Holiday Eating

Happy Holidays Everyone,

I hope that everyone is enjoying the holiday season. I wanted to give you a few of my personal tips to make it through the holidays without gaining a ton of weight! These are my favorites and they work for me.

1. Do not deny yourself when you go to a party. Denial leads to sneaking later on. I have been to many holiday celebrations this year already and have noticed that I eat more than everyone else. I take a serving of each thing I like, skip the items I can get other times of the year, skip desserts I do not love and eat a generous portion of any fruits and veggies that are at celebrations! My plate is always full and I leave full but not stuffed. I never feel the need to go home and pig out because I've denied myself. I totally enjoy party foods!

2. Keep self-talk under control. When I come home from a party I do not berate myself for indulging in party foods. You must keep your thoughts under control as I believe most overeating starts with poor thoughts of yourself and beating yourself up.

3. Practice healthy eating for meals in between your parties. This is where the difficulty comes in. Yesterday, I went to a ladies brunch with amazing treats and also a pizza party in the evening. Quite a caloric day for me. I noticed this morning that my regular breakfast of Trader Joe's High Fiber cereal did not sound appealing. My brain was telling me that a scone, bran muffin or bread pudding would taste wonderful (my previous day's brunch). I was mulling over what I could eat. I do not have a house with junk food in it. Therefore, my choices were to eat my regular cereal or bake something. I am lazy so ate my cereal. It is very important during the holidays to keep your house clear of foods that call your name. I had to sit myself down this morning and practice some great self-talk about staying within my eating boundaries. I planned out my breakfast and lunch. They will be very healthy to make up for yesterday. 

4. Take something healthy to your holiday celebrations. There are a couple of reasons for this. First, you will have something healthy to eat at the party. I took fresh pineapple and mascarpone cheese to my brunch. Everyone loved it and it was the only healthy food at the brunch. The second reason is that you will bring home healthy leftovers. If I had taken a gooey cinnamon roll creation to my brunch (my second choice), I would have eaten it again today when my brain was rebelling against healthy eating this morning. I will eat my leftover pineapple with a tuna salad for lunch!

5. Keep your home baking under control or bake and give it away. I baked four types of Christmas cookies last week for a party. I had tons of leftovers. I plated them immediately and passed them on to my neighbors. They loved them and I had the cookies out of my house! I will bake a couple of types of cookies right before Christmas but not my usual splurge. I know that if I bake variety, I will not be satisfied with a couple of cookies but will want one of each type. Keep your baking to a minimum!

It is possible to party and keep your weight under control during the holidays! It does take some planning and great self talk though! 

Transparency

Hey Everyone,
Transparency is something that has been on my mind for the last few weeks. I am a leader with a Young Life Capernaum group of young adults. Capernaum works with students and young adults that are differently-abled. Many of them have become some of my very best friends. What I love about them is their insight and that they do not make life complicated, as I often do. It is so refreshing to me! I love their transparency! When they are struggling at work, they'll call and say "Hey, I am struggling at work and yelled at my boss today." When they are worried about their family Christmas party, they might say, "I am so nervous about the drama that revolves around Christmas at my house when the family gets together!" I love this transparency!

Most of us would admit that we are not transparent. The last thing we want to admit is our struggles. I have seen from my friends that facing your struggles and asking for help is not a bad way to live. When problems and struggles come during the holiday season, try reaching out to one of your friends or family and talking it out rather than reaching for food. Food is a temporary way to sooth your hurts and does not work long term. We all know this, yet we still try to eat to satisfy our emotions with food.

Join me during the holidays in practicing transparency with your friends and family. I have seen that most of my problems are not as big as I have made them in mind, when I share them with others. Sometimes a hug from a friend feels a whole lot better than eating lots of tortilla chips (my ultimate love/hate food). No guilt and shame but love and acceptance!

Blessings for the Holiday Season!

Kerry

Lifestyle Changes

Most of us with a weight problem have gained weight slowly over the years. If you gained 10 pounds this year, you have overeaten 100 calories per day. This is not a lot of food. The notion going around is that you must mindfully eat. Such a small error in your eating caused this weight gain so you must count your calories carefully each day. There are many websites set up to help you keep track of every single thing that you eat. You must not diet because we all know that dieting does not work, but somehow magically get all of your habits, emotional eating and overindulging under control. This is exhausting!

What if you looked at your ten pound yearly weight gain in a different light and thought, "I am only overeating 100 calories per day and this is not a lot of food. I do not need to change my entire life and count every single calorie that goes into my mouth." What if you chose 3 areas of your eating and cleaned them up a bit. Brian Wansink, author of Mindless Eating encourages people to do this. Choose three habits or areas in your eating life that you can clean up. You might substitute an Americano for your latte and save over 200 calories a day. You might use light margarine on your toast and save 100 calories per day. If you keep a food journal for a week, you will begin to see many areas where a few changes can be made that will result in many calorie savings.

If you can decrease 500 calories per day, you should lose one pound per week fairly effortlessly! That would be 50 lost pounds in a year. Wow!

A lifestyle change does not mean that you must mindfully eat all of the time. It means that you will clean up a few of your major trouble spots and add more healthy foods in their place. Does it mean you will not ever eat a dessert again. No, but you might cut your quantity in half. Those giant Costco pies are not meant to be cut into eighths but into sixteenths. Relearn your portions, make some simple personal changes daily, and add a few more veggies into your meals. You might be surprised that some simple changes can add up to a huge weight loss with little effort!!!