Saturday, July 12, 2014

Surviving the holiday - July 4th


When I think of July Fourth, I think of fireworks and barbecue and classic comfort foods like pasta salad and chips. Holidays = eating copious amounts of food with friends and family.  In the past, I've considered holidays as free days, but not this time.  I want to be successful with this program, and so no cheating!

What has always been the hardest for me is the longing to eat what everyone else is eating.  The resentment I feel as I eat my salad and everyone else is gorging themselves on burgers and fries.  Luckily, the people who designed the nutrition guide for Les Mills Combat knows what type of food people like to eat.  There is a burger recipe!  At first I bemoaned  the 4 oz lean sirloin patty, but after measuring it out and shaping it to  fit on an English muffin, it was a sizable patty!  So while I grilled Costco patties for everyone else, I got to have my gourmet burger and filling side salad instead of chips.  I had made some appetizers for everyone and this is the one place I cheated.  Instead of having one of the predetermined snacks, I ate the calorie equivalent of the appetizers.  It wasn't a lot but it was enough to satisfy the longing.

So the key for surviving the holidays if you are on a restricted diet and are hosting (that's pretty important), plan to feed everyone else foods that are similar to what you need to eat.  I wouldn't have subjected everyone to the smaller portions, but the fact that I was eating a burger cut down a lot of the questions and guilt people felt at eating potato chips in front of me.    If you aren't hosting, it will be much harder, but try to use a smaller plate to cut down on your portions.

No comments:

Post a Comment