Holiday Diet Tips to Lose Weight

CNN recently reported that a traditional holiday meal can pack more than 2,000 calories and 135 grams of fat (12-10-04 cnn.com). WOW! That's a lot of calories and fat! Most of those 'extra' holiday calories don't come from super-high-fat foods, either.

Most of those extra holiday calories come from the 2nd, 3rd and 4th helpings! It's not so much that the holidays are full of hyper-caloric foods, but it's that most people tend to ignore portion sizes during the holidays.

Fitness experts around the world know that no food should be strictly forbidden. There should not be any (or many) foods that are avoided completely 100% of the time. Why? Because that sets us up for failure! If fudge is one of our favorites, and we force ourselves to NOT eat fudge at the holiday party, then for many of us what we've done is set ourselves up for a binge fudge-festival.

Avoiding our favorite foods entirely takes some fun out of the holidays and sets us up for binge-eating. That's a recipe for disaster!

A much better approach is to enjoy foods in moderation. Watch those serving sizes! Enjoy and savor ONE piece of fudge! It's better to enjoy one piece of fudge, and then stop, than attempt to deprive yourself entirely only to end up eating the whole pan.

It's also important to keep in mind the cost of the foods we eat. We're not talking about dollars and cents here, but the FITNESS cost of the food. When picking up that fudge, let's keep in mind what it will cost in additional exercise to enjoy that fudge. When picking up a plate at the buffet table, take a moment to pause and think: "The cost of this fudge will be an extra _____ minutes of exercise.....is that worth it to me?" Maybe. Maybe not. That's for each of us to decide on our own.

The point is that we should be conscious of our food decisions. No foods are forbidden entirely, but we do need to watch our portion sizes and carefully consider the cost of each food. That's the real recipe for holiday "treat" success!

(NOTE: Occasionally your doctor may put certain foods on a "banned" list for you, and that's a different subject entirely. A personal no-no list of foods is usually due to a medical condition such as a heart condition, blood pressure issues, an allergy, etc. and every recommendation made by your doctor should be followed exactly. The article above refers to the nutritional value of foods ONLY and should not be taken as medical advice.)