How to control your diet during the holiday season?

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Your weight watch goes just fine until comes the holiday season! That is when everything gets all messed up. There are parties, family get-togethers, scrumptious meals, delicious turkeys and so much more. This is the time when simply cannot resist taking that extra slice of the pie or that extra turkey sandwich. Holidays are the times when you accumulated those extra and extremely unwanted pounds that become impossible to shed later. So the question is how do you save yourself from putting on some extra holiday weight?

Here is how!

  1. Don’t think about what you ate last night too much

If you did eat some extra at the last night’s party then do not wake up feeling too guilty because if you do the chances are you will mess up your diet. Just eat normally the next day and do not try to cut down on your regular diet. You can however take an extra walk to burn the calories. If you will not eat what you eat regularly then chances are you will upset your diet for the rest of the season. Eat too less during the day and you will be over eating at the next dinner party.

  1. Keep your fridge filled with healthy food

If you do eat a little more at the parties then make sure you do not have the same luxury at home. It is best that you do not take any party leftovers back to your place. If you were the host and have leftovers then make sure you have other healthy food in your fridge too. The temptation to dig into your leftovers is too strong to resist, but you have to force yourself. And if you think you cannot live without your pie slice then let that slice be the only thing you eat; rest of your meal should be healthy.

Do not give yourself easy access to your holiday treats

We like to put our home baked holiday cookies in a jar on the kitchen counter, but this means we can pick up a cookie whenever we want. They will always be in your sight and reach; therefore put them away in some cabinet you hardly open because as the famous saying goes “out of sight, out of mind”. Moreover if you cannot access your food easily then the chances are you won’t eat it too much. According to Villanova University’s marketing professor Beth Vallen, it becomes difficult to resist food if it is easily accessible.

  1. Make sections in your fridge

If you must keep your leftovers in the fridge then make sure you keep them in the back. Your healthy food should be kept in the front so when you open your fridge you can easily reach out and take your healthy food. This way when you are hungry and want a bite to eat immediately you will not be reaching out for a calorie filled pumpkin pie, you may just end up with an apple.

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  1. Cover them up using lids that do not let you see the food

Again the out of sight and out of mind principle will help you save yourself from those extra pounds. If you cover your holiday food with foil paper or lids that do not let you see what is inside your dish then the chances are you will not eat it that often.

  1. If you must eat leftovers then eat them properly like a meal

The worst thing you can do is keep grabbing bites as you pass the fridge or your kitchen counter. So if you cannot resist the leftovers then eat them as you will eat a proper meal. Do not treat it as your snack; fill up a plate and sit down at the table to eat properly and then let that be your only meal for that time. 

  1. Keep your portions small – do not use big plates

It is hard to resist holiday food period! So what you can do is not only eating your leftovers properly as a meal, but also eat those using small plates so that you do not have enough space for more food. This may sound like a very silly thing to do, but it actually works. If you use smaller plates you automatically put smaller portions of food on it, which means you will eat less.

  1. Stop telling yourself “just this once”

This is the biggest mistake most of us make; we tell ourselves that just this once won’t hurt to lets gorge on the leftovers. The truth is it does hurt because when you say that holiday season comes only once a year so let’s just forget out diet, you are just setting yourself up for more than a few extra pounds. Just this once can work for just one meal, but don’t let it become your motto for the entire season. When you convince yourself that a second pie won’t hurt because you already had one extra before then you are in denial. The second pie does hurt so do not eat it.

  1. Don’t plan to lose weight later

Many of us allow ourselves to eat more by planning to lose weight later. This rarely works; remember you will go back to your daily busy routines after the holiday season where it was already tough to take 30 minutes out for your workout routine, so what makes you think you can set aside more time to lose those extra pounds.

Read More: Top 10 Holidays Foods You Should Avoid

Claire John
Claire John is a beauty and fitness blogger and having 6 years of experience in beauty industry. She is a graduate from Texas Southern University. She likes to read and write about latest beauty trend and has been actively involved in Fitness and dieting programs. She is reliable source for expert advice and feedback on the latest in beauty and fitness product and tips Such as wrinkles creams, skin creams, home remedies, diet supplements, diet plan and exercise. She is contributing to the top resources in the area of Skincare, Beauty, Weight loss and fitness related websites.