WaterFilter.com

Holiday Survival Guide: Eating Healthy Amid The Festivities

As exciting as the holiday season is, there are many factors that can cause stress for those hoping to lose weight or maintain healthy eating habits. As a LAP-BAND patient, you need to practice the same healthy eating during the holiday season that you?ve included in your daily routine. However, you don?t need to deprive yourself during this special time of year. Instead, you should make a focused plan and take steps to avoid dangerous overeating during the festivities. Here is a handy survival guide to help you navigate the holidays in a healthy way and stay on track with your weight loss goals.

Eat healthy before the party begins

As many holiday events include large amounts of food, you should prepare yourself to be amongst a buffet atmosphere before leaving home. If you know the party or gathering you will be attending will feature plenty of unhealthy food, try to eat a healthy meal beforehand to help curb your appetite. Most importantly, don?t starve yourself in anticipation of holiday meals. Filling up on holiday treats can not only distract you from your weight loss goals, but leave behind some serious discomfort.

Control your portions

At parties and family gatherings, food is often present in buffet form. Hence, during such events, you should try to use a smaller plate and allow yourself only a single trip to the food table. Regardless of what is being served, try to eat as you would at home and remain committed to your personal portion sizes.

It?s also good to eat as slowly as possible so that your body registers the food and the subsequent satisfaction that comes with it. Some people ever recall a time they overate and felt poorly afterwards in an attempt to curb the temptation to eat beyond what you need.

Find healthy recipes

If you will be cooking for yourself or others, try to locate some healthy recipes for your favorite holiday dishes. Try to avoid cooking with fatty products such as butter and heavy cream. If you have a favorite recipe that incorporates meat or vegetables fried in oil, consider baking the dish or altering the recipe to incorporate fresh ingredients. If you are still having trouble uncovering alternative recipes, consult the support staff at your outpatient bariatric center for healthy suggestions.

Be careful with alcohol

As many of the holiday season?s favorite alcoholic drinks are loaded with empty calories, try to keep alcohol consumption to a minimum. If you want to enjoy an alcoholic drink, sip on a single glass of red wine. During parties, you should also try to drink plenty of water. If you want to fit in with those around you, drink your water in a cocktail glass, garnish it like your favorite libation and savor your little secret.

Spend your time with family and friends ? not food

One activity to avoid during the holiday season is socializing near a buffet table or any type of communal food. When talking with friends and family in front of such culinary displays, it is often second nature to snack while you socialize. Instead, after you have had your modest fill, spend your time away from the food and focus on having a good time with your loved ones. Above all, try to remember that the holidays are a time to spend with family and while food is often part of the celebration, it shouldn?t be the focal point.

Enjoy your favorite holiday treats ? in moderation

Though the guidelines mentioned here might seem stringent, you should still try to experience your favorite treats during the holiday season. Just because LAP-BAND patients are required to practice moderation everyday, it doesn?t mean that particular foods need to be avoided altogether. It is OK to have a few bites of pumpkin pie or cheesecake, or even enjoy a small serving of eggnog. However, to prevent yourself from overdoing it, you should try to use small cups and plates or simply share your treats with friends. Remember that the first few bites really do taste the best, so let all those extra calories head towards your friend?s thighs not yours.

As you try to balance your healthy lifestyle with the excess of the holidays, try to be assertive and maintain your eating habits as best you can. Remember that you don?t need to accept every treat that is offered to you; if you politely decline large servings of troublesome foods, your family and friends will be understanding and supportive. Consider your healthy lifestyle and the long term opportunities offered by the LAP-BAND to be a gift to yourself and ring in the New Year ? healthy and happy.

Carole S. Guinane, a Chief Clinical Officer writes articles about obesity and weight loss for New Hope Today (http://www.newhopetoday.com).

MORE ARTICLES:

Vacuums Clean Up!!
Vacuums

Exercises the Safe and Healthy Way
Exercises the Safe and Healthy Way

CocoBase® PURE POJO™ V5 SR1 Jumps Ahead Of The Industry
CocoBase® PURE POJO™ V5 SR1 Jumps Ahead Of The Industry By Offering EJB 3 JPA Support With An Advanced GUI, Unmatched Performance And The Security Of Being The Only Commercial ORM Integration Available

Healthy Food On A Tight Budget
One of the easiest traps to fall into when money is tight is to eat unhealthy foods. Healthy foods seem to be so expensive, after all. However, there are ways to save money while eating healthier foods. Yes, you can skip the ramen noodle section of your grocery store and still feed your family well.

Cooking Up An Internship with Chef David Gilbert
World-renowned chef David Gilbert has teamed up with Chef2Chef.net Culinary Portal--a chef's practical guide to practically everything--to offer a prestigious internship opportunity to an aspiring culinary artist. Passionate culinary students or recent culinary graduates are encouraged to submit their applications at www.Chef2Chef.net/Internship.

StormNET by BOSS International Approved by Delaware Division of Soil and Water Conservation
The State of Delaware Division of Soil & Water Conservation has accepted StormNET by BOSS International for use in performing stormwater management calculations in accordance with the State of Delaware's Sediment & Stormwater Regulations. This approval means that a client can use StormNET with the confidence that their designs will be accepted by state agencies. StormNET is a comprehensive stormwater and wastewater modeling software for analyzing and designing urban drainage systems, stormwater sewers and sanitary sewers. For more information visit http://www.bossintl.com.

Filter Forge Reaches 4000 Filters Milestone, Increases Holiday Discount to 30%
Filter Forge, Inc., the developer of Filter Forge, an innovative Photoshop plugin allowing its users to create their own filters, today increased the holiday discount for Filter Forge to 30%, and announced that its online Filter Library had reached the milestone of 4000 user-created filters.

Cooking Tips - Cut Time with Advance Preparation
If you are a working mother you will know that every minute is precious right from the time you wake up in the morning till night. Since you cannot extend the God-given 24 hours in a day, you will need to find ways and means to use them better so you can get more things done - just as you would re-arrange a cabinet to make more space for clutter.

SPAMfighter Receives Highest Rating Amongst Top Spam Filters from a Leading French Magazine
SPAMfighter was chosen as the Editor's Choice in a review done by Windows News in France.

Infinity® from Marvin Chooses nParallel to Design and Build a New Retail Display for Dealers that Sell its Replacement Windows
nParallel Crafts a Compact, Mobile Display to Showcase Different Products in the Complete Line of Infinity® from Marvin Replacement Windows

Laing Introduces Innovative Electrical Hot Water Heaters for One-Room and Emergency Use
Industry pioneer Laing Thermotech has launched a new line of electrical hot water heaters that offer consumers the ultimate in efficiency, convenience and comfort. The unique heating systems--the EHR, EPR and EPM--are perfect for heating a single room and emergency use.

Cooking: The Definitive Art Form
There is an age old saying ? ?The Way To A Man?s Heart Is through His Stomach?. Well, let it be known, that the way to everyone?s heart is through his/her stomach, both figuratively and literally. To achieve this extraordinary feat all you have to be is a good cook. But, herein lays a difficulty. Cooking is not everyone?s cup of tea, and people have to fine tune their culinary skills over the years to have any semblance of mastery over this art form.

Finding Cooking Courses To Suit You
I have a great working relationship with most of my co-workers and good friendships with three of them. It seems that even though we see each other daily it is hard to keep up with what is going on in each others lives. We make it a point to have lunch as often as possible or to go to a happy hour after work, but so often it seems that we end up talking about work. The last time we went out to a happy hour we started talking about doing some type of activity together. One of my friends mentioned that she was going to sign up for some cooking courses offered through community education. She thought it might be fun if we would do this together. The cooking courses were to concentrate on making thirty minute meals that were above average in ta...

Living A Healthy, Long Life!!
Do you want to live a long life? Do you want to feel healthy as you grow older each day? Living healthy means more than keeping away from junk food. It means taking the initiative to say I care enough for my self and my family that I am going to make sure I am there for them.