Holiday Eating Without Gaining Weight
Tuesday, October 28th, 2008 Subscribe To Our Feed
The holidays are here. Typically this means people have dozens of opportunities to eat plenty of great holiday treats and traditional foods with friends, family, and coworkers. For many this also means entering the ‘weight gain’ season.
Who doesn’t gain weight during the holidays? It almost seems like an annual tradition for many Americans to gain 5 to 15 pounds of extra weight between October 31 and January 1.
It starts by munching way too much of the Halloween candy and then snacking all the way through Thanksgiving where everyone tends to overstuff themselves. Then you’ve got all those Christmas parties right up until Christmas dinner and then the big New Year’s party. By the end of the joyous holiday season you may have packed on weight like a roly-poly jolly Santa Claus.
There are ways to avoid gaining weight during the holidays. First, you need to have a plan. Second, you need to have the resolve to stick with your plan.
Rather then just giving up and planning on gaining weight you truly can set yourself up to enjoy the holidays and even have a few treats and NOT gain weight.
So start the holiday season by making a decision to have a healthy happy holiday time. You do not have to let loose and abandon your healthy eating for the next two months. You can choose to have some self-control. The pride of having a trim figure is far more satisfying than the brief pleasure of fattening food! (You might want to post that where you can start your day off by reminding yourself of it.)
Here are some tips that may help you:
When you eat take small portions so that you can still enjoy all the special holiday foods. If you take the time to thoroughly chew your food, put down your fork between bites, and enjoy some conversation with your friends and family, you may find you will not be so apt to have second helpings.
Pace yourself on days when you know the you will be attending several parties or holiday functions in a row. Don’t overeat at each one. Instead, choose to eat a little bit at each event so that you’re still hungry when you arrive at the next one.
Eat a good healthy breakfast each day. You may want to try eating fruit each morning during the holidays. This will help you start off your day with a light and low-calorie nutritious meal that tastes great.
Continue with your exercise program. Or if you’re not exercising yet, begin walking at least 30 minutes each day. Instead of mindlessly eating when you feel holiday stress, go outside and get some fresh air and enjoy a walking break to center yourself.
Drink lots of fresh water each day. Our bodies tend to need more hydration during dry winter months. The extra water will help you feel much better and it also helps you feel a bit fuller so you’re less likely to overeat.
People that have a plan beforehand and then stick to that plan are the ones that finish out the holiday season feeling great as they have not only enjoyed the wonderful times with family and friends they also still fit very comfortably into their clothes.
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