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5 Strategies to Enjoy Healthy Holidays Without Overeating

Healthy Holidays

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If you’re like me and the rest of the Universe, Christmas is a time excess! Excess money spent, excess time shopping, traveling, and going to get togethers. And of course excess food to eat.   All the sweets, drinks and savory dishes keep calling your name. And while it’s okay to answer, it’s important to set some limits.  So today I will be giving you 5 Strategies to enjoy the healthy holidays without overeating so you can still finish the year strong!

If you would like to listen instead of reading enjoy the 5 Strategies to Enjoy Healthy Holidays Without Overeating Facebook Live I did here:

 

5 Strategies to Enjoy Healthy Holidays Without Overeating

1. Drink water first.

One quick and easy tip for ensuring you avoid overeating on Christmas treats is drinking a glass or two of water before you start munching. Science indicates that your brain doesn’t know the difference between the fullness created by water and that created by food. When you drink water, your brain and body think that you’ve started to
fill up. And while that may be true, the feeling of fullness from water doesn’t last very long. So tackle the food while the feeling is at its peak. This approach allows you to fill up on calorie-free water to cut down the space left in your stomach for actual food.
Plus, your body needs this extra hydration when you’re eating calorie-rich
foods!

 

Healthy Holidays

 

2. Take small portions.

Remember that your body is like a machine that goes through processes on a consistent basis. It needs time to digest what you’ve put into it. When at the Christmas party or your family dinner, take small portions each time so your body gets a chance to break down what you eat. Having smaller portions at each sitting allows you to maintain your energy
level instead of feeling loaded down by the weight of a hefty meal in your stomach.

3. Keep moving.

While you feast on the tasty treats, make it a point to keep moving around so you’re not
constantly sitting in front of a plate and devouring everything that’s on it. Walking around and talking with others serves as a distraction and can eventually lead to you feeling full quicker than you normally do. Moving while eating also helps maintain a healthy metabolism so food consumed can be easily digested. Pay close attention to what parts of your body other than your mouth are doing while you’re eating. That way, you can shift focus to other things and cut down on your interest in food.

 

Healthy Holidays

 

4. Stick to your workout schedule.

If you want to be able to eat like there’s no tomorrow, find time to exercise so what you eat doesn’t get the chance to negatively impact things like cholesterol, heart functioning, blood sugar levels, and body fat.

 

Healthy Holidays

 

5. Understand that this is not the only time you will ever be able to have these foods.

I know that we say to ourselves that it is Christmas and feel that it is ok to just overeat on holidays since they only come but one day a year. The thing is all of these foods and treats can be made anytime of year. You can have turkey and dressing in June if you want. You can have home made sugar cookies or fudge in February. If you tell yourself that you can have that treat anytime of the year you will be closing the door to that deprivation mentality. A lot of times just doing that will cause a shift in your mind towards eating and will allow you to have healthy holidays every year.

By all means, you should enjoy all that Christmas has to offer, including the food! Just try these 5 Strategies to enjoy healthy holidays without overeating so there will be no regrets when you look in the mirror at the start of the New Year!

Which one of these  5 Strategies to enjoy healthy holidays without overeating will you try at your next holiday get together? Share in the comments below.

In case you didn’t see my Facebook post a little earlier this week I am doing 6 days of Freebies for the Christmas holidays. Each day I will be posting a freebie at 6pm CST right here on my page. Go check out my post to get the first one.

Here is Freebie #1
Christmas Song Book

 

Healthy Holiday