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COLUMN BY SUSAN HILL |
PREVIOUS COLUMNS'Drugs—Swallowing a Double-Edged SwordBeyond Margarine-Bewildered About Trans and Other Fats? Unfluenza-Everything You Need to Know about Not Getting Influenza Squeamish about a Colonoscopy? Got GERD? It's More Than Burps and Belches Make Vitamin D When the Sun Shines Vaccinate Our Daughters Against Cancer Artificial Sweeteners—Are They a Sweet Deal—or Not Extremes at Both Ends - Anorexia and Bulimia to Obesity Making sense of Cholesterol's ABCs |
SIMPLY HEALTH: How to Navigate the Holidays
posted 11/17/2008 Holiday parties are fun, so go out and enjoy them! Ahead of time though, think about what you are going to eat that day. Don't starve yourself and save your appetite for the party. You'll arrive famished and start inhaling goodies. Then, before your blood sugar and the satiation point in your brain can register what you wolfed down, you may have consumed two days worth of calories. These tips will help avoid that situation. The day of the party, eat your usual high fiber breakfast of oatmeal or bran cereal. Eat a lunch of light soup or salad greens and be sure to eat an apple or pear in mid-afternoon. Before you go to the party, munch on carrot sticks, a rye crisp and drink a V8. Wear clothing with a fitted waist rather than elastic, as it will help you be more aware of feeling full. When you arrive at the party, get a glass of sparkling water and add ice and a wedge of lime or lemon. While you drink your water, survey the buffet table. Decide what you really want to taste and what you can live without. Ask yourself: "Will this be the last opportunity in my life to eat this dish?" "Do I really like this dish prepared this way?" It will help narrow your choices. Now get your plate, and if there are smaller dessert plates, choose one of those. Remember the time in childhood when you freaked out if your potatoes touched your corn? This is a good time to use the no-touch strategy as it will leave more space between foods and avoid overloading your plate. Find a place on the far side of the room to avoid staring at the food-laden table. Really enjoy what you eat. Slip small bites into your mouth and feel the texture, taking time to savor the taste and satisfy all of your taste buds. They need more than just a glancing dash on the way down the hatch! Try to stay away from anything made with cream cheese or sour cream because they are calorie-dense foods and just a tablespoon will pack it on. If you must have seconds, decide which food you tried was the most superb and give yourself another tablespoon of that food, and then go for more veggie sticks (without dip) or fruit. When it is time for desert, be picky. Some items are probably not your absolute favorites, so cross them off. If a specific desert is commonplace, pass it by, as you could have it anytime. That might leave you with one or two special ones you can't resist. Go ahead, take a 2 inch square or scoop of one of them, go sit back down and really enjoy it. Keep your glass of water filled so you have something in your hand to keep you busy while you visit with friends and family. You can enjoy yourself at a party without feeling either deprived or stuffed. And remember to be active for at least half an hour every day to balance the equation. Go for a walk, climb stairs, run errands on foot, do yoga, dance, swim, cut firewood, bike, scrub the floors…and hang mistletoe. | |
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Susan C. Hill © 2008 To comment on the column, email susan@sanjuanislander.com |
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