It’s no secret: the holidays can be tough on your waistline. We work all summer to lose weight, only to sabotage our progress at Thanksgiving. One day we’re feeling great, and the next we’re unbuttoning our slacks at the dinner table to make room for seconds. How does that happen?
First of all, we’re swapping out low-calorie summer vegetables for the savory, starchy vegetables of fall and winter. Goodbye cucumbers and tomatoes, hello squash and potatoes. Don’t get me wrong—I don’t want you to feel guilty over eating these heartier foods, but I do want you to be more aware of the calorie differences. For instance, one cup of the summer soup gazpacho has 160 calories, while potato-leek soup has 260. In addition, during the colder months, we slather many of our foods in butter, cream, milk and cheese, loading them with extra calories and fat.
Another issue during the holidays is overeating. When dinner is served, we lose sense of control and it’s hard to resist seconds of our favorite dishes. We’re thinking it will be an entire year before we can have grandma’s apple pie again.
But have no fear! Here are some effective tips to help you fight weight gain during the holidays:
1. Portion control. I can’t stress this enough. The goal for your holiday dinners should not be to eliminate your favorite foods, but to have them in more appropriate quantities. Divide your plate as follows:
• 1/2 for vegetables – Think salad, green beans and cooked greens like spinach or kale—not starchy vegetables like potatoes, corn, sweet potatoes, squash or pumpkin.
• 1/4 for starches – Insert those starchy vegetables here. There’s not a lot of room for other holiday favorites like biscuits and stuffing, so be sure to take a just a bit of these foods.
• 1/4 for protein –Your turkey and ham go here.
2. Limit high-calorie beverages. One cup of lemon water has 0 calories, while eggnog has 344. Just because it’s the holidays doesn’t mean you can start drinking your calories. Stick with water, no-cal beverages or skim milk, and your waistline will stick with you.
3. Stop with the guilt. Feeling guilty every time we take a bite of food only sabotages us further and makes us overeat more. Stay in control during meals and have one plate of your favorite foods. Avoid going back for seconds and you’ll feel much less guilty during and after meals.
4. Stay active. This is not optional and there are no excuses during the colder months! If you have a gym membership, use it. If you’re going to take in more calories during the holidays, you need to burn off the same amount.
5. “Skinny” your favorite foods. I know they taste so, so good, but there are many changes you can make to render your favorite dishes more figure-friendly.
• Use olive oil and skip the butter. One stick of butter has 810 calories, so you can eliminate a lot of calories by cutting back on it.
• Hold the cream, please. One tablespoon of heavy cream has 50 calories—50 more than you need. A lot of creamy soups can be blended or pureed a bit and served as is, without the cream.
• Mind your dessert. Remember that food group called fruit? Fruit salad still makes a lovely, healthy dessert during winter. If you know you’re going to have a traditional dessert after dinner, plan ahead and skip the cookies, cakes, sweet breads and cinnamon buns during the day. Your day should include one treat and that’s it.
And, for the tech-savvy, give CalCutter by the New York City Health Department a try. You can enter some of your favorite recipes into this app, and it will assess and give you some tips on how to reduce calories.
Good luck and happy holidays to all!
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