Survival Tips for Holiday Eating
I love the Holidays! Spending time with family and friends, enjoying the food, the drinks, the festivities – I love it all! What I don’t love is the extra muffin top and 10lbs I usually gain because of all of the indulgences during this special season.
This year, I am not waiting until New Year’s to get myself in check. Here are my survival tips to ensure I enjoy the Holidays and keep my waistline from expanding.
- Don’t wait until January to join a gym or start working out. Start now! Busy or not, set aside time least 4 days a week for exercise. Check out my 20-minute HIIT videos!
- Tighten up your diet. If you are anything like me, you know over the Holidays there will be treats and you are going to want to indulge sometimes. Keep your regular, day-to-day meals and snacks clean, healthy and nutritious. That way if a gingerbread cookie just happens to land in the lunch room and you really want it go for it! You’ve been good all week.
- Eat before you go to a Holiday party. Going anywhere hungry is dangerous, but even more so knowing there will be tons of high calorie, sugary and fatty snacks. If you have already eaten you can nibble on a couple snacks, but tell yourself, “YOU ARE NOT ACTUALLY HUNGRY,” and move on.
- Avoid the treat/snack tables. If you are like me and have little self control when food is presented to you (especially cookies!), avoid them. If you are visiting a friend or at a party, don’t stand around the food to mingle. This will lead to many extra calories consumed unintentionally.
- Bring your own snacks. Prepare healthy snacks to bring when doing holiday visiting.
- Limit sugary “special” alcoholic beverages. Limiting alcohol altogether is better, but if you must, try red wine or clear liquor mixed with sparkling water.
Enjoy your holidays in this way and your waistline will thank you.
