Coping with Christmas

Right, you lot - we need a plan here.

31 sleeps till Santa and you know the food temptations are just going to increase.

So far I've come through the first half dozen or so Christmas functions relatively unscathed. But there are more to come, and then the holiday itself.

The upcoming events most likely to cause me problems:
A golf day in Martinborough. I won't be playing golf, but I will go for the wine-tasting and the dinner.
Taking clients to the corporate box to watch NZ vs Aus in 1 day cricket. Potentially not too bad - the way the Black Caps are playing, Australia should have it all cleaned up in a couple of hours.
Countless lunches with suppliers. I'm usually okay with these - don't drink alcohol at them and eat salad!
Work Christmas dinner.
Mum and Dad's 50th wedding anniversary.
Christmas Day itself.
10 days camping with the whanau.

We all know it is going to be very easy to get derailed by the next few weeks. Socialising and the festive season go hand-in-hand with eating, drinking and general over-indulgence.

So, I need to make a plan now. I need a way to cope with all of this without setting myself back a month or so.

I am currently a 22 point a day person. From now until I go on holiday, all days without an 'event' will be 20 point days.

I will continue to not indulge in wine at lunches.

My calendar is relatively clear for the next week, so I can save lots of points for the golf day next Friday. I'll need them, because the wine in Martinborough is superb!

Save points again for the work Christmas dinner the following Friday. I don't usually enjoy these, but this year I will forgo my usual tactic of polishing off most of a bottle of champagne while getting ready to go!

The day at the cricket - limit my alcohol, drink plenty of water.

And then comes the camping holiday, which also encompasses the anniversary party and Christmas Day. Check out where we stay in Kerikeri here.

Food-wise we're not usually too bad when we're camping - lots of salads and barbecues, that sort of thing. It's the drinking, and the nibbles with drinks, that can cause the problem.

The drinking will often go like this:
A beer with lunch.
A couple of mid-afternoon beers or a bottle of bubbles because it's too hot to do anything but sit under the trees, talking and drinking.
A gin (or two) around 6 o'clock as we start getting dinner ready.
Wine with dinner.
Wine and talking after dinner.

My new camping drinking plan goes like this:
No beer, at all, ever.
No drinking alcohol with lunch.
Only mineral water for the mid-afternoon drink.
One pre-dinner gin (some things I can't give up completely).
One glass of wine with dinner.
Mineral water after dinner.
Drinking rules will be relaxed for the anniversary party and Christmas Day.

My camping eating plan goes like this:
Main meals - watch the portions and the dressings and sauces.
No desserts.
Make sure afternoon nibbles include veggies, rice crackers and salsa for me.
DO NOT visit Makana - the most amazing chocolate factory in the world, just up the road.

I'm not hoping to lose weight while I'm away, but I would like to maintain. I will still be doing my triathlon training, so that will help.

I'm also aware that I probably won't stick to these rules every single day. But going in with a plan will help minimise the damage that I could do if I had no plan at all.

So, come on, have you made your plan?