Stop Holiday Weight Gain In It’s Track
Written By: Maddie Wing
Edited By: Monique Martin D.O
The Holidays are just around the corner! Let this year be the year you make this season a time for health and wellness while enjoying the festivities. Prevent that leftover Halloween candy from spiraling into a 5-10 pound weight gain by January. Get ahead of the “New Year, New Me” trend and thoroughly enjoy the holidays without weight gain with these tips and tricks.
Practice Intuitive & Mindful Eating
Overeating is easy to do when there’s a gorgeous feast in front of you. Practice intuitive eating by shrinking your portion sizes and listening to your body throughout the meal. An easy trick to avoid overeating is to set your utensil down after every bite and chew your food thoroughly. The brain usually takes a while to register satiety even though the stomach is comfortably distended, your body’s cue that you are done. This way, your mind and stomach have time to communicate and let you know when you're full instead of finishing your overstuffed plate.
Anticipate Your Pitfalls, Plan Ahead & Know Your Expectations
Recognize your weaknesses. Do you eat with reckless abandon when you're hungry? Don’t let it come to that. Plan ahead. Will the main course at the host’s dinner be creamy lasagna with extra cheese? Bring a dish that you can eat and share, especially if you are gluten and dairy-free. Will the host offer all your favorite dishes which you cannot resist? Fill up on a salad, veggies or other fiber, so that you can sample but not overeat. Or accept the fact that you will be overeating that one time and enjoy it. Will the host be disappointed if you just sample foods instead of chowing down? Let yourself and your host know your boundaries and expectations. Be cognizant and respectful of others’ expectations and boundaries if you are hosting.
Energy Density Eating
In the weeks ahead, plan your schedule and your meals. Avoid being caught off-guard, ravenous looking to quench your appetite with high energy density and processed foods. It is especially important to go grocery shopping with a full belly because you are less likely to overshop and buy foods you really don’t want in your pantry. If you do succumb to a snack, make it a small single serving size and not the family megapack. The best rule of thumb is, if you don’t want to eat it, don’t have it in the house. Plan your meals, know what you will be eating for breakfast, lunch and dinner and make sure you have the ingredients and time to prepare the food. Also, have a “contingency” food like vegetable soup available, should your plan go awry. Try to select low energy density foods, like veggies, fruit, fish, fowl and eggs as the main ingredients of your meals. Be mindful of high energy density foods like nuts and seeds, fatty meats, cheese, butter and oils, rich desserts, chocolate, candy, processed carbs and alcohol. Consider an Energy Density appointment with Remi to get yourself educated on this highly effective concept and eating program. Remi offers some excellent food hacks. Energy Density (ED) is calculated by dividing calories by grams of food. A fresh mango has 60 calories in 100g of mango giving it an ED of 0.6. An ED of 1.5 or less will lead to weight loss and an ED between 1.5-2 is great for maintaining weight. Anything over 2 will likely lead to weight gain unless you are an exercise fiend. Dried mangoes are 140 calories per 40 gram serving based on the nutrition label on the package, giving them an ED of 3.5, clearly a weight gain food. Again, make an appointment with Remi for more education on this valuable and easy to use tool.
Find Alternative Options
Oftentimes, we don’t actually want that huge piece of pie sitting in front of us… we really just want something to curb our sweet tooth. During the Holidays it's important to find alternative options to satisfy your cravings. Whether it's a piece of dark chocolate for dessert or altering the ingredients of a recipe to be more organic and lower energy dense, little changes multiply to help you keep the weight off and eat healthily.
Drink Half Your Weight in Ounces
This is a general rule of thumb and makes sure we stay well hydrated. Tom Brady is an avid spokesperson about this concept and attributes his health and success as an athlete to the hydration of his body and fluidity of his lymph, tissues and vasculature. Whether you're a fan or not, Tom Brady’s career as a 44 year-old quarterback in the NFL and seven Super Bowl wins are an impressive testimonial to his healthy lifestyle off the field.
Limit the Liquor
Many holiday celebrations include drinking alcohol. Studies have shown alcohol limits the body’s ability to burn fat and increases hunger. The restaurant industry thrives on this. By limiting alcohol, you can help your body maintain its proper function. Control your drinks to no more than 2 per day and 4 per week. Add a Milk Thistle supplement 1-2 caps daily if you drink regularly. Select lighter drinks over creamy calorie-rich ones or consider alternatives like mock-tails or sparkling water. Don’t drink and drive.
Maintain Movement
Keeping or creating a workout routine during this busy time of year can be a difficult task. Exercise shouldn't be another stressor in our daily lives, instead, allow movement to be an enjoyable part of your day-to-day routine with friends and family. Your pet will truly enjoy going on a walk or two while you collect your 10,000 steps. Even a 10-minute stretch in the morning or a short walk every day can make a huge difference in your health and mood. Remind yourself, 5 minutes is better than nothing! We are huge fans of 10-Minute Morning Yoga with Kassandra, the 7 Minute Work-out App or any quick option. Consider investing in a vibration plate to stand or exercise on, 10-20 minutes daily. The movement keeps your lymph flowing and your body detoxifying.
Maintain Your Beauty Sleep
Our bodies need sleep to function and repair. Wintertide is particularly a time for hibernation. It is historically a period of “autophagy and mitophagy” in which the body prunes cellular debris cells and mitochondria it doesn’t need through caloric restriction due to the natural scarceness of food in the cold season. This makes room for new growth in the spring. Maintaining our necessary 8-10 hours of sleep a night can be difficult, but crucial to our overall health as sleep is a time for repair. If you need an alarm to wake up or to ensure you don’t oversleep, you probably need more sleep. Viruses, like EBV, thrive on stress and love to reactivate in the setting of decreased sleep. Practice good sleep hygiene and avoid electronic equipment 1-2 hours before sleep. A useful habit is to set aside 30-60 minutes before bed as “me” time to decompress, reflect, meditate, pray, plan tomorrow, be intimate or just relax. Make sure you're paying attention to when you need a few extra hours and honor your body's need for sleep.
Create Gatherings that Involve Activities Beyond Eating
It is absolutely wonderful to share meals with family and friends especially to make up for lost time on account of the pandemic. Get together with loved ones to visit a play, comedy club, sporting event, Escape Room, a walk in the park, a day of skiing, making ornaments and gifts, scrapbooking, playing games at home or having afternoon tea. There are many ways that we can connect in which the focus does not need to center around food. Rediscover the kid in you and enjoy the holidays!
Keep Toxicity to a Minimum
The Holidays can be a wonderful time spent with family, friends, colleagues, and acquaintances. Or not. It can also include toxic environments, toxic food and pesticides, and toxic people. Know your limitations and triggers. Leave yourself an exit strategy. Holidays can be catalysts for rude, inappropriate or unacceptable behavior. If you are caught in an uncomfortable situation, recognize it and give yourself permission to exit.
Mitigate Stress
Holidays are all about gathering with family and friends, festivities and celebration. Let’s face it, they can also be pretty stressful. When we are stressed, we tend to overeat, turn to comfort foods, load up on sugar and sweets and drink more alcohol. Try managing the stress with exercise, taking a walk out in nature, talking with supportive people, journaling, taking a hot bath, getting a facial or a massage, trading with a friend or partner to get a foot or back rub, watching comedy, reading a self-help book, engaging in prayer and meditation. The list goes on. Most importantly, mitigate your stress, set realistic expectations and boundaries and stick to what you can and want to do. Follow the 24 Hour Rule. That is, if somebody asks you to do something, think about it for a day and get back to them in 24 hours unless you are 100% sure of your answer right away. This helps to keep you from overcommitting to things you don’t want to do or have time for.
Have Fun
In Germany, Christmas is called the “Celebration of Love.” Whether you are religious or not, the Holidays are also about love. Be kind to yourself, capitalize on the festivities while being mindful of what you're putting into your body and how you treat yourself. At the end of the day, small changes amount to substantial progress!
