Food for Thought: Five Healthy Eating Tips for the Holidays

‘Tis the season for eating… turkey, stuffing, pies, cookies, cakes, ham and all the sides! But how do you stay on your healthy eating track when it is so easy to get sidetracked with the holidays?

Experts weighed in (no pun intended) on this topic and have come up with these five healthy eating tips to help you keep those diet goals and still enjoy the delicious meals of the season!

1. “Holiday-proof” your diet. How you ask? Try to eat as close to your normal eating times as possible, offer to bring a healthy treat to the meal, if you want to eat dessert maybe cut back on other carbohydrates during dinner and don’t skip meals to save up for dinner.
2. “Outsmart the buffet.” Ways to do this include eat on a smaller plate and resist seconds, eat slowly so you feel fuller, start with vegetables so you fill up quicker and avoid (or limit) your alcohol.
3. Add your favorites instead of eliminating them. If you only eat pumpkin pie once a year, then eat the pumpkin pie! Just make sure that you account for that in your diet plan/calorie count.
4. Keep up with your exercising. While the holidays can be a busy time, make sure that you still try to fit your physical exercise in like you normally would. Being active can help you offset that extra eating that you will be doing and reduce your stress.
5. Get your sleep. Because the holidays are such a busy time, you might be going out more and staying out later. Sleep loss may make it harder for you to stick to your diet and exercise plan. Getting your sleep will also prevent late night snacking.

Most of all, when you celebrate with the people that you care about, you will find that you are focusing on the fun not the food.