11/25/2014
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5 Tips for Sticking to Your Diet During Thanksgiving
Most of us have been there. You starve yourself with skimpy salads just before the big holiday parties and get-togethers, then woof down the heavily iced cake, the whipped cream, and nummy chocolates at the first sign of company. It’s the classic ying-yang of today’s holiday dieters. Before you know it, your carefully planned diet to hold your waistline goes right out the window, right along with this year’s Thanksgiving turkey bones.
So what’s answer? Instead of the engaging in the binge-purge cycle of salads one day and cake the next, nutrition experts suggest making sure your body has plenty of protein. Here are five tips for keeping the pounds off during holidays:
Bake Smart. You can still enjoy delicious pies, holiday-spiced muffins and chocolates. Just remember to substitute high-glycemic flours with flax or almond flours, and replace sugar, honey or syrup with stevia or erythritol. Wrap your baked treats in snack-portioned sizes. And enjoy them in moderation, without guilt or gain.
More Green, Less Gain. Prepare lots of salads with green non-starchy veggies. Try swapping vegetables like potatoes or starches like corn with less calorie-dense options. Use root vegetables, which are among the most nutrient-dense. Yams, beets, parsnips, turnips, rutabagas, carrots, yuca, onions, garlic, celery root, radishes and ginger are all considered roots. These vegetables grow underground, so they absorb lots of nutrients from the soil. They are very gentle on your blood sugar. Try steaming a bag of frozen broccoli, adding a dollop of butter and a bit of grated cheese to prepare a delicious fat-fueled dish. When approaching a table of laid out Thanksgiving treats at a party or get-together, sample the veggies and stay away from the chocolates, cake samplers and other sugary bon-bons.
Cheat Sparingly. You can indulge, but try to maintain control over portions and frequency. Doing this will make your holidays more enjoyable and less austere. Don’t connect any negative emotions to your occasional enjoyment of a pie, cake or ice cream. By thoughtfully choosing a few cheat times, you maintain control, opting to stay strong most of the time and “live it up” on occasion.
Cheat Smartly. Your “chosen cheat” post-meal should be centered around protein. These being fat-blitzing and blood sugar-stabilizing foods, with some fats or oils and lots of non-starchy veggies. Eating more carbohydrates in your post-meal won’t dampen your sugar craving. So try a high-protein, low-carb meal consisting of two or three eggs in butter laid over a large bed of leafy greens drizzled with olive oil.
Stay hydrated with festive and flavored beverages. Staying hydrated will keep you from snacking on those highly sugared treats and finger foods. Try sipping a Cranberry Wassail or one of many other tasty holiday-spiced beverages throughout the day. Prepare Cranberry Wassail by boiling two cups fresh cranberries, a cinnamon stick, whole cloves and star anise in 1-1/2 quarts of water for an hour, then straining the liquid into a crock pot and adding stevia, a few drops of orange extract and additional hot water.
For more tips on surviving the holidays without adding to your waistline, check out Serene Allison and Pearl Barrett’s book, Trim Healthy Mama.
Most of us have been there. You starve yourself with skimpy salads just before the big holiday parties and get-togethers, then woof down the heavily iced cake,
