My Weight Watchers Weekly is all about planning for the holidays…

Basically, it is so easy to overeat and derail weight loss goals during the holidays. Just yesterday, I asked my sister for our mother’s cream cheese cookie recipe. I was thinking about how pretty those little trifold cookies look. They are creamy white with pops of colorful jam or marmalade filling.

These don’t really look like my mother’s recipe but it gives you an idea.

A holiday classic if you’ve never seen it you must.

That is a taste I miss this time of year. A taste that brings me back to my mother’s kitchen. I see rolling pins and a waxy plastic sheet she would unroll and sprinkle flour over like snow. The TV would play softly in the background, The Bishop’s Wife with Carry Grant, Loretta Young, and David Niven. There would be blocks of Philadelphia Cream Cheese waiting, spoons, and mixers, measuring cups, and tins lined with wax paper. This is Christmas to me.

Emotions run high during the holidays and it’s easy to understand how overeating can happen. So, to be proactive, Weight Watchers shares a strategy that can be used whether you’re a Weight Watcher or not. I look at it like a 3/2/1 countdown to success. I changed it a little from the materials. I added the last part myself…

3. If you overindulge follow these three steps: 

1. Track what you ate on paper or the app (wink wink from yesterday’s post)
2. Plan what you will eat next
3. Get rid of tempting foods that may trigger you to lose control.

2. Try to avoid these episodes next time:

1. Think about any get-togethers or parties that are coming up
2. Decide on a strategy you will use, like taking pictures of the foods you eat or eating before you leave the house so you’re not hungry.

1. Name it: when you’re tempted or if you catch yourself losing control:

• Ask: What am I feeling right at this moment? Then separate the feeling from eating the food.

The cookies are not the special thing, the memories of my mother are. The cookies connect me to the happy days of my childhood, and they bring e back those memories in a tangible way. I can’t have those moments back, but I can taste the cookies. You see what I mean?

So say yes to holiday traditions and foods you love because that is an important thing to do. Just don’t derail what you want for today – because you can have that too. Hope this post finds you well and feeling empowered. More tomorrow…

IN REFERENCE TO MY FEATURED IMAGE…

P.S. My thoughtful child decided it would be nice to break open the pumpkin for the animals to eat rather than to throw it away. I agree! I have smart kids.