The Pitfall: Frequency

Throughout the year, we may have an occasion every month or so: birthdays, weddings, etc. Not too difficult to manage. But the Holiday season is packed full of major gatherings from Thanksgiving, through all the holiday parties, and then Christmas, New Years and finally, Super Bowl. We average about 12 events in a three-month period. No wonder it’s hard to manage our appetites!

The Remedy: Preparation

If you expect the barrage of fatty, starchy foods, you can better manage the urge to over indulge. Follow some of these simple steps to make sure you don’t walk into a gauntlet of excess pounds:

• Don’t go hungry! If you starve yourself before an event to “not ruin your appetite”, you will certainly grab a fistful of the first thing you see, and feel guilty in the morning as you wake up to a bloated gut.
• Eat a small, satisfying meal/snack before the party that includes protein and complex carbs such as whole-wheat bread with nut butter or an apple and a few almonds. You will be better able to abstain from pounding down the pigs-in-a-blanket and wings and save your appetite for a sensibly sized main course.
• Know what’s coming and set boundaries. Knowing your sister is making her prized apple-caramel-French cheesecake, give yourself permission to have a small slice. Make sure you prepare in advance to limit the portion and take a sliver home to enjoy the next day. This means you feel a sense of pride instead of guilt.

Booze means calories. After all, alcohol is fermented sugar that your liver converts back to sugar, leading to fat-gain. Even worse, spirits, especially on an empty stomach, makes us crave rich, fatty foods, a no-no to watching the waistline. More than 2 drinks at a sitting also greatly reduce your body’s ability to burn fat for the next 24 to 72 hours. That means the next three workouts [assuming you exercise] are paying for the six cosmos you drank, [probably leading to memory loss of what a great time you think you had]!

A drink or two on an empty stomach gets you tipsy quick, making you crave the fatty stuff.

• Hydrate. Make sure you drink 8 ounces of water for each ounce of alcohol you consume. This will help your body flush out the toxins a little more effectively and reduce dehydration and hangover.
• Limit yourself to two to three drinks. C’mon! You don’t need to get hammered every weekend just because it’s the holidays. Prioritize-you don’t want the results that come with getting soused- hangover, fat hanging over your belt …you get it.

The Pitfall: Portion size.

Stuffing yourself is the worst thing you can do, even without the holiday events. This leads to reduced metabolic function and the storage of fat around the organs, key ingredients to diabetes, heart disease and excess weight gain.

The Remedy: Portion control

• Sample each of the foods that look appetizing to you and eat portions no larger than your palm. Stay away from the stuff you can eat anytime. After all, mashed potatoes are mashed potatoes!
• Eat protein with every meal. Protein such as lean meat, chicken and fish make you feel fuller, longer because it slows the digestive process down. Starchy carbs such as potatoes, white breads and pastas digest so quickly, you find yourself reloading your plate every ten minutes.
• Have seconds, thirds, and fourths! Eating small portions and waiting 30 minutes before you go back to the buffet will allow your body to better manage the calories and prevent overloading your system. Smaller portions and more trips will also make you feel like you are in control of the food, not the other way around!

Click here for more pitfalls and remedies to help you manage the holiday eating frenzy!

Lifestage Fitness was created by combining the best attributes of most contemporary fitness centers with unparallelled personal fitness services.

Joe Ranieri is a 30-year veteran of the health and fitness industry, and is owner of Joe Ranieri’s LifeStage Fitness, an individualized fitness and nutrition training facility in suburban Chicago. Joe has helped hundreds of exercise enthusiasts of all ages and ability achieve their fitness goals using his simple, realistic approach to proper nutrition and exercise. Joe can be reached for questions regarding your desire for a healthy lifestyle through his email at joe@lifestagefitness.com.

Understanding that life-changes do not occur overnight, Joe Ranieri provides a real-world approach to making regular exercise and proper nutrition second nature – an easy, sustainable way to gradually, and permanantly, help you help yourself.

• 45 Day Slimdown - Part 1
• 45 Day Slimdown - Part 2
• 45 Day Slimdown - Counting Calories
• Surviving Fad Diets - The "Lose Weight Fast" Scheme
• Get Rid of Excess Fat - Part 1
• Get Rid of Excess Fat - Part 2

• Childhood Obesity - Leading by Example
• Childhood Obesity Step 1- Portion Control
• Eliminating Childhood Obesity - Do's and Don'ts
• Eliminating Childhood Obesity - More Do's and Don'ts

• Manage Holiday Eating - Part 1
• Manage Holiday Eating - Part 2
• Manage Holiday Eating - Part 3