This is the first week I’ve started to feel the challenge of the holidays: meaning maintaining a healthy diet through several weeks of festivities. The main events in the last week have included: my office holiday party, a weekend visiting my friend, a latke dinner (latkes have to be one of the most delicious yet unhealthy foods out there) and Neil’s office holiday party.
Neil’s holiday party was held this evening at Acadiana, a fancy restaurant right near my office. I was so excited to try it because I had never been. I was also excited by the open bar – with my favorite grey goose vodka. Knowing I had a big meal ahead of me, I decided to take a long run on my lunch break.
Even at 12:30, the weather forecast was 22* with the windchill. I really didn’t want to go outside. Plus the only pants I had at work were bike pants (the kind you put over padded bike shorts), so I wasn’t sure how they would fare on a run. I decided to hop on the treadmill at the office gym and play it by ear. After I finished a mile on the treadmill I was starting to get bored. But I was feeling warm, so I moved the workout outside. The Garmin took a while to load around all the tall buildings in downtown DC, but once it got going I could see I was maintaining a pace around @8:30. Keeping that pace was hard when I was going into the wind! I was so happy to be outside and breaking up my work day though – and finished another 4.5 miles on top of the 1 mile treadmill run.
Of course when I got inside and hopped in the shower, my legs and stomach turned bright red and itchy – a sure sign I was under dressed with all that wind. The bike pants were falling down the entire time so I do not recommend them for running in any weather. Also I have to remember sunglasses next time because my eyes were watering so much. Other than that, I’m ready to take you on winter! (Famous last words – did I just jinx us to have a terrible winter?)
After that run I was so excited to re-fuel with the four course meal: crab and corn soup, mixed green salad, snapper with sweet potato pancakes and roasted cauliflower and bourbon vanilla creme brulee for dessert. No pictures, but trust me it was delicious. I ended up only having 2 drinks so I shouldn’t have much trouble waking up for boot camp tomorrow.
I think it is important to enjoy and indulge during the holidays (check out a great post by Jen on this topic), but because I’m trying to lose weight I need to be careful. Since I used to freak out about my food when I had “eating events” I just try to eat my usual, healthy meals during the day and keep those meals within a normal calorie range. The biggest difference for me is upping the exercise. It makes me feel great, and gives me freedom to enjoy extra treats.
How do you approach eating events?
Sounds like an amazing dinner! I have my work party tonight and I’m really looking forward to it. I’ll have the chance to enjoy a great restaurant and catch up with work friends that I haven’t seen since I was teaching kindergarten.
Eating events used to make me nervous, too. I just try to be smart about what I want. If I’m wanting an extra glass of wine I have it, if it’s extra dessert I have that, but usually not both. I also never weigh myself anymore. My clothes still fit and it’s a huge “weight” lifted off my shoulders. I used to always fear the scale the next morning. Now it’s much easier to move on and start fresh the next day.
Great job on your run! I too ran in “feels like” 22 yesterday and I was so miserable. I was cold, tired, and achy the rest of the day. I forgot how much winter running knocks me on my feet.
I think upping the exercise is an excellent approach to allowing yourself to indulge in the holidays
Wow good for you for getting in an awesome run in the bitter cold! It has been SO cold lately I can’t even think about going outside for exercise. I’m a wuss.
Nice run! Once I get out there and get into it, running in the cold isn’t THAT bad. For me the hardest part is definitely getting out the door.
During the holidays if I set strict limitations, I won’t enjoy it and then feel guilty when I indulge too much. Instead, I allow myself to eat my favorite treats, and if I take the time to really enjoy them and let myself have a little of everything, I don’t end up over doing it. I also make sure to keep up a high level of exercise during the holidays!
I’ve kind of just written off December. I’m taking time off from cycling, and while running is ramping back up, I’m still not running THAT much. So I’m trying to be careful about what I eat, but also just relax and remember that sometimes enjoying life is about running and cycling, and sometimes it’s about dinner and wine with great friends. It looks like you’re doing a great job of finding that balance.
Your dinner sounds delicious!
I’m so impressed that you ran outside. Honestly I’m stuck to the treadmill as soon as it dips before 40 haha.
I like your philosophy on holiday eating. During the holidays I try to hold out and splurge only on the really special stuff. Like my mom always makes chocolate chip cookies for christmas, but I know I can have those whenever so I’d rather splurge on something else.
Great run! I’m glad you were able to get out in the middle of the day. I really wish I could arrange my schedule to run at lunch but we don’t have a shower at work so it makes it tough (maybe I’ll just go without showering one of these days haha). It’s even harder to run in the cold when it’s dark and windy outside.
It can definitely be tough to keep to any sort of regimen when there are so many holiday parties with amazing looking food. I think upping the exercise is a good strategy. The problem comes when people aren’t exercising (because they’re busy this time of year) AND over-indulging. I mean, sometimes you’ve just got to stop worrying about it and chalk it all up to enjoying the holidays…but it’s good to have a plan in place so that you’re not always going over-board.