Staying Healthy for the Holidays: Food

Holidays...food...cold weather...stress.  How do we help ourselves stay healthy during these glutenous, often emotionally overwhelming  times?  In this three part blog adventure I'm going to help you to find ways to stay healthy this holiday season.  Lets start with the food. 
The holidays are are most certainly always a time that it becomes easy to over eat, and not just over eat, but engorge on yummy fatty sugary treats, or what we lovingly refer to as "comfort food".  This is a natural thing for our bodies to crave in winter.  Much like a squirrel who fattens up for the winter hibernation, our bodies crave a nice layer of fat for insulation.  Especially here in the bitter cold north states.  What gets us in trouble is the shear amount we eat.  There is nothing wrong with eating most of the "comfort food" we serve during the holidays, as long as we limit our servings.  According to WebMD the average American consumes 4,500 calories at Thanksgiving dinner...scary.  Here are 5 easy tricks to change how you eat.

1. Portion your food!  Half you plate should be veggies then your protein and lastly starches or sugars.  If half your plate can be Grandmas broccoli salad, Uncle Ben's green bean casserole, and Auntie Josephine's Yams you are all set.  Next grab some ham, deviled eggs, or turkey to cover almost the rest of your plate, and then choose your favorite starch (mine is oyster stuffing!!) to finish your plate.  Eat slowly and pay attention to what you are eating, savor the food and chew, chew, chew.  Make the meal about how good it tastes and not about how many servings you can shove into your gullet.  Keep in mind that one plate of holiday foods can easily top 1,500 calories or more if you are not careful.  So one plate is more than enough.
   
2. Limit snacking.  The easiest way to rack up the carbs is hanging around the hors d'oeuvres table snacking on crackers, chips, candies, and pastry treats.   Grab a few naughty items you wish to sample on a small plate and then stack the mixed nuts and/or veggies from the veggie tray and walk away to sit with some family while you eat instead of hovering over the food.  The veggies and nuts will help fill you up without too many calories to counter act the lack of substance and caloric density the rest of the food has.
3. Cut back on sauces.  Especially the gravy.  I will admit, gravy is f'ing good, especially true drippings gravy with the little gristly bits floating around...mmmmm.  So rather than avoid it, which is ridiculous in my book, I try to only put it over one item, and just one spoonful.  Then I get my wonderful gravy without adding an extra thousand calories.
4. Drink water.  If you have a hard time feeling full after one modestly heaping plate of food, drink and entire glass of water directly after eating.  This will help you to feel full and also aid in digestion.  Also choosing water over juice or soda can save you several hundred sugar based calories.
5. Bring a healthier option.  Whether you are hosting, or you are bringing a dish to pass, finding a delicious "healthier" option can be great way to help family to eat better too.  Of course, you will not want to tell them these are healthy options, as people tend to associate "healthy" with "taste bad".  Some delicious and easy to make traditional healthier options may be shrimp cocktail, granola bars, 5 bean salad, avacado deviled eggs, or roasted root veggies.  Shelled nuts are a great novel item to bring as well.  Nuts are one of the healthiest things you can eat, and having to de-shell them slows down the snacking process causing people to eat less.  Plus it's damn fun to crack open and dig out the nutty treasure from inside!
   

Look for the next installment about how to keep up with, or start an exercise program when the weather gets cold.  Stay healthy!

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