Holiday Eating Advice From the Experts

Some of it not quite what you’d expect © Alliance – Fotolia.com Statisticians tell us that the average American adult gains about one pound between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day, which is not an unreasonable amount of weight, but the statistic ignores the fact that not every American adult is average. Indeed, most of us will consume an above-average amount of food during this period, but not all of us will pack on extra weight as a result. There are a lot of variables involved with this. One is simple physical activity: persons who engage in little or none of it during the holidays add an average of 1.5 pounds, while those who make a point of exercising or otherwise staying active actually lose a pound or more. The biggest variable of all, however, is the manner in which we approach all the eating opportunities that will present themselves to us over the next month. A number of nutrition experts have been weighing in on this subject in the media lately, and while I’ve probably missed some of their output, I’ve read enough of them to get a sense of what the prevailing current wisdom is on holiday weight management. Here are the major themes. Don’t overdo denial. https://www.ag.ndsu.edu/forums/range/read.php?9,26988

Trying to gut your way through the holidays with your teeth grit in refusal will only make you miserable, an emotion that often leads to guess what? That’s right: completely caving in to your urgings and totally bingeing. Studies have found that rigidly prohibiting yourself from eating certain foods merely intensifies your craving for them and puts additional stress and strain on your willpower, which you will need a lot of during the coming weeks. Moreover, researchers in Israel discovered that dieters who allowed themselves a small amount of sinfully sweet treats each day wound up losing an average of 15 more pounds than those who eschewed desserts and sweets altogether. You can indulge yourself; just be reasonable about it. Prepare yourself for the challenge. Don’t arrive at the party or banquet hungry or thirsty. Have a nice low-carb snack beforehand, maybe a salad, or veggies with a low-cal dip, or some soup. At the very least, drink a couple of glasses of water before heading to the event. The idea is to slake your hunger enough so that you aren’t driven to plunge into the available food mindlessly; this way you can review the situation and make the wisest food choices given the options. And take your time. The more leisurely you eat, the less you’ll consume before your body starts signaling “enough.” Also, the first few bites tend to be the tastiest; much beyond that, you’re not really getting that much pleasure per calorie, so try to consciously limit your portions up front. Go for the gold. As you scan the buffet or dining room table, you may observe that the things you like the most are invariably on every diet’s Avoid list. But self-indulgence is what these affairs are all about, and you can turn that reality to your advantage. Rather than trying some of everything, limit yourself to those items that are among your guiltiest pleasures. http://www.clevelandstatecc.edu/talkgreen/viewthread/10648/

You probably won’t be able to resist them altogether anyway, and they will leave you and your appetite satisfied much faster than most of the healthier alternatives. Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Your nemesis is not overeating, but out-of-control overeating, which is the most dangerous kind, because once the craving takes control you’ll hammer down anything that’s available. The time to deal with your hunger is when it is still just moderate, and can be reasoned with. Don’t let it build up into an irresistible beast. Specifically, don’t let yourself become ravenous by starving yourself between eating events in order to somehow compensate for them. You’ll just wind up being at your hungriest precisely when confronted with the most unhealthy temptations. - See more at: http://www.sccs.swarthmore.edu/users/09/leo/intlblogday/forum/read.php?1,2271