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Healthy Eating Tips for Holidays

Christmas and holiday seasons are a time of fun, entertainment and celebration with family, friends and relatives. These fun holidays often involve intake of high calorie foods like alcohol, sweets, cakes and ice creams. Now the question arises, how to cut down the extra calories when on rocking holidays. But, with some planning and minor changes in your diet, you can fit holiday treats into a healthy eating plan.

Here are some healthy eating holiday tips

  • Before you go for a holiday or a Christmas party, ensure that you fill your stomach with something nutritious like fruits, vegetables, small carton of yogurt, whole grain bread. If you go for a holiday famished, you are more likely to overeat and less likely to resist the temptation of yummy high calorie foods.
  • Don’t completely ignore drinks, cakes and sweets. Have some portion of your favorite drink, dessert or sweet but do so in moderation.
  • Spend more time at the salad table and enjoy the greens of nature.
  • Before having anything that looks tasty, drink plenty of water. Water intake will keep you filled and will stop you from taking excess of high calorie foods like cakes, pastries, and cookies.
  • Don’t make a resolution of going on dieting after the holiday season. Anticipation of food restriction often leads to overeating, food preoccupation, and anxiety.
  • Prefer low calorie or calorie free beverages like water, fruit punch and diet sodas over liquors, sweet wines and sweet mixed drinks. If you choose to drink, select light wines and beers, and limit your intake to 1 or 2 alcoholic drinks/ day. Alcohols can dehydrate your body and calories from alcohol are empty calories, resulting in weight gain.
  • Keep yourself away from the buffet table to avoid recreational eating as this may result in overeating. Fill your plate with limited quantity of foods that you love and savor every tasty bite. Then, when you are done, sip a glass filled with water.
  • Keep yourself focused on holiday pleasures like holiday games, holiday activities and communicating with friends and relatives rather than focusing on holiday tasty treats.
  • You can reduce the fat in holiday recipes by replacing high fat and high calorie foods with low calorie foods. Browse the table below for healthy substitution of high fat foods that can help turn your holiday into a healthy treat.
 

Healthy Low Calorie Substitution for High Calorie Foods

 
High Calorie FoodsHealthy Low Calorie Substitutions
1 whole egg 2 egg whites
¼ cup cholesterol free liquid egg product
1 egg white with 2 tsp oil
Sour cream Plain low fat yogurt
Fat free sour cream
½ cottage cheese with ½ tsp of lemon juice
Whole Milk Skim milk
1% milk
Regular Ice cream Low fat ice cream
Frozen yogurt
Frozen fruit juice
Sorbet and ices
Heavy cream 2 tablespoons flour whisked into 2 cups non fat milk
Whipped cream Chilled evaporated skimmed milk
Cheese Low calorie processed cheese
Cottage cheese
Low moisture mozzarella cheese
Part skim milk ricotta cheese
Soy cheese
Dry cottage cheese
Margarine, Oil or ButterApplesauce
 
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