There is a heck of a lot of snow outside.  I actually can’t open my kitchen door because of a gigantic snowdrift.  Many hours after the snow has deposited a foot and a half of whiteness (without the drifts), the guy who plows my driveway hasn’t been here yet because his truck broke down.

It also happens to be two days after Christmas.  I served lunch to twenty people on Christmas Day.  I have leftovers – lots of them – and most of them are not, by any stretch of the imagination, of the low calorie variety.

Being stuck inside with many leftovers in the fridge and a post-holiday slump leads to almost continuous nibbling and noshing.  What to do?

What To Do As The Caloric Intake Approaches Stratospheric

You can do lots of things, but some of them are just not happening – like not making any trips to the fridge or just sipping chicken broth!  Sometimes there’s just no choice and you just give in and eat – recognizing that you probably will feel like a slug – a very beefy slug – for several days post food frenzy.

You can counter with some activity. It does a lot for your mood and might use up some of those excess calories. Check out the calories you can burn with these winter activities.  These are for a 150 pound person. If you weigh more you’ll burn more calories, if you weigh less you’ll burn fewer calories.

Calories Burned Per Hour With Some Winter Activities

• Building a Snowman:   285 calories
• Having a Snowball Fight:   319 calories
• Making Snow Angels:   214 calories
• Snowshoeing:  544 calories
• Shoveling snow:   408 calories
• Baking cookies:  170 calories
• Sledding:  476 calories
• Cross country skiing:  612 calories

Bundle up and go have some fun!  The hot chocolate and cookies will taste even better.

The post Snow Angels and Snowballs: Try These To Burn Off Snow Day Food appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

Pound?  Doesn’t it feel like at least seven pounds of weight gain, all of it blubber?

A lot of us start indulging at Thanksgiving (some at Halloween) and don’t stop the free style calorie fest until those onerous New Year’s Resolutions.  Then, because we feel guilty about indulgences, we swear we won’t touch another cookie or piece of cake or candy until we lose massive amounts of weight.

That resolution is doomed to fail because it is unrealistic.  Banning something entirely (unless it is for very specific reasons) equates to deprivation. That almost always leads to you know what: admitting you can’t stand it and chowing down on a box of cookies, half a pie, or three candy bars (definitely super-sized) in a row.

Some Facts

A study of holiday related weight gain published in The New England Journal of Medicine found:

• 85% of the study’s participants made no effort to control their calorie intake
• the average weight gain between Thanksgiving and New Year was slightly less than a pound
• participants thought they had gained four times as much
• less than 10% gained five pounds or more
• participants who gained the most weight were more likely to already be overweight or obese

The problem is that most of us don’t lose that extra pound that attaches itself  during the holidays. That means that some of midlife weight gain can be explained by holiday eating.

And, for those of us already overweight, the news is worse. Although the average holiday gain is only one pound, people who are already overweight tend to gain a lot more – one study found five or more pounds during the holidays.

Something To Think About

You need to eat 3,500 extra calories to gain a pound. The average Christmas dinner has about 956 calories. What packs on the weight?

Most of the extra calories don’t come from the “day of” holiday meal but from the nibbling during the holiday season. It’s way too easy to add on 500 extra calories a day which means a pound in a week (7 x 500 = 3500 calories, or 1 pound).

Some Common 500 (around) Calorie Indulgences

• 12 ounces of eggnog

• 1 piece of pecan pie

• 3 ounces of mixed nuts

• 22.5 Hershey’s Kisses

• Starbucks’ Venti Peppermint Mocha with whipped cream

• 4 glasses (5oz.) of wine

• 10 regular size candy canes

• 2-3 large Christmas cookies

Some Questions To Ask Yourself

• Do I really want it or does it look good, smell good, or just mean Christmas?
• Is it worth the calories?
• Do I need all of it (or any of it) to be happy?
• What is most important to me?

Answer your questions and decide what you want to do.  Eat mindfully and enjoy.

Happy Holidays!

The post Winter Holiday Weight Gain: Is It Seven Or Is It One . . . appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.