Christmas- some advice for SWers

Hi all

This will be my 3rd Christmas as a SWer and I thought it may help to give out a little advice that helped me (I have seen a lot of posts about this) as lots of people are talking about 'time off'

1. Time off is dangerous! Each year I saw loads of people say they were having a week off and almost every time most people REALLY struggled to get back on it in the New Year or simply dissapeared and never came back- if you treat this as being 'off' or 'on' you are not seeing it as a lifestyle change- just a temporary diet solution

2. The solution is flexi days. Every Christmas I allowed myself loads of flexi-days whenever I wanted. On some days I allowed myself 70 odd syns- I occasionally did this 3-4 days a week. The key thing is, despite the fact that you pobably won't lose weight and may even gain YOU ARE STILL ON PLAN as you are in control by accepting the fact that you are going to eat more syns, setting a limit (however large) and sticking to it- this is still being on-plan,in control and realistic

3. Rather than looking at things you CAN'T eat- focus on all the lovely things you can. Here is my traffic light system of Christmas foods:

Green Food- the stuff I will fill my house with and eat in abundance
Turkey, chicken drumsticks, prawns, smoked salmon, eggs, cooked and tinned ham, roasted (fry light) parsnips and potatoes, sprouts, carrots, syn free dips, rice salad, spiced cous cous, tangerines, pomegranites, syn free sausages wrapped in trimmed bacon, pickled onions, lean pork mince stuffing, crab, sushi, lamb shanks, 0% greek yoghurt with sugar free caramel syrup, pasta salad, braised red cabbage,

Amber food- HEXs
10 almonds, 6 cashew nuts, 7 roasted chestnuts, 16 peanuts, 9 hazelnuts, 71g dried apricots, 57g dried figs, 28g brie, 28g stilton, ryvita minis, pagen rolls, 42g camembert, 85g low fat soft cheese, 2 Boursin garlic and herb portions, a baked apple with 1 level tablespoon of mincemeat, 57g reduced fat hummus,

Red food- treats I will allow within syn allowance
Xmas cake/stollen- 8 syns for 42g
Mince pie- average 12 each
Pork pie- 10-15 each
Dates – 2 syns each
Quality street- 2 syns each
Baileys – 4 per 25ml
Light mayo- 2 syns per tablespoon
Low fat Christmas pudding- 13 syns per 100g portion
Low fat custard- 3.5 syns per quarter tin
Crackers for cheese- average 1.5 each

Good luck all!!!

Ah CP, I know you are 100% spot on with this one, and as one of the Sod It Sallys who is planning a week off plan, I guess this is something I seriously need to think about... after all, I did make a commitment to change my eating habits for good... and I like the idea of having a number of flexi days at around 70 syns, and the traffic light system is very workable... I may just have a rethink about going totally "OFF" for a week...!!

Thanks for a little perspective, its probably needed!! xxxxx

Thanks for this CP! I started SW 1st December last year (rrr nearly my anniversary! lol) and I found I was OK over christmas even thought I had a couple of splurges. But you are so right in what you say, 1 week off leads to trouble getting into it. A few weeks ago I had a week off (didnt plan on it just couldnt be good!) and its taken me 3 weeks to loose the 4.5lbs I put on, so that in itself should put me off for crimbo, thanks again xx

I'm planning to stick to plan as far as possible. I'm hoping to cook a lot of things in advance and freeze ready for the buffet on Xmas day evening.

We are staying at home this year so at least I have a good control over whats being cooked!

Excellent adivce! This is kind of what I've said, if I have time "off" whats the point in all the hard work I'm putting in now?

Thank you! That's really useful advice - i'm spending christmas with the OH's family this year so will just have a few flexi days and try to be sensible. I'm already awkward enough as a veggie so don't know how the diet is going to go down as well lol, will just have to pack loads of SW friendly food methinks! We're spending a few days in the lakes between christmas and new year so hopefully trekking up a few mountains will help burn off the extra calories

Love the traffic light idea, will have to get thinking about syn free 'green light' veggie treats so I don't feel too hard done by! I'd already thought to flexi a couple of days as it would just seem too weird to ditch the plan completely having been 100% since April! Don't quote me on that when I'm faced with a bottle of Baileys and lots of chocs tho ...

Brilliant post CP but even more brilliant photos of you - huge congratulations to you

What a brilliant post, thank you x

Thanks for the advice This is my first Xmas on SW and I intend to control my eating and stay the same over the festive season.

Thanks this is helpfull, i was going to be bad but iv now been converted and am going to use flexi days and be as good as possible the rest of the time!

Thanks for this I love the traffic light system too, plus its great to have your own personal list..... I am going to make myself a personal list too (I love lists!). Also I love thinking about foods as green light, amber light and red light instead of the unual syns, HEx, syns.... makes for a nice change.

Closer to christmas when I know what we are doing, I will be making a plan of syns per day and decide if I need any flexi days.

Thanks again x

Thanks - will definitely be doing flexi days.

Denise

As a newbie I want to say thanks too! I hadn't actually got to the stage of thinking I'd have the week off but this makes things clearer in my head and seems much more manageable

This is a great help - I've just rejoined SW and hadn't really factored Christmas in, was panicking a bit

Thanks. This is a great post.
I think i will be ok at xmas as i already use flexi days now for the weekends.
Also i do red days so lots of yummy meat and veggies for me. I really dont like potato so i dont need to use them as hexb. I'll prob use my b's for bread

I am looking forward to Christmas Dinner as part of my normal eating and already planning a SW Christmas lunch with Boxing day the same. Parties I will take in my stride and watch the tempations with loads of Syns.
"I have worked hard to loose weight and I don't intend to put it back on in a week" is my Christmas cracker motto.
Ourlad
:4616:

This is my 4th sw Xmas! And i guess I'm
Lucky! Most I've gained is 2lb and I must admit I never try to stick to plan at all! I'm
Not a sweet or choccy person. And I guess i have never drank much over the season the last 3 yrs as I been doin sw since Jacob was born

I know I just eat loads of food! But that consists of Xmas dinner then party food on night I like dips and carot sticks and just pick at the rest. And I don't do truffle or even Pavlovas etc so I guess I'm
Lucky?

Cocktail.... This is a brilliant thread and the traffic light system is very good too.

One thing I know i did last yr as it was most I stuck to plan and I don't do the Xmas cooking.

I made syn free pigs in blankets, sw cheese cake syn free dips, sw ferro rochers and I wrote a list of all
The things in know I will eat and done a syn list in advance so didn't have to search through books!

Good luck everyone

Great thread CP!

I actually managed to lose last christmas am intending to be a bit more flexi this christmas but not go mad!

I go to my mums for christmas day so am going to be very flexible there but not buy in any extras at home! Bit boring but only have a stone and a halfish to go now and dont want it to be 2 stone just because of christmas!

Good luck everybody!