Slimming World Sunday - Surviving The Festive Period

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December can be a real struggle when you're following a weight loss plan. With all of the social events, and just generally being busier than we usually are, it can be really tempting just to write the month off entirely and overindulge at times when really we could've stayed on plan, leaving us with a big gain to tackle in the New Year. Truth is though, if we really sat down and took a look at our schedules for the month, we could probably still be on plan the majority of the time. There are some events that we all face through December though, that can be really tricky to Food Optimise through, but here are my tips for tackling those moments, to limit the overall damage that Christmas can do to our weight loss journey.


Christmas shopping in town Something I'm not the biggest fan of doing in December! It's just too busy for me, so I like to get it done early, and then finish off any bits online, from the comfort of my home! Christmas shopping can be really tiring though, and at some point you're probably going to need to stop off for some food. Whilst it can be tempting to just go to the nearest place, or pick the most indulgent thing on offer, there are some great options available in most town & city centres theses days, so there's no reason why you can't stay on plan. There's jacket potato stands, Subway salads, or my personal favourite, if you have a little more time to spare and want something really filling, is to go for a Nando's. You can get a butterfly chicken with spicy rice and a salad for just 5 syns, and it will leave you full for hours.

Office parties Or any Christmas party for that matter! Most parties these days, if you're having a meal too, will require you to choose in advance what you're having, so take time to look at the options and pick those that you think would be the most Slimming World friendly. If it's an order when you get there situation, then have a search online and see if you can find a menu for wherever you are going, so that you are prepared with some good choices. A lot of mains, especially if you go with the traditional turkey option, tend to come with bowls of veg for the table, rather than served on your plate, so you can have as much as you want - pile your plate high with veggies and fill up on those first. If there's a disco, get up and dance - plenty of body magic! If you're not too bothered about drinking, then drive to the venue and offer lifts - people will love you for it, and you'll save yourself a lot of syns!

Food & alcohol gifts You can always ask people not to get you any food or drink as gifts for Xmas, if you really don't want any, but what I've done in the past (and I use this tip for Easter choccies too), is I work out how many syns I want to spend on my pressies each day, and divide up what I have into little treat bags (please note this only works with food, please do not pour wine into a bag!!) for that syn value. That way I can enjoy my gifts without feeling guilty, and I haven't got the temptation of going back to the box for "just one more". And of course, sharing is caring, so if you really don't want the temptation around, you could chare you treats with loved ones, as well as allowing yourself a couple.

The day itself It's so easy to overindulge and just completely blow your syns on Christmas Day. When I think back to what I've eaten on past Christmas', I wouldn't want to even try to work out how many syns it came to! I'm not going to sit here and say, try to stick to just 15 syns as usual - we all know that's not going to work, but I would say try to be flexible. Give yourself an upper limit that you know is going to be reasonable - I'm going to go with 40 - and try your best to stick to that. Of course, if you're cooking the dinner yourself, you could always make tweaks if you wanted to, to make the meal lower in syns. I won't be cooking the dinner in my family, so I will sit down at some point before the big day and work out roughly how much my dinner is going to cost me, and from that work out how many syns I want to allow myself for the rest of the day. Do remember though that it's just one day, and if you do end up overdoing it, do not beat yourself up about it. There's always the next day to get straight back on track.

Have you got any more tips for Food Optimising over Christmas?