20 Ways to Eat Healthy at Christmas
Christmas festivities often come with foods high in calories and in great portions, especially at family dinners and Christmas parties. Eating healthy during this time is intimidating but it is very possible. Are you worried about the holiday weight gain wiping away your months of hard work? Well, good, you should be worried, researchers have found that people who have weight issues, even those who have successfully lost and maintained, often experience a gain of 7 to 10 lb of weight over the holidays. But relax, there are ways to avoid this trap. Read on and I’ll show you 20 ways to eat healthy at Christmas.
If you haven’t already checked out Why do we gain weight during the holiday, it can help add more context.
Having identified the holiday challenges, how can you maintain your healthy eating plan? Well, here are our top guides:
Stick with your solutions. You know your reasons for choosing a healthier, leaner and fitter lifestyle. There is never a good excuse to throw those better choices away, not for a day, not for a vacation, and certainly not for a season. When you focus on your wellness each day you are building habits that should last you for a lifetime. Saying I will wait until next year or after the season is reinforcing your habits to put off your wellness for the future. So, don’t take breaks or jump ship. Anything else is working against your goals.
Mental coaching. In order to fight these habits and addictions, mental coaching is essential. Tell yourself that you will stick to your plans. Say it out loud and write it down. Let yourself know you will not slip up, not this time.
Focus on the company not the food. If you are organising the festivities, include games. Let it be more about sharing the experience as opposed to just sitting and filling your stomach.
Avoid hunger. Starving yourself before an eating occasion is not a good idea. Your hunger will be at its absolute peak if you do this. Leading up to an event, make sure that you get some food during the day. This way you ensure that your blood sugar levels and hunger levels are more manageable so you won’t eat everything in sight when you get to the office party or family dinner.
Choose wisely. Have healthy foods first, then portion size. Choose a smaller plate and 50% vegetables. Make it a habit to always go for the proteins, vegetables and healthier foods before going for the snacks, the macaroni and cheese or the pastry. This way, your hunger will decrease by the time you reach the more sugary and floury meal options as protein helps to curb hunger.
100% ideal doesn’t mean 100% strict. Special occasions are not the time to be hard on yourself. Sometimes going easier on yourself gets you further. If you deny yourself everything that you have found pleasant before, then your craving may shoot through the roof and become unmanageable, even if you don’t eat everything in sight. The stress alone may work against your weight-loss goals. So being 100% perfect will not mean being 100% ideal for your weight loss. So, follow your guidelines and have just a little of what you may enjoy.
Eat mindfully, chew slowly and thoroughly. In every situation, not just the holidays, mindful eating is always a good idea. In doing so, you will enjoy the meal. Cutting and swallowing your food without proper chewing is a sure way to not even realise how many calories you have already had, leading you back for seconds and thirds.
Embrace support and intervention. Don’t hide from support and accountability. It is never easy to do it all alone. Having the right support system has proven to be a great asset for many people who have set their wellness goals. Bounce your options off them at every opportunity to make sure that you stay on target and not compromise your wellness throughout the Christmas season.
Keep your environment controlled. When you have eaten out and have sampled big products, cheese and sugary products, your system will be craving for these things even more than usual. Once they are available, it would be almost painful to resist having them so keep them out of your house. It is always important but especially now during the holidays to make sure that your house is free of temptations. If you are hosting, give away leftovers (making use of Boxing Day) and if you are a guest, do not bring home leftovers. As always, do not buy snacks for the house, avoid unhelpful purchases, and do not go shopping hungry.
Restrict late night eating. Beyond a shadow of a doubt eating late at night, especially after eating normally during the day will pack on extra pounds. Of course, the type of food eaten at night can determine how much the late-night eating will affect you, but during celebrations and holidays when you are already taking in extra calories, it is an especially bad idea to be eating late at night as your weight management will be highly disrupted.
Drink lots of water before, during and after. Avoid juices and sodas and limit to one glass of alcoholic drinks. Practically every party, dinner or every gathering will have sugar-heavy drinks and juices available to you. Drink lots of water before, during and after to try and minimise the effect of the extra sugar and extra calories. You will already be eating more than usual and let’s not forget these meals contain more oils, more flour, more sugar than usual. Compounding this by drinking extra calories is not only detrimental to your fat loss or maintenance but also detrimental to your health.
Wear fitting clothes at every occasion. You may have heard about an uncle, father or grandfather rule for holiday dinners encouraging the wearing stretchy pants to make sure that there’s room for as much food as possible. You want to do the exact opposite. Wear comfortable but fitting clothing so they can remind you when you have had enough.
As always maintain your 5P principle: Plan, Purchase, Prepare, Package, Partake… Stick to the five ITK principles, plan your meals for each day including weekends and the party or dinner days, purchase what you need and prepare them ahead of time, package the meals that you have prepared and partake of them. Make sure that you have the meals that you have planned when you are supposed to have them. This will help to keep your eating goals on track on the days before between and after parties and dinners. It works every time.
Prepare for failure/have a backup plan. As much as we plan how we are going to eat during the seasons, we have to accept the possibility of the plan falling apart. To make sure that we don’t snowball about falling off the wagon, we have to create a backup plan. What do we do if we have overeaten? What do we do if we fail to prepare our meals for the day before or after eating out? A solution to this may be an intermittent fast day, having a stack of protein bars to compensate for the missed meals, or talking to your ITK coach about solutions.
Keep a sugar-free mint on you to have at the point you planned to stop eating. One thing that has worked for me is having a mint as soon as I have eaten what I planned to have at a party or a dinner. In the same way that some restaurants give out mints when your meal is finished, I go ahead and have a sugar-free mint, preferably a strong one. I have found that this stops me from going back to the table for the extra piece of cake.
Choose cleaner, lighter options. If you are organising choose the best and healthiest options available. If you are a guest, follow the eating-out guide and have proteins and vegetables over flour and sugar. Remember to hydrate with water.
Follow Intekai assignments on your non-holiday eating days and only have one meal and one or two lighter assigned meals (no snacking) on party days. Be sure to eat but still save some calories. ITK partial fasting is also an option.
Make the indulgence the exception, not the rule. Don’t just stay off the wagon until after the New Year. Have your chosen indulgence last, then put it out of eye-sight and certainly out of arms reach as much as possible. Plan everything including indulgences, and outside of your plan keep your hand occupied with your best options, proteins, veggie sticks, carbonated water and so on.
Pre and post-meal evaluation. Similar to a football match, the coach and players have to do their pre-game evaluation, you will have to do your post-meal evaluation to see what worked, what didn’t, where your strengths and weaknesses were and what you will have to do to compensate for any “injuries” and losses (well in your case it will be more like gains).
As a general rule, make a concerted effort to get as much sleep as possible. The lack of sleep will increase stress, weight retention and hunger, so rest well. Finally, do a manageable workout. Morning workouts are ideal but in any case, stay active. Activity reduces stress, which, is of extremely little use in fat loss. Exercise will NEVER fix poor eating but it is essential for complete health and balance.
Does this seem like a lot? The EVERYTHING IN MODERATION mantra will not work for us during the very tempting Christmas season because we have proven that we are HORRIBLE at moderation. The extra effort and conscious planning must be made to keep our health and wellness lifestyle on track. It may seem like a lot but eating healthy during this time is very possible but you must drop the self-doubt.
Leave a comment below if these tips helped you during the season or if you’re still not sure how to approach eating healthy during the holidays.
– George Rattray, ITK Coach
