6 Clever Strategies to Avoid Holiday Weight Gain
By Unite Fitness Retreat Dietician, Brooke Bouwhuis, RDN
It’s starting to pile up every where you turn. Candy dishes on desks at work, extra treat frenzy in the breakroom, grocery stores spilling over with tasty seasonal yum-yums and over the top holiday parties.
It’s delicious, everywhere we turn and sure to sabotage even the best of intentions from now until the New Year.
Let’s talk strategy because hoping to make it through this tasty food season unscathed is going to be a challenge.
- Challenge your BFF to a sugar fast – chose a time frame and your rules, loser buys a hot rock massage.
- Keep the sweets off your own desk at work. We eat more the closer it is in proximity so get it as far away as possible.
- Fake an allergy to ______ food. When offered something you are trying to stay away from simply tell the person you have developed a new allergy or intolerance to _______ food. What a bummer and no one is offended. The food causes brain fog, stomach aches and acne, all true and easy peasy.
- Bring something healthy that you enjoy to the party so you can join in for a social bite to eat while keeping youself on track.
- Party at your house? Pick up a few take-away boxes and send the treats home with everyone so you aren’t stuck with them staring you in the face the next day.
- Before that treat crosses your lips, write down what you are eating on a sticky note and keep it on your computer monitor at work or the microwave door at home. You might be surprised how quickly the treats add up.
Occasionally enjoying a treat is totally normal and recommended! Enjoy foods you love with people you love, with other food while making sure it’s occasional. Several times a day, week after week of eating treats is not considered occasional.
In a study conducted by Brain Wansink of Cornell University, 1800 participants weighed themselves daily for one year. It was discovered that the 10 weeks from Halloween to New Years are the most calorically troublesome for American’s.
On average, people gained at least a couple of pounds during those ten weeks. That doesn’t sound so bad overall BUT if that weight isn’t lost after each holiday season, it’s what leads to the 10-25 pound weight creep per decade. Gain a little and never lose it.
Not this year! Knowledge. Strategy. Plan because if nothing changes, nothing changes.
