WEIGHT LOSS - 80.6kg - see diary of a food addict
HAVE YOURSELF A VERY HEALTHY CHRISTMAS AND A GUILT FREE NEW YEAR
Has your brain turned to mush and your digestive system to
slush? Do you feel you have just been
through a tumble drier? Is your greatest
desire to just lie around like a beached whale watching the cricket? Do you
find yourself taking naps in the afternoon?
Have your eyes deteriorated so much that you have trouble
reading the scales – your weight couldn’t have gone up that much? Is your fridge full of left-overs you feel
obliged to eat? Is your laundry full of
empties and your garbage bin overflowing?
Does the thought of eating another piece of chocolate make you want to
throw up?
Then you have chrismasitis
– a common complaint at this time of year.
You have overindulged in sweet, fatty food and alcohol.
You have suffered a health set-back, every part of your body
is suffering. It will take time and a
lot of effort to recover but hopefully you will avoid the onset of diabetes,
heart disease, obesity and depression that can sometimes accompany this
condition.
Tips for avoiding christmasitis
and having a healthy Christmas and guilt free New Year next year are given
below.
SNACKING
Avoid snacking as much as possible because high fat, high
sugar snack foods can do much more damage to your aim for a healthy holiday
period that your actual Christmas dinner itself. Banish chips and sweets and the like from
your house and instead enjoy healthy dips (hummus, beetroot and low fat sour
cream, low-fat yoghurt, cucumber and dill, purred beans and spices) with
vegetable sticks instead of crackers.
Try Japanese crackers and wasabi peas instead of the normal snack
food. Nuts, while fattening in large
quantities, have lots of health benefits, especially if you buy whole nuts
which are not salted and take time to crack open. For a sweet snack try dates, dried fruit,
strawberries dipped in dark chocolate, and fruit of all kinds. Cherries are great at this time of year.
DRINKING
Alcohol packs a punch in more ways than one. Do yourself a favour and only drink
moderately over Christmas. For every
glass of alcohol you drink try drinking a glass of water, soda water, mineral
water or low-joule soft drink in between.
Try out wine and champagne that has had the alcohol removed but still
tastes like a real drink.
TAKE THE LOW-JOULE
OPTION
Often the main components of a Christmas meal are not
particularly fattening if eaten in moderation – turkey and ham are not
particularly high in joules if you avoid eating their fat, roast vegetables are
not that bad for you if not saturated in fat, salads should be good for you if
not wallowing in high fat dressings. So
reduce the fat and sugar load on your body by taking advantage on lower joule
options such as reduced fat mayonnaise, dressing, yoghurts, cream, sour cream,
cream cheese, cheese, custards, ice creams etc.
Instead of a full-blown seafood sauce try a low joule one or skip it
altogether and just have a squeeze of lemon or lime.
SWAP TRADITIONAL FOR
SEAFOOD
Seafood is a wonderful luxury to indulge in at Christmas
time and it comes pre-cooked so that you don’t have to sweat over a hot stove
when it is over 30°C outside. It is good
for you too providing you don’t swamp it with high-joule sauces and
butter. Just serve with a twist of
citrus and a light dressing if needs be.
Try poaching a fish or serving prawns in an ice bowl so they stay fresh
and sweet.
MAKE VEGETABLES THE
HERO OF THE MEAL
At Christmas we tend to buy mountains of protein which is
fine if you are spending summer in Antarctica but we don’t need to eat a whole
turkey or ham to get us through the winter.
Buy a smaller sized ham and turkey than you think you will need – then
you won’t be feeding prime cuts of meat to the dog or feeding king prawns to
the cat. Dried up turkey breast is
pretty unappealing on Boxing Day and after a week of eating ham you never want
to touch it again. Even Bridget Jones
turned her nose up at curried turkey. Try
making vegetables a real feature of your meal.
But don’t load them down with fattening sauces. Try parboiling your roast vegetables then
crisping them up in a hot pan with just a little oil in the bottom. Drain the on paper towel before serving. Use an oil spray to get good coverage
without saturating the food with fat. Try
the following ratio – three vegetables (including salads) to two starchy foods
(potatoes, rice, pasta etc) to one protein (eg. roasts, fish, seafood,
ham). For desserts try three fruit to
two of dessert (eg pudding) to one indulgence (eg. cream, chocolate etc).
SPREAD IT OUT
Instead of eating all your favourite foods on Christmas Day,
and stuffing yourselves silly, indulge in them moderately over three or four
days of celebrating. It will reduce your stress levels for one thing because
your cooking and serving will be simplified and it will also be much easier on
your digestive system. For example,
have a roast turkey by itself for one meal with a few roast vegetables. You will appreciate its flavour a lot
more. Have a baked ham and salad another
day, and seafood on yet another day.
GO EASY ON HIGH-JOULE
INDULGENCES
Desserts, cheeses, chocolates and other treats are usually
high energy foods which can quickly pack on the kilograms. Try to reduce their impact by only eating
small amounts of them. Reduce the impact
of desserts on your waistline and digestive health by substituting lower-joule
options. For example, use a low-joule
sugar substitute when making desserts including cakes and puddings, use lower
fat creams, use low-joule yoghurt and low-joule custards instead of cream, try
low-joule jellies with luscious fruit.
Use lots of natural fruit in your desserts and only a serve a small
portion of the indulgent component of the dessert course. Fill up the cheese platter with lots of nuts,
dried and fresh fruit rather than a pile of cheese. Lower-fat cheeses are now available and try
substituting a hard cheese with a herbed ricotta. For sweet things that go with coffee try
using indulgences that really pack a punch for their size because they are
packed with flavour (for example chocolate coated coffee beans, very dark
chocolate, strawberries dipped in dark chocolate, glacé fruit cut up into
cubes, use diabetic sweets instead of ones loaded with sugar).
GO FOR A WALK
After every meal go for a walk it is pleasantly relaxing and
gets rid of some of the kilojoules gained by over-indulging. Try some more vigorous exercise to burn off
unwanted kilojoules – cricket,
badminton, throwing frizzbies, swimming, volleyball, etc will help a great
deal and are great fun. Build them into
your Christmas entertainment program.
Give your body a present next Christmas – eat well, play
well.
No comments:
Post a Comment