Starting with the week of Thanksgiving until the New Year’s celebration, a six-week season of culinary temptations is ahead.
Many of us make a promise to ourselves not to overdo it this season. Our intentions are good but somehow they always get derailed and we find ourselves feeling frustrated in January after packing on extra pounds.
Do you make any of these mistakes in your effort to get through the holidays?
Mistake No. 1: You skip breakfast.
• Research has shown that the typical breakfast skipper is likely to be overweight. This strategy is a sure-fail solution as you’re more likely to eat even more at the party. Eating breakfast helps to control the amount of calories you’ll consume throughout the rest of the day.
• Aim for a breakfast of about 300 calories. Instead of doughnuts and sugary cereal, choose whole grains, fruit and foods high in protein.
Mistake No. 2: You snack mindlessly.
• Keeping track of what you eat by writing it down makes you accountable. If you keep a journal and record everything you eat, you’ll be amazed at how much you eat as unplanned snacks.
• Plan for snacks, count them toward your total daily calories and keep healthier options on hand. If large snackbags are too tempting, splurge and buy the pre-packaged smaller portions.
• Take the edge off your hunger before you go to an event by eating a light snack — 200 calories or less. Choose a high-fiber cereal with milk, fresh fruit or a small handful of nuts.
Mistake No. 3: You promise yourself you’ll exercise the extra calories away.
• Finding the extra time to exercise as the solution for overindulgence might not be very practical. You need to walk briskly (3.5 mph) for 22 minutes to burn off just 100 calories.
• A typical holiday meal — turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, candied sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, pie and wine can easily exceed 2,000-3,000 calories. The average person would have to jog at a pace of 6 miles an hour for about 2 1/2 to 3 hours to burn off the calories consumed in that meal alone. If you aren’t up for running 18 miles, survey the menu and choose carefully.
• Minimize over-indulgence by skipping the foods you can have any time like chips and dip. Forgo second helpings. If, however, the temptations get the best of you, do better tomorrow.
Mistake No. 4: You rely on fast food.
• The list of things to do to prepare for the holidays — decorating, shopping and baking — is long. Day-to-day cooking often falls by the wayside. The key is to plan ahead to avoid the “grab and go” phenomena. Not only are fast-food restaurant choices often overloaded with calories, along with hurrying comes speed eating, which can mean consuming extra calories.
• It takes 20 minutes for the brain to get the message the stomach is full. One study showed that women who ate a meal in 30 minutes consumed 10 percent fewer calories compared to those who gobbled it down in 10 minutes. Savor each bite sitting down at the table and give yourself the gift of “down time” to de-stress.
Extension specialist Shirley Perryman is a registered dietitian with the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition at Colorado State University.
