Include Healthy Holiday Eating This Year

The holidays are a time of reuniting. Seeing old friends who we haven’t seen in a long time. Spending some quality time with loved ones and family. These are very special times and are reminders of who and what is important in our lives.

Halloween

I remember some of the things I would get when I was out trick or treating would be different kinds of fruit. Needless to say, when young those aren’t the greatest of treats, but they were perfect for healthy holiday eating.

Other than handing out candy, you could hand out healthier treats. For a change hand out snack foods such as hot cocoa, miniature cracker packs, pretzel packs, or trail mix.

You could even hand out some non food items such as small toys and maybe even give coupons the kids can redeem for something at the health food store or organic bakery. Of course there is always sugarless candy.

Thanksgiving & Christmas

Some people try to fool themselves into thinking that it will be easier to lose the weight gained during this time after the season is over. Both of these strategies may just lead to disappointment. Dieting before and losing weight after the holidays can both be difficult.

One of the things not to do is to starve yourself until you get to the big meal of the day. Instead, try to eat during your regular times.

If the main meal is between the times you normally eat, then eat a salad prior to your main meal. This will help keep you from gorging on everything set before you at the main meal.

The purpose of the holidays is to enjoy ourselves, not to have the last button popping off our pants and feeling miserable because we ate too much.

One simple way to maintain appropriate weight during the holidays is to make some small meal changes and substitutions while cooking. I’m not saying to go out and get a twenty pound tofurky or a vegetarian ham.

For example substitute healthy ingredients for unhealthy ones to enhance your healthy holiday eating. Instead of having to add too much butter or gravy, try adding additional spices in order to give more flavor to the foods you cook. Substitute high fat and high calorie ingredients with low fat and low calorie ones.

If you will not be eating at home, bring a healthy dish to your destination. This will give you something to fall back on in case you find yourself indulging too much.

Many food stores now sell health conscious desserts. These may still have some sugar in them, but not as much as you would expect in normal desserts.

Most importantly, enjoy yourself during the holidays. Your primary reason is to enjoy the company at these gatherings. So don’t lose sight of this by trying to stay trim and slim through healthy holiday eating.

Partake of the food available. Just don’t overdue it. You will thank yourself for practicing a little discipline when it is all over and things grow back to normal.