How to keep from gaining weight during the holidays. How to lose weight during the holidays.

I'm going to start trying to write out the process that I went through to lose weight some years ago. For this first blog about it, I want to focus on how to avoid gaining weight during the dreaded Winter season or Holidays, and even possibly losing weight the way I sometimes do.

I think it's taken a while to finally write this out because for me, I feel like I'm being all, "ooo look at me aren't I special," and I hate feeling that way. It's hard for me to talk about and I don't even understand that. Could be me, but I know how much friends and people that I talk about this with, have wanted to know how I did it, so for you, I am committed to writing it out.

It took me ten years to go from nearly 200 lbs (or a size 16-18W) down to about 140-145 lbs (or a size 6-8). My method may not work for everyone, and those that go my method may incorporate ideas that help them shed the weight faster. I am not a doctor, either. Clearly. Listen to it, or not, but I not only lost my weight, I have maintained it. During the holiday season, I don't gain weight, I always lose a pound or two. And yet? I do nothing different, but I do do things differently than people around me.

For me though, I chose to lose weight for a life decision, not just to fit into bathing suits since I'm not really a fan of wandering around in bathing suits anyway. I lost the weight to be healthy and fit, not to be thin and impress people. My body is athletic and I was born to be that way. I do better, I feel better, I am better when I am smaller. Being small boned (gosh how people love pointing out how small my wrists, ears, and nose are) naturally makes my body function better when there isn't a lot of body fat on top of it.

I'm not sure if you're like me, but when I look at a lot of these health finatics, or the women who have those tight bodies, and I say to myself, okay so you lost a few pounds and/or turned them into muscle. So what? When you start with a small figure, and don't have much to lose, I don't find it as impressive. Even more if your family isn't naturally inclined to obesity. Mine is.

Where is the struggle? Where is that undeniable hatred of yourself for not losing the weight and thinking you never will?

Don't get me wrong. I don't mean to put anyone down when I say that. Even myself. I just feel like there are two sides. Equal hardships abound per each individual of course. I know that I am what most consider "thin," so when I make a comment about being fat, I do get criticized, and I feel like an a-hole for saying something so usually I keep quiet. As though I have no clue what being fat is like. So I've lived both sides of the coin and I understand the struggles for both.

Obesity, Diabetes, Breast Cancer, Heart Disease. The biggest things that run rampant in my family.

I didn't start out small and simply change it to muscle. I started out overweight, depressed, miserable, and I'm sure, very close to one of those diseases above. I have become a lot more healthy, fit, and happy in the past ten years. And I did it all on my own.

I'll share some photos of what I looked like then, and now. By the way, I hate my old photos of when I was overweight.

There is a typo in that first picture (a friend pointed out thankfully). When I was 18, it was 1998, not 2008. I was born in 1980. 

The picture above is my journey. Around the time my dad passed away, I had reached a plateau that I hated. The weight didn't fluctuate, the urge to lose it was gone, and I just . . . hit a stop. It took me a year or so, I believe, to start back up once more. So my slow progress was also a lot of step backs in there of wanting to quit, but I didn't. I just kept going. It took me until a few years ago to be able to look in the mirror and SEE the change. I continue to suffer from that. It takes a long time for you to finally see the weight loss, but refuse to give up. Even if you don't think you'll get there, you will.

So how do you keep from gaining weight during the holidays? Here's how I do it. 

Treat it like any other day. Don't treat it like it's a holiday.

You heard me. I think the reason why a lot of people suffer weight gain (besides depression setting in around this time of year, and the lazies, that sort of thing)  is the simple reason that they treat it like a special occasion and gorge.

The entire time I lost weight, I didn't diet and deprive myself of anything. When I am 100 years old, I do not want to say I ate every vegetable and denied every cookie. Have you ever heard one of those individuals say that? I haven't. Nor do I want to live to be 100 years old if it means not enjoying the pleasures life has to offer, and denying myself a cookie when I want a darn tootin cookie.

I do not deprive. I enjoy pleasure in every day. If it means eating a piece of cake, you better believe I am eating that evil cake and I will take great pleasure in every bite. And then I will not feel guilty over it. Okay, not entirely. I am a female and have that cursed guilt come by, before I smack that bad boy out of my face.

Eat your five meals a day (or 3 and 2 snacks) as you already do. Do not deprive yourself, but do not treat it as special and eat 5 lbs of turkey, then 2 lbs of potatoes with every meal and hour. Keep to your regular proportions of each item, that you would eat every single day, or less if that may be the case. Make that plate of ham, duck, or whatever you eat, and make it as though it was any regular day. 

If I finish cooking the holiday meal early in the day, then I have already eaten breakfast (very important is to make sure to get that breakfast as usual), and for lunch, I make the same amount that I would eat any other day. Then when dinner comes by, I do it again. I eat a lot, so I can't tell you how much to eat. I eat to maintain, not lose so I can consume a huge amount of calories (2K just to maintain my energy level). 

The best part? I have my pie and I eat it too. If, you know, I make pie. I will eat just that pie for my lunch. I will not starve myself all day and refuse to touch the food. I will take pleasure in every slow bite of food I take. I will enjoy it. I will love the food as I so do. So eat. Just don't treat the meal as special and over-indulge.

You're thinking, "Yeah, that's easy for you to say, but there are a lot of goodies! Candy, pie, etc." 

And? Eat it. Just eat a small amount for your "snack" and save the rest for later. Then a great thing happens. You have those goodies for a lot longer. And if it doesn't freeze well, or stay in the fridge? It spoils and then you can't eat it. I may love bad foods, but I do know it's better if that spoils rather than eating it myself. When I eat too much or too little, I get nauseous, headachey, dizzy, you name it, so I am always conscious (unless you put Chinese Food in my face . . . mmm . . . Chinese) of trying not to overeat.

Losing weight isn't about losing weight. It's about you. It's about making the decision to live a better life for you, changing your life, and the way you do things (you know the whole quote about repeating the same mistakes and gaining the same results? yes, that's what we want to change!), so that you feel better. Then you'll suddenly look down and notice your pants fit better all the while you haven't dieted and deprived yourself. You've enjoyed your meal, and you don't crave more.

Take it from a junkfoodaholic. I love food. I also never gain weight during the Winter, and that is the only thing I do different. I simply eat as I would throughout the year, rather than piling on pounds of food on the plate. I've still enjoyed the holiday meal (and sometimes eaten just as much by the end of the day as everyone else), and gotten a lot of joy out of it. Because I'm also spacing the meals out, my body has time to get its darn butt into gear and start metabolizing the food, which is a huge help.

If you go somewhere other than home, either take home food to eat later, or as I said before, just don't pile on the food. And make sure you eat your breakfast like normal, or lunch, depending on when you leave to eat at the other house. Don't not eat all day, then gorge when you get to the other house. That is what gets you into trouble! Trust me, I know.

Granted, if you have a family like my own, they will be like a family will and you have to ignore all that. Eat for you, not for them. You have that willpower. You just have to build it up like anything else.

Working out is something that I've been trying to get back into. So me telling you about my journey, will also help me to keep mine up. A few years ago, we bred some Shih Tzu's that I not only helped birth, but being champions Shih Tzu's, I was determined to raise the five of them as show pets. Meaning simply that they'd be the highest quality I could raise. So I spent so much time focused on them that I never had me time. Between writing, taking care of them, and the house, my workouts disappeared. So as you go along with me on this journey, I will be right there with you. Showing you through my own actions that if you slip up, you can get back into it. My "vacation" if you will, was about two years. Here and there I worked out, but for the most part, I slacked. Period. We do still have the pups as they are the images I share all the time, so they haven't gone, it's simply that I am making more me time.

I will be right there next to you, demanding my butt to workout on a steady schedule. ♥