Thursday, November 24, 2005

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?

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Plan - I'm going to print out your one! It suits me perfectly. Like you my downfall are the drinks and nibbles. We are hoping to go away as well and last year I gained almost 2 kilos being what I thought reasonably careful - I don't want that to happen this year. What a great idea to think ahead and I know your post will help me - thanks for that Sue:)

Jaykay said...

Great Plan Sue.

Luckily I've not got too many parties to go to, but as I said on my blog, I always put on weight over Christmas.

As we're at home this Christmas, I'm just buying enough yummy food for Christmas Day only. Once it's gone, that's it...no more!

Chubbymum said...

OMG you have really thought about it and well done for you hun!!

I feel that Christmas is one day! And one day only and it gets quite sad that we celebrate it for months but you are an inspiration to go into this time making sure you are going to get through in unscathed... WELL DONE!

Chubbymum

Ang said...

** go Martinborough!! ** Says the Wairarapa chick.

I like your plan, and I know I really should think up my own version of it... you have me thinking now. haha (and that doesn't happen often)

Anonymous said...

Hi Sue - would like to ask you a bit more about the mobile broadband card - could you drop me an email if that's o.k.
oakridge@xtra.co.nz

We are wanting access from Castlepoint which is a bit dicey on cell phones - but we do get 027 coverage there. Any info/tips would be appreciated - I'm trying but it's hard at times keeping up with how fast technology is progressing now days.
Thanks Anne

Nancy Bou said...

Sounds like a plan! I too am thinking about how I am going to survive over Xmas. Probably won't count points as such but will try and keep up the exercise, eat as well as possible and not gain!

Fingers crossed!

xx

michelle said...

geez I hadn't thought about christmas becasue I am worried about my holiday in NZ. As I will be eating all meals out,and not going to gym, I am worried how much I will put on...... You obviously will do well if you can limit the alcohol intake. It is a great plan and I hope you do well so you can indulge on those special days guilt free.

Lesley said...

Wow what a plan - if you are that dedicated to think it out that much I'm sure you will succeed. Nice to see you are letting yourself have some treats. We haven't got anything like that on so I should only have a few days to worry about.Famous last words!!

Kate said...

Fantastic plan - and I must say I'm mighty jealous of you in the corporate box watching the cricket. I love cricket, and Aus vs Nz is ALWAYS worthwhile, even if we lose! It's fun up in those boxes too.

If you stick to your plan even some of the time you will be doing great - I've NEVER got through a christmas period with my 'diet' intact. It usually ends with me crying somewhere because I can't have what everyone else is having and feel normal, so by the time I was crying about it, someone would just say "come on, give yourself a break, just have it" - and so I would (quite happily once someone had given me permission!). It seems very ridiculous now - it's only food after all! I wasn't missing out on anything really at all. Hmmm, something to remember!

Suzy said...

Looks like a fantastic plan. Don't be too hard on yourself though. Remember to have lots of fun and rest.
The place where you are staying looks magical.

Emily Campbell - Independent Stampin' Up!® Demonstrator said...

Wow, how organised a you, with a plan in place a month in advance!

The drinking routine at our bach for the whole Xmas holiday period (which often stretches into mid-Jan) is fairly similar to yours - a couple of beers during the afternoon to keep cool, a gin or rum & coke at "five-sies", followed by half a bottle of wine (or a few more rums) during & after dinner.

I have always said that you need to be able to do this journey at the same time as living your life and enjoying these festive periods.

My plan is to ditch the beer, and make all other drinks diet-softdrink oriented. Rum and diet-coke is still rum after all. We don't have the luxury of drinkable tap water at our bach, and bottled water is expensive to buy, so keeping the water intake up will be a struggle, but I think my focus will have to be more on this than on ditching the booze.

Julie's Journey said...

Im with Ann - Im going to print out yours and adapt it. Sort of worked out what I am doing but as you know "the best laid plans of mice and men....". Thanks for your help with a ground plan
:o)

philippa_moore said...

An excellent plan Sue, and a lot of inspiration for me in devising my own plan on how to cope with Christmas this year - in your lovely country!

Hope you have a great weekend!

Kt said...

My goodness, what a great plan you have there Sue! no wonder you are doing so well!

Jules said...

hello, pagoda lodge looks great. Your approach is great. Keep it up and keep being my inspiration.

Margaret said...

What a great plan. I will do my own over the weekend, post, and print it out. I am just so thankful that I don't like beer. Seems to be something everyone needs to dodge.

Though last time I went to Adelaide for a week I lost 2.5kgs. I am not expecting that again but maintenance would sit very happily with me. Then onwards to the attack next year.

Have a fantastic weekend Sue :D

Unknown said...

I think you've seen my Christmas plan!

Good on you for making the effort to get all of this stuff written down... it is sooo important coz now you'll be aware of what temptations are there and what you need to do to avoid them!!

Something I am going to try this year is to incorporate lots of fun activity (swimming, walks, etc.) into my routine and try and create new holiday rituals! My old rituals used to be sitting around with the family playing the new video games we had been given and eating and eating and eating until we couldn't eat no more!! Now I want to create new active ones, rituals we will miss if we don't do them one year!

Healthy Christmas here we come!!


PS. Sorry about the long post!

Leighanne said...

What a great plan!!
I find the alcohol over the holidays is my downfall too - I don't normally drink much during the year, but i do make up for it!! I will be limiting the alcohol this year!!