Fighting Those Pesky Holiday Pounds
It’s that time of year. Time to be thankful. Plenty of occasions to spend with family and friends you love. Many of these gatherings are centered around food, which means holiday cheer can come with holiday pounds. Here are a couple of ideas to keep your waistline in check this holiday season.
Never go to a gathering hungry. Just like going to the grocery store hungry can bring you home with many items you regret, going to a party or celebration famished will surely lead to bad choices. When you are hungry, willpower becomes secondary to whatever is in front of you, which usually aren’t the healthiest choices. Furthermore, you often overeat because you consume so quickly, before you realized you are no longer hungry.
Another idea is watch the size of your plate, or if it is socially appropriate, don’t take a plate at all. The bigger the plate, the more likely you are to fill it full. If you are at a cocktail party with appetizers, if you go for them one at a time without a plate, you are much likely to spend less time going back and forth for food and spend more time socializing, which really is the point of the event right? Or you could chew gum, which can stop you from eating all together.
Also, watch your liquid absorption as well. Many people focus only on the food they eat. A glass of champagne is relatively low caloric content; 90-120 calories a glass. Drinks such as eggnog can have as many as 350 to 400 calories. However, if you drink too many of any of the traditional holiday drinks, you will surpass your caloric intake for the day quickly, maybe before you even reach the food table.
What is the appropriate caloric intake you may ask? For average women looking to maintain or lose weight, the range is from 1200 to 2000 calories per day, depending on factors such as age, activity level, weight loss goals, etc. For men the range is slightly higher, about 1500 to 2500 calories per day. I suggest counting calories to clients as a good way to be aware of what they are putting in their mouths, even if weight loss is not a goal. We are all guilty of mindless eating at some time or another, holiday get togethers being a prime time for it. If you are tracking your calories, you may be a lot less likely to take another helping at the food table. There are many free tools out there for tracking calories. I really like Myfitnesspal.com. They have an application for your phone or home computer that tracks calories, with an extensive database, bar code scanning, and exercise calorie tracking.
Finally, remember how many calories it will take to burn off all of the holiday cheer. An hour of walking burns 100 to 300 calories depending on how fast you are trekking. Running and biking can burn nearly double that amount, around 200 to 600 calories, depending on how fast and what type of running or bicycling you are doing. A half hour of weight training burns around 100 calories. A yoga class can burn 150 to 300 calories depending once again on the intensity and duration of the class. So before you take that next bite this holiday season, remember that that one extra of whatever you are craving could take at least an extra session to work off. Happy, healthy holidays to all!
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