With the holidays upon us, there will be parties, family dinners, and endless temptations. And in the spirit of the season, I encourage you to enjoy your holiday! But perhaps there is a way to make it through the holidays without the sugar cravings, without gaining weight, and maybe we can even avoid a tantrum or two! Check out these tips for healthy and happy holidays.
The best defense is a great offense! When invited to a party or dinner, volunteer to bring a healthy dish. Wellness Mama is one of my favorite go-to websites for clean and delicious recipes. Try her sugarless cranberry sauce. My favorite thanksgiving dish is green bean casserole. I love to make it from scratch like Alton Brown. It certainly doesn’t make every dish at the party healthy, but it’s better than nothing. Missing your favorite dish? Just Google it with the words “healthy” or “clean” and see what you find. Even better, put your favorite recipe in the comments and I’ll clean it up for you! Step number two is to just make good choices. Healthy protein and fat like ham or turkey and gravy are excellent choices! Those are usually in good supply. Instead of a carbohydrate like mashed potatoes, select a couple of different vegetable dishes like green bean casserole and fresh salad. And if you can, skip the bread. Stick with veggies, protein, and good healthy fats. The real hidden challenger at the holidays is sugar. This is where we really get hung up. Sugar is in everything. The average American consumes 150 pounds of sugar per year! Sodas, appetizers, and desserts during the thanksgiving meal can have as many as 1500 calories in them. On average, we will eat 4500 calories during our thanksgiving meal this year! The key to desserts, or your favorite appetizer, is to just choose one. It’s easy to have a little bit of everything, but try to pick your favorite and enjoy! You’ll be surprised how much better you feel when you can be selective about your choices. It’s tough to help the kids make healthy choices, but we don’t want to forget their needs during the holiday. I like to insist upon the veggies and protein first. Then when they finish that they may choose another item. And just like you, only one dessert. It may not be realistic to make this a rule for the first time on Thanksgiving Day. But if you start to make healthy choices, and slowly implement them at home, it will become commonplace. Kids will watch you and if you can be a good role model, it will be much easier for them. Loving them means being the voice of reason, which may not always mean giving them what they desire. And one final little tip when you’re attending an hors d'oeuvre party is to eat before you go. You don’t have to have a whole meal, but the key here is don’t show up hungry! You can have some protein and veggies an hour or so before you go and you won’t feel tempted for that second piece of pie or another bite of something you weren’t really hungry for anyway. So how do you know if you, or your family, have an issue with sugar? Take this quiz and find out!