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Macaroni Holidays

Surviving Holiday Feasts

By By Dena Kapelushnik, CPT November 24, 2010

The holidays are a great time for family, joy, food, and indulgence. With the holidays around the corner, how do you safely prepare yourself and your waistline for the holiday meals? The average American gains around 6 to 8 pounds every year during the holidays--weight that is even tougher to remove the following year. Why is it that we give up and give in during this time? For those of you who ditch your diet this season, you are adding more challenges to your past, current, and future weight-loss goals. So with family gatherings and tempting food choices everywhere, how do you survive?

As amazing as holiday-flavored drinks and treats are, be leery of the effect on your body. Did you know that your favorite holiday muffin will sacrifice you 500 to 650 calories? And watch out for pumpkin- and gingerbread-flavored coffee drinks that will run you about 200 unnecessary calories (served black). Be careful of consuming unwanted calories in these delicious liquid forms. Even though you are ingesting calories, your body will not recognize it as “solids,” and it will do a poor job in satisfying a hungry stomach and metabolism.When attending a family dinner or business holiday party, always go in with a game plan. If you have been waiting all year to enjoy sweet potato marshmallow casserole or pumpkin pie with whipped cream, don’t deny yourself these things, but be smart about your choices. Understand that you must sacrifice to indulge a little bit. If you look forward to these foods every year, make concessions when it comes to dinner time. Pass up the bread with butter and the hors d’oeuvres to allow room to enjoy the things that you don’t eat all the time.When dinner is served and you see the family attack the meal on the table, take a minute for yourself.Serve yourself last when the mood is a little calmer than when everyone first “digs in.” You will be less likely to make impulse decisions after watching everyone else make theirs.Take a smaller plate to serve yourself on.Try using a salad or dessert plate that is about ¾ the size of a traditional dinner plate. Fill at least ¼ of that plate with fresh greens like a salad and fill up your plate around the salad. You’ll get a great dose of fiber by adding the salad to your dinner plate, and your side dishes will have limited space to completely put a wrench in your nutrition plan. Choose white meat over dark meat, and try to skip over fried side dishes or those drenched in a gravy or dressing.If you are a dessert person, plan ahead for the dessert items you want.Knowing that you are going to have that slice of pumpkin pie will help make you more accountable in the beginning and middle of the meal. That slice of pie is probably much more tempting then the everyday bread with butter, and it is a no-brainer sacrifice.Stay hydrated! Fill your body with water as you eat.The more water you have in your system, the sooner your stomach will feel full. Drink while you eat so that food digests easier and helps your brain register “full and at capacity.”Remember that the holidays come around every year and that they are only ONE day.Don’t allow yourself to binge for two 4-day weekends. That will easily turn into the next month. Opening the flood gates for more than one day will train your stomach to expand and for your eyes to do all the nutritional choosing.

The holidays are here to enjoy with family, friends, and food, but the repercussions of binging during this season will spin your metabolism downward and grow your waistline wider. Choose wisely and enjoy!

Dena is a NASM Certified Personal Trainer and owner of Trainer2You, a company that sends personal training to your home. For more information, go to Trainer2YouNJ.com or contact Dena at Trainer2You@gmail.com