Here’s 5 more tips to help you be balanced, harmonious, and mindful this season:

• Be physically active every day. Our often busy holiday schedules take precedence over our regimented exercise routines – especially for students home for the holidays without structured schedules. Physical activity, especially aerobic/cadiovascular activities (like brisk walking, jogging, bicycling, roller blading, and swimming) can help relieve stress, regulate appetite, and burn up extra calories from holiday eating – keeping you balanced in mind, body, and appetite throughout your holiday and beyond. Invite your loved ones and friends to take a nice walk outdoors, and enjoy the holiday together!
• Enjoy good friends and family. Although food can be a big part of the season, it doesn’t have to be the focus. Holidays are a time to reunite with good friends and family, to share laughter and cheer, to celebrate and to give thanks. Focus more on these other holiday pleasures, in addition to the tastes of holiday foods. The important thing to remember is balance and moderation. It’s alright to eat too much once in a while – just relax, don’t feel bad about doing so, enjoy the holidays, and remember what the season is all about.
• Reduce the fat in some holiday recipes. There are plenty of ways to cut down on fat without sacrificing taste or flavour. Try using unsweetened applesauce in place of sugar, and coconut or olive oil instead of canola oil, butter, or lard in your favorite holiday breads, cookies, or cakes; use egg substitutes (xanthan gum, etc.) in place of whole eggs; try plain lowfat yogurt in place of full fat sour cream. Share your cooking creations with friends and family! (…I also believe that you do not deny yourself the real thing as this will only cause more binging – so be conscious of what you’re putting into your mouth. Fat IS our friend – just in moderation, like everything else!)
• I know it might sound odd, but plan on not dieting after the New Year. Anticipation of food restriction sets you up for binge-type eating over the holidays (“…after all, if I’m never going let myself eat this again after January 1st, I might as well eat as much as possible now!”) Besides, as you’ve heard or known from friends and relatives (or perhaps first hand) – restrictive diets don’t work in the long run; they increase your loss of lean body mass versus fat, slow down your metabolism, increase anxiety, depression, food preoccupation, and binge eating, and make weight re-gain more likely. …stop this vicious cycle now!
• Maintain perspective: Overeating one day won’t make or break your eating plan, and it certainly won’t make you gain weight! It takes days and days of overeating to gain weight. If you over-indulge at a holiday meal, put it behind you. Return to your usual eating plan the next day without guilt or despair, and remain mindful of the greater perspective of what you want for yourself – now, this holiday, and beyond!

Stephanie

xoxo