Tips for Staying on “Track” this Holiday Season!

The holidays are a time for cheer, indulging and celebration with family and friends at parties. So, how do you enjoy the delicious treats but still stay on track with your goals? As a registered dietitian and sports nutritionist, I have some strategies that will help you stay lean and healthy to keep you on track with your health and performance goals during the holiday season!

Request a sparkling or fruit infused water at the party. Your waistline, scale and next 5k time will thank you for that! In addition to re-thinking your drink, it would be wise to eat mindfully. Mindfulness means expressing gratitude with each bite of food. After all it is a time of cheer, spirit and gratitude during the holiday season! Before the meal, take some deep breaths and as you eat, breathe through your nose, chewing every bite slowly by focusing on the flavors, colors, and smells. Then after, assess your hunger on a scale of 1 to 10 and determine how much more food you need to consume to be satisfied.

Another great way to stay on track and even enhance your relationships with others is to focus on the people, not the food. Focus on the conversation with the people at the table instead of what’s on your plate. You will learn quite quickly how much the person appreciates your attentiveness and eye contact with them, over pushing around the pie on your plate next to the carrot slices. Make a point to plan a fun activity after the meal, a group walk, board games, and offer the host assistance with the cleanup. Again, not only will the host appreciate this, but this decreases the risk of you reaching for another dessert or overeating, plus you’ll burn more calories than sitting in a chair!

Staying on track often means playing some mad defense. Yes, I said defense. Food pushers are at every gathering, function and we all know them, and you may even be one. Keep in mind to be polite when being pushed to indulge. Many of us can identify certain relatives as food pushers, they may ask you to have another slice of pie or try the turkey shaped cookies on the counter next to the mimosas, when really you don’t want to over do it. You kindly and respectfully decline but they again proceed to say, “have one, come on you work so hard and are always so strict, just one won’t hurt you.” Remember to stay your course. It can be challenging to say “no”, but this is oh-so important when the average weight gain during the holidays is around 6-8 pounds!

When trying to resist the urge to overindulge or play defense against the food pushers keep these tips in mind:

-Load up on high quality protein (chicken, beef, eggs, cheese, yogurt)
-Pick your favorite dessert, only eat one serving of it.
-Practice mindful eating and focus on how hungry you are.
-Load up on veggies if you feel the urge to snack and limit dips and dressings that can be high calorie

Maintain consistent workouts. Be sure to participate in a good long run or some aerobic exercise to offset some of the inflammation and higher calorie foods that are not your usual diet. Encourage your friends & family to join you!
Lastly, if you get off track you can always get back on the right one to lead you to your destination. Let me be straight with you, as runners and fitness enthusiasts you can often get off course during a run. If you do, do you just lay there in the forest or the trail to die?