Finding Balance with Holiday Eating

We all tend to eat too much for the holidays. One way to counteract our increased calorie consumption is to exercise more (burn more calories).

This can be beneficial, yet if you’ve seen the latest research you will know that calories are not the issue. Macronutrient composition is the issue. To put it plainly, we are getting to many simple carbohydrates and not enough healthy fats.

So finding balance with Holiday eating is essential to minimize weight gain and maintain digestive health throughout the Holidays.

I would never recommend avoiding certain foods because that leads to uncontrollable cravings. Which make weight loss even harder.

Simply try to put fewer simple carbohydrates (pie, bread, pastries, jellies, marshmallows) on your plate and more complex carbohydrates (rice, potatoes, sweet potatoes, quinoa) and more healthy fats (avocado, walnuts & pecans, sunflower & pumpkin seeds, turkey & ham, olive oil).

Following the One-Hand Rule can be very helpful as well. This is filling your plate while considering the size of your stomach. Basically, your stomach is the size of both of your fists together.

So when you fill your plate consider a serving to be 1/4 to 1/2 the size of your fist. If you have 8 different foods to try then place 1/4 fist size of each so you can try them all. Or if you have 4 foods to try then they would each be 1/2 fist size servings.

This is a very simple method to control your eating without weighing, calculating or measuring.