How Do You Handle The Holidays When You"re On The Medifast Diet?
I sometimes hear from people who are concerned about sticking to their diet when they have special occasions in their lives.
Examples are things like weddings, vacations, and the holidays.
The winter holidays (like Thanksgiving, Christmas.
Hanukkah, and Kwanza) are particularly challenging because so many of the celebrations revolve around rich and fattening foods.
Not participating in these events can make you feel like you are bringing every one else down.
But, people who have made some progress on their diet and who are enjoying their results do not want to do anything to put those same results at risk.
I heard from someone who said: "Thanksgiving is going to be at my house this year.
I am having over fifteen people as my guests.
Obviously, I can't serve people diet food.
I mean, I can't whip up a lean and green meal for that many people.
And I really want to participate in this holiday without having to feel badly about it.
At the same time, I've done really well on Medifast.
I am so excited about the way that I look and I don't want to go back down the unhealthy road that I was on.
How do people handle all of the festivities of the holidays on Medifast?" I'll try to answer these questions in the following article.
Here is my take on this.
It's probably not a bad idea to ask a Medifast counselor about this on the company website for an official answer.
I'm not a diet professional, but I can certainly tell you what has worked for me.
Please keep in mind that every one is different.
My attitude about this is that I do whatever it is that I need to do in order to stay on the diet so that I can reach and maintain my weight loss goals.
However, my outlook has always been focused on the long term.
I would rather be at my ideal weight five years down the road and move at a slow and steady pace than to lose huge amounts of weight quickly by taking drastic measures that I can't maintain, only to gain the weight back later.
To that end, I try very hard not to make my day to day life on any diet feel like a bad experience.
I try to enjoy myself and that means that I don't put a lot of pressure on myself.
I want to enjoy the holidays with my family and I do exactly that.
However, I've gotten used to not eating a lot of sweets and unhealthy foods.
If I do eat foods like this, I feel very sluggish and frankly, they often taste way too sweet or heavy.
So, I will usually indulge but my portion sizes are smaller than they were years ago.
And I don't fret about it.
I don't carry around excess guilt or negative emotions.
I just give myself that day to enjoy the foods that are for that special occasion.
So I will savor that day and I will enjoy every bite.
But the next day, I get right back on track without a lot of fan fare.
Now, you can always make smart choices with holiday foods.
Generally speaking, you are better off eating fattening foods that are high in protein than sweet foods that don't offer much in the way of nutrition.
So cheese and crackers or deviled eggs are going to be a better choice than a piece of cake.
But if you really want that piece of cake, I personally wouldn't deny yourself or you're going to project that feeling of lack onto the diet, which is the last thing that you want to do.
If I were in this reader's situation, I would welcome my guests into my home without creating unnecessary tension about the diet.
It is only a couple of days out of the year.
And yes, you may get momentarily off track.
But as long as you get back on track and carry on, things will be OK.
As I alluded to before, you really want to look at the long term results.
A couple of days probably won't affect your long term results very much.
And you deserve to enjoy the holidays.
This is only my opinion, but this outlook has worked well for me.
If it doesn't feel right for you, feel free to do what you think will work best.
Give yourself permission to do what works for you at the time as long as you get back into compliance once the holidays are over.
Examples are things like weddings, vacations, and the holidays.
The winter holidays (like Thanksgiving, Christmas.
Hanukkah, and Kwanza) are particularly challenging because so many of the celebrations revolve around rich and fattening foods.
Not participating in these events can make you feel like you are bringing every one else down.
But, people who have made some progress on their diet and who are enjoying their results do not want to do anything to put those same results at risk.
I heard from someone who said: "Thanksgiving is going to be at my house this year.
I am having over fifteen people as my guests.
Obviously, I can't serve people diet food.
I mean, I can't whip up a lean and green meal for that many people.
And I really want to participate in this holiday without having to feel badly about it.
At the same time, I've done really well on Medifast.
I am so excited about the way that I look and I don't want to go back down the unhealthy road that I was on.
How do people handle all of the festivities of the holidays on Medifast?" I'll try to answer these questions in the following article.
Here is my take on this.
It's probably not a bad idea to ask a Medifast counselor about this on the company website for an official answer.
I'm not a diet professional, but I can certainly tell you what has worked for me.
Please keep in mind that every one is different.
My attitude about this is that I do whatever it is that I need to do in order to stay on the diet so that I can reach and maintain my weight loss goals.
However, my outlook has always been focused on the long term.
I would rather be at my ideal weight five years down the road and move at a slow and steady pace than to lose huge amounts of weight quickly by taking drastic measures that I can't maintain, only to gain the weight back later.
To that end, I try very hard not to make my day to day life on any diet feel like a bad experience.
I try to enjoy myself and that means that I don't put a lot of pressure on myself.
I want to enjoy the holidays with my family and I do exactly that.
However, I've gotten used to not eating a lot of sweets and unhealthy foods.
If I do eat foods like this, I feel very sluggish and frankly, they often taste way too sweet or heavy.
So, I will usually indulge but my portion sizes are smaller than they were years ago.
And I don't fret about it.
I don't carry around excess guilt or negative emotions.
I just give myself that day to enjoy the foods that are for that special occasion.
So I will savor that day and I will enjoy every bite.
But the next day, I get right back on track without a lot of fan fare.
Now, you can always make smart choices with holiday foods.
Generally speaking, you are better off eating fattening foods that are high in protein than sweet foods that don't offer much in the way of nutrition.
So cheese and crackers or deviled eggs are going to be a better choice than a piece of cake.
But if you really want that piece of cake, I personally wouldn't deny yourself or you're going to project that feeling of lack onto the diet, which is the last thing that you want to do.
If I were in this reader's situation, I would welcome my guests into my home without creating unnecessary tension about the diet.
It is only a couple of days out of the year.
And yes, you may get momentarily off track.
But as long as you get back on track and carry on, things will be OK.
As I alluded to before, you really want to look at the long term results.
A couple of days probably won't affect your long term results very much.
And you deserve to enjoy the holidays.
This is only my opinion, but this outlook has worked well for me.
If it doesn't feel right for you, feel free to do what you think will work best.
Give yourself permission to do what works for you at the time as long as you get back into compliance once the holidays are over.
