Happy Holiday Habits

Tiny Tummy Tips, Issue #020 -- How to Manage Holiday Eating

In This Issue

The cookies I’d nibbled,
The eggnog I’d taste
At the holiday parties
Had gone to my waist.”

…Don’t let this be you!

This year, instead of taking a holiday from healthy eating and waiting until the New Year to think about it again, how about adopting “An Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound of Cure” attitude.

Preventing weight gain is much easier than trying to diet or exercise away any excess pounds you’ll gain if you check out from now till January!

What to Do: “Maintain, Don’t Gain.” Weigh yourself now. Plan to weigh again Jan 3. Make it a goal to simply maintain. You don’t always have to be in weight loss mode.

Here are the most common factors that contribute to holiday weight gain and my suggestions how to manage them:

5 Factors that Contribute To Holiday Weight Gain

What to Do:

What to Do with Food Gifts

OR

Make mason jar cookie mix recipes or mason jar soup mix recipes.

If you receive food gifts, get them out of sight, out of mind by:

• Take to work
• Take to a a holiday party
• Give to a nursing home or women’s shelter

OR

• Ask friends/family ahead of time NOT to give food as gifts

Holiday Foods

• Use 25% less sugar than a recipe calls for
• Replace up to ½ the fat in cookies, cakes, and breads with unsweetened applesauce, pumpkin puree, pureed prunes or mashed bananas
• Use skim or lowfat milk in recipes

AND/OR

• Sauté in broth instead of oil or butter
• Substitute plain nonfat Greek yogurt when a recipe calls for sour cream or mayonnaise
• Serve more fruits and vegetables arranged in fun enticing ways:
Christmas Pinterest Board

Parties

• Always keep a plate and/or cup in hand to avoid the “food pushers.”
• Survey the whole buffet table before making your choices.
• Keep your back to the food table.

AND/OR

• Bring a dish to share that you know if “safe” for you to eat.
• Eat a small snack before going in order to avoid being overly hungry and making emotional food decisions.

Less Time for Exercise

Binge Now, Lose Later Mindset

There are no “good foods” or “bad foods.” There are only “good patterns” (of eating) and “bad patterns.” Keep a food log to increase your awareness of indulgences becoming patterns.

The Takehome

Maintain, Don’t Gain. Weigh yourself now. Plan to weigh again Jan 3. Make it a goal to simply maintain so that your January DOESN’T look like this:

“I won’t have hot biscuits, or cornbread, or pie,
I’ll munch on a carrot and quietly cry.
I’m hungry, I’m lonesome, and life is a bore…
But isn’t that what January is for?”

;) Happy Holidays!

Pay It Forward

If you like this e-zine, please do a friend (and me) a big favor and "pay it forward" by sending the link or posting on your social media.

If you received this as a forward from a friend, and if you like what you read please subscribe by visiting tiny-tummy-tips.html

Comments? Ideas? Feedback?

See you in the next issue!

In Health,