Health Blog: 5 Effortless ways to lose weight over the Holidays

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5 Easy Tips to Keep

the Pounds Off

During the Holidays

That festive time of year is upon us! So are the pounds. The Holidays are friends and family time, and as soon as we get to celebrate good times, we start munching and drinking away.

Here are 5 tips to reduce the calorie intake during this season. These are easy things that won’t take much of an effort, but make a whole lot of a difference when you get on the scale January 1^st.

Holiday Weight Loss Tip 1

Don’t grocery shop hungry. Have a snack before you get in the car to the grocery store. Even better, shop after you had lunch or dinner. When you’re hungry, you will instinctively load up that shopping cart with bags of potato chips, cookies, cheese dip, pizzas, and ice cream. When you don’t bring these food items home, you won’t eat them, because they won’t be within reach.

Holiday Weight Loss Tip 2

Eat soup. Plan every dinner with a soup course or appetizer. The reason is that leptin, the brain hormone that turns off the hunger signal, takes 20 minutes to kick in. If you go for a single course meal, the leptin will start working only after you’re done. Soup can be very healthy and filling, especially if it’s homemade vegetable soup. Remember veggies have lots of fiber, and that’s low calorie bulk. Fiber also helps with proper fat and sugar digestion.

Holiday Weight Loss Tip 3

If you have a company Holiday party then don’t order French fries or mashed potatoes. The fries are most likely fried in omega 6 corn oil and the mashed potatoes are loaded with omega 6 butter. Restaurants know that your brain is programmed to like these fats, while they can hide how much of it they put into your dish. Go for rice, pasta, or baked potato instead; not much hiding there.

Holiday Weight Loss Tip 4

Drink water with your Christmas dinner. Often we drink alcohol because we’re thirsty. Alcoholic beverages are high in calories. Cutting back on alcohol consumption is going to be very helpful. Make the water as attractive as possible. For example, buy sparkling water from a fancy Italian spring. Put them on the dinner table with medium sized water glasses. When you pour yourself a glass, pour it for everyone else too.  If you think bubbly waters are expensive at $1.50 a liter, then consider the cost savings on beer and wine. The same is true in a restaurant. Always order a fancy bottle of sparkling water; it will save money in the end.

Holiday Weight Loss Tip 5

Ban corn fructose soda pop. If you have children, or if you yourself are hooked to cola or high fructose corn sugar teas, then introduce an alternative: buy a bottle of tasty juice (mango, peach, orange, or my favorite pure pomegranate juice) and mix it with sparkling water in a ratio of 1 to 4. It’s healthy, vitamin rich, low in sugars since it is diluted, sparkling and cheap. Give it your own brand name: Juicy Bubbly™, and when you mix one for yourself, ask everyone else in the household if they want one too.

Happy Holidays!

More reading about weight loss and battling the bulge:

• Food Blog: What makes America fat

• Health Blog: Omega 6 causes obesity

• Food Blog: Making healthy restaurant food choices

• Health Blog: Obese people have problem tasting fat

• Food Blog: Why do we have unhealthy diets?