Christmas Triggers and Triumphs!

I feel like I'm ready to take on the Holidays. They are here, they're not leaving until January 2nd so I may as well face them head on and do the absolute best that I can. Last night I started thinking about exactly what my big triggers are during the Holidays. What made me gain 5 lbs last year? Why have I had a big gain every year? What tempts me to fall off my plan? Here is a list of my triggers and a plan on how to get past them without adding any extra poundage to my behind!

The Attitude: Ladies, you all know what I'm talking about here. The "It's the Holidays!! Time to indulge!" attitude. The same attitude that gets me into trouble at every single Holiday function. It's only Christmas once a year right? It's only Easter once a year right?? Well guess what?? It's only November 20th once a year too and I'm not indulging today. I'm staying perfectly OP so what's the big deal?

The Plan: Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are NOT get out of jail free days. Any calories consumed on these days are just like any other calories eaten on any other day. Eat too much and I WILL feel awful, bloated, and just plain gross. They WILL make the scale go up. My plan is to treat these days like any other OP day. COUNT POINTS. Even though I'll be eating higher point foods and will surely go over my daily target, it's important to stay accountable. Seeing 4 chocolates written down on my journal may prevent me from going for Chocolates 5 through 10.

The Boxes of Chocolate: Honestly these things are like heaven to me. There's nothing better to me than a full box of just opened chocolates. There's so many wonderful chocolates to sample! Who can stop at just one?? It's honestly like a little box of heaven to me. The Christmas before I started WW (2005) I bought 2 boxes of chocolates for presents for Scott's family and ended up eating the WHOLE 2 boxes a few days before Christmas! I even had to unwrap one of them. Ok... both of them. That was painful to admit.

The Plan: Read the labels! Usually boxes of chocolates come with a description for each chocolate. Tells you exactly what they look like and what's inside. I've eaten enough boxes of chocolate to know which ones are my favorites so I'm going to look for that ONE and indulge in ONE chocolate. Just ONE. Granted this might add up to 3 or 4 chocolates over the course of a few days during the Holidays but it's better than eating half the box right??? Also if there are 2 chocolates that I really want to try, I'll ask hubby to split each one with me so I can get a taste of each.

The Hectic Schedule: means no time for activity or the gym. Lots of laying around on the couch chatting with family and watching movies. Lazy, Lazy, Lazy.

The Plan: This one took me a little while to figure out but now it's so obvious! We live about 25 mins from our gym so it's not so easy for us to just run in, workout and run home. It has to be planned out. During the Holidays, every hour is pretty much accounted for with Scott and I. Especially since my Mom is home for Christmas and I try to spend as much time with her as I can. But....MIL has a gym in her basement including a treadmill, a bike and a stepper so while everyone else is laying around on the couch watching TV, I can run downstairs for a little treadmill time and no one will miss me. It will give me more energy and make me feel much better about that Christmas day dessert. Also, COUNT POINTS.

The Dinner: This one has never really been a HUGE problem for me. But I do tend to go a little heavy on the gravy and a little too light on the veggies. And really, those veggies are coated in so much butter that they can hardly be called nutritious.

The Plan: Ask MIL if I can steal my veggies from the pot before the butter and salt gets added to them. That way I can avoid the (totally unnecessary) fat and calories but still fill up my plate with veggies. Also if I put these on my plate first, there will be way less room for stuffing and rolls etc. Also, COUNT POINTS.

The Dessert & Baked Goods: This one is always the absolute toughest for me. It's brutal. I LOVE chocolate plain and simple. Everything chocolate. Anything chocolate. It's all gold to me ladies. This is probably the one I struggle with the most.

The Plan: I need to limit myself before I even walk into MIL's house or SIL's house. I think 2 is more than enough. I will scout out all of the treats available and pick my top 2. Holidays are the time to indulge right? As long as we keep it in moderation. Also, COUNT POINTS.

The Candy & Chocolate Stocking Stuffers: These thing always lay around my house until a weak moment arrives and I end up scarfing down loads and loads of crappy candy that I don't even like very much! Who needs it? Not me!

The Plan: I have asked hubby, MIL and my own Mom to leave the candy and junk out of my stocking this year. No chocolates, no Smartie tubes, no Chocolate marshmallow Santas. I know if makes it a little more difficult for the people who are filling my stockings (yes, I have more than one!) but I don't want that garbage and most of it doesn't even taste that great anyway. Also, COUNT POINTS!

So that's it for me ladies! what are you triggers and how do you plan to master them over the Holidays??