Well, the holidays present several issues to a bandster...me being a bit new to it all I would love advice. How do you tell people who do not know? How do you avoid the "bad" foods? How do you not smack the ral thin girl going "OMG I just wish I could eat more than this one scoop of potatoes!" (j/K)...

basically how do you plan on making it through this Christmas?

My first Christmas but I survived Thanksgiving...

I plan on eating whatever I like in small portions...

Thank goodness my family all knows...

ditto! i'll probably nibble all day though in order to get all of my tastes in!!! my parents are cooking hot wings potatoe salad, and deviled eggs and we are bringing pea salad, mac and cheese, my sinful Cookies, brownies, homead bread, and our forecast is for 60 degrees!!!! so the 'picnic' type foods will seem fitting.

dizzy- i take it your going to be somewhere with a lot of people!!! luckily my immediate family is the only one in out state so we wont have any 'skinny ones'. Dont tell anyone your not comfortable with telling. if your restricted eat what you want and let the band tell you when to quit. if your not restricted yet and trying not to gain the only way to aviod the high calorie foods is to suffer. i know i wouldnt be able to do that. most holiday foods are high calorie, high fat luckily its only once a year!

dont think i was any help...

I'm going to use the same strategy I used at Thanksgiving, one bite of everything I love! until the band tells me to stop. I figure that way I don't miss out on anything! My band and I get a long pretty good. Were good comunicators!