Avoid Holiday Weight Gain
I gained 5 pounds last year but also worked out and gained muscle. However I am worried the same might happen this year so here are some more tips of avoiding the holiday weight gain:
- Tackle the buffet table with a plan. “Always survey the buffet table first and then get in line with your plate and choose the things you really want, including healthy choices,” Gans says.
- Position yourself away from the hors d’oeuvres. “Stand away from the hors d’oeuvres,” Gans advises. “If you’re near them, you’ll eat one. If you stand away from them, hopefully you won’t.”
- Have a snack before you go to a party. “Most people, knowing they’re going somewhere, will not eat during the day, saving up their calories,” she says. “That’s a nightmare waiting to happen because you’ll end up eating too much because you’re so hungry.”
- Bring a healthy dish with you. If you’re going to someone’s home for a potluck or buffet, bring a low-fat, low-calorie offering. “Be the one who says, ‘I’ll bring a vegetable,’ or ‘I’ll bring a salad,’ ” Gans says.
- Engage in the leftover battle. If you’re at someone else’s house, don’t leave with leftovers. If you’re throwing the dinner party, send everyone home with leftovers.
- Talk at parties, rather than eat. Gans encourages party-goers to “use the time to catch up with friends and family, not just to eat food.”
- Keep up your normal exercise routine. You’ll be able to relieve holiday stress, burn excess calories, and avoid weight gain.
Above tips from EverdayHealth.com.
Here are some of my tips.
- Holidays are about eating holiday food. Avoid the generic boxed chocolates (Turtles, After Eights, Pot Of Gold) so that you can have a Christmas cookie or dessert.
- Enjoy a few hors d’heurves (shrimp, veggies and a great dip) instead of chips.
- Ditch the juices, pops, cider, eggnog and have water. This will cut the liquid calories and keep you hydrated and digestion flowing. Also helps with bloat. Try to avoid alcohol too. If you do have a drink, try to imbibe only once.
- Try to stay healthy at breakfast. Enjoy a full-on bacon, eggs, hashbrown brunch at least once, and fully enjoy it without guilt. However, don’t eat like that every morning. Bacon, sausage, buttered toast, dessert-style pastries, juices etc. all add up on calories and make you groggy the rest of the day!
- Get some exercise. It doesn’t have to be a full-on hour. Take a walk..it may be snowing but usually when it snows it’s warmer (warmer when the sky isn’t clear). Do 5 min of yoga or stretching. Play with the kids. Do something!
Thinking Of Eating Can Help Curb Eating
A new study that is published in the journal Science theorizes that thinking of eating a food can help reduce the amount of such food you consume. This indicates that you can reduce a craving just by thinking of eating the food. Imagine sticking to your diet and having the psycological feelings that you at all the food you really want to? Try this over the holidays!
“We found basically that repeatedly imagining the consumption of a food reduces the subsequent actual consumption of that food,” says Casey Morewedge, the lead study author.
“We think it can help them reduce the desire to consume, to eat less of the bad foods that they crave…and make healthier food choices,”
Read the article here from HealthZone.ca.
Navigate the Holidays – Holiday Cocktails Sabotages Your Workouts
The article here discusses:
- how alcohol affects athletic performance, not to mention hangovers suck
- alcohol is associated with higher energy intake, not just the calories in booze itself but of animal fat, carbohydrates and less fruits and veggies
Navigate the Holidays – Make Time For Exercise
From Chatelaine’s e-newsletter, tips on how to maintain a workout regime over the holidays. I am going to visit my parents in the middle of nowhere (no gym near whatsoever) and have made up a workout plan consisting of bodyweight moves and time on a treadmill.
Navigate the Holidays – Holiday Calorie Cutting
9 Recipes for a Health Thanksgiving Apply these ideas to Christmas dinner too!
Healthy Pumpkin Pie Control your cholesterol with this recipe!
Navigate the Holidays: Pie Makeover
I love pie…especially pumpkin. But, we need every calorie cut over the holiday to minimize weight gain but still enjoy the holiday food. Here is South Beach’s healthy makeover on holiday pies. The link is below.
For the crust: Replace refined white flour with whole-wheat flour, white whole-wheat flour, or nut flour (made from ground almonds, pecans, and/or walnuts, for example). Feel free to combine some old-fashioned rolled oats with the flour to give the crust more texture. You can also use whole-wheat phyllo dough for a lighter crust. Be sure to limit any pie you make to one crust though.
For the filling: Take advantage of the fall season’s freshest produce and fill your pie with apples, pears, quince, or pumpkin, or use canned pumpkin purée or frozen fruits of your choice. For other pie-filling ideas, enjoy no-sugar-added natural peanut butter, nonfat or low-fat artificially sweetened flavored yogurt (such as raspberry or strawberry), or sugar-free pudding. Be sure to use granular sugar substitute (or agave nectar for a natural sweetener) and use fat-free half-and-half instead of heavy cream and trans-fat-free margarine (vegetable-oil spread) or canola oil rather than butter. You can also use no-sugar-added chocolate powder and unsweetened cocoa powder, but remember to count them toward your daily Sweet Treat allowance of 75 to 100 calories. Among the traditional pie flavorings, we recommend pure vanilla or almond extract, ground cinnamon, allspice, ground ginger, freshly grated nutmeg, and ground cloves.
For the topping: Rather than using a second crust, there are many delicious ways to top your cooked pie. Here are a few suggestions:
- Lemon or lime zest
- Dark-chocolate shavings
- Sugar-free maple or chocolate syrup
- Bittersweet dark or semisweet dark chocolate chips
- Pecans, slivered almonds, or walnuts
- Light or fat-free whipped topping
Navigate The Holidays! Pan Jus Gravy
One thing I LOVE about family dinner is mashed potatoes and gravy…gravy on everything. I love it! However, it’s not the healthiest. Which is why I reserve it as a treat for the holidays (every holiday, I’m not a saint) and for sometimes Sunday night roasts.
South Beach came up with the following Pan Juice “Gravy” that uses no cornstarch or flour. I’m terrible at making gravy so I might as well stick with a recipe that doesn’t require thickening!
This “jus”-style gravy, made without flour or cornstarch, is thickened naturally by reducing and concentrating the turkey juices. After the bird is carved and placed on a serving platter, add the juices from the cutting board to the gravy for extra richness.
Makes 8 (1/4-cup) servings
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 20 minutes
Ingredients
1 cup dry white wine
2 cups lower-sodium chicken broth
Instructions
After turkey has roasted, pour juices from the pan into a glass measuring cup or a fat separator; set aside. Place the roasting pan on the stove over medium-high heat. Add wine to the pan and, using a wooden spoon, scrape any browned bits of turkey from the bottom of the pan. Add broth, bring to a simmer, and cook until reduced by half, about 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, skim off any fat that has accumulated on top of the reserved pan juices (you should have about 2 cups of juices). Add juices to the roasting pan along with any additional juices that have accumulated on the carving board. Bring to a simmer and cook until reduced by half, stirring occasionally. Serve warm.
Nutritional information
Per (1/4-cup) serving:
25 calories
1 g fat (0 g sat)
1 g carbohydrate
1 g protein
0 g fiber
105 mg sodium
Navigate the Holidays! 30 Minute Home Workout
If you haven’t signed up for The Eat Clean newsletter, do so here. This is where the following workout comes from.
The holidays are approaching and now is a good time to have a back- at-home workout for when you can’t get to the gym. If you haven’t started a plan yet, start with this one! And grab the gym membership deals in the new year!
What You’ll Need
- Two dumbbells that will allow you 20 reps of front presses, biceps curls and bent-over rows
- An exercise bench or firm, stable chair
The Workout
Warm up for five minutes with some light cardio: jog in place, skip, go on a stationary bike or treadmill, anything to elevate your heart rate and warm your muscles.
Repeat the following circuit as many times as you can in 25 minutes.
- Dumbbell lunges, 10 per leg
- Dumbbell squats, 10 reps
- Push-ups, full or half, 10 reps
- Bent-over dumbbell rows, 10 reps
- Front presses, standing, 10 reps
- Triceps dips on bench or chair, 10 reps
- Dumbbell biceps curls, 10 reps
Go directly from one exercise to the next. You can take a short break before starting the circuit again, but remember this is both cardio and weight training, so don’t take too much of a break!
Navigate The Holidays!
It’s soon that time of year where we/I indulge, am a little more lazy, and drink a little too much. So to continue the Navigate The Holidays from last year, I will bring you tips on how to be healthy yet enjoy the holidays!
I Want My Sexy Back! 