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.

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.

1.  Leave some space for the holiday specials, but, in general, aim to practice portion control with the higher calorie foods and pile your plate high with the lower calorie vegetables. When you take in more calories than your body needs and uses, you’ll gain weight.

2.  Your body can handle a certain amount of “big meal” overeating (Thanksgiving, the occasional holiday party).  The problems with the scale happen when poor choices and expanded portions become daily rather than occasional events. It’s difficult during the long holiday season not to indulge on large portions and frequent treats.  Be attentive to what and how much you’re eating. Even a controlled portion of a holiday treat several times a week – or even everyday — is better than multiple large portions everyday from Thanksgiving through New Years.

3.  Choose your food wisely.  If you can, pick lean proteins like fish, poultry, and the least fatty cuts of pork, beef, and lamb that are grilled or broiled, not fried or sautéed. Load up on vegetables – preferably ones that are not smothered in cheese or dripping with oil. Eat your turkey without the skin.

4.  Work on eating a larger portion of fruit and veggies and less of the densely caloric foods like pastas swimming in oil and cheese. Consider beans or eggs as your protein source. But beware: it’s easy to be fooled by fatty sauces and dressings on innocent looking vegetables. Vegetables are great.  Veggies smothered with butter, cheese, croutons, and/or bacon are loaded with calories.

5.  Leave the breadbasket at the other end of the table.  If you absolutely must have bread, go without butter or oil. Harder breadsticks generally have fewer calories than the soft breads and rolls.  One teeny pat of butter has 36 calories, a tablespoon has 102 and 99% of them are from fat.  A tablespoon of oil has about 120 calories.  Would you rather have the oil or butter or a cookie for dessert or another glass of wine? Which calories will be more satisfying?

6.  Don’t eat all of the piecrust. You can save around 200 calories at dessert by leaving the piecrust sitting on the plate and nixing (or decreasing) ice cream toppings like hot fudge sauce and whipped cream.

7.  Is a half enough? If you decide you really will feel totally deprived if you don’t indulge in one of those delicious baked goods, choose one without loads of thick buttery crumbs on top, cut it in half or in thirds and be satisfied with that amount. Put it on a separate small plate that you can easily push away from you. Keeping it on your main plate or even a smaller one that’s easily reachable means you’ll be nibbling away at it the entire time.

8.  It’s the mindless calories that are probably the most dangerous. For some reason we don’t seem to mentally process all of those random nibbles and calories from the treats on the receptionist’s desk, the neighbor’s homemade peanut brittle, the office party holiday toasts, the second and third helpings, or the holiday cookies in the snack room.  If the food is in front of you it’s hard not to indulge.  See it = eat it.

9.  Don’t skimp or skip meals.  Feed yourself well. Your body needs good nutrition. If you skip meals to try to save up calories you’ll just end up (over)eating because you’re starving, your blood sugar will be  in the basement, and your body will be screaming, “feed me.”  When that happens, you head straight for the carbs right off the bat – and it’s almost always all downhill from there.  Not a great tactic for your body or your mind – or for your general mood.

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

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

The post What’s On Your Holiday Plate? 9 Easy Calorie Saving Tips 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.

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.

Do you have an ipad or an iphone?  Maybe both?  Check out Eat Out Eat Well Magazine coming soon to the Apple Newsstand.

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.

Coming soon to the Apple newsstand for your ipad and iphone:  Eat Out Eat Well Magazine!

The post Are You Ready For Holiday Eating? appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

It’s All So Tempting

It‘s incredibly difficult not to nibble your way through the day when you have all of these 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?

Be Realistic

It’s the holidays and even though some of these treats are a week’s worth of calories, by depriving yourself of them you’re denying yourself the tradition of celebrating with food.

Make the distinction between mindful indulgence in the spirit of celebration as opposed to mindless indulgence in the spirit of trying to taste everything or to soothe your psyche by eating.  The first is part of the nurturing, sharing, and communal spirit of eating, the latter is an element of emotional and over eating.

Nix The Restrictive Thinking

Creating a restrictive mentality by denying yourself a treat that’s always been part of your holiday celebration means it’s just a matter of time until you start an eating fest that only ends when there’s no more left to taste. Think of this:  what would it be like to swear that you won’t eat a single Christmas cookie when those cookies have been a part of your Christmas since you were a little kid and you baked them with your Mom?

Pick One – And Make It Special

You know that you are going to indulge.  Pick your treat, limit it to one, and enjoy it. To help control the temptation, decide early in the day what your treat will be and stick with your decision. If you wait until later in the day when all the food is right in front of you and you’re hungry and tired, you’ll find that your resolve is not quite as strong!

Just remember that the added treats are added calories – on top of what your body already needs.  And, those treats are often forgotten calories – until you try to snap your jeans.  So remember to figure the treats into the overall scheme of things.

Of course, if you don’t want to indulge on any given day – no one is forcing you.  In the world of caloric checks and balances, that’s money in the band.

Make an informed choice, too.  Being informed doesn’t deprive you of deliciousness, but does arm you with an element of control.  If you know the calorie count of certain foods, you can make the best choice.  For instance, perhaps you enjoy both wine and eggnog.  If you know that one cup of eggnog has around 343 calories and 19 grams of fat and a five ounce glass of red wine has around 125 calories and no fat – which would you choose?

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.

The post Can You Deal With One Fantastic Holiday Treat A Day? appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

My book, The Sensible Holiday Eating Guide:  How To Enjoy Your Favorite Foods Without Gaining Weight is #1 in two categories on Amazon, thanks to my wonderful readers.

Get your copy — it’s free through Sunday, 11/11.

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1. The Sensible Holiday Eating Guide: How To Enjoy Your Favorite Foods Without Gaining Weight

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Bonus Teleseminar — Thanksgiving Eating:  Challenges And Solutions

Don’t forget to sign up for a free 1/2 hour teleseminar on Thanksgiving Eating:  Challenges and Solutions.  Even if you can’t attend, the teleseminar will be recorded and you’ll be sent the link to the recording by email.  Click HERE for the sign-up details.

Thanks to all of you who have helped make my book a success.  My goal is to give some tips, strategies, and ideas on how to make any eating — but particularly eating out at work, school, celebrations, events, and any place that’s not routine home eating — healthy, tasty, and fun.

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Really???

Ask yourself why.  Is your groaning table and your habit of scarfing down handfuls of jelly beans and three chocolate eggs at a time really because of tradition – or are you using the holidays as an easy excuse to surround yourself with the food you love and want to eat in abundance?

There is nothing wrong with tradition and wanting to share your memories and love through food. But . . .

Are Holidays A Reason And An Excuse To (Over)Eat?

The big question to ask yourself is:  am I really sharing/holding to tradition and memories of the season – or am I using the holidays as an excuse to make and eat a whole lot of food that I really would prefer not to eat – or eat in such quantity?

Most people who know me also know that I’m a pretty good baker. I make really good Christmas cookies – for a lot of events, not just Christmas.  I baked them for a party for my son’s July wedding (not a Christmas tree in sight) and as I brought them out there was a chorus of “Christmas cookies” from his friends who have eaten them many times before.  Didn’t matter that it was July.  The recipe was the same, they tasted the same, and they came from my kitchen.

What’s my point?  I love baking these cookies, and I love sharing them.  There are a whole host of emotions wrapped around these cookies.

I also know that I love eating them.  Have I ever used an occasion as an excuse to bake them – even though things would have been fine without the cookies?  You bet I have.

Why?  I love the thought of those cookies.  I used to make them with my Mother when I was little and my sons made them with me.  I also love to eat them – especially the dough (I’m really not endorsing that – It’s a bad habit and the dough does have raw egg in it).

The bottom line is that I end up eating hundreds of calories – delicious calories, but not healthy or necessary ones.  And, even though I’m sharing what I consider to be “a little bit of love from my kitchen,” I still, very frequently, consciously use the holiday or the event as an excuse.

Try These Strategies For Dealing With Holiday Food

I’m certainly not advocating giving up baking cookies or hot cross buns or making matzah brei or roast lamb — whatever your specialty or tradition is.  What I am suggesting is that you ask yourself the reason for doing so.  Recognize and be mindful of your reasons.

Some strategies:

• If you do make your specialty – plan for it.  When you eat it, enjoy it with everyone else – not in a constant stream of solo tasting and little snatches from the fridge or cupboard.

• Even if you make it, keep your amazing food out of sight and, hopefully, out of mind.  Far away, too.  Usually if we have to work to get food it may take some of the desire out of it.  So store the food in the basement or someplace out of the kitchen.

• Leftovers?  Send them home with your family and friends.  I’ve fed lots of college dorms and offices with my leftovers.  Freeze them and store them in the back of the freezer where you can’t see them (although I can attest that frozen butter cookies are great – my sons once ate a whole container of them out of my downstairs freezer without my knowing about it.  I had to bake another batch before Christmas dinner.)

Traditions are important and food is nurturing.  Traditions, family, and holidays can also be stressful.  Cook away if that’s your pleasure. Just ask yourself if you are using holidays, traditions, guests, and family as excuses or justifications to (over)eat. 

The post Are You Gearing Up For A Holiday Food Fest? appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

Today, New Year’s Day–the first day of the calendar year–is celebrated in almost every country in the world, but depending the type of calendar, not all countries or cultures welcome the New Year on January 1st. The Chinese, Egyptian, Jewish, Roman, and Mohammedan years all have different start dates.

January 1 was recognized as New Years Day in the 1500’s with the introduction of the Gregorian Calendar. In 1582 most Catholic countries adopted the Gregorian calendar but the British didn’t adopt it until 1752. Until then the British Empire and their American colonies celebrated the new year in March.

Some Traditions and Legends

• In ancient Rome the first day of the New Year honored Janus, the god of gates, doors, beginnings and endings. Janus had two faces.  One looked ahead to see what the new year would bring and the other looked backward to see what had happened during the past year. To celebrate, the Romans gave gifts to friends and family members –and sometimes to Senators in exchange for favors.
• Druid priests In England celebrated the New Year on March 10. They gave branches of mistletoe to people for charms. Later on, English people cleaned their chimneys on New Year’s Day believing that this brought good luck to the household for the coming year (which is where the expression “cleaning the slate” comes from).
• In many countries people eat specific foods to bring good luck for the coming year.  In Spain they eat grapes, round fruits in the Philippines, suckling pig in Austria, soba noodles in Japan, rice pudding in Norway, black-eyed peas in the southern US, and cake with a hidden coin in Greece.  Other common worldwide customs are making resolutions–which dates to the Babylonians, and watching fireworks.
• Chinese New Year, an all East and Southeast Asia celebration, is known as “Spring Festival” in China. Filled with tradition and ritual it’s usually considered the most important traditional holiday for Chinese around the world.  It begins on the first day of the first month in the traditional Chinese lunar calendar and is celebrated with lucky red envelopes filled with money, lion and dragon dances, drums, fireworks, firecrackers.  Traditional sweet sticky the last course rice cakes and round savory dumplings symbolize never-ending wealth. On New Year’s Eve the meal includes fish to symbolize abundance. In the first five days of the New Year people eat long noodles to symbolize long life and round dumplings shaped like the full moon to represent the family unit and perfection.

Some New Year’s Eve Tips

If you have big plans for New Year’s Eve, enjoy yourself by devising an eating strategy before you go out and committing to carrying it out.  If you’re watching your weight, have a plan – you can still enjoy yourself and not feel deprived. With a plan you design just for you, you’ll have a much better chance at succeeding – and not end up hating yourself and cursing the scale on the first day of the New Year.  Here are some ideas:

• If you’re going to a party with lots of hors d’oeuvres decide beforehand how many you’ll have.  Three varieties, one of each?  Two varieties, two of each?
• Alternate your drink of choice – wine, champagne, liquor – with sparkling water to cut calories, help with sobriety, and make it easier for you to resist food temptations.  Hold that glass of sparkling water or diet soda in your hand – the only people who will know it’s non-alcoholic is you and the bartender (who most likely could care less about what you are drinking).
• If you’re going to dinner decide if you’re going to have dessert ahead of time.  If you are going to indulge – even if it’s the house specialty smothered in whipped cream — compensate by having a salad with dressing on the side as your appetizer.  Nix the bread.  Just balance your caloric intake the best you can.
• If it’s a pizza, wings, and beer affair think about ways to minimize your fat intake – pizza and wings (especially the dip) are loaded.  Cut the pizza slice in half – leave the other half in the box.  When you go back for seconds, retrieve the other half slice. You’ll end up eating just one slice but  feel like you’re having two.  If you can, take off some of the cheese – the main source of fat.  Some people use paper towels or napkins to absorb some of the extra fat floating on the surface of a slice.  Up to you – but it really cuts down on calories – mopping up the equivalent of two teaspoons of oil knocks off just under 100 calories.

How Far You’d Need To Walk to Burn Off A New Year’s Party Calories

If you go to a New Year’s party and have:

• one Irish coffee
• one glass of wine
• one cup of coffee with cream and sugar
• one cup of eggnog
• one 3 oz Stinger
• 5 large olives
• half a cup of mixed nuts
• one oz of potato or tortilla chips
• one teaspoon of chip dip, a mini-quiche
• 2 oz of boiled shrimp with cocktail sauce
• two chocolate mints
• one slice of pecan pie with  half a cup of ice cream
• one small piece of fudge
• one iced gingerbread cookie

you would have consumed 27030 calories and you would need to walk 27.03 miles, or 54060 steps (assuming you cover one mile in 2,000 steps) to burn off those calories.

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