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How to Avoid Holiday Weight Gain

By Peter Reyes

With the holiday season just around the corner, we often find ourselves surrounded by delicious food that are too good to resist. So it's very easy to overeat and gain unwanted pounds. However, you can still enjoy the holidays using these 5 simple expert-endorsed healthy eating tips which will help you avoid holiday weight gain painlessly.

1. Eat more of the healthy foods. Foods that are high in fiber such as fruits and vegetables will fill you up more quickly and keep you from overindulging on unhealthy food.

Fill two-thirds of your plate with fruits and vegetables, and by the time you finish, you won't even have room for the other foods which are higher in calories and more likely to cause weight gain. Better yet, fill yourself up with low-calorie, broth-based soup.

2. Keep portions small. Sure, everything looks darn good on the table and you'd probably want to eat them all. The trick is to allow yourself one small serving of the food you like. Keep in mind that you may have to compensate for it later in the day by reducing your total caloric intake or by burning a few extra calories through exercise.

3. Sip water throughout the day. Drink a huge glass of zero-calorie plain water or any unsweetened beverage such as ice tea, hot tea or coffee before, during and between each meal. Water helps to trick your mind into not feeling as hungry and hence you don't gorge yourself on fatty foods.

It's also a good idea to go easy on alcoholic beverages as they contain hundreds of empty calories. Moreover, the more alcohol you drink, the more likely you are to make poor food choices.

Choose wine or light beer since these drinks are lower in calories than mixed drinks and those high fat eggnogs.

4. Stay away from the food table. If you sit or stand around the table, you'll have a tough time keeping yourself from grabbing handfuls of party mix or candies, and popping them in your mouth mindlessly.

Focus on making conversation instead. You can't talk with your mouth full. Also, by sitting on the other side of the room, you'll need to stand up and walk to get snacks.

5. Take a break. If the weather permits, go out and take a quick walk around the house, or simply do 10-20 squats or stretches, each time you visit the restroom. No one is watching and you only want to do just enough to elevate your heart rate, but not break out into a sweat.

Keeping these 5 smart eating tips in mind to cope with food temptation, you can stay the same on the bathroom scales, avoid weight gain and yet have fun during the holidays!

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