Holiday Weight Loss Tips – A different Approach
There are many weight-loss tips on how to handle a Thanksgiving or Christmas meal, but if we were dealing with only two days of overeating, there wouldn’t be the big weight gain of seven pounds or more that many people put on during the holiday season.
As a matter of fact, if you are watching your weight, you may be very proud of yourself for having just a few bites of dessert and not overeating that holiday meal.
However, it isn’t the holiday meal we need to be wary of. It’s the day after Thanksgiving or Christmas or any holiday. Perhaps we’ve partied and had a bit too much to drink, and there are all that left-over food calling to us. Our refrigerators are stocked with holiday food so we haven’t done our shopping for regular meals, and we have a tendency to give in just for today.
Thanksgiving starts the problem, but it goes on and on. In December co-workers bring in holiday foods to share and may gift us with baked goods to take home. We have that annual holiday office party and we’ve scheduled in an evening to spend with good friends. Many people give holiday parties before the holiday. So we think to ourselves that we certainly cannot start a diet in the middle of the season when we have this or that function to attend, so we will wait until after the New Year and just enjoy ourselves. So we sample the See’s candy and drink the eggnog and try to ignore the inner voice in our head telling us we are heading for trouble.
So here are some tips to help you see your behavior differently.
First, be kind to yourself and if you are on a weight-loss program, be content to stay where you are on the scale and stay in a holding pattern.
Be aware that foods that are high in sugar are the biggest problem. If you eat pancakes, waffles, Danish or other high carb foods in the morning, you will experience uncontrollable hunger for high carb foods the rest of the day. If you have been dieting, you may have insulin resistance which means that your cells are already full of sugar and they just signal the glucose in your bloodstream to go directly into fat storage.
Start your morning with protein. It can be two scrambled eggs with cottage cheese, a bit of fruit and a slice of toast with peanut butter and low-sugar jam.
The protein drinks on the market can be a life saver during the holidays. Have one at 10:00 am and one at 3:00 pm to prevent a drop in blood sugar that can cause sugar cravings. Make sure to use a protein drink that is around 15 grams of protein and be low in sugar or carbs. Use the 110 calorie ones.
Having the protein drinks will allow you to ignore the holiday foods and candy in the office.
You will find that your cravings have calmed down so you won’t be starving for dinner. Slow down. Put your fork down a few times during your meal to give you enough time for your brain to send the signal that you are full.
Allow yourself one planned snack of 100 to 150 calories after dinner.
Save the high sugar snacks for the parties and events and see if you can be satisfied with 5 delicious bites.
Eating this way can get you back on track in between the parties and holiday meals and give you greater control of your food, and of course, that makes you feel better about yourself.
Happy Holidays.
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Lenay Rogus has been a hypnotherapist since 1995. She is founder of the Forever Slender™ weight loss program, a program that consists of 5 hypnosis CD’s, an innovative, low-glycemic food plan with menus and recipes for eight weeks, plus personalized email coaching. You can visit her sites at www.foreverslenderprogram.com and www.hypnosisbylenay.com.
