Avoiding holiday weight gain is one of the biggest tricks of the season. From November through December you want to enjoy the holidays but time spent with family and friends is often spend over peppermint bark and egg-nog.
By the time January 1st rolls around, you’re going to work in sweat pants because your skirts and slacks no longer fit. It doesn’t have to be this way though, you don’t have to wait until January to make promises of health eating and regular exercise to yourself.
The following list are 5 of the best, fail-proof tips that won’t fill your New Year’s resolutions full of regrets from bad behavior the previous year.
1. Choose ONE Dessert
Parties and events are always filled with holiday treat choices. You can choose from frost sugar cookies, pies, fruit cakes etc. but even a “small” slice of each is going to add up when you step on that scale tomorrow. Don’t fool yourself, you won’t be missing out if you don’t sample every option that is offered after every meal or event. Instead, choose one dessert, bring it back to your place and enjoy it slowly. Also, don’t be tempted to bring home treats for later. Leave the treats at the part where they belong.
2. Don’t Feel like you HAVE to Bake
One of the biggest mistakes people (and mostly women) fall into around the holidays is that it won’t be Christmas, or Channukah, or Kwanza etc. without the heart-felt aroma of baked goods. So you hang up the stockings and head to the kitchen where you spend hours sculpting christmas trees out of fudge and dying frosting red and green only to have it sit on your counter and be occasionally picked at by spouses, kids, and room mates. Again, don’t kid yourself, who ends up eating all of those baked goods? You do. Yes, baking can be an important part of the holiday season but don’t make treats unless you’re bringing them to an event where you’ll know they’ll be eaten (or if they’re not, secretly leave them with the host–hey, it’s their waistline, not yours).
3. Drink WATER
This is the best weight loss tip even outside the holiday season but it especially applies to this time where our salt and sugar consumption may be a little higher than usual. Aside from keeping us hydrated and our bodies functioning at a high level, water makes us feel full and the more we drink, the easier it will be to battle food cravings. Additionally, the colder (or hotter) the water (or tea) is, the harder the body has to work to bring the liquid to room temperature and the more calories you burn. ALWAYS carry a water bottle with you. This is a habit of all thin people.
4. Carry a Drink at PARTIES
If you’re trying to avoid weight gain it’s best not to carry around an alcoholic beverage but it’s important that you always have a drink in your hand. This way, you can sip on it when you get bored (instead of heading over to the food table) and because one of your hands will always be occupied, you’ll have fewer hands to be grabbing food with.
5. Don’t JUSTIFY overeating
If you’re truly committed to maintaining (or even losing) weight over the holidays, you won’t let yourself justify your way into eating an entire can of gingerbread cookies or an entire pint of egg-nog ice cream. Again, yes, food is an important part of any holiday celebration but don’t you want to celebrate a good figure along with the holiday?
You Can Do it
All you need to do it think ahead before going out to parties and events and make small commitments to yourself about how much you’re actually going to eat. Enjoy a holiday cookie here and there but don’t use the holidays as an excuse to overindulge.