Portion Control Over the Holidays

January 18th, 2009 | No Comments | Posted in Family Health

The holiday season is one of the toughest times to eat right. We all attend festive dinners and parties with a ton of great foods and drinks. It is hard not to overdo it when you are surrounded by so much delicious food, which explains why you tend to gain more weight in the last few months of the year. You can avoid holiday weight gain if you follow these simple tips.

One of the easiest things you can do is to prepare yourself for a dinner or a party is to have a small healthy snack and eat it before you go. You don’t want to ruin your appetite and offend your hostess, but you also don’t want to overeat. Having a small snack will help you make better food choices, and eat less, at the dinner or party.

When you attend a party at someone else’s house, you have no choice but to eat what the host has prepared. If you are trying to watch what you eat, consider hosting the party yourself so you can control the food. At your party, you can serve a variety of healthy but still tasty foods for your guests to enjoy. You can even make some of the classics but just lighter versions. If you go to parties, see if the host is OK with you bringing a dish with you (healthy, of course!) to add to her menu. This way you’ll have something to eat.

It is hard to avoid unhealthy holiday food at work. Everyone wants to share some of their treats with their co-workers so there is always temptation. Keep your own stash of healthy snacks so you won’t eat the treats others bring in. Another idea is to bring in a snack to share but make it a healthy one.

It may seem like a good idea to taste a little of everything if there is a selection of goodies. Actually, this is worse for you because you end up eating more than you planned. Instead, decide which one you really want to eat and take a few of that goodie and avoid the rest. You’ll still get your sweets but with less calories.

Around the holidays, the advertisements for weight loss products seem to be everywhere because they know people, especially women, are worried about weight gain. If you stress out too much about weight gain and worry about losing weight during the holiday season, it is likely to backfire on you. Just focus on maintaining your current weight through the holiday season. You don’t want to frustrate yourself by limiting your sweet intake so much that you give into temptation.

One of the most common New Year’s resolutions is to lose weight. If you go into the holiday season with the plan to start a diet after the holidays are over, you may end up gaining more weight. You will be less vigilant about what you eat because you figure you’ll just lose it after New Year’s. Don’t plan too far ahead; just stay in the moment and try to eat as healthy as possible every day.

Weight loss is never easy but these tips might help you get through the holiday season.

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How to Avoid Thanksgiving Weight Gain

January 7th, 2009 | No Comments | Posted in Family Health

Thanksgiving means hanging out with your loved ones and having a great meal (or two) together. If you aren’t careful, though, that Thanksgiving meal can mean gaining weight. You can enjoy the Thanksgiving meal without overdoing it and packing on the pounds. The following are some suggestions to help you do this.

A lot of us eat when we are stressed. Getting ready for Thanksgiving can be stressful with all the travel plans you have to make, the food you have to cook, and the family gatherings you have to plan. This can make you want to pig out the whole month long. Take time to relax and rest so that you won’t be tempted to overeat before Thanksgiving even gets here. This advice can apply to the Christmas holiday as well.

You can make that Thanksgiving dinner your family loves a little healthier without losing any of its flavor by substituting some healthier ingredients for the unhealthy ones. One thing you can do is use more spices for flavoring instead of butter and gravy. Low fat evaporated milk can be used in desserts. You can use low fat chicken broth to flavor potatoes and gravy. Changing the way you cook the meal by using a steamer for vegetables or removing the fatty drippings from the turkey can help too. Your family won’t even notice the difference.

Don’t miss lunch Thanksgiving Day thinking you’ll make up for the calories you are going to eat at dinner. Having a small meal or snack before your big dinner will help you with portion control. You don’t want to be starving when dinner arrives and eat way more than you planned. Also, try to fill up on healthier foods like green salads before the main part of the big meal. A caution about the salads: veggies are low in calories, but that salad can contribute to your weight gain if you don’t lay off the dressing!

Portion control is the key at Thanksgiving dinner. Often, though, there are so many different foods to chose from that if you eat even a little of all of them you’ll be going over your calorie goals. Decide which foods you really want the most and eat a little of all of those instead of trying everything on the table. You’ll still be full and feel like you got to eat what you wanted.

A great way to work off some of those calories from the big dinner is to go outside and get some exercise. You could go for a walk, play a game like touch football or run around with the kids. You could also play a fun game of charades which is good for ages and gets everyone up and moving. You don’t have to gain weight this year at Thanksgiving if you make good food choices and plan ahead.

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