Healthy Holiday Tips!

Practicing healthy holiday tips can keep your weight under control! Many of you consistently put on a few pounds over the holidays. How can you not, when the holiday spirit is in the air and most of your festivities are centered on food!

Baked goods magically appear in every direction you turn, from friends and family showing their love through food! Unfortunately, many of you don’t lose all of this holiday weight gain each year. A few extra pounds may not seem life changing, but they add up over time!

A few pro-active simple lifestyle solutions can help in the areas of food, habits, and coping skills so this season is truly a healthy one!

Healthy Holiday Tips for Food:

• Decrease starchy carbohydrates to only one small serving for lunch and dinner.

• Eliminate all processed carbohydrates unless it is an event day.

• Increase fiber in your diet. This will keep you full and help with food cravings!

• Fill up on vegetable meals like healthy soups and stir fries on non-event days. Soups make great lunch meals.

• Always serve a salad and vegetable dish with your meals.

• Observe the half plate rule at all events. Fill your plate full of fruit and vegetable choices, looking for ones that are not slathered in creamy, oily sauces!

• Don’t drink calories. Put your daily coffee diet bomb on hold over the holidays. Many of them are 600 or more calories! Alcohol drinks can also be diet bombs. Brandy eggnogs have almost 500 calories and many margaritas, daiquiris, and pina coladas are 700 calories. Champagne, wines, or light beers are better choices!

• Don’t skip any meals or snacks, especially breakfast. Eat a healthy breakfast every single day!

• Skip all fried foods!

Healthy Holiday Tips for Food Habits:

• Always bring a healthy dish to holiday events to share! So many meals are so heavy, and a light fruit or vegetable salad will be the hit of the party!

• Plan in a daily treat during the holidays. Do not practice deprivation and do not feel guilty. Fill out a meal planning guide and plan the treat in!

• Practice portion control and understand what it is. Costco pies should be cut in sixteenths!

• Use smaller plates for all meals. Your brain will be satisfied with less food.

• Be conscious of calories in cookies. Many Christmas cookies are over 200 calories. You know the ones slathered in goo! Cookies are so easy to sneak too! No sneak eating!

• Practice healthy snacking in the afternoon period to keep hunger under control.

• Portion snacks into 100, 150, or 200 calories! Eat only one portion! See my 100 Calorie Substitutions page

• Practice healthy grocery shopping! Shop only from a healthy grocery list that includes items you need and avoid all impulse buys.

• End all mindless eating during this period. That means no snacking during television times or while multitasking! All eating should be done at the table.

• Avoid the break-room at your work that will be goodie laden.

• Practice healthy baking, and limit the varieties of baked goods. The less variety you bake, the less you will eat. Try new recipes that are lightened!

• Do not bake and bring goodies to work! So many people struggle with their weight and your love of baking can bring others down. Practice kindness!

• Keep all baked goods put away and do not leave them sitting out for grab and go!

• Avoid fast food meals during the holidays.

• Avoid seconds at events and practice the 20 minute rule. It takes that long for your brain to register that you are full.

• Avoid all appetizers at events unless they are fruits or vegetables. Most are diet bombs and not filling. You can eat a meals worth of calories quickly!

• Avoid all extra-curricular eating like samples at Costco. A round of Costco samples can cost you over 600 calories! Just be aware that every morsel of food that passes your lips counts!

Healthy Holiday Tips for Coping Skills:

• Don’t be embarrassed to ask co-workers to keep their desk candies hidden away.

• Expect the holidays to be emotional and do not keep your favorite trigger foods at home. Be aware of emotional eating times and plan strategies now.

• Accept that you might not be able to please everyone during the holidays!

• Manage your stress. Plan times centered on relaxation like a nice massage or something that you enjoy! My niece Brie Storz is a Massage Therapist - check out her list of the Benefits of Massage Therapy! (Pictured: The Spa at Squaw Creek at the Resort at Squaw Creek in Olympic Valley, CA!)

• Be aware of common thinking mistakes that can get you into trouble, especially all or nothing thinking!

• Plan in exercise or a lunch walk to keep your stress under control.

Practicing healthy holiday tips from Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and through New Year’s Day can keep your weight on track! You can’t have it all! Choose some areas to cut back on that will allow you to indulge in lightened holiday treats! Each of you is different. Work on the areas that are most difficult for you!

Happy Healthy Holidays!