Don't give up the diet at Christmas!
It's difficult to stick to a weight loss diet at the best of times but over Christmas and New Year you may feel it is impossible.
It takes just 500 excess calories a day for a week to gain one pound in weight and at Christmas it is easy to overeat. Here is some advice to avoid gaining weight during the festive period even if you don't lose any that week.
All it takes is will power which is not always easy to maintain when everybody around you is eating and drinking to excess. At times, you will probably feel like Scrooge because of your failure to join in the excessive amounts eaten and drunk. Look on the bright side, you'll be happy you did when it's all over.
Contents
- Don't dig your grave with your own knife and fork.
- Christmas Parties
- Christmas Day
- More tips to avoid the wrong food in difficult situations
- More about Dieting
- "More die in the United States of too much food than of too little."
- About Me - I had to lose weight and kept it off
- Action Against Hunger
- Like This Lens?
- Do you have any tips to avoid over-eating at Christmas?
- Stazjia's Social Networks
Don't dig your grave with your own knife and fork.
Christmas Parties
If there is a buffet, avoid pastries, stick to salads and fruit.
During December you may get invited to many Christmas parties. Most companies have some kind of celebration, then there are friends, neighbours, groups or clubs and of course family. All of these present opportunities to over-indulge in high calorie and cholesterol food, as well as drink copious amounts of alcohol. Here are some suggestions to boost your will power.
1.Alcohol is full of empty calories. Try to stick to low calorie soft drinks or at least dilute a dry white wine with soda water or sparkling mineral water.
2. Don't tell everybody you aren't drinking. Some people, especially when they have had quite a few drinks themselves, see that as a challenge.
3. Have a meal before you go to a party.
4. Don't stand by the food chatting.
5. If you didn't have time for a meal, select what you want to eat and put it on one plate. Then move away from the buffet. That way you can keep track of the amount of food and the type that you have consumed.
6. You don't have to eat and drink to excess to have a good time. Work out before you go what you are going to drink. If there is a buffet, avoid pastries, stick to salads and fruit. Snacks in filo pastry have fewer calories than other kinds of pastry.
7. In restaurants, choose grilled dishes without sauces or other low calorie, low fat options.
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Christmas Day
8. Start the day with a good healthy breakfast. If you aren't hungry, you won't be tempted by mince pies, sausage rolls, chocolates and other snacks.
9. During festive meals, especially on Christmas Day, accept a glass of wine but sip it just for toasts. Make sure you have a glass of water and drink that instead. Nobody will notice that you haven't drunk much wine or that most of it is left at the end.
10. At home, don't go overboard preparing lots of snacks like mince pies and sausage rolls, you will only be tempted to eat them. If you visit friends or family, try not to stand or sit next to a selection of calorie rich snacks - you might find you have eaten them without noticing!
11. Christmas dinner is such a tradition that you really will feel like a martyr if you don't eat it. Avoid the turkey skin, eat only a tiny amount of stuffing, and just one or two small roast potatoes.
12. If you are cooking the dinner, don't put the potatoes into fat, instead, spray them with olive oil to keep the calories down.
13. Don't eat Christmas pudding (British pudding)! Just 100g, about 4ozs, can contain around 330 calories and 11.8g of fat and that is without cream or brandy butter. If you are desperate for some, eat a spoonful from somebody else's plate, that way you won't be tempted to eat a full portion.
14. Make sure you have some of your favorite low calorie, low fat snacks easily available during the holiday so you can eat those when other people are tucking in to chocolates, biscuits (cookies), sausage rolls, mince pies and other goodies.
15. Eat plenty of fruit. Not only is it good for you, it will fill you up and leave you less open to temptation.
16. If you are spending Christmas at home and entertaining family or friends, only get snacks out to offer them around. Put them away when everybody has helped themselves.
17. If you have been dieting successfully for some time, your stomach will have shrunk and you will be uncomfortable if you overeat. Listen to your body. You might also find that previously enjoyable sweet foods are now to sickly for you.
18. When you overeat or eat calorie rich food over Christmas, forgive yourself. Don't use it as an excuse to give up your diet. Just think of all those lovely smaller clothes you will be able to buy in the New Year sales!
*Picture copyright © Deror_avi
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More tips to avoid the wrong food in difficult situations
19. People like to see everyone joining in and enjoying themselves and this includes eating and drinking all the special treats available. You must learn to be assertive without being rude and so politely refuse anything that you don't want.
20. If you really can't refuse, then accept and don't eat or drink it. At a buffet, this is relatively easy, just wander around until you can unobtrusively put down the plate or glass.
21. Decide on what 'treat' you will allow yourself. Nobody loves a martyr and you will probably start looking like you are wearing sackcloth and ashes if everybody else is eating chocolate, cakes, and all kinds of food you would love to eat. Take a small portion of your favorite dessert or other desirable food. If possible, eat it late in the day or evening so it's something you can anticipate with pleasure.
22. In a restaurant, I find that studying the food trolley while I am eating my main course helps me refuse a dessert. Maybe it's because I'm giving myself a choice rather than refusing myself a 'treat' so feel it's a decision I've made freely not one forced on me by my diet. Of course, it might have the opposite effect on you!
23. When you eat, savour every mouthful. Chew it slowly and deliberately without making yourself look odd, of course. It will take 15 minutes after you've eaten before your brain receives a 'stomach full' message so give it time to arrive.
24. Drink plenty of water. If you are at a party or buffet, walk round with a glass of water. First of all, people won't know if it's gin or vodka and tonic so won't pester you to have an alcoholic drink and, secondly, you can drink it instead of nibbling constantly. Another reason is that it will help fill your stomach.
25. Look on the bright side, if other people have their mouths full a lot of the time, you can talk more without interruption!
The Assertiveness Workbook
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More about Dieting
-
Dieting: Lose Weight & Keep It Off
-
Almost anybody can lose weight - there are no fat people in a famine nor overweight athletes. The only thing that stops us losing weight is ourselves. It's not enough to stop eating carbs or count calories. Even if we lose all those extra pounds on t...
"More die in the United States of too much food than of too little."
John Kenneth Galbraith, The Affluent Society
About Me - I had to lose weight and kept it off
I was lucky, it was treatable with drugs but I had to lose weight. I did it with calorie counting so I could eat what I liked - within reason, chocolate fudge cake with chocolate sauce was obviously out!
Now, when people ask how I went down four dress sizes, I say "I cut out food". It's not true, that's a joke. What I really cut out was all high calorie, high fat food. I increased the amount of fruit and vegetables I ate. I built in the occasional treat like a whole chocolate cookie - wow! Because I was counting calories, I ate less of something else to keep the calorie level to 1500 to 1800 a day.
Now, I eat almost no meat, I've completely lost the taste for it and don't miss it. I still eat lots of fruit and vegetables and still eat very little high calorie food. I have kept my weight down and, most importantly, my blood sugar (glucose). I really do follow the tips above at times like Christmas or any other celebration when tempting food is freely available.
Action Against Hunger
An international organization that delivers emergency aid and to people suffering from natural disasters or man-made crises.
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Do you have any tips to avoid over-eating at Christmas?
aj2008 wrote...
Just revisiting lenses in the THE Weight Loss Group to say how proud I am of the quality of lenses in the Group and that I am so glad this is one of several you have in the group. You have been Blessed by an Angel!
Posted May 31, 2009
luvmyludwig wrote...
I will be putting some of these into place during the next "special" meal. You've done a wonderful job!
Posted May 25, 2009
julcal wrote...
I'm going to send this lens to a friend of mine. I won't tell you how much she weighs, because she'll get mad at me when she sees my blurb. She's been trying for years to take weight off. Excellent lens - as usual.
Stazjia, you are a born lens-maker!
5*
Posted March 13, 2009
aj2008 wrote...
Another good lens Stazjia - welcome to the THE Weight Loss group
Posted February 21, 2009
flighty02 wrote...
Good advice for anybody trying to diet over the holidays. Welcome to The Cooks Cafe group
Posted January 13, 2009
by Stazjia
I am English and I've spent the last 11 years writing freelance for UK magazines, a couple of books and online. More on my Lensography.
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