", you'll be fine. I knocked 50 calories off of each meal on Thanksgiving, so I could have about 300 calories on some of the food I really like.

I also walked a little further that day but that was just because I got lost on my trek. Opps, accidental calories burned

Hi Leo,
I'm so glad you started this! It's not only the food, but all of a sudden, there's no time to work out! There are parties, and shopping, and guests, and travel plans, and decorating! Not to mention work every day as usual. I need help, too. Badly.

Chance, you are killing me with talk about Vietnamese food! I know a place in China Town in LA that I haven't been to in years! Maybe we should make a little time to hop on the Gold Line and head to China Town... NO! NO! NO!
Help!

I am thinking that I should have added "WEEKEND" to the title of this thread!

Venison Canadian Bacon for breakfast! Thanks, Dad. Think I should drink LOTS of water today. Tasted sodium-rich, to say the least.

Ugh! We are headed to a bowling party! Pizza and beer!

Minimize what you can while you can and climb back aboard immediately! My cheat night is tonight when my family gets back from my daughters' play. I am staying with our two year old who would not be still at all for such a thing! Our friends will come over after, and there are cookies to celebrate. More than enough for the kids, which means I will have some.

Tomorrow morning, right back on track with an extra cardio session I think. Not intervals, though. Have to rest sometimes!

My wife threw a surprise party for me last night and there was a lot of good, uh... maybe bad, stuff to eat. I ate a lot, but I got back on track today. I always eat with the folks on Sundays. That is usually my cheat meal day. I guess I'll be exercising a little harder over the next week...

Great thread Leo.

Well, the weight went up half a pound this morning from the Friday night and Saturday "what the hell" moments that involved Christmas cookies and ice cream.

So today is back on track. I need to. Can't take steps backward, and I feel myself faltering. having that kind of junk in the house is bad. Need to revisit my strategies to combat this.

Knew this would be a long month. But I can do it. Self correction in 3 - 2 - 1... Self correction engaged.

I was very proud of myself at the bowling party!
1 slice of pizza,
2 beers
and NO BIRTHDAY CAKE!

Awesome! Way to go. Real life decisions. Anything less and you would be binging at some point from feeling deprived.

Nice work. I am inspired to be very good today at the cast party for my kids' play. Let you guys know how it goes after.

Happy Sunday!

Sigh. Did not do well. Cookies, pizza... Oh well. Few hundred calories over my limit for a day. Nothing that can't be fixed with time, exercise and eating clean.

Not a great weekend for nutrition, but it could have been much worse.

On the bright side, I get to start a new workout program tomorrow morning!

Boy am I glad to see this thread! I've been offline for the weekend and it sounds like we were all in the same boat (you know, the sinking one!)

I'm Italian, so my holiday season is also quite challenging. Along with the general holiday treats, I bake my nonna's biscotti for the entire month of December -last year it was 70 dozen, (sent to extended family, too - I'm not that crazy!)

I've started doing the 10-Minute workout videos in the morning. "I can do 10 minutes" is what I tell myself to get the body out of the nice warm bed. Still walking and doing Curves, too. If you remember a few F2F shows ago, Jeff and Russ talked about a listener's google spreadsheet that she kept to show her daily progress. I've started one of them, too - just to keep a close eye on those daily trends.

Leo - what is your new program? How did it go today?

Way to go on the party, Robin!

Let's make it a good week!

Well I was doing a M W F resistance, whole body thing and Tues/Thurs/Sat Cardio.

I am now trying a 2-day split (Upper body one day, lower body next) resistance training program. Mon/Tues, Thurs/Fri are resistance days, circuit training style, and Wed/Sat is cardio.

I'll try it for three weeks. Hitting the muscles from different angles now. Doing incline bench press and flyes instead of straight bench presses. I already feel my muscles getting sore (good kind) from just dumbbells today, and I was lifting way heavier barbells last three weeks.

Hope to be 256 lbs. by Friday!

We're halfway to Friday, Leo - hope your cardio is done for today!

I'm doing okay - down .5 from the weekend weight. I have a Tanita scale that only weighs in .5lb increments, so there are days when I fluctuate between the .0 and the .5 number and I grumble. But it's been consistently down .5 from Sunday, so that's good.

How's everyone doing? And when is the next episode due?? I'm still listening to the older podcasts to catch up on all of the great ideas, but seeing a new post on F2F is like getting an present from Russ and Jeff

Too many parties! Too much shopping! Now I'm planning to visit my mom in New Mexico just before Christmas! I'm having less trouble with food and more trouble finding time and energy to work out. It was just the opposite last year! ??????