Eat Out Eat Well

eating strategies

Leftovers Will Defeat The Best Laid Diet Plans

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You open the fridge door right after the holiday party and what do you see?  Leftover pie, cake, stuffing, turkey, ham, potatoes, lasagna, pizza – you name it.

With all of that tempting stuff staring at you, how can you possibly not nibble away?

The best laid plans have been defeated by left over stuffing – or pie – or lasagna (in my house, it’s pastitsio rather than lasagna).

Don’t forget, nibbling during clean up counts as leftovers, too. Broken cookies, pieces of piecrust, and the last spoonfuls of stuffing haven’t magically lost their calories.

The Two Most Effective Things To Do

1.  The first most effective way to handle leftovers:  Get Them Out Of The House through whatever means you choose.  Here are some “getting them out of the house” options:

  • Send them home with your family and friends — right away – as they’re going out the door.  The longer the leftovers are in your kitchen, the greater the chance you’ll eat them.
  • Throw them out.  Some people might consider it a sin to throw food out.  You need to weigh what works best for you and your conscience – whether to keep the food and eat it or to let the garbage man take it away.  You could always feed some animals if you like, too.
  • Bring it to someone in need.  There must be a food pantry or shelter that would welcome some extra food. There are many people who would appreciate a meal that they are unable to provide for themselves and their families.
  • Take it to the office or send it along with someone to take to his or her office.  There always seem to be ravenous people in offices.  Just don’t eat someone else’s leftovers as you try to get rid of yours.

2.  If you just can’t bring yourself to get your leftovers out of the house: Hide The Stuff That Tempts You.  Out of sight, out of mind is really true. We all tend to eat more when it’s right in front of us.  Food we like – especially higher calorie sugary, fatty, and salty foods, which means many holiday foods —  trigger cravings and eating.

  • Keep the veggies in the front of the fridge and the chocolate pudding in the back.
  • If the food hasn’t made its exit immediately, package it up and store put it in the back of the fridge where you can’t see it at first glance (and might forget about it).
  • Freeze it – although freezing alone isn’t enough to deter some leftover hunters (frozen butter cookies still taste great). Shove the food all the way in the back of the freezer behind the frozen peas where you can’t see it and have to move things around to get at it. It will help.
  • If you’ve bought jumbo size packages of anything in anticipation of holiday company and still have some food left in the packages — put that excess away, too.  Put it somewhere inconvenient so you’ll have to work to get at it. Once again: out of sight and, hopefully, out of mind.  Put it far away, too.  We tend to be lazy so if you have to exert energy to get the food it may take some of the desire out of it.  So store the food in the basement or garage — someplace out of the kitchen.

In Case You Keep The Leftovers

Here are guidelines to help you avoid getting sick along with stuffed.

  • Remember:  2 Hours–2 Inches–4 Days
  • Food can stay unrefrigerated for a maximum of 2 hours from the time it is taken out of the oven and then placed in the refrigerator.
  • Refrigerate or freeze leftovers within 2 hours of cooking by any method — otherwise throw the leftover food away.
  • Leftover food should be stored at a maximum of 2 Inches of thickness so it cools quickly.
  • Food should spend a maximum of 4 days in the refrigerator–otherwise freeze it.
  • The exception to 4 days in the fridge: stuffing and gravy should be used within 2 days. Reheat solid leftovers to 165 degrees F and liquid leftovers to a rolling boil. Toss what you don’t finish.
  • Frozen leftover turkey, stuffing, and gravy should be used within one month.
  • To successfully freeze leftovers, package them properly using freezer wrap or freezer containers. Use heavy-duty aluminum foil, freezer paper, or freezer bags for best results and don’t leave any air space. Squeeze the excess air from the freezer bags. Without proper packaging, circulating air in the freezer can create freezer burn – those white dried-out patches on the surface of food that make it tough and tasteless.
  • Leave a one-inch headspace in containers with liquid and half an inch in containers filled with semi-solids.

Those big holiday meals are coming up!  For more hints and tips about holiday eating get my book,  The Sensible Holiday Eating Guide: How To Enjoy Your Favorite Foods Without Gaining Weight, available from Amazon for your kindle or kindle reader.

Do You Eat Something You Don’t Want Just To Be Polite?

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Do you think you need to eat to be polite – even if you don’t want the food or you’re totally stuffed – because you don’t want to be rude or hurt someone’s feelings?

You really don’t have to feel obliged to eat out of courtesy – especially if you don’t want the food or you’re full.  Ditch the guilt – the calories are going into your mouth, not your host’s, your Mom’s, or your friend’s.

Who Are Food Pushers?

Food pushers pile your plate high with food and act insulted if you ask them to stop. Food pushers, despite your protests, insist that you try every kind of food.  Food pushers look at your plate and loudly ask why you’re not eating, if you don’t like something, or if you’re on a diet.  Food pushers are thorns in your side and don’t necessarily have your best interest at heart. Food pushers can be your partner, friend, parent, or sister. They may or may not realize what they’re doing.  What’s important is that you do.

What’s Your Game Plan?

You need to have a game plan for how you’re going to deal with food pushers.  A plan sounds clinical but it doesn’t have to be. It could be your saving grace.  Think about how you want to handle yourself in the face of food, family, someone’s special stuffing, your family’s traditional sweet potato casserole (which you may hate but always feel obliged to eat), and the array of desserts staring at you from seemingly every table and counter.

One size – or one plan – does not fit all.  You need to choose the plan of action and strategy that works best for you and your circumstances.

What are you going to do or say to the food pushers?  Are you going to stand firm and say you don’t want to eat the stuffing because you’re watching your carbs – and then steel yourself for the snarky look?  Are you going to say that you really need to watch your weight – or that you can’t eat that much – or that you get sleepy when you overeat and, unfortunately, you really have some work that you have to finish and you need to be alert?

Are you going to say that you really don’t care for pie – pumpkin or otherwise – and that your favorite dessert is fruit? If someone really hounds you about trying certain foods you can always claim an allergy or that you’re eating heart healthy (claiming an upset stomach might buy you an early exit or other guests avoiding you like the plague).

You’re In Charge

It’s so easy to default to shoving food in your mouth when faced with food pushers and potentially annoying family members, some of whom seem spend the entire time carping at one another.

Nothing is engraved in stone but if you have an idea about what you want to accomplish and how to go about it you’ll be far less likely to nibble and nosh all day and night. You’re the one in charge of what and how much food goes into your mouth. Take charge and remain in charge of you.

Do You Still Eat More Even When Your Stomach Is Full And Your Pants Are Tight?

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Have you ever had a day when it seems like all you do is eat and eat and eat some more?  You eat everything – a bagel for breakfast, a donut for a midmorning snack, and at lunch with  friends or coworkers and before you know it the breadbasket is empty.  You might follow it up by some coffee and a snack in the afternoon.  Maybe it’s a workday and you amble down to the hall to the vending machine or the snack room only to find that it’s someone’s birthday so there’s that delicious birthday cake sitting in the middle of the table.  A little nibble of some cheese around six.  Uh oh.  Dinner plans that night – how can you eat even more?

There Always Seems To Be Room

You get to the restaurant.  It’s gotten a great review and you’re with good company, too.  How can you not go for it?  The food is supposed to be phenomenal.  You’re not hungry, but you eat and eat.  Appetizer, bread, salad, entrée. Stuffed and double stuffed.  Then it’s time for dessert and it sounds so appealing. The chocolate lava cake or the key lime pie is what this restaurant is known for. You really feel like you can’t stuff in another morsel, but guess what – you order one of the spectacular choices and eat it – every last fork full including the crumbs.

Why Do You Continue To Eat?

The signal to stop eating is usually not because your stomach is full (except in some extreme cases).  According to Brian Wansink, PhD, author of the book, Mindless Eating,  a combination of things like how much you taste, chew, swallow, how much you think about the food you are eating, and how long you’ve been eating all come into play.

Incredibly, the faster most people eat, the more they eat. Eating quickly doesn’t give your brain the chance to get the message that you’re not hungry any more.  Research shows that it takes up to 20 minutes for your body and brain to both get the message — the satiation signal — and realize that you’re full.  Think how much more you can eat in that time span of 20 minutes – a burger, fries, pie, pizza, ice cream – even though your stomach is really full but your brain may not yet have gotten the message.

Twenty Minutes Or Less 

Research has shown that Americans start and finish their meals — and clear the table — in less than 20 minutes.  A study published in the journal Appetite found that people eating lunch by themselves in a fast food restaurant finish in 11 minutes. It takes  13 minutes to finish in a workplace cafeteria and 28 minutes at a moderately priced restaurant.  Eating with three other people takes about twice as long – which can still end up being a really short chunk of time.

Some Strategies

  • Slow down when you eat.  Give your brain a chance to catch up.  How many times have you devoured what you’ve made or bought for lunch in almost no time flat — and then, almost immediately, decided that you’re still hungry?  Twenty minutes to half an hour after you’ve ended up eating a whole bunch more — even though your stomach is probably full —  your belly feels like it’s going to explode and you can’t, in good conscience — unbutton any more buttons on your pants.  You realize that you should have stopped before the seconds.
  • Eat more slowly, chew more thoroughly, pace your whole eating pattern to a slower beat.  Give your brain a chance to synch its signals with the messages generated by putting food in your stomach.
  • Try getting up from the table and doing something else – and promise yourself if you’re still hungry in 20 minutes you can have more.  If you’re in a restaurant, it’s the perfect time to excuse yourself and go to the rest room or claim that you have to make a call.

In most cases, after the 20 or so minutes, your belly and brain are both happy and in synch and you won’t want more to eat. What you save:  excess calories and an uncomfortably expanding stomach.

 

 

No, I Don’t Want A Piece Of Pie

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Have you ever said, “No, I don’t care for any” to seconds or “No, thank you” to dessert – but your host or dinner companion just won’t give up?

“You’ve gotta try it, it’s great, “ or “Oh, come on, just a little taste,” or “Have just a little more.” It goes on and on and on and you want to scream, “No, and I mean, No.”

Unfortunately, many of us cave in to the pressure – because the food really does look tempting and your willpower and commitment has been eroded — or because we just want the annoying beseeching to go away.  It can be aggravating – maybe infuriating – and at times embarrassing — when they keep pressuring you to have a taste, or take some more, or, worse yet, shove their forks in your face.

Why Do They Do It?

Who knows what motivates people who pressure you and won’t give up.  Maybe it’s their own guilt about what they’ve eaten and they want company while they wallow in the “I shouldn’t of had that.”

Maybe it’s a reflection of their fear that if you lose weight you’ll look so much better than they do and you’ll also show them up as self-perceived “dietary failures.”

Or, maybe, like some of my relatives, they’re just programmed to push your buttons along with pushing you to taste and eat.

What You Can Do

There are a few ways to handle these saboteurs/relatives/frenemies. One is to take the high road and explain that you’re satisfied with what and how much you’ve already eaten since you’re trying to watch your weight and eat clean. If they persist you can try saying again that you’re comfortably full and really don’t want more food. If they keep at it stare them down and ask why the heck they care so much about what you eat.

Now, that may “piss” someone off so you might try to still be firm but a little more gentle without hurting someone’s feelings.  Although – being polite and gentle hasn’t worked so far and they’re hurting yours . . .

Using the health card almost always works.  Claiming you’re on a diet usually doesn’t. It’s hard to argue or persist with the pressure when you say that your doctor told you that you had to watch your cholesterol or that you have a food allergy.  There are excellent times when little white lies that harm no one and potentially save your waistline and your relationships are the best solution.

Then again, to shut someone up you could always take the food, take one little nibble, keep smiling, and leave it on the nearest table or toss it in the garbage on a stroll toward the rest room.