As you’re preparing your menus, making your grocery lists and checking them twice, we wanted to offer our 5 top healthy-eating tips on how to “survive” holiday gatherings that seem to be entirely focused on food, without completely derailing your weight loss efforts.
Here are 5 Tips to Avoid Weight Gain This Holiday Season
One of the biggest mistakes people make is to cut back on their food intake or not eat anything at all before a holiday meal. Not only will this set you up to eat everything in sight, but it can also cause your blood sugar to drop making you feel tired and grumpy (aka: “hangry”), which is never any fun! Start the day with a balanced breakfast – such as eggs for protein and healthy fat, and veggies for fiber – to ensure your blood sugar is stable and you’ll be less likely to have cravings and overeat.
Establish some ground rules in advance of a gathering that allow you to indulge, if you choose, but not pig out. If you are planning to have some dessert, aim for items that are homemade as opposed to store-bought which often contain hazardous trans fats, sugars, and refined flours.
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Vegetables are high in nutrients and fiber, which will help to keep you from overindulging on the other “not so nutritious” items. But it’s hard to add veggies to your plate that if there are no actual vegetables being served at your holiday dinner. Consider bringing a dish of non-starchy veggies to the festivities.
Fortunately, when it comes to a Thanksgiving buffet there are a lot of real food options to make balancing your plate easy. A balanced plate means a quality animal protein (bring on the turkey), good fat (butter, avocado, nuts and olives for example) and healthy carbohydrates (mostly non-starchy vegetables). This combination will help balance your blood sugar, keep your metabolism revving, your mood stable, and give your body the nutrients it needs to function properly.
Remember that the holiday season should be a time of celebration and relaxation. If you do happen to eat more than you planned, don’t beat yourself up, just get right back on track.
Join us for our Holiday Thrive Challenge – A challenge to not only avoid weight gain, but to lose weight and feel fabulous in just 30 days or less so you can strut your stuff with confidence before the New Year!
It all starts with a 30-day reset to help you will lose weight, lower stress, stabilize your blood sugar, and balance your hormones quickly and naturally, all without the use of any prescriptions or synthetic hormone therapy. Then learn how to keep the weight off for good.