Holiday Diet Solutions or New Year's Resolutions?
Carolyn Classick-Kohn,MS,RD
Here comes the holiday season and along with it the 2-5 extra lbs that
comes with holiday eating, drinking, and making merry.
This is an especially challenging time for those who are susceptible to
the sights, smells, and taste of good foods - they're everywhere! It's
also more difficult to stick to a diet when emotions are running high or
low - all of the feelings (happy and sad) that come with holidays
heighten the response to food. This year, instead of being one of the
millions of people who start the New Year off with an extra 10 lbs and a
resolution to change things January 1, start now by adjusting your
holiday attitude towards diet and exercise and start the New Year ahead
of the game.
- If you give in to all of the holiday temptations, you know the result will be weight gain.
Be choosy this year and eat a few of your favorite treats instead of every dessert that passes by. It's all about quality, not quantity! Enjoy the best of the best foods and say no thanks to the rest!
- The holiday season is full of memories, traditions, and social events that are out of the ordinary and can really challenge your routine. You may have been able to resist tempting foods in a normal day, but now you give treats a second look. Be realistic and acknowledge that it is harder to lose weight and that you will need to be even more watchful of what you eat instead of getting swept away by the holidays. Decide now - are you going to cave in to the environment or you are going to take charge? If you don't choose to take control, then you've already decided that you're going to gain weight, accept the consequences and deal with it later. The problem is that each year the weight and health issues build up and each season it gets a little harder to shed those holiday lbs. If you truly are serious about a certain weight or health goal, now is the time to draw upon your strengths, your coping skills, your positive self-talk, your friends, and increase your reminders of why it's important that you stick to your plan.
- Even if you don't lose weight through the holidays, with a good game plan, you can minimize weight gain or even maintain your weight. These are reasonable goals and are a much better alternative than having to deal with holiday weight
gain on January 1. Enjoy the holidays and remind yourself that food enhances the celebration but it's not the central theme. If you have extra time off for the holidays, it may be a great time to fit it any extra physical activity that you can to help offset the holiday goodies. Give yourself the gift of self-management this season, and you'll enjoy the results long after the holidays are gone.
