10 ways to avoid the holiday weight gain this year
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As you are probably aware the average person in the US gains 10 to 20 pounds between Thanksgiving and New Years day. Are you used to this yourself? Well this year you can avoid this weight gain by following the 10 simple rules
1. Plan what you are going to eat everyday Wake up in the morning and see what plans you have for your day. Will you be going out for lunch or dinner? Are you going to have a crazy morning and may be near donuts? The best way to avoid the binging at restaurants is to pack in breakfast and lunch into the office in the morning.
2. Drink lots of water 30 minutes to an hour before your meals. Why fill up on sugar and heavy foods when you can trick your body into eating less by filling up a little before you eat your meals.
3. Moderate alcohol I find that there are a few alcohol based parties this time of year and I try to do my best to decide before hand what I should eat and drink at these events. Remember there are a lot of calories in beer, wine and mixed drinks. I trick my self by drinking a glass of water between each alcoholic drink. One of the problems that I find that I have is that I will drink too much to fast at a party and am loaded early. I started using this trick years ago and find that I can have a great night visiting with people and have a bit of a buzz without betting loaded and being hung over the next day.
4. Don’t let the office potluck build your pot belly. Office potlucks are fantastic for trying new food and again for socializing but they can be dangerous. How much three layer dip and homemade cookies, cakes, and KFX can you eat at one standing event? Think about what you want to eat by browsing the potluck buffet before you start filling your plate.
5. Start a new exercise schedule. Why wait until new years day to start a new exercise schedule when you can do it now instead and relieve all of those New Years Resolution pressures?
6. Watch the high calorie foods at dinners. How about that gravy? Eating fatty dressings? Sugary candies? What are you going to eat instead? How about eating small servings of those treat like foods instead of acting like a cow at a trough.
7. Host your own party where you serve nothing but low cal and low fat foods to try to set a trend for everyone and their parties.
8. Write down what you eat ever day. There is a certain amount of accountability that goes along with writing down what you are eating. After you write it down you can figure out the calories with a simple calorie counter and in just a few days or a couple of weeks you will have a good idea how much you are eating compared to how much you should be eating.
9. Watch your serving sizes. If anything you should reduce your food serving sizes so that you can eat a little more variety of food. If you really look at all of that great food you get to sample during the holiday season you will soon realize that you want to try it all not make a meal out of every food.
10. Finally the most important thing. Socialize…a lot. There was a report a little while ago that found that people have a lot less friends now than they did 20 years ago. The opportunity is there this holiday season to meet more people, start lasting friendships and relationships and one thing that I have always found is relationships with others in the long term make you a lot healthier.
These tips should help you out this holiday season to stop you from gaining a lot or even a little weight. Remember as you do these things that one of the positive effects that it will have is that you will being more in control of yourself and healthier going into the new year.
I also wrote a post about how to deal with eating and exercise on Thanksgiving itself. Check out the 10 tips for Thanksgiving day Eating and exercise
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