Christmas food temptation
Dear Donovan,
It’s the Christmas season and I really enjoy all the festivities that accompany it — sorrel, puddings, fruit cake, ham and turkey. However, each year after the season ends I usually gain between 15 to 20 pounds and have difficulty shedding the extra weight. Are there any creative things I could do to control myself this year? I exercise for an hour each day and I have seen results and managed to maintain a steady weight for six months now. Would exercising throughout this season help to keep the pounds off, or should I simply resist the temptation to go all out?
The Christmas season is traditionally the time of giving and socialising with family members and friends. Unfortunately, for people who want to maintain their waistline, it is usually the time when we feed our faces with insanely delicious high-calorie foods and drinks. It is no wonder that sometimes our bellies become a bit more rounded and our clothes fit tighter in January. This is a real situation many people face over the Christmas season. And the weight is sometimes very hard to lose in January.
The best situation is to try not to gain weight over the Christmas period. It might seem hard, but by planning ahead and keeping focused during the season, it is quite possible. For people who know that they are going to find it hard not to indulge in plenty of food, I would suggest that they lose a few pounds before the Christmas season. Let us say that you lose four pounds before the season and you gain three pounds during the season. You would be good with your weight in January. This method of losing weight can also be applied before going on vacation.
That aside, in your particular situation I would suggest that you get a three to four pound weight loss over this week. This would allow you to be able to eat over the Christmas period without having the extra weight in January. To get this weight loss, I would suggest that you do five days in which you control your food portions. This means you could cut the portion of all your meals from breakfast to dinner by half of your regular amount. Hence a regular lunch could be cut into two portions — part eaten for lunch and the other for dinner. This will help to reduce calories and promote weight loss.
In addition, if you are in good health you could also try to do a juice fast two days this week. This is a good way to get some therapeutic green juice, coloured vegetable juice and coconut water in your diet. However, if you are feeling extremely uncomfortable on your juice fast you could add some light soup or unsweetened tea to the menu. In addition, try and step up your exercise by at least 15 to 20 minutes compared to last week.
If you do not see the weight loss before Christmas you will just have to be very careful with your eating and drinking. Simple modifications in your eating habits will help. For example, if you are going out for Christmas dinner, then you should try to eat very light before dinner. Also, try not to go overboard with eating dinner. This plan will allow most of your calories to come from dinner and at the same time won’t provide high calories for the day.
Exercising throughout the season could also help to keep your weight stable. However, the idea is that the amount of calories that you burn through exercise must be more than the extra food consumed over the Christmas period. Good luck.
