Weight Loss Goddess

Healthy Eating at the Holidays?

It almost seems impossible, doesn’t it? A total contradiction in terms, in fact.

But if you eat well all year round, you are much less likely to feel like a pig swilling down everything in sight. Sure, you can have a seasonal treat or two, but there is no need to go for seconds. Or thirds! Let alone the whole fridge of leftovers.

The trouble with the holidays is that they seem to get longer every year, with a stretch of indulgence that extends from the candy at Halloween, through the turkey with all the fixin’s at Thanksgiving, to Christmas, and right on to New Year’s (and possibly even Valentine’s Day if we aren’t careful!!)

In our offices, there are snacks and treats galore, all within easy reach, adding hundred of extra calories to our diet before we even know we’ve swallowed.

Of course we love spending time with our friends, but food and drink become even more of a center of attention than the usual lunches, brunches and dinners.

There are many ways you can control your calorie intake at the holidays. Get a hot air popper (the microwave popcorn is getting very bad press these days), pop your corn, and add a bit of butter spray to it if you are eating it then and there. You can also pop extra, don’t butter it, and bring it to work with a bowl. If you feel like having hot pop corn, you can give it a few seconds in the microwave, and presto, you have a hot snack without a ton of oil, artifical flavor, or chemicals.

Other good choices would be carrot and celery sticks, apple, raisins, to stop you from reaching for the cookie tin or the bowl of nachos and guacamole just waiting to be devoured.

In particular, watch out for the empty calories in alcohol and desserts during the holiday season. They have NO nutritional value, and are NOT a couple of new essential food groups.

Vegetables are, but beware of the hidden calories in mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes, and any veggies swimming in butter. The same can be said of seafood and fish.

Also off the menu would be cream-based soups, and anything with a cream sauce on it. We are not only talking calories here, we are talking high in saturated fats. The same is true of nuts. If you are having poultry, avoid the dark meat.

If you are cooking for the holidays, you will have a lot more control. Plan a menu with lots of well-seasoned dishes. A little seasoning can go a long way toward curbing cravings. Try not to taste everything in sight, and do start with soup and salad so that you will already be pretty full before you ever get to the main event.

Beware of the dreaded leftovers as well, which can extend one day of indulgence into several. Send a little care package home with your guests, or freeze them into small tasty lunch sized homemade TV dinners.

If you are going out for the holiday to friends and family, eat before you go. Again, soup and salad are excellent choices for making you feel full and satisfied. Be polite, but don’t load your plate.

Also, if you are at a buffet, either take a small plate, or load it with salad or veggies first, then the more caloric foods. Make sure you load up on good lean protein if it is available, but again, no sauces or dark meat.

Avoid the dreaded dessert if possible, and beware of eggnog. If you do have to indulge, you and a friend might ‘buddy up’ and agree to share, just to keep an eye on one another. After all, a taste is better than none, and will help you not feel so deprived.

One final check up:  remember, it takes only 2000 additional calories to put on a pound, but 3500 to take one off. Do the math as you deal with your holiday meals, and that should keep you on the straight (and slim!) and narrow, even with temptation coming at you from all sides.

Happy Holidays!

About the Author: Joan Mullally is head of online development at  JohnsHopkinsHealthAlerts.com and a frequent contributor to popular health-related websites such as WeightLoss-Goddess.com.

Herbs and spices are not only tasty, they can be nutritious too. They have a greatnumber of vitamins and minerals, and can even have medicinal properties.

 e also recommend them because people tend to think of ‘dieting’ as suffering and deprivation. Herbs and spices keep food tasty, and fresh, as well as wholesome.

Herbs and spices are a great way to add flavor without a whole bunch of artificial ingredients, and are particularly healthful if you are trying to cut down on salt for the sake of your heart health or high blood pressure.

One of the easiest ways to get better nutrition is by adding breakfast to your day. Too many people fail to eat in the mornings despite the fact that a healthy breakfast provides fuel for the rest of the day. Thanks to the joys of a microwave egg poacher, you can have a fabulous poached egg in about 30-35 seconds, depending on how runny you want it. You don’t even have to add oil, so it weighs in at a tiny 90 calories, for about 15 grams of protein, about 1/3^rd of what you need in a day.

You can also mix in some herbs for a quick scramble, like dill, parsley, chives, red pepper flakes, and best of all, you can pop it onto and English muffin or piece of bread to have on the go. It is far fewer calories to make it yourself than to by it in a fast food joint, and cheaper too.

You can also stir in a bit of low fat goat cheese or cream cheese for a real taste treat or lovely runny mini omelet. Add some salsa on top, and even put it in a low fat, low carb tortilla for a light homemade breakfast burrito with a bit of fresh coriander, parsley, and some cumin for spice.

With a glass of milk and a piece of fruit you have already covered protein, fruit and dairy in your day, with some greens as well, for a great nutritious start to your day.

You can also use fresh herbs in your home-cooked dishes. Add parsley to meat dishes for a fresh new twist and use oregano and basil to spice up spaghetti sauce, roasted vegetables, bean and pasta soup, and more.

Herbs contain valuable antioxidants to build the body’s immunity, and they add delightful flavor that enhances your meal and cuts down on food cravings. The more seasoned variety you have, the less likely you will be to munch out of control.

Cravings are typically not about being hungry, but seeking a special flavor. Some would even argue that the craving is your body telling you that an essential nutrient is missing in your diet. I think I used to crave onions a lot because of the vitamin C.

For ice cream addicts, add nuts to your dish for an extra boost of heart-healthy nutrients. Or, you can make your own fruit based topping with fruit in the microwave, plus some cinnamon, nutmeg, mint, lemon and so on. You can even make your own sorbets and add spices to them to make them more flavorful. Dress up your plain vanilla, without a whole bunch of sugary additives. You can do the same with cakes and pies. A bit of spice added makes for a more satisfying dessert.

And best of all, the more you cook for yourself, the more you will have control over the calories you take in. Plus, you’ll be able to make food exactly the way you want it. In addition, you will likely save money as well. Whenever I go to a restaurant, for example, I always order something I have never had before, and then I try to duplicate it at home.

Of course, years of cooking with herbs and seasonings has made this easy for me, but if you pay attention read labels, menus and so on, plus do the old sniff test in the spice aisle, and snap off a twig or two to taste in the fresh herb aisle, you’ll be able to start experimenting, identifying, and eating well in no time.

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Today, many men and women (and children) around the globe, but particularly in America, are significantly overweight, some so heavy that they are considered to be morbidly obese. That means that they are so overweight, it is considered a likely cause of death!

 As a result of so many in this country being overweight, a growing number of people find themselves starting different diet programs all the time, going for fad diet after fad diet hoping for some sort of miracle for them being overweight.

Unfortunately, most people who embark on a diet plan fail to lose weight. Or, even if they lose, it often not only creeps right back on, but in many cases, it rebounds back again, so that they end up even heavier than they were before they started attempting to diet. Dieting can cause you to put on weight because you are playing with your metabolism in a potentially dangerous way.

Many of the fad diets being promoted are hazardous to a person’s health. While you may lose weight at the outset on one of these diet plans or programs, many of these plans are not designed to promote a healthy and balanced eating lifestyle which you can sustain long-term in order to keep the weight off.

In the final analysis, when it comes to healthy living and reaching and maintaining an appropriate weight, the only true course of action in which you can follow is a balanced diet and exercise, and those are not things that you can get out of a pill bottle or a box.

By eating a balanced diet, you will be able to maintain the energy and nutrition levels needed to keep your body running like a well-fuelled and well-oiled machine.

For those of you who hate counting calories, the facts are sad but true. To gain a pound takes 2000 calories. To LOSE one, takes 3000, because your body stores fat to later be used for energy.

Do the math! Only regular exercise or physical activity is going to help you budge the pudge!

Regular exercise will also help you maintain a healthy, toned and trim body, and a toned body helps you burn more fat, again, because your body is operating efficiently.

Through a balanced diet and regular exercise, you can not only reach your weight goal, you can get the pounds off and keep them off.

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I had a really terrible experience with the Weight Watchers Chocolate Cake in the individually wrapped packages.

 
The icing seemed to have separated from itself and the cake, giving off a really oily, horrible taste and the smell  was very similar to gasoline.  The cake itself was dry and very hard and again, seemed very greasy.

I can only guess that excessive heat might have caused the cakes to break down in this manner.  I wrote to complain to the company and they were very nice and refunded the money. They also said that they have only a limited shelf life and to always make sure they are fresh by looking at the sell by date. We think my store might have been stolcing them way too long.

So, not the best chocolate cake in the world, but I did try a second batch with the refund they gave me, and it was not bad if you are looking for dessert with feeling totally deprived.