 Healthy Holiday Eating: How to Enjoy the Holidays Without the Extra Weight
The holidays are a time for friends, family and food. Avoiding the dreaded holiday diet weight gain is difficult, and loosing weight during the holidays presents an even bigger challenge. It seems like just as soon as those holiday carols start playing in elevators, our weight begins to climb.
You know that it is coming. Everywhere you turn, there are sweets and treats and indulgences: next to the checkout register, in the breakroom and on desks at work, and on every end table and countertop at every home you visit.
When you're not having something waved under your nose, you're rushing around with the shopping and errands and preparations, probably not taking the time you need to get a proper meal.
But then during the holiday season, big, abundant, sit-down dinners are likely to make their way into the schedule of even the most harried and hurried among us.
With all that to contend with, many people find the temptations too much to bear, and simply give up on healthy eating altogether during the holidays. But don't surrender! If you recognize going in that these challenges will be there, and arm yourself accordingly, it needn't be the fight of your life just getting through to January.
A Defensive attitude - Perhaps the most important attitude adjustment is to be sure that you're thinking of yourself not only as a person who is trying to lose weight or someone trying to avoid junk. If you're trying to eat better and get healthy, then think of yourself as a person who eats well and makes healthy choices. Successful people do what successful people do. When you walk in to work first thing in the morning and you're faced with a plate of frosted candy-cane cookies, just recognize that healthy people such as yourself just don't eat that sort of thing for breakfast. Smile, nod and keep walking.
It also helps to be forearmed with a few defensive thoughts to call up in case someone brings that plate of cookies right over to you. Think of what motivates you to be eating better and getting healthy to begin with. We have our patients write these out on index cards and keep their top motivations with them for quick reference in moments of temptation.
And if someone is particularly insistent about trying to ply you with sweets or goodies, be ready with a polite way to decline. You might want to try a few out in advance, just so you're ready and skilled with the "No, thank you," defense.
But don't say, "I'm dieting." That's only going to invoke someone's good-natured encouragement of you to "live a little." Remember that you're trying to eat better because you want to live a little longer. Related Articles: |