I have a feeling that one of the hardest things for me over the next month with regards to weight loss is going to be food.
Holidays have always been very centric around food for me – birthday cakes, Halloween candy, Thanksgiving dinner, Christmas cookies – name a holiday and chances are there’s at least one thing that I’m super nostalgic for that I just can’t possibly imagine celebrating without! For Christmas, there are a bunch – cookies, fudge, peanut butter balls, meatballs, HoneyBaked Ham, broccoli/rice stuff, Chex Mix – the list goes on…
Anyways, I guess one challenge that I have to present to myself with this holiday season is somehow figuring out how to enjoy these foods in great moderation without letting them hinder what’s already been a tremendously difficult phase of my weight loss efforts. I mean, as it is, I lost my first 20 pounds by Memorial Day (yeah, the one in May!) and have been struggling ever since over the last 7 months to move forward from that point. I think I might be finally starting to see the scale tip slightly in my favor again as I continue to inch my way towards the 230-mark, but lord knows that a week of no exercise PLUS platefuls of all of the above certainly aren’t going to do be any favors right now!
I think the trick really is portion control – make enough so that there’s some around for a short while, but not so much that I’m munching on Santa cookies at 3am for a week straight! I actually think that we did pretty well this year for Thanksgiving – I mean, it seemed like a lot of food at the time for only 3 people, but truth be told we were completely out of the turkey and the sides that I actually liked by Saturday afternoon … desserts, maybe a bit longer … but the point is, I’m not still trying to stomach down turkey sandwiches like many people are who just prepare ridiculous quantities of food.
And to this note, it may actually be a benefit that we’re going to be traveling for the holidays this year because even if there are leftovers, it’s not like we’ll be able to take any of them with us for the next 12-hour leg of our journey! Snacks in the car are going to be another thing because boy, do I love me some Chex Mix and it’s even better when it’s homemade because I can leave out all of the crap pieces that I don’t actually like! Maybe I’ll just abstain from actual meals on our driving days so that I can just munch myself on down the road out of my 5-lb Bucket ‘o Chex Mix! 
Hey, I may be trying to lose weight, but I’m still human!