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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Detoxify Your Body Naturally: A Whole New You!

May 14th, 2008 | No Comments | Posted in Detox

Each year, many of us do “spring cleaning” in our homes to get rid of the junk that has collected over the months, so why not do the same for your body?scale Detoxify Your Body Naturally: A Whole New You!

Detoxifying your body naturally is very much like cleaning your home; you are getting rid of the waste while cleaning and organizing so you are prepared for the future! If we don’t detoxify our bodies, it’s very common to suffer “toxic symptoms” such as:

  • Weight Gain
  • Low Energy Levels
  • Depression
  • Degenerative Illnesses

With this in mind, detoxifying your body is an extremely important process, and the great thing is that everyone can start doing it right away

Detoxifying Your Body

Detoxifying your body doesn’t have to be a harsh process that leaves you hungry and exhausted. Many people think that to detox they have to go through some bizarre procedure that makes them uncomfortable just to think about it—but this just isn’t the case!

There are many ways to detox and you just have to choose the method that works best for you!

Water Fasting

One simple way to go about detoxifying your body is through water fasting. As you might guess, water fasting is the process of consuming only water for a set period of time. This allows your body to stop working so hard on digestion (normally this consumes about 40% of your energy) and instead focus all of its energy on removing toxins from the body.

The easiest way to do a water fast is for 24 hours, but some people will go as long as three, seven, or even fourteen days! Of course, you need to be aware that your energy level is going to drop significantly when you’re not eating, so most people find this method of detoxifying is best done on weekends when they have fewer responsibilities.

Please note: Water fasting is a very aggressive form of detoxification and should only be done with proper supervisions from a health care professional.

Juice Fasting

Another way to go about detoxifying your body is through a juice fast. Juice fasting is much like water fasting, only instead of just water, you consume only high-quality, fresh juices such as: apple, cabbage, pineapple, carrot, and spinach juice.

This is a great way to fast because you are giving your body the break it needs, but the juice provides enough nutrients and calories so that you can go about your daily business without feeling exhausted or drained. In this way, juice fasting is extremely safe and easy!

Change Your Habits!

Aside from fasting, there are many ways to start detoxifying your body right now! You can start small by limiting the toxins that you eat such as sugar and caffeine—and you can try to eat less fat and cholesterol!

Many times, when you experience the immediate benefits of healthy food choices, you’ll want to take it one step further and try something like water or juice fasting, colon cleansing, or a liver flush!

There are so many options out there, so if you feel like you could benefit from detoxifying your body, you should spend some time researching to see which option is best for you. Also, be sure to ask your friends and family members if they’ve ever tried a detoxification program because you’ll likely get some great ideas and maybe you’ll even find a “detox buddy!”

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