HOW TO STAY HEALTHY AND NOT GAIN WEIGHT DURING THE HOLIDAYS

“I’ll loose the weight in January” is the biggest lie we tell ourselves during the holidays. If you want to avoid gaining weight during the holidays the beast approach is to not gain the weight in the first place (and at the same time enjoy the holidays). Here are some things I do to stay healthy and avoid gaining weight during the holiday season.

Don’t Skip Meals

Low blood sugar causes uncontrollable cravings and overeating. The best way to keep out blood sugar stable is to never skip meals. You can have a small meal, a smoothie or a healthy snack, but don’t go more than 3 or 4 hours without food. Also, if you know you’ll be having an unhealthy meal, make your other meals healthy. You see, it’s all about balance: It’s not so much what you eat, but how much you eat.

Have a Salad

The first thing that goes out the window during the holidays are our fruits and veggies. It doesn’t mean you only have to have a salad, but how about starting your meal with some raw veggies. When it comes to veggies, variety is better than quantity. So it’s better to have a bit of spinach, tomato, carrots and cucumber, than a bunch of spinach. You can add some salt, pepper, cayenne pepper and lemon to give them an extra great flavor.

Wait Before Having Seconds

It takes about 15 minutes for the stomach to send the signal to our brain that we’re satisfied. By the time that signal gets to out brain we already had seconds and dessert. This is what I suggest: have everything you want! But do it in moderation, don’t fill your plate like there’s no tomorrow. Have a bit of everything and after you finish that plate, wait 10-15 minutes and check in with your body. If you’re still hungry have seconds. Or maybe you decide you only have room for dessert. Or maybe (only maybe) you realize that you’re satisfied and you don’t even need dessert.