Here we are, about to head into the holiday season! It is a wonderful time of year where we get together with family and make memories. There are special foods, gifts and travel but many of us tend to neglect our self care during this season and it leads to stress, feeling lousy and little bit of weight gain. Research shows that most people only gain about a pound over the holiday season, but many times, they don’t shed that weight and it can lead to problems over a span of a few years. Hopefully, I can help you avoid weight gain over the holidays with these tips I have put together.
Have a plan
Meal planning can help avoid weight gain
Are you a planner and does it feel like it goes out the window during the holidays? This is really when we need to strap in and just do it! Between baking, shopping, and driving the kids all over it makes it hard to sit down for a meal, much less cook it. The idea is this: sit down one day a week and plan out all your meals. Make your grocery list and head to the store.
Some people like to designate a food prep day and if your weeks are crazy, this is a great idea for you. Websites like this one have many ideas for freeze ahead meals and this way you can make your food ahead of time and all you have to do is heat it up when you are ready. Also, you can utilize your crockpot and have a meal ready when you get home with very little effort (like my Simple and Healthy Crockpot Lasagna Soup).
My other post, How to eat healthy when you’re busy, can really help out during the holidays and save your sanity.
Snack planning
What about snacks? It’s good to keep your home stocked with healthy options like my Pumpkin Muffins with Streusel. I always make a double batch and freeze them. It’s so easy to just put one in the microwave for thirty seconds and it’s ready to eat.
Planning is key to avoid weight gain over the holidays
Make sure you have fruits like apples and bananas handy or some cut up veggies in the fridge with little hummus cups, and this way you have quick, easy options with no prep involved.
Move your body
Get up and move. It does not have to be a formal workout, just move! Try to schedule in some movement every day. Go for a walk, lift some weights, take that class you’ve never tried before, or do some gardening. Your body will thank you and it will keep you out of the kitchen. Make time for this somewhere and you will be so much less stressed and your body will thank you for it.
Schedule in your workouts
I know this seems a little picky, but schedule your workouts in your planner. If you write it down or have a reminder on your phone, then you are much less likely to skip it! Also, if you plan these workouts with friends, then you will be less likely to bail because someone is counting on you.
Don’t eat all the treats
If you are like me, you are blessed with many generous people in your life and they will want to do something special for you and bring you treats. Listen, you don’t have to eat it all.
Say someone gives you a tray of butterscotch cookies but your favorite treat is chocolate brownies. Do you have to eat it? Absolutely not! Of course you will thank the person who sweetly gave it to you, but if you aren’t really excited about it, don’t eat it and they will never have to know.
I am picky about what treats I eat. I tend to look at some foods and ask myself, “Is it worth it?” If the answer is no, I don’t even bother and this leads to my next point.
Re-gift treats
This is a totally acceptable way of doing things. Think about it: you have gotten loads of treats from friends and family and you can’t eat it all. What you can do is repackage the treats on other trays and give it away to other people (just don’t give it back to someone who gave it to you in the first place!). If this weirds you out, just save what you like best and get rid of the rest.
Indulge every day
Yes, this helps avoid weight gain!
I am a big believer in a balanced diet including things that are not so good for us. For example, most nights, I have ice cream with my husband. The nights I don’t have ice cream, I have a different treat. In the past, I have tried to limit treats to maybe once a month and it backfired, big time!
All I wanted were sweets and I would have a moment of “weakness” where I would have a little treat and decide I ruined the whole day and eat a bunch more. That was not healthy.
Now I allow indulgences and I encourage you to do the same. Don’t try to restrict yourself to the point where if you try something you feel like you ruined all your progress. You deserve better!
It is the holiday season and you’ll be cooking with family, decorating cookies and making memories. Allow yourself some room to enjoy those precious people and memories without worrying about if you had a little treat and try to have one special treat a day and see how you feel.
Freeze treats
One of the best things about baked goods is they freeze really well. We are constantly freezing cakes at our houses and taking out pieces later. I know there is guilt in wasting food, but this way, we don’t feel like we have to eat it all at once and we can spread it out.
This helps avoid weight gain and allow you to enjoy it later!
If you have a batch of cookies, but don’t want to eat them all before they go bad, freeze them! Is it really that bad to bring out a Christmas cookie in February?
Write it all down
A food journal is like a friend that is telling you the honest truth you don’t want to hear. Personally, I use myfitnesspal and it has been eye opening. This is a food journal that calculates all your calories and macro nutrients and it allows you to see what is going in your body on a handy app.
Many times, if I want to go get something, but I’m not really hungry, I think about logging it and decide it isn’t worth it. There have been times where I wanted a doughnut and stopped myself because I knew what a dent it would leave in my daily caloric intake.
Watch out for B.L.T.’s
You’re baking up a treat for your friend and you LOVE cookie dough, so you just pinch off a bite. And then there’s a little more left over so you eat that, too. Or, you’re making dinner and eating just a couple chips to tide you over.
These are the B.L.T.’s or bites, licks and tastes and you really need to look out for these. These calories add up and can really make a difference to your waistline.
Avoid B.L.T.’s, avoid weight gain
A person could meticulously log their food, and not these and have no idea how many extra calories they ingest. It’s a nightmare, especially if you are doing extra cooking and baking. Try to chew on gum if you are hungry or have a hard candy and that way your mouth is busy and you will be less likely to stuff unbaked goodies in your mouth.
Conclusion
These tips tend to help me feel my best during the holiday season. The bottom line, this is a time to enjoy your friends and family and not stress out over food. If you are trying to lose weight, this might be a good time to take a “diet break” and just eat at maintenance. In fact, you will probably enjoy the holidays so much more if you aren’t worried about the scale. Just make sure to not overeat and eat mindfully.