12 strategies for avoiding adding fat this holiday season
It holiday season and I want to offer a few tips to help stay on your health lifestyles. Here are 12 strategies for avoiding adding fat this holiday season.
1. The first suggestion, which should be followed year round, is to drink water frequently throughout the day. Our bodies consist mostly of water, and it is unquestionably our most essential nutrient.
Drinking cold water serves as a mild appetite suppressant. I have made it a habit to carry a gallon of water with me each and every day until I finish it. Other than my morning coffee, I drink only water until my gallon is gone.
2. The second suggestion is to eat low-calorie fruit and vegetable snacks rather than high-calorie foods such as donuts, muffins, pastries, sandwiches, or various fast-food or vending machine selections. Although apples, oranges, pears, carrot sticks, celery sticks, pepper slices, and cherry tomatoes may not be your first choice, they can be highly satisfying and prevent the calorie overload that might otherwise occur with normal snacks and large holiday meals.
I find that unhealthy options seem to be constantly available this time of year. So the tempation is greater.
3. The third strategy is to eat high fiber foods, such as prunes, to aid gastrointestinal transit processes. These and other dried fruit, such as figs, dates, apricots, and raisins, are ideal for satisfying the sweet tooth and have an extremely low fat content. Abundant around the holidays, dried fruit presents an excellent alternative to less healthy and more fattening foods such as cookies, cakes, pies, pastries and candy.
4. The fourth strategy is to eat before going to a dinner event. If you are not hungry when you reach the buffet table, it becomes easier to control your cravings.
5. The fifth recommendation is to make wise decisions in your food selections, especially at banquets and parties.
Don't be afraid to be different. Choose less fattening entrees, such as broiled fish or baked chicken. Select healthier soups and salads, and consider light salad dressings. Use butter and cheese sparingly, and request your meals without gravies or rich sauces. I usually find a tray of fresh veggies when I go to an even at someone's house.
I am usually the only one eating the veggie so I leave quite full without gaining fat.
6. The sixth recommendation is to say no to dessert sampling. Many holiday dinners and parties come with a variety of delicious desserts, and you may be tempted to sample several of them, even if just to please the people who made them. Be polite but adamant. Simply say that all of the desserts look superb, but you have vowed to eat just one dessert per day to avoid too much of a good thing and resultant weight gain.
Tell them you've already had your dessert for today. Most of your friends will understand and many may even follow your wise example.
7. The seventh suggestion is to exit food-laden events at a reasonable hour. In addition to sleep deprivation that runs rampant during the busy holiday season, staying longer at parties usually leads to greater food consumption and unnecessary calories.
Participate fully in the festivities, but be one of the first to call it a night for your health's sake. I use my one-year old son as an excuse.
8. The eighth suggestion is to avoid or at least limit alcohol consumption. With all the other high-calorie foods typically eaten during holiday gatherings, alcoholic beverages can only make matters worse.
Keep in mind that alcohol contains almost as many calories per gram as fat, so the fewer alcoholic drinks the better from a weight gain perspective. Alcohol offers many adverse effects that I won't get into here. Just take my word for it and stay away from alcohol. I'll write about alcohol's adverse effects in the near future.
9. The ninth strategy is to do some daily aerobic activity to condition your cardiovascular system and to burn extra calories.
For example, a 30-minute walk requires about 200 to 250 calories depending on your bodyweight and walking pace.
10. The tenth strategy is to do 4 or 5 sessions of strength exercise each week to condition your muscular system and to burn more calories. Although 60 minutes of strength training also requires about 400 to 600 calories, the greater benefit is an accelerated metabolism all day long. In a Tufts University study, a season of strength training produced a 7 percent increase in resting metabolic rate and a 15 percent increase in daily calorie requirements among the senior men and women who participated.
11. The eleventh recommendation is to find a family member, friend, or co-worker who will agree to help you implement your holiday program for avoiding weight gain. Your partner in prevention should be someone who not only talks the talk, but also walks the walk. Ideally, this individual should be both an encourager and an example with respect to holiday eating and exercise behavior. Unfortunately, I have no such person.
Boo whoo. I know - suck it up and deal with it.
12. The twelfth recommendation for holiday survival is related to human survival. While it is tempting to say that the holidays come only once a year, and to rationalize that you can lose the extra weight through your New Year's resolutions, the reality is a more serious health problem. Most people don't lose all the extra holiday weight, which is one reason 75 percent of all Americans are overweight and almost 35 percent are obese.
Because overweight individuals are more susceptible to many physical problems, including low back pain, heart disease, diabetes, and some types of cancer, we should take preventive measures during the holiday season. But even for those who can lose the added weight, it may be more difficult to reduce undesirable cholesterol levels or arterial plaque deposition resulting from several weeks of eating high-fat foods. So take a sensible approach to eating and exercising during the holiday period. Be serious about good health habits throughout the year, and try to make the next few weeks an unusually good experience from a fitness perspective..
John Bartlett www.ShreddedMuscle.comWhen to wash your fruit
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Bananas, oranges, and melon all have an outer peel that is not eaten. However if dirt or pesticides reside on the...
When to wash your fruit
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The Benefits of Dried Fruit Baskets
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When to wash your fruit
Washing your fruit is recommended for many reasons. Dirt or bugs may be on the outside or in commercially produced fruit pesticide residue may be present. There are times when you should wait until immediately before you serve the fruit to wash.Cherries, both Bing and Rainier, blackberries, raspberries both red and black, cranberries, strawberries, blueberries and huckleberries should all be stored in a clean container in the refrigerator until you are ready to use them. When you are ready to cook with or serve the fruit place the cherries or berries in a colander and gently run them under cool water.For fruit such as apples, pears, peaches, nectarines, and plums wash these up as soon as you bring them home from the market. This way they will be ready for your family to enjoy at a moments notice.There are different schools of thought on what to do with pealed fruit.
Bananas, oranges, and melon all have an outer peel that is not eaten. However if dirt or pesticides reside on the...
When to wash your fruit
Fruit > When to wash your fruit
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