The holiday season is a mine field of sabotages to your healthy eating goals! Those sweets that well meaning colleagues and clients bring to your office…parties with appetizers of little cheese filled puffed pastries (about 100 calories per bite!). How do we maintain through the holidays and not re-gain the pounds we worked so hard to shed from January through November?
- Eat three balanced meals per day. Skipping meals to save on calories tends to result in overeating later! Make sure each meal includes:
- Lean protein like extra lean beef, pork chicken, fish, eggs mixed with extra egg whites
- Vegetable and/or fruit
- Bumping up the veggies helps you to get more volume in a smaller amount of calories. Bring a big bag of carrots, cauliflower, celery, cucumber, tomatoes, etc with your sandwich for lunch.
- Scramble breakfast eggs with spinach, onion, mushrooms, peppers….whatever sounds good!
- Fruit is a great way to eat something sweet without the calories of a traditional dessert!
- High fiber grain or starch–100% whole grain bread, whole grain pasta, brown rice, corn, sweet potato, winter squash, beans, peas or lentils.
- High fiber, “low glycemic” starches such as these are more filling as well as more nutritious than their refined counterparts–white bread, white rice….
- Don’t drink your calories!! Keep seltzer water and fresh lemons or limes on hand–‘need to byob to a party? Bring a couple bottles of selzter water and some lemon/lime slices instead of alcohol (it is quite acceptable!) Sip on that through the evening rather than drinking alcohol (or limit yourself to one glass of wine or beer, and then go to seltzer water with lemon or lime). Remember:
- Dry red or white wine: 22 calories/ounce (more than whole milk!!) 1 five ounce glass = 110 calories (and who drinks only a 5 ounce glass these days??)
- Beer: 12.5 to 16.7 calories/ounce; 150 to 200 calories for a 12 ounce bottle (the darker, heavier beers are higher in calories)
- Hard liquor (e.g. vodka, scotch, etc): 70 calories/ounce (105 calories/1.5 oz shot) OUCH! Mix one shot with 8 ounces orange juice for a mixer and you have a 215 calorie 9 1/2 ounce drink (is that drink worth the calories?)
- Keep moving:
- Get up from your desk at least once an hour, and move for at least one minute!!!
- Walk for 5-10 minutes on your coffee breaks, walk for 10 to 15 minutes on your lunch break;
- If time after work, go for a longer walk, to the gym, or use your home exercise bike, treadmill, elliptical trainer or exercise video.
- Breaking down exercise into small segments helps us to keep it going, especially on busy days!
- Bring healthy and low calorie snacks to work or for your contribution to a party (good goal is less than ~20 calories per serving) :
- Veggie plate with yogurt dip:
- 1 part plain, nonfat, Greek yogurt:1 part low cal Mayo (the 35 kcal/Tbsp type, NOT the “non-fat” type) + onion powder, garlic powder, dry mustard, paprika, dill weed and salt and pepper to taste.
- Fruit with yogurt dip:
- Plain yogurt mixed with honey and cinnamon to taste.
- Shrimp with cocktail sauce
- Grilled chicken breast on skewers Recipe:
- marinate boneless skinless chicken in white wine, soy sauce, ginger, garlic and sesame oil or peanut butter (about 2 tablespoons for 1 lb of chicken), and chopped fresh basil or cilantro for a couple hours, or overnight
- cut chicken in strips, and put about 1/2 ounce raw chicken on each skewer, and then grill or broil),
- Served on a bed of finely shredded cabbage, carrots, and/or lettuce.
- Eat more soup for lunches and dinners--you will feel full with fewer calories when your meal is higher in water!!
- Think–broth based or bean soups (creamed soups are too high in fat and calories, so backfire when it comes to trying to feel full with less!) Beans soak up a lot of water, so can seem really rich and thick, without a lot of calories.
- Cook your beans or lentils in a crock pot, with extra liquid (water, chicken broth, canned tomatoes…) while you are at work. They will be ready for making into soup when you get home, OR put everything for the soup, including the beans in the crock pot in the morning and have a delicious dinner waiting for you when you get home.
- Check out “Soup Basics” under Cooking 101, 10/11/2011
