Thanksgiving and Christmas are my favorite eating days of the year. Christmas dinner is now only weeks away in the US and Canada and the Turkeys and Hams have already been bought and are waiting to be eaten. This Christmas maybe you can be more careful about your eating and well being and I hope that looking at these tip will keep you feeling better the day after as you get to go on your post Christmas day shopping spree. 1. Decide what you are going to eat each day in the morning before you start. Think about 3 meals and 3 snacks. No one says you cant have a snack, then dinner a while later and then desert a while after that. 2. Get some exercise right after you get out of bed. This will help you focus on your fitness and make you aware of how your body feels that day. 3. Drink lots of water throughout Christmas day starting in the morning. We all know how important it is to drink water and to stay hydrated. Also the Water will keep your body from feeling hungry throughout the day and let you feel a little fuller. 4. Eat a small breakfast to set up a slow eating day. Maybe some All Bran and a banana or something else filling would be good. 5. Again you should have a fairly small lunch. 6. Try to have some kind of snack a couple hours before dinner and then a walk. This is your first real chance to make a difference in your eating for the day that may normally be bad. Try making something interesting and out of season. I love fruit salad so you could always make a fruit salad and have it over low fat frozen yogurt. 7. Eat everything at dinner but only small portions of each food. It is not the amount of food that matters but the trying of all of the foods at the table. Remember you can have leftovers for days in small servings as well. 8. Go for another walk if the weather is good. The worst thing to me is that after having a great Christmas or Christmas dinner there is no energy outlet so you end up just sitting and almost falling asleep from the tryptophan in the turkey and then you dont want to get up at all. Why not instead take a little walk around the neighborhood? 9. Dessert. If at all possible try to make a dessert yourself as then you can be sure how good or bad it is for you. My wife is always the designated dessert person for family get togethers as she makes stuff that is not quite as bad for you bat always different ad always really great tasting. One of the favorites these days is angel food cake with strawberries and Cool Whip 10. Try to keep things interesting for the evening by having an interactive game to play or have the kids put on a play. What you want to do after dinner and dessert is keep away from the regular habit of snacking even though you are full. Christmas is a day that people always associate with a lot of food and what I have in mind is not to have you starve yourself on Christmas but instead just make sure that you have a great day and eat some healthy snacks to keep yourself from eating too much heavy food and to feel a bit better about yourself the next day. And to all my friends south of the border from Canada. Have a great Christmas! |
