More ideas from Renee’s site to improve your eating habits.
What’s Your Best Advice for Avoiding those Extra Holiday Pounds?
- Don’t tell yourself, “It’s okay, it’s the holidays.” That opens the door to 6 weeks of splurging.
- Remember, EAT before you meet. Have this small meal before you go to any parties: a hardboiled Egg, Apple, and a Thirst quencher (water, seltzer, diet soda, tea).
- As obvious as it sounds, don’t stand near the food at parties. Make the effort, and you’ll find you eat less.
- At a buffet? Eating a little of everything guarantees high calories. Decide on three or four things, only one of which is high in calories. Save that for last so there’s less chance of overeating.
- For the duration of the holidays, wear your snuggest clothes that don’t allow much room for expansion. Wearing sweats is out until January.
- Give it away! After company leaves, give away leftover food to neighbors, doormen, or delivery people, or take it to work the next day.
- Walk around the mall three times before you start shopping.
- Make exercise a nonnegotiable priority.
- Dance to music with your family in your home. One dietitian reported that when she asks her patients to do this, initially they just smile, but once they’ve done it, they say it is one of the easiest ways to involve the whole family in exercise.
How Can I Control a Raging Sweet Tooth?
- Once in a while, have a lean, mean salad for lunch or dinner, and save the meal’s calories for a full dessert.
- Are you the kind of person who does better if you make up your mind to do without sweets and just not have them around? Or are you going to do better if you have a limited amount of sweets every day? One RD reported that most of her clients pick the latter and find they can avoid bingeing after a few days.
- If your family thinks they need a very sweet treat every night, try to strike a balance between offering healthy choices but allowing them some “free will.” Compromise with low-fat ice cream and fruit, or sometimes just fruit with a dollop of whipped cream.
- Try 2 weeks without sweets. It’s amazing how your cravings vanish.
- Eat more fruit. A person who gets enough fruit in his diet doesn’t have a raging sweet tooth.
- Eat your sweets, just eat them smart! Carve out about 150 calories per day for your favorite sweet. That amounts to about an ounce of chocolate, half a modest slice of cake, or 1/2 cup of regular ice cream.
- Try these smart little sweets: sugar-free hot cocoa, frozen red grapes, fudgsicles, sugar-free gum, Nutri-Grain chocolate fudge twists, Tootsie Rolls, and hard candy.
What Can I Eat for a Healthy Low-Cal Dinner if I Don’t Want to Cook?
- A healthy frozen entree with a salad and a glass of 1 percent milk.
- Scramble eggs in a nonstick skillet. Pop some asparagus in the microwave, and add whole wheat toast. If your cholesterol levels are normal, you can have seven eggs a week!
- A bag of frozen vegetables heated in the microwave, topped with 2 tablespoons of Parmesan cheese and 2 tablespoons of chopped nuts.
- Prebagged salad topped with canned tuna, grape tomatoes, shredded reduced-fat cheese, and low-cal Italian dressing.
- Keep lean sandwich fixings on hand: whole wheat bread, sliced turkey, reduced-fat cheese, tomatoes, mustard with horseradish.
- Heat up a can of good soup.
- Cereal, fruit, and fat-free milk makes a good meal anytime.
- Try a veggie sandwich from Subway.
- Precut fruit for a salad and add yogurt.
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