Happy Thursday friends! Since we are officially into the holidays I thought I would go ahead and share one of my most popular blog post– avoiding weight gain during the holidays. I don’t know about you but I tend to eat A LOT this time of year! The holidays to me are all about family, gifts and delicious food. Between Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving left-overs, Christmas parties and New Years- we eat quite a bit this time of year. I often hear “oh I’ll indulge and get serious about my diet in January”. Don’t let that be you this year! Instead of waiting until January to clean up your diet, how about following these easy tips to avoid weight gain this holiday season? Some might be no brainers but I hope that you learn at least one new tip to use during this time of over indulging.
Power Breakfast
Think of breakfast as the key that starts the ignition of your metabolism. Some of you may not be breakfast people BUT it truly is the most important meal of day- especially for weight loss. The two biggest things to remember are that you should shoot to always combine a fiber (more than 3 grams) and a protein in order to keep you full. If you do this then you are less likely to snack in between meals, which means less calories consumed. Some people say- hey I won’t eat breakfast so I can save calories. This is a big mistake because then you over eat during lunch. No bueno!
Skip Appetizer or Dessert
During the holidays it’s very tempting to enjoy everything from delicious appetizers to decadent desserts. Try to make yourself pick- either appetizer or dessert. This way you aren’t over eating and you can limit your calorie intake.
Limit Drink Calories
When it comes to calories, holiday drinks are our worst enemies. Did you know the average glass of Eggnogg has 223 calories? And thats without adding alcohol or whipped cream! Limit the amount of drinks you have during the holidays to 1 or 2 per holiday party and replace your every day drinks to water only. This will help keep your overall calories down during the festivities!
Start with the Protein
This is a little trick I learned during one of my rotations during my internship. When you sit down to eat your meal, start by eating the protein (the meat) then the vegetables and finally the grains. What this does is it fills you up with the good stuff and will hopefully keep you from over eating (which is so easy to do during the holidays).
Use An App
A great way to keep track of the breakdown of what you are eating is using different apps on your cell phone. My favorite and the one I highly recommend downloading is My Fitness Pal. This app allows you to input what you are eating and then analyzes it. It will give you calories and macros so you get to find out everything about what you’re consuming. It’s an interesting app because sometimes you’ll be surprised with how many or how little calories something is! Another similar app that I’ve heard is great is Lose it! Either one will help you get a better idea how much you need to eat per day to maintain, or lose weight during the holidays.
Pick healthy snacks
No matter what time of the year it is, picking healthy snacks is very important. But during the holidays when food is heavier and there is more of it- it’s essential for weightloss. Go ahead and put all junk food like greasy potato chips and sugary snacks out of your daily diet this month. Replace it with nutrient dense snacks like Greek yogurt, vegetables to dip in hummus, fruit and/or Chuice. For those of you who haven’t heard of Chuice, check out my post here. It’s now available in a six pack at local Atlanta Whole Foods! It’s a great snack because its easy to grab on the go and has 10 fruits, 9 vegetables, 7 herbs, 6 seeds and 3 nuts!
Xo
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