What do you do with Travelling/Christmas

[Sabby]

We have travel plans coming up for Christmas and i'm worrying about how i go about it all with cohens.

I know there is going to be a couple of days on the road driving that im just not going to have access to things to be 100% accurate with my prescription.

What have others done with travel? Use a guesstimate/picked the healthy option but still obviously deviated from the program??

Is it going to be a big stuff up to my program?? Or do i just have to accept that i wont have the weight losses that week but once back on the program it will be all good?

I know once we get to our destination i should be fine to get back onto it aside from christmas day which i am allowing myself but im struggling with how to work out the rest of it.

So just curious what are others planning to do/have done previously with christmas and the holiday period.

Thanks

[MissNat]

Hi Sabby

Travel and Christmas are definitely two big challenges on Cohens! But you will be surprised at how much you can get through with a little forethought and planning. My first piece of advice is that if you can avoid deviating, AVOID it! It so hard to get back on plan afterwards- surprisingly harder than you expect. If you're not able to weigh your quantities, but stick to plan friendly foods it shouldnt be too detrimental to your weight loss journey.

As part of a previous job, I had to travel frequently in regional areas. Lucky for me, my scales were flat and slimline, so I always took them along. What you eat, will largely depend on what cooking facilities you have access to and how far from the beaten track you are going. I always tried to stay in places that would at the very least have a microwave so that I could cater for myself. Steaming bags (Multix make them) are handy and I would cook chicken (or fish) with herbs and spices in one and veg in the other (or buy a pre made green salad in the supermarket to go with it). Easy. The pre made salads are also an easy option for lunch if you just add a can of tuna. BUT obviously, these things only work if you are passing by the occasional shop.

If you are camping, I know someone else on here went camping recently- Tahli, I think?- so you might find it handy to ask her for some advice.

Nat

[battler]

Take an esky!! Freeze all your meals. WHen you get to your motel or whatever pop the little bags in the freezer compartment in the room fridge. (don't forget them the next morning though!) Have pre-cooked hard boiled eggs for a quick breakfast, yougurt and fruit or, some mozzarella cheese and tom on crispbread. I took my grater and had zuchinni cakes most mornings for breakfast. I bought a little gas one- burner stove that you can buy at woolies or any camping store that you use with little gas disposable cylinders. In this way, you can stop anywhere on the side of the road, drop the stove on the bitumin and just heat up what you have frozen. We were camped at the casino and I went to the car-park (too funny) and cooked my meal between cars!! In our motel room I just took the little stove out on the landing or did the same thing as at the casino...........heated things up between cars. If you have room, take your own microwave with you! I was away 6 weeks and still was able to stick to my program but you have to be pretty determined that NOTHING is going to stop you. My husband always had a cooked breakfast at a cafe when we were travelling. I ate before we left each morning so that I wouldn't be tempted. When he had his breakfast about 9:30 am I had my crispbread and apple. PLAN TO SUCCEED otherwise YOU ARE PLANNING TO FAIL. This can be done. I had an engel fridge and cooked up lunch and dinner meals for the whole time I was away and froze them. Dry ice in an esky would do the same thing. Plan, plan, plan and think POSITIVE. The success at the end is all worth it and lets face it..........hopefully this will be the very last time you will EVER to do this. (as long as you stick with the maintenance guidelines!) This works, but only you can make it work by sticking 100% to the program. You will never regret it! Good luck. Now, go and start freezing some meals so you are ready to go!!!

[Jozilicious]

Christmas deviations!!
****shudder****
After being on Cohen's for about 4 months and loosing a considerable amount of weight (enough for everyone to be going WOW...and making me feel it was okay to slack off a bit), I decided to do a "conscious deviation" over Christmas. I stuck mostly to Cohen's but did deviate on Christmas day and New Year's day and I drank wine.
Well, that decision, was the slippery slide all the back to the beginning. It has taken me nearly 2 years to get back into the right head space and to get back on track.
I admit Christmas puts the fear of God into me ...

Your story of course may not be as dramatic as mine. But there is some great planning advice from Battler that I am going to take on board

Good luck with your decisions - I will be watching
Jozi

[tahli]

I love Battler's advice about travelling!

I did go camping recently, but I was lucky to have a car fridge and one of those travel stoves Battler also mentioned. I had all my vegies and meat pre-weighed and put into day labelled bags. So when I knew I wouldn't be cooking, I had weighed some lettuce and mushroom and tomato to serve with a tin of tuna (or a little less as it worked out with my plan). Breakfast was egg and spinach and mushroom quickly cooked on the travel stove. Dinners were meat and cauli etc which had been preweighed and I cooked on the little stove with a bit of water and balsamic. If I didn't have the fridge, I would have probably precooked the meals and put them in an esky. But the little butane stoves are fantastic, very compact, cheap (I think I've seen them for about $15?), and easy to quickly cook or heat something up.

Christmas, I have yet to see on Cohens, and even being on maintenance now, it scares me! LOL

[Sabby]

Thanks so much for the replies, they are a HUGE help especially Battler, i think its very easy for me to just slip into the whole travelling/eat what i want thing but like you said this is such a short term thing in the big scheme, im going to stay strong
Il still have christmas day but wont go overboard

I've had a little think/ plan and we are now trying to organise our overnight stay in a cabin with a mini kitchenette instead of motel which if we did, that would solve dinner.

I'll sort the esky etc and ice and that will help with the daily stuff.

So the trip down will hopefully only be 2 days so with the yoghurt option and fruit which i have only just developed a taste for (switched to Jalna and it is sooooo much nicer)
tinned tuna and salads cos tomatoes/cucs/lettuce etc are all easy travellers and worse case if i cant organise anything else for dinner i'll just have tuna again. I dont actually mind it with a salad and salt and pepper

Thank again

[butterflydreamin]

Hi Sabby,

Congrats on deciding to stick to your plan while travelling. I have noticed that you still have a planned deviation for Christmas day - just a quick question - it is necessary?

Given what Jozi has said, you may be putting yourself at risk of a bigger derailment than you may expect.

While Christmas is an important day for many people, it is only one day in the scheme of things. I am going to save my favourite foods for Christmas. For me that is the cohens cheesy garlic bread and a nice juicy mango. I will also be having diet sprite as a treat and will add a slice of lemon and some fresh mint (from allowance).

I will also be checking some of the receipes for inspiration such as gingerbread or the apple slice.

If you eat seafood - as many aussies do at Christmas (I don't, I am vegetarian), you could make a meal that makes you feel like you are celebrating without feeling deprived.

Being on the program as long as I have, I have encountered my daughter's first birthday, my birthday, my wedding anniversary, my husband's birthday and easter (a usual danger zone) without deviating. I did not feel deprived during these times but I did feel empowered and proud when I did not indulge and stuck to cohen's food. I am not writing this to brag, I planned to not deviate because to be honest, deviations scares the heck out of me. I need to finish this journey and I know the cravings that can be triggered if I don't stick to this program like glue.

I completely respect your decision in this regard, but as someone who has followed these forums for a long time, I just want to warn you that a planned deviation can be just as dangerous as an unplanned deviation. Read Rei's diary, Gaylene's diary and others to see how well they had been doing and how quiet they ended up becoming after a deviation, which was such a shame. I still hope that Gaylene comes back.

And for a piece of pure inspiration, read Sapphire's diary - this lovely lady was d-free over Christmas in 2010.

All the best

Butterfly

[Sabby]

I love this forum

Thanks so much Butterfly i think you are right, i deviated intentionally a week or two ago for my daughters first birthday and although i got back on to it it has been a lot harder than before deviation and i have had some minor slip ups so maybe your are right and i should treat myself with my favourite cohens things on christmas day but not go crazy and deviate. Ill have to work it through in my mind lol

Its not for ever and i am so happy with my weightloss so far that i would be stupid to keep stuffing that up keep telling myself that!

Thanks again

[butterflydreamin]

Hi Sabby,

The nice thing if you still have plenty of time to plan for your Christmas and how you will handle it and settle things in your mind.

I know that it can be hard in a society where so much celebrations centre around food. But this is also the society where obesity has become an epidemic because we have started to make our celebrations ALL about food. And there is now an abundance of it. A lot of it is processed, preservative loaded crap - which I think our bodies struggle with more than if we deviate with something natural.

Our celebrations need to be about the people and not about the food - the problem with Christmas is we tend to eat without thought, to the point of bursting. I know how much food gets thrown away because so many of us buy a weeks worth to eat on a day because we believe that to show our love to people, we need to stuff them to the brim with treats. And how many of us actually feel lethargic and flat afterwards. I know I have.

Here is another thing for you to consider re staying deviation free or not. You send a message to your nearest and dearest about how committed you are to your program. If they see you indulge in something off plan, then you get more pressure from great aunt Gladyis to eat her pudding, or your best friend to eat her baking or your husband to share wine..... it puts you further into a danger zone of people saying, well you had some of this, why won't you have some of that. If you take a blanket stand to NO, I cannot, I am on a program and only eat on the program, you are less likely to offend others. Note what I said about people feeling that they need to show their love to you via feeding you. Some people get really offended by it. But if you tell them that this year, you cannot so that you can finally get your weight issues under control, people do respect it.

And by having said no to other things, you mentally and physically will feel more in control and more able to continue saying no. If you say yes to non-plan food, it does throw out your delicate biochemical balance and makes you start to crave those things. That is when we start to justify food choices to ourselves so that we can have things. Believe me, in the past I could justify anything. I could have sold ice to an eskimo.

Anyway, just some more things for you to consider as you plan for your Christmas.

All the best

Butterfly

[MissNat]

Woohoo! Go Butterfly!

Sabby, Butterfly is spot on with her advice here. And so brave to be the tough love type! Her dedication shows in the results she has been achieving on the program.

My first ever deviation came at Christmas and it was a terrible mistake. Not only did I have terrible trouble getting back onto plan for weeks afterwards, it also made me terribly sick! What Butterfly has pointed out is that we are looking after ourselves right now with natural foods and when I deviated at Christmas, that influx of food laden with preservatives etc, caused my body to have a terrible reaction, much like gastro and I suffered reflux all night. It was not a pleasant experience and because I could not get back into program so easily afterward (remember- Christmas always has leftovers) , it really lengthened the time I was on the program.

Good on you Sabby, for being open minded enough to consider a Cohen Christmas!

[battler]

Last year we had a BIG family Christmas get together and I took my Christmas Dinner along. I had my portion of turkey breast rolled up with some stuffing made out of crushed crispbread, mushroom, tom, onion, some rosemary, and a tsp of mayo. Then i held it together with a couple of toothpicks and roasted it in the oven. I made several at a time and froze them so I woudn't miss out. (I think the recipe is here somewhere on the forum) Then I took an apple and cinnamon dish that I could zap i the microwave. It was all very easy really, but you have to plan to succeed! Always have your fruit on you and always have some crispbread with you (even if it is left in the car) so that you will never get over hungry. ....... because Thats when you may come unstuck. Good luck. Lots of good advice on this forum aye!!

[Jacquedy]

Thank you so much for all the Christmas tips! I am going home for the holidays and will be staying in a mountain resort. Will bring tuna cans and buy veggie salads to survive!
I am on day 5, and really, its been a refreshing challenge. I am not allowed to weigh myself , but really, my clothes are getting lose already! Its amazing. I made a few mistakes in the beginning like drinking banaba leaves tea and malunggay ( moringga ) tea instead of the green, black and earl grey teas.

Today I also tried black coffee as I refuse to drink splenda / asparthame due to its links to becoming more forgetful later on in years.... forgot the name anyway.