The holidays are here. You can’t go anywhere without sugary, glittery, shiny holiday themed food calling your name.

Holidays create a “perfect storm” for eating way too much. They combine some of the worst cues and triggers for overeating: family drama, too much food (much of it sweet and fatty), tradition and ritual, stress eating, and the attitude of “why not – it’s the holidays.” All too frequently the default then becomes: “I’ll start my diet in the New Year, or after Easter, of in September after Labor Day” – or after a month of Sundays!

Do You Really Want To Count Calories On A Holiday?

No way. Holiday food is special and holiday traditions and rituals are hallmarks we count on.

When you restrict yourself of may foods, it often means that you end up depriving yourself of traditional and possibly your favorite foods that you associate with holidays. When you do deprive yourself of those cherished foods, more often than not you end up later that night standing in front of an open fridge rummaging for leftovers still feeling the sting from the stare down you had with your favorite foods earlier in the day.

What’s Your Holiday Game Day Plan?

What’s your game plan? Does it allow you to enjoy the holiday and the food (really important). On a holiday you know you’ll eat a bit more – or maybe a bit more than a bit more – than on a typical day.

Balance it out by allowing for a range of calories during the holiday and the days surrounding it. To maintain your weight, the overall number of calories you eat should approximate the calories you burn, so compensate by eating a little lighter the days before and after (and maybe adding in some extra activity).

15 Tips and Strategies

Here are some tips — choose what you can commit to and that will work best for you. Then build them into your personal holiday eating plan.

1. Don’t starve yourself the day of a holiday meal or party. If you attempt to save up calories for a splurge, you’ll probably be so hungry by the time dinner is served you’ll end up shoving food into your mouth faster than you can say turkey. Have a protein and fiber snack (around 150 calories) and something to drink beforehand, but don’t skip meals or arrive famished.

2. Give yourself permission to NOT eat something that you usually eat just because it’s a holiday tradition. Certain foods may taste, look, or smell like Thanksgiving or Christmas, but that doesn’t mean you have to eat them. It’s still the holiday without them.

3. Ask yourself if you’re eating something because you like it or are you eating it for another reason — perhaps because you’ve been eating the same holiday food since you were a kid. Maybe you don’t even like the food any more or it disagrees with you. So why are you eating it? Who’s forcing you to? Eat what you want — not what you think you should.

4. Say no to the friends and relatives who push the extra piece of pie and the second helping of stuffing, or who constantly refill your drink. You’re the one stepping on the scale or zipping up your jeans the next day – not them.

5. Have your own personal rules and swaps for what you will or won’t eat and commit to sticking with them ahead of time. Your rules are an integral part of your game plan. Examples might be: I really want pecan pie for dessert so I’ll only have one biscuit without butter with my meal. Or, I’ll only take two hors d’oeuvres from the passed trays at a cocktail party. This will both limit how much you eat and will also make you think carefully and choose what you really want instead of randomly sampling everything.

6. Acknowledge your red flags, your trigger foods. Can you be near Christmas cookies without eating a dozen? Do you overeat at family events? There’s no need to psychoanalyze why. Just know the things that serve as your red flags and have a plan to deal with them.

7. Decide what’s really worth an indulgence. Then fill up on the lower calorie volume foods — like vegetables — so you won’t have tons of room left for the splurges. If you’re a sucker for desserts, stick with lean protein and veggies for your main course followed by a reasonable slice of cheesecake. Or if the stuffing and au gratin potatoes are calling your name, have them, but skip or skimp on the desserts.

8. Make a deal (with yourself) that you can eat what you want during dinner. Put the food on your plate, eat it with a fork, and enjoy every last morsel. Clean your plate if you want to. But – that’s it. No seconds and no double-decking the plate.

9. Choose your beverages wisely. Alcohol clocks in at 7 calories a gram. Alcohol with mixers adds even more calories. Plus, alcohol takes the edge off lots of things – including your ability to stick to your plan. Drink water. It fills you up. Have a diet soda if you want. If you’re going to drink alcohol, try limiting the amount – think about alternating with water or seltzer.

10. Control your food environment the best you can. Don’t hang around the buffet table or stand next to the platter of delicious whatevers. Why are you tempting yourself? Go into another room or the farthest corner away from serving table.

11. Keep your back to the buffet. For most people, food that is out of sight is out of mind.

12. Don’t eat off of someone else’s plate, finish your kids’ food, sample your spouse’s pie, or take a taste of this and a taste of that as you walk around the party. One bite here and one bite there doesn’t seem like much, but add them up and you’ll be shocked. Mindless bites average about 25 calories apiece. Four mindless bites a day means around a hundred (extra) calories. Do this daily and by the end of a month you might have gained close to a pound. Because it’s so easy to overlook those hand to mouth sneaky bites, make a deal with yourself that you’ll only eat food that’s on a plate.

13. Have a conversation. It’s hard to shove food in your mouth when you’re talking. Hold a glass in your hand, even if it has water or seltzer in it, and a napkin in the other hand. It’s hard to nibble and nosh when your hands are full.

14. Get rid of leftovers. Leftover stuffing has defeated the best-laid plans and don’t nibble during clean up (or preparation for that matter). Broken cookies, pieces of pie crust, and the last bits of stuffing haven’t magically lost their calories.

15. Don’t multi-task. Try to avoid combining eating with other activities. Distractions are a major contributor to overeating. When you’re with family and friends the last thing on your mind is going to be how many nachos you just inhaled while some annoying in-law was yakking your ear off. TV is another major culprit. When you sit down to catch a game, parade, or a holiday special, be sure that there isn’t a big bowl of munchies sitting right next to you waiting to sabotage your waistline.

What If You Ate Everything In Sight?

If you ate everything is sight and your exercise was walking back and forth to the to the buffet table, take heart, It was just one day. It’s not so difficult to make up for your indulgences over the next few days.

The danger is letting it stretch into days or weeks. That’s when your waistline starts expanding and the pound you gained this year stays there and gets joined by another the following year.

Enjoy the holidays and the traditions that are important to you. Be thankful and joyous. Isn’t that the point?

The post 15 Easy-On-The-Waistline Holiday Eating Tips appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

Putting the “big” meal aside, most extra holiday calories don’t come from the “day of” holiday meal but from unrelenting nibbling over the long holiday season.

Here are 15 workable tips to help you handle holiday food. Choose and use what will work best for you and your lifestyle.

1.  You’re the one in charge of choosing what, when, and where you eat. Make the best choice for you — not for someone else. Eat what you want not what you think you should. Give yourself permission to NOT eat something just because it’s tradition.

2.  To make good choices you need to inform yourself. If 12 ounces of eggnog has 500 calories and 12 ounces of beer has around 150 and you like them both, which would you choose?

3.  Don’t feel obliged to eat what your partner, parent, neighbor, or sibling is having – and don’t let them make you feel guilty if you don’t. What you choose to eat should be what you like, want, and is special to you — not someone else.

4.  Say “no thank you” to rolls, mashed potatoes, and ice cream. You can have them any time of the year. Spend your extra calories on something special.

5.  Practice portion and plant control. Pile your plate high with lower-calorie vegetables and be stingy with portions of the more calorically dense, fatty, and sugary foods. Eat high volume, lower calorie foods (like vegetables and clear soups) first – they’ll fill you up leaving less room for the other stuff.

6.  Be attentive to mindless noshing. For some reason we don’t seem to mentally process the random nibbles and calories from the treats on the receptionist’s desk, the office party hors d’oeuvres, the nibbles off of a child’s plate, or the holiday cake in the snack room. If the food is in front of you it’s hard not to indulge. See it = eat it.

7.  Don’t deprive yourself of your favorite holiday foods3. Give yourself permission to eat the holiday treats that you really want – just not the whole platter. A good strategy is to decide on one fantastic treat a day and stick to your decision. Do it ahead of time and commit to your choice so you don’t find yourself wavering in the face of temptation.

8.  Let this be your mantra: no seconds. Double-decking the food on your plate isn’t such a great idea, either. Choose your food, fill your plate, and that’s it.

9.   Pick the smallest plates, bowls, and glasses you can to help you feel full even when you’re eating less. The smaller the plate, the less food that can go on it. You probably won’t even notice the difference because your eyes and brain are registering “full plate.” The same optical illusion applies to glasses.  Choose taller ones instead of shorter fat ones to help cut down on liquid calories.

10. Don’t feel obliged to eat out of courtesy because you don’t want to hurt someone’s feelings.  Get over it – the calories are going into your mouth, not someone else’s.  Avoid food pushers who insist on trying to get you to eat more. Have some polite excuses ready to use. You’re the one who will be stepping on the scale or zipping up your jeans the next day – not them.

11. Don’t go to a party hungry, thirsty, or tired — it sets you up for overindulging. Our bodies have a tough time differentiating between thirst and hunger and we often make poor decisions when we’re tired. Before going out have a small healthy snack that‘s around 150 calories and has protein and fiber — like fat-free yogurt and fruit, a serving (not a couple of handfuls) of nuts, or a small piece of cheese and fruit. When you get to the party or dinner you won’t be as likely to attack the hors d’oeuvres or the breadbasket.

12. Forget about grazing. Take a plate — or even a napkin for hors d’oeuvres — put food on it and eat it. Lots of little nibbles add up to lots of big calories. Noshing is mindless eating.

13. Sit with your back to a buffet table – and as far away as possible – so temptation isn’t in your line of sight. A lot of “eating” is done with your eyes and your eyes love to tell you to try this and to try that. Try talking to someone, too. It’s hard to shove food in your mouth when you’re talking.

14. A buffet doesn’t have a “stuff your face” sign hanging over it. Pay attention to what you’ll enjoy and really, really want — not how much you can fit on your plate.

15. Keep in mind that a holiday is a day – 24 hours — like any other day, except that you’ll most likely encounter more food challenges. Be selective. Pass on the muffins at breakfast and save your indulgence calories for “the meal.” Before you put anything on your plate survey your options so you can choose what you really want rather than piling on a random assortment of too much food.

The post Nibbles and Noshes, Cocktails and Cookies: 15 Tips To Keep You and Your Scale Happy appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

Is your holiday mindset: lots of food = good time; not so much food = bad time? Can you exude holiday spirit without accompanying gluttony?

You bet you can, but it isn’t always easy. Celebrations are often intertwined with the need or obligation to cook and/or eat — not just because you’re hungry, but for many other reasons, too. There always seems to be that one common denominator: food – and a lot of it.

Since we all have to eat, it can be a very slippery slope to eat well when you’re surrounded by all that food; family and friends; an encyclopedia of cultural, religious, and family traditions; and a whole host of expectations.

Is Food Part Of Your Holiday?

In the grand scheme of things, the actual content of your Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, or Christmas meal matters very little. Consistently overeating a few hundred calories will have its effects over time, but the extra calories from one meal has negligible impact (you may feel totally stuffed, but you can work off the one day’s indulgence pretty easily).

It’s the inevitable mindless eating – those bites and nibbles and calories from the treats on the receptionist’s desk, the gift of peanut brittle, the holiday toasts, the second and third helpings, the holiday cookies in the snack room and everywhere else, that are the culprits. If the food is in front of you it’s hard not to indulge.  See it = eat it!

Food Has Meaning

During the holidays we wrap our thoughts around food – after all, Thanksgiving originally was a harvest celebration and many cultures and religions have special foods to signify a special holiday. Aren’t there visions of sugarplums dancing in your head?

Food, its meaning and presentation may be interpreted differently – but with equal importance — by people of varying religions, ethnicities, and cultures. Food also acts like a cloak of comfort – something many of us look for and welcome around the holidays.

• But, nowhere is it written that holiday food has to be eaten in tremendous quantity – or that a meal has to include stuffing, two types of potatoes, five desserts, or six types of candy. That idea is self-imposed.
• So is the opposite self-imposed idea: trying to diet during the holidays. Restriction and overeating are both difficult – and often equally counterproductive.
• Winter holiday eating comes during the cold and dark seasons in many parts of the world. Warm comfort food just seems all the more appealing — whether you’re dieting or not — when it’s somewhat inhospitable outside and celebratory inside.

Do You Plan to Overeat During the Holidays?

Think about it. Unconsciously, or perhaps intentionally, a lot of us actually plan to overeat during the holidays. Be honest: do you know that you’re going to overeat? Do you think it wouldn’t be normal or non-celebratory if you didn’t overindulge and eat three desserts at Christmas and nibble on every Christmas cookie in sight?

During the holidays food is absolutely everywhere. It’s there for the taking — and most of the time it’s free (and in your face) at parties, on receptionist’s desks, and as sample tastes while you shop. How can you pass it up?

Most of it is sugary, fatty, and pretty. How can you not try it? Of course, sugary and fatty (salty, too) means you just crave more and more.   Do you really need it? Do you even really want it? If you eat it, will you feel awful later on?

Traditions, Obligations, and Guilt

We all attach varying levels of importance and obligation to traditions and we all come with varying ounces and pounds of guilt. Here’s where that may come into play during the holiday food fest:

• Do you gobble down holiday food because of tradition – maybe you’ve been eating the same food at Christmas or Hanukkah since you were a kid? Maybe you don’t even like the food anymore. Perhaps it disagrees with you or gives you acid reflux. So why are you eating it? Who’s forcing you to?
• Do you think you won’t have a good time or you’ll be labeled Scrooge, Grinch, a party pooper, or offend your mother-in-law if you don’t eat everything in sight? Get over it. Do you really think you’re Scrooge?

You can still love the holidays and you can still love the food. In the grand scheme of things overeating on one day isn’t such a big deal. Overeating for multiple days that turn into weeks and then months becomes a problem.

Do you really want to overeat? If you do, fine. Enjoy every morsel and then take a nap – although it’s better if you take a walk. Tomorrow is another day. Just know that you don’t have to overeat. You control your fork and the decisions about what goes into your mouth. Make thoughtful choices and enjoy them along with everything else the holiday represents.

For more tidbits check out Eat Out Eat Well on Facebook.  And remember to Like the page while you’re there!

The post Is Your Holiday Eating Starting To Show? appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

The holidays are right around the corner. You can’t go into a supermarket or box store without holiday food and fixings just begging to be tossed into your cart.

Holidays create a “perfect storm” for eating way too much. They combine some of the worst cues and triggers for overeating: family drama, too much food (much of it sweet and fatty), tradition and ritual, stress eating, and the attitude of “why not – it’s the holidays.” All too frequently the default then becomes: “I’ll start my diet in the New Year, or after Easter, of in September after Labor Day” – or after a month of Sundays!

Do You Really Want To Count Calories On A Holiday?

No way. Holiday food is special and holiday traditions and rituals are hallmarks we count on.

When you restrict yourself of may foods, it often means that you end up depriving yourself of traditional and possibly your favorite foods that you associate with holidays. When you do deprive yourself of those cherished foods, more often than not you end up later that night standing in front of an open fridge rummaging for leftovers still feeling the sting from the stare down you had with your favorite foods earlier in the day.

What’s Your Holiday Game Day Plan?

What’s your game plan? Does it allow you to enjoy the holiday and the food (really important). On a holiday you know you’ll eat a bit more – or maybe a bit more than a bit more – than on a typical day.

Balance it out by allowing for a range of calories during the holiday and the days surrounding it. To maintain your weight, the overall number of calories you eat should approximate the calories you burn, so compensate by eating a little lighter the days before and after (and maybe adding in some extra activity).

15 Tips and Strategies

Here are some tips — choose what you can commit to and that will work best for you. Then build them into your personal holiday eating plan.

1. Don’t starve yourself the day of a holiday meal or party. If you attempt to save up calories for a splurge, you’ll probably be so hungry by the time dinner is served you’ll end up shoving food into your mouth faster than you can say turkey. Have a protein and fiber snack (around 150 calories) and something to drink beforehand, but don’t skip meals or arrive famished.

2. Give yourself permission to NOT eat something that you usually eat just because it’s a holiday tradition. Certain foods may taste, look, or smell like Thanksgiving or Christmas, but that doesn’t mean you have to eat them. It’s still the holiday without them.

3. Ask yourself if you’re eating something because you like it or are you eating it for another reason — perhaps because you’ve been eating the same holiday food since you were a kid. Maybe you don’t even like the food any more or it disagrees with you. So why are you eating it? Who’s forcing you to? Eat what you want — not what you think you should.

4. Say no to the friends and relatives who push the extra piece of pie and the second helping of stuffing, or who constantly refill your drink. You’re the one stepping on the scale or zipping up your jeans the next day – not them.

5. Have your own personal rules and swaps for what you will or won’t eat and commit to sticking with them ahead of time. Your rules are an integral part of your game plan. Examples might be: I really want pecan pie for dessert so I’ll only have one biscuit without butter with my meal. Or, I’ll only take two hors d’oeuvres from the passed trays at a cocktail party. This will both limit how much you eat and will also make you think carefully and choose what you really want instead of randomly sampling everything.

6. Acknowledge your red flags, your trigger foods. Can you be near Christmas cookies without eating a dozen? Do you overeat at family events? There’s no need to psychoanalyze why. Just know the things that serve as your red flags and have a plan to deal with them.

7. Decide what’s really worth an indulgence. Then fill up on the lower calorie volume foods — like vegetables — so you won’t have tons of room left for the splurges. If you’re a sucker for desserts, stick with lean protein and veggies for your main course followed by a reasonable slice of cheesecake. Or if the stuffing and au gratin potatoes are calling your name, have them, but skip or skimp on the desserts.

8. Make a deal (with yourself) that you can eat what you want during dinner. Put the food on your plate, eat it with a fork, and enjoy every last morsel. Clean your plate if you want to. But – that’s it. No seconds and no double-decking the plate.

9. Choose your beverages wisely. Alcohol clocks in at 7 calories a gram. Alcohol with mixers adds even more calories. Plus, alcohol takes the edge off lots of things – including your ability to stick to your plan. Drink water. It fills you up. Have a diet soda if you want. If you’re going to drink alcohol, try limiting the amount – think about alternating with water or seltzer.

10. Control your food environment the best you can. Don’t hang around the buffet table or stand next to the platter of delicious whatevers. Why are you tempting yourself? Go into another room or the farthest corner away from serving table.

11. Keep your back to the buffet. For most people, food that is out of sight is out of mind.

12. Don’t eat off of someone else’s plate, finish your kids’ food, sample your spouse’s pie, or take a taste of this and a taste of that as you walk around the party. One bite here and one bite there doesn’t seem like much, but add them up and you’ll be shocked. Mindless bites average about 25 calories apiece. Four mindless bites a day means around a hundred (extra) calories. Do this daily and by the end of a month you might have gained close to a pound. Because it’s so easy to overlook those hand to mouth sneaky bites, make a deal with yourself that you’ll only eat food that’s on a plate.

13. Have a conversation. It’s hard to shove food in your mouth when you’re talking. Hold a glass in your hand, even if it has water or seltzer in it, and a napkin in the other hand. It’s hard to nibble and nosh when your hands are full.

14. Get rid of leftovers. Leftover stuffing has defeated the best-laid plans and don’t nibble during clean up (or preparation for that matter). Broken cookies, pieces of pie crust, and the last bits of stuffing haven’t magically lost their calories.

15. Don’t multi-task. Try to avoid combining eating with other activities. Distractions are a major contributor to overeating. When you’re with family and friends the last thing on your mind is going to be how many nachos you just inhaled while some annoying in-law was yakking your ear off. TV is another major culprit. When you sit down to catch a game, parade, or a holiday special, be sure that there isn’t a big bowl of munchies sitting right next to you waiting to sabotage your waistline.

What If You Ate Everything In Sight?

If you ate everything is sight and your exercise was walking back and forth to the to the buffet table, take heart, It was just one day. It’s not so difficult to make up for your indulgences over the next few days.

The danger is letting it stretch into days or weeks. That’s when your waistline starts expanding and the pound you gained this year stays there and gets joined by another the following year.

Enjoy the holidays and the traditions that are important to you. Be thankful and joyous. Isn’t that the point?

The post 15 Holiday Eating Tips That Are Easy On The Waistline appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

Is holiday food everywhere?  Are you tempted to eat everything?

Here are a couple of helpful hints:

Say “no thank you” to the rolls, the mashed potatoes, and the ice cream.  You can have them any time of the year. Spend your extra calories on something special that’s specific to the holidays.  Also say “no thank you” to the food pushers who persist in trying to get you to eat more. Have some polite excuses ready to use.

Keep in mind that a holiday is 24 hours — just like any other day, except that you’ll most likely encounter more food challenges. Be selective.  Pass on the muffins at breakfast and save your indulgences for the big meal. Try not to eat a separate meal while you’re preparing “the meal”  — it’s all too easy to taste hundreds of calories while you’re cooking (and cleaning up)!

For more helpful hints download my book from Amazon:  30 Ways To Eat Your Holiday Favorites And Still Get Into Your Jeans.

And

New from iTunes:  Eat Out Eat Well magazine for iPhones and iPads. Head on over and take a look!

The post Holiday Eating Worries? If You’re Going To Indulge, Make It Special appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

My new book — 30 Ways to Eat Your Holiday Favorites and Still Get Into Your Jeans — is available as a free download for your kindle or kindle reader this Saturday, Sunday, and Monday (12/7 – 12/9).

The book is filled with useful and practical tips and info to help you navigate your way through the holiday season with your waistline intact and your belly happy.

Head on over to Amazon to download your free gift — and please share this info with anyone else who might be interested.

I hope you enjoy the book.  I would greatly appreciate it if you would leave a review on Amazon.

Enjoy the holiday season.

The post A Holiday Gift appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

Are you feeling some holiday pressure? Are you, along with lots of family and friends, jumping into entertaining and cooking mode?

Is food a good antidote to all of that stress (at least in the moment)?  What about the pressure – subtle and sometimes not so subtle – to eat everything that’s set out on the table by those close to you?

Then there’s the anger/guilt about eating way too much – and then repeating the whole process.

Consider These Ideas:

• Don’t feel obliged to eat out of courtesy – especially if you don’t want the food or you’re full –because you don’t want to hurt someone’s feelings.  Get over it – the calories are going into your mouth, not theirs.

• Give yourself permission to NOT eat something just because it’s tradition. Whose tradition?

• Only eat it if you want it. Eat what you want not what you think you should.

• Say no to the friend or relative who is pushing the extra piece of pie. You’re the one stepping on the scale or zipping up your jeans the next day – not them.

• Have some personal rules and commit to them.  An example might be:  I really want pecan pie for dessert so I’ll have only one biscuit without butter with my meal.

• Make a deal (with yourself) that you can eat what you want during dinner. Put the food on your plate and enjoy every last morsel. Clean your plate if you want to. But – that’s it. No seconds and no double-decking the plate.

• Make trades. Trade the biscuit and butter for wine with dinner. Limit the hors d’oeuvres. They really pack in calories. Make eating one or two your rule.

• Choose your beverages wisely.  Alcohol adds calories (7 calories/gram). Alcohol with mixers adds even more calories. Plus, alcohol takes the edge off lots of things – including your ability to stick to your plan.

• Drink water. It fills you up. Have a diet soda if you want. If you’re going to drink alcohol, try limiting the amount – think about alternating with water, seltzer, or unsweetened beverages.

• Control your environment. Don’t hang around the buffet table or stand next to the platter of delicious whatevers. Why are you tempting yourself?

• Talk to someone. It’s hard to shove food in your mouth when you’re talking.

• Get rid of leftovers. Leftover stuffing has defeated the best-laid plans.

• Don’t nibble during clean up (or preparation for that matter). Broken cookies, pieces of piecrust, and the last spoonsful of stuffing haven’t magically lost their calories.

• Don’t starve yourself the day of a grand meal. If you do in an attempt to save up calories for a splurge, you’ll probably be so hungry by the time dinner is ready you’ll end up shoving food into your mouth faster than you can say turkey.

• If you end up overeating, add in some longer walks and a couple of days of moderate eating afterward.

Do you want some more really helpful (and sometimes humorous) info about the holidays and holiday eating?  Check these out:

New on Amazon:  30 Ways to Eat Your Holiday Favorites and Still Get Into Your Jeans

Available from the iTunes store:  Eat Out Eat Well magazine

The post Your Holiday Eating Cheat Sheet appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

A lot of us actually plan to overeat during the holidays – although we may not admit it:  think about it — do you know that you’re going to overeat?  Do you think it wouldn’t be normal or celebratory if you didn’t overindulge and eat three desserts at Christmas or double helpings of stuffing and sweet potato casserole on Thanksgiving?

It’s all too easy to do that.  Food is absolutely everywhere.  It’s there for the taking — and most of the time, holiday food is free (and in your face) at parties, on receptionist’s desks, as sample tastes while you shop.  How can you pass it up?

On top of it all, it’s sugary, fatty, and pretty.  How can you not try it?  Of course, sugary and fatty (salty, too) means you just crave more and more.   Do you really need it?  Do you even really want it?  If you eat it, will you feel awful later on?

Are you eating because of tradition – because you’ve been eating the same food during the holiday season since you were a kid?  Maybe you don’t even like the food anymore or it disagrees with you.  So why are you eating it?  Who’s forcing you to?

Do you think you won’t have a good time or you’ll be labeled Scrooge, Grinch, a party pooper, or offend your mother-in-law if you don’t eat everything in sight?  Really?

You can still love the holidays and you can still love the food. In the grand scheme of things overeating on one day isn’t such a big deal.  Overeating for multiple days that turn into weeks and then months can be become a bit and weighty deal.

The question is:  do you really want to overeat?  If you do, fine.  Enjoy every morsel and then take a nap.  Tomorrow is another day.  Just know that you don’t have to.  You make the decisions about what goes into your mouth.  Make thoughtful choices and enjoy them along with everything else the holiday represents.

What To Do

• Have a plan. Think about how you want to handle yourself in the face of food, family, eggnog, and pecan pie.  Nothing is engraved in stone but if you have an idea about what you want to do and how to do it you’ll be far less likely to nibble and nosh all day and night. You’re the one in charge of what goes into your mouth.

• Visualize the situation that you might find yourself in. What do you want the outcome to be? Rehearse, in your mind, how you’ll respond or behave to successfully navigate the eating challenges. Sports coaches use this technique to prepare their athletes to anticipate what might happen and to practice how to respond. Sports performance improves with visualization exercises—so can eating behavior.

• Make sure your plan is workable and realistic for what you’re aiming to achieve over the season.  The plan doesn’t have to be complex – just decide what you want to do and what steps you need to get there.

• Write it down –even if it’s on a napkin.  It will both reinforce your intentions and act as a measure of accountability.

• Consider what your surroundings will be.  Will your plan work for you – it may sound great, but is it doable for the situations you might find yourself in?  Will your host insist you try her special dessert and refuse to take no for an answer? Will you be eating in a restaurant known for its homemade breads or phenomenal wine list? Are your dining companions picky eaters, foodies, or fast food junkies? What will you do in these situations?

• Armed with your rehearsed plan, go out, use it, and stick to it as best you can. You assume control, not the circumstances and not the food.  You are in charge of what food and how much of it will go into your mouth.

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The post Do Holidays And Overeating Go Hand In Hand? appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

‘Tis the season to eat and there are “food landmines” everywhere you turn. We all have to eat but it can be a very slippery slope to eat well surrounded by food; family; friends; an encyclopedia of cultural, religious, and family traditions; and a whole host of expectations.

Holidays are supposed to be days of celebration and special significance — often religious, cultural, or traditional. Sometimes, they’re days just meant for play. A common denominator is that we often incorporate food – and lots of it — into celebrations.

Realistically, the actual content of your Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, or other holiday meal matters very little in the grand scheme of things. Although a few hundred calories here or there can make a difference when added up over weeks and years, the impact of overeating at one meal is usually negligible – even though your stomach might be singing a different song.

It’s the inevitable mindless eating – those treats on the receptionist’s desk, the gift of peanut brittle, the holiday toasts, the second and third helpings, the holiday cookies in the snack room – that are the main source of excess calories and added pounds during the holiday season.

What To Do

•  See it = eat it. It‘s incredibly difficult not to nibble your way through the day when you have delicious treats tempting you at every turn. How many times do your senses need to be assaulted by the sight of sparkly cookies and the holiday scent of eggnog or spiced roasted nuts before your hand reaches out and the treat is popped into your mouth?

• Don’t keep your trigger foods stocked in your pantry or fridge.  If you need to have supplies, don’t make them immediately visible.  Hide them in the back of the cabinet or in a “not too easy to be reached” location.

•  Be aware of openly displayed platters and bowls of cookies, nuts, candy, and other holiday specialties.  Make up your mind that it’s not okay – just because it’s the holidays – to taste test everything that crosses your path.

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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.

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