Put down that holiday cookie! Wait. Maybe you don’t have to. Here are tips to help you watch your weight and still enjoy the sweetness of the Season.
1. Don’t Fast Before Feasting
Fasting seems like a logical way to balance the calories you’re going to eat. But starving yourself leads to stuffing yourself, especially in a room full of delicious, free food, and if you’re famished, your eyes will be even bigger. You might wind up eating more than the combined amount of the meals you missed. And while I have your eyes, fasting for weight loss is unproven. Water weight is the only thing you’ll shed at first, and that is not your goal. Plus, according to Web MD, fasting for appearance-purposes can cause more harm than good and wind up leading to weight increases because your metabolism slows down.
2. Eat What You Want
Hmm. This one you gotta take with a grain of salt and weigh it against how well you know yourself. Obesity expert, Tim Church, MD, suggests not using finesse at the buffet table. See what foods are available, and then take the food you really want, even if it’s something you would normally avoid. What Church is trying to prevent you from doing is eating the other food as a strategy to fill you up and make you not want your not-so-healthy first desire anymore. In truth and in practice, what happens is you’ll probably wind up eating both foods. So go for what you want first. Just eat it in moderation.
3. Give Doggie Bags
If you are hosting a holiday party, a good rule is to serve more food than is needed. (Nobody wants to be the selfish glutton who takes the last helping off a platter.) That means, at the end of the night, you’ll be the owner of lots of leftover dishes and treats. Calories, calories, calories. And inches, inches, you get the idea. Avoid this and be a hero at the same time by sending the leftovers home with your guests! Have bags or containers ready to go, and they will willingly remove from you tomorrow’s temptations.
4. Ignore The Food
When you are at a party, try putting off filling your plate as long as you can. Talking, visiting with family and friends, playing games, listening to music, dancing…all of these distractions will keep you happily occupied while keeping calories on the table, and out of your belly. You might be able to make it through the entire party only eating a little bit. At the least, you’ll be expressing and strengthening your willpower every moment you keep food off your plate. Read #12 for help with this strategy.
5. Weigh In
Stepping on the scale a couple times each week could be just the gauge you need to know how much you can gorge that day. If you notice the number is constant from day to day (and both of your feet are on the scale), that gives you a little more freedom. If you notice your weight is inching upwards, the good news is you’ll catch it early enough to take action if you weigh yourself twice each week. Best to hit the scale before any food hits your belly, i.e. when you first wake up.
6. Breathe
If the holidays stress you out, do something to control the stress because stress can lead to weight gain. (Sorry if that stresses you out.) How to control stress is an article itself, but here are a few ideas. Treat yourself to a massage or a… spa day. (Don’t you deserve to buy yourself a present?) Take a walk through nature each day or simply close the door and meditate or breathe deeply for a few moments. All of these can help you relax and in turn keep you from eating to relax.
7. Be Active
College Bowl games and A Christmas Carol aside, don’t spend too much time on the couch in front of the television. Even if it’s Samsung’s latest hi-def must-watch flat screen. Be active! Go out with friends and family to see holiday decorations or shows put on by stores. Hit the streets and feed the homeless or deliver gifts to an orphanage. These are wonderful ideas, but the main idea is to get out and be active.
8. Show Willpower
OMG. Do you see that plate of chocolate-covered drizzle Krackel cake? Before you unhinge your jaw and tilt the plate, make a fist. Researchers found some tricks to put extra power in your willpower. For instance, making a fist and squeezing it hard just at the point when you want to indulge can actually help you to make healthier decisions. You can also position a pen in your fingers like you are going to write and squeeze it tightly. It might rely on the same principal as the fist, and somehow it can calm your sweet tooth.
9. Eat Just One A Day
This one calls for more willpower, because it seems everywhere you turn, there are plates of cookies or bowls of candy canes or even tables with spirits and eggnog. Avoid partaking of everything your eyes see. On the flip side, don’t deprive yourself of everything either. This could lead to you caving after a few days and eating too much. Try indulging just once a day. It’ll feed your sweet tooth. Remind yourself you’ll feel better when you leave if you left the rest of the treats on the table. Of course, don’t eat one whole cake!
10. Mind What You Drink
Some drinks have very few calories while others deliver lots, so you have to know what you’re drinking. For instance, one cup of eggnog has 223 calories. Cappacino with nonfat milk: 75 calories. Add flavoring or sugar and you add calories. One serving of red wine: 125 calories while a jigger of spiced rum nears 100. One can of Coca Cola or Pepsi: 140 or 150 respectively. Hot tea: 0, or maybe a couple calories. Black coffee: 0. Drink, well…responsibly.
11. Employ The 3-Bite Rule
You’re at your third office party with a family event scheduled tonight. Food, food and more food. (Plus delicious desserts!) What’s a waistline-watching, health-conscious human to do? Employ the 3-Bite Rule. When you really want to indulge, limit yourself to three bites. Here’s the psychology, and it works (if you let it): The first bite is everything you expect it to be! The second bite is good, but not as good as the first. By the third bite, the food isn’t going to taste any better, so you might as well stop. This works for dating as well.
12. Eat Before Arriving
If you’re heading to party, put some food in your belly before you head out. Going to a party on an empty stomach, well, that’s kind of like grocery shopping on an empty stomach, and advisers rail against this practice. If you walk into a room full of free, delicious food, and you are hungry, you are likely to eat. And eat. And eat. Eating a piece of fruit before you leave, or on the way to the party, might do your waistline a world of good.
13. 10-Mintue Workouts
Running store to store and alternating between brake pedal and accelerator in clogged parking lots does not constitute exercise. Your days are going to be even more packed, but that does not mean you have to abandon your exercise routine. Just condense it. A 2006 study found that a 10-minute interval training workout was about as good as a 60- to 90-minute, moderately-paced endurance workout. You warm up for a few minutes, go “all out” for about 30 seconds, then recover for a few minutes. Do this several times before cooling down. Another study showed that interval training shaved inches off the hips and waistline and also helped to lower blood pressure.
14. Morning Exercise
Of course, if you are able to get in a full workout, do it in the morning. A study in the journal Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise showed that women who worked out in the morning tended to move more throughout the rest of the day. They also were less-tempted by pictures of food unlike the days they did not start the day with a workout. The researchers used brain scans to determine this.
[Featured Image Credit: www.glogster.com]