Making it through the Holidays

I have managed to stay 'in the box' this holiday season. 

I started on Halloween, so candy held no appeal as I was so excited about finally starting the program. 

My daughter cooked Thanksgiving Dinner at my house, and I was concentrating more on hosting than the food.

The same at Christmas.  I did more cooking, but managed to not be focused on the fact I wasn't eating ham with everyone else.

Now, I am not some paragon of willpower.  My willpower usually consists of good intentions, then impulsive sabotage, and finishes with lame rationalization.

My strategies have included staying full (the whole "more is better" concept), trying some new recipes and asking myself if I really want to go out of the box for some mediocre cheese and crackers.

It also helps that I recognize that every time I have fallen off a program it has started with one impulsive trip through a drive-thru or bakery aisle, or even as simple as eating a kernel of corn.

Then comes the game-playing.  I would wait until I weighed in and hit Burgerville on the way home.  After all, I have a whole week until the next weigh-in right?  Then when a lunch gets catered at work or someone brings in bagels, it is just that much easier to eat off program.

So far, I'm good in the box.

A little over a month in...

I'm down 19.20 lbs and off all of my blood pressure medication.  I feel good and have been getting to the pool 2-3 times a week at LA Fitness.  My physical activity still isn't where it needs to be, but I'm getting there.  I try to make water aerobics and when I can't I run in the pool up and down the swim lane.

I'm enjoying the food still and shakes are fun to flavor with sugar-free fat-free pudding mixes and sugar-free flavored syrups.  Now that I  can have the soup, I have been making it into a gravy and adding it to entrees to change up the flavor and texture.  It is also good just as a nice, hot savory soup.  It is like a creamy chicken bouillon with herbs.

I really enjoy the hot multi-grain cereal, which I have every morning at work.  There are recipes to make muffins and pancakes with the cereal, but it makes such a nice big bowl of hot cereal, I'm not all that tempted to trade it for a low-volume option.

Thanksgiving wasn't as big a challenge as I feared it might be.  I stayed 'in the box' and really didn't feel deprived.  I mean, I've had my mom's devilled eggs hundreds of times, turkey is just turkey and I don't really like pumpkin pie anyway.

It definitely helped that my daughter took over the cooking for the second year.  She is a talented cook and does a wonderful job. 

Honestly, there hasn't been much of anything that I have been missing or jonesing for in terms of food.  (Other than I still dream about tater tots.)   I'm sure down the road I will have some struggles, but I think I'm still in the honeymoon phase and am just very pleased that I  am able to lose weight, eat food that isn't horrible (yeah, I'm talking to you Nutrisystem) and feel like I'm not damaging my health in the process.