Christmas Weight Loss

I had a Christmas/Birthday Party on Christmas Eve, then the big family Christmas lunch on Christmas day.

Our Christmas Tree (before the presents and I have lost the tree skirt, so apologise for the naked tree)

Christmas Eve

I did allow myself to enjoy some of the yummy food on offer and didn't deprive myself too much.  On Christmas Eve, I made this heaven Salmon Pate or sort of a dip.  It's thick and you spread it on a slice of bread stick.  It is SOOOO yummy, but as it's filled with mayonnaise and lots of butter it is NOT low fat or low in calories.   Well as it's my favourite thing and it's not something I make very often and I have been so good over the last few months on 12WBT,  I limited my calories during the day, knowing that I would be indulging for dinner.  I had three bits of dip on bread.  It was SOOOOO good.  I could have eaten the whole pot and it's one of those things that once started is really hard to stop.  But I did stop and I just enjoyed and savoured every mouthful.

For dinner there was lamb, salads and potato bake.  Well potato bake is another weakness for me!  I LOVE it.  So I did have some, but not my usual half the plate full.  I had just a small tablespoon full. A small piece of lamb and then half the plate of salad.  I then did indulge in dessert!  Pavlova!!!  Who can resist pavlova.  I got up and cut my own slice and I literally had a sliver.  The kept handing me a "small piece" to which I would say, no I'll have a really small piece and would pass that piece to someone else, just like a shaving was all I wanted.  So in the end I just said, "can I cut my piece".  Which I did and it was only about half a cm thick but it was enough to have about 3 mouthfuls with some cream and fruit on top and I got the flavour and it was really all I wanted.

Christmas Day

So I survived Christmas Eve.  Now it was time to survive Christmas Day!  Now my family are not known to skimp on the Christmas lunch servings!  We have roast turkey, baked ham, roast potatoes and pumpkin, asparagus mornay (my favourite), broccoli, peas, stuffing and lashings of gravy!   I again asked if I could do my own plate as I could see the serving sizes were just massive.  I just had a small piece of turkey, a smaller piece of ham, one small baked potato, once small piece of pumpkin, spoonful of peas, a dessert spoon of asparagus, a large floweret of steamed broccoli and instead of the usual, plate drowning in gravy, I just did a small drizzle over the meat.  It was about half the size of everyone else's, but it was plenty for me!

Then came time for dessert.  There is a little history there.  Growing up, my aunt always made the Christmas puddings filled with treasures that we would exchange for money, topped with brandy custard.  I on the other hand have a nut allergy, so I was never able to have it.  So I always had my own pudding, it was a chocolate chip steamed pudding with chocolate custard.  Over the years, people... family members, were getting jealous of my special pudding.  They wanted that too.  So slowly but surely the traditional Christmas pudding vanished and all that was served was the chocolate chip steamed pudding with chocolate custard (also filled with treasures).  So this year was no different.  We had steamed chocolate chip pudding with home made chocolate custard and served with home made chocolate and vanilla ice creams.  OH MY Goodness!  I can tell you my blogging friends, this is a dessert that is out of this world.  I was not going to miss out on my favourite dessert of the year!  So I again served myself.  I had just a tiny piece, about a 1/4 of the size of everyone elses.  A small spoonful of the chocolate custard, instead of the pool of custard everyone else had and then a teaspoon full of each of the ice creams, as apposed to the large scoop of each that everyone else had.

It was a spectacular couple of days.  Filled with lots of laughs, great company, great food and just a really festive time.

After the last two days I was not expecting to lose any weight today for our usual Wednesday weigh in.  But I have to say that even though I did indulge in some naughty things.  I did watch the calories, I did have small portions and I guess I didn't go overboard.  I am pleased to say that I still lost 400 grams this week! 

I hope that you have all had a wonderful Christmas with your family and friends.  Next challenge... New Years Eve and a holiday to Hamilton Island!

Merry Christmas

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas.  Hope your holidays are filled with love, fun, family and joy on this festive season.

Christmas Time

I think this has to be the hardest time of the year to be trying to lose weight!

I am not sure quite how I am going to handle this festive season, food wise.  In Australia we celebrate Christmas on Christmas Day.  I know a lot of countries celebrate on Christmas Eve but we seem to have our big main Christmas meal for lunch on Christmas Day.  Our traditional Christmas meal is a big hot roast turkey, roast vegetables and gravy with Christmas pudding and hot custard for dessert.  My family still has this big hot lunch.  But many in Australia have moved to a delicious big seafood lunch, lots of prawns (shrimp), lobster, bugs, etc.  For those with multiple families, in laws, in laws and parents who have split up and do not mix together, Christmas Day can be spent going from meal to meal.

Our Christmas Tree

I remember a few years, my husband and I would spend the entire day eating and driving.  His family live about an hour away, mine up the road, none of our parents are still married to each other, so we have 4 meals to do on that day!  It was just crazy.  We would always have the morning with his family but that meant getting up very early Christmas morning to make the first breakfast over an hours drive away.  Once our son was born it was just too much.  He would get up in the morning and want to spend the morning opening his presents from Santa, not racing out the door at 6am, long drive, eat, eat again, long drive, eat lunch, drive, dinner, drive home, fall asleep in the car.  It was CRAZY!.

How did I put an end to this craziness?   We started going away!  I do have to admit, we went away with my family, but for the next several years, we went overseas for a white Christmas.   It was fantastic, so stress free.  I would pack all of Santa''s gifts in the suitcase, our son would hang his Santa sack up outside on the balcony of our hotel room (there was a hook out there, like it was put there for my son's Santa sack).  I would pack Christmas trees (just, small,  cheap, already decorated ones from the $2 shop) for all of my family.  We would have about 4 or 5 hotel rooms, usually on the same floor.  We would all put our cheap little trees up, which were so cheap that we could leave them behind and it gave me more room to bring shopping home.  We had a small gift limit, so didn't have to drag big gifts home and it was very civilised.  We would wake up Christmas morning, my son would find that Santa had been, he would open and play with his presents.  We would then all meet up in one of the rooms and have a big present opening session, then would head down to breakfast at the hotel.  It was lovely.

We haven't done that in a few years.  Now my husband's family seem to do a big Christmas celebration in the weeks leading up to Christmas as the family is so large that many are often going away so it's more convenient to do a celebration and get together before Christmas.  Then on Christmas Day we go to lunch at my mothers house and that's it.  It is much more relaxing and we have time to actually enjoy the day.

But the whole season, catching up with friends.  The whole week from Christmas to New Year seems to consist of eating, drinking, eating, eating and eating.   Christmas Day we will be having the big hot turkey lunch, then it's off to dinner at a friends house, hopefully no food required for dinner after the massive lunch.

I hope everybody has a wonderful Christmas filled with lots of laughs, great company and yummy food!