Hey #HealthyFriends!  I hope your Holiday season is shaping up well. It is week two of the Holiday season and many have claimed that you won’t be able to lose weight but you will be able to maintain it.  Even my friend Dr. Oz and Mo’Nique mentioned it on last week’s episode when Mo’nique was Dr. Oz’s co-host for the day (Great Show).  They expressed that because of Holiday Shopping, office parties, and meals and holiday snacking that you can maintain your weight but won’t lose weight.  While I love my friend’s I have to disagree.  Since November 1st I’ve already lost, drum roll please…9.7lbs!!!!! Yes Indeed I have! Yes I’m eating, I am not starving myself and I am getting my workout in! In the name of getting healthy I declare and I decree that – #HealthyFriends Yes You Can lose weight during the Holidays! Why because you can do what you want to do when you want to do it! It’s called willpower!  It will be hard, you will have to be diligent but it is doable. 

During this episode Mo’nique and Dr. Oz gave some great tips on maintaining.  I’m going to give you some tips on how you can actually lose weight:

Swap High Calorie Foods with Low Calorie Foods – So we get it, Holiday foods are delicious and tasty and scrumptious but yet they are fattening as well. But alas you don’t have to have all the fatty for it to be delicious. Let’s take apple pie for example, Apple pie is loaded with sugar and butter and, ok I’m gonna stop there.  However you can have an alternative pie that’s just as scrumptious.  Check out the Apple Phyllo Pie.  It’s made with Phyllo dough and the apples aren’t drowned in sugar and butter keeping it’s nutritional value.  This is worth a try and your waistline will thank you for it.  

Increase Your Fiber Content to 30 Grams Per Day – Ok so you know what this means.  Fiber makes you go, and by go I mean poop! We rarely make sure we get enough fiber in our diets on a daily basis.  However it’s not that hard to increase your daily intake.  This sample menu gives you 37 grams of fiber from tasty, familiar foods:

• Breakfast: One serving of whole-grain bran flake cereal (5 grams of fiber), topped with half a sliced banana (1.5 grams of fiber) and skim milk
• Morning snack: 24 almonds (3.3 grams of fiber) mixed with a quarter cup of raisins (1.5 grams of fiber)
• Lunch: Turkey sandwich made with 2 slices of whole wheat bread, plus lettuce, and tomato (5 grams of fiber total), and an orange (3.1 grams of fiber)
• Afternoon snack: Yogurt topped with half a cup of blueberries (2 grams of fiber)
• Dinner: Grilled fish served alongside a salad made with romaine lettuce and shredded carrots (2.6 grams of fiber), plus half a cup of cooked spinach (2.1 grams of fiber), and half a cup of lentils (7.5 grams of fiber)
• After-dinner treat: 3 cups popped popcorn (3.5 grams of fiber)

Budget Your Holiday Eating 

• Don’t Eat after 7pm! – Ok now look, I know what you are saying, Here we go with the timeframes again.  Let me tell you, eating at a late night time before you go to sleep causes unwanted weight gain and if you add heavy foods on top of that as well, what do you think that will do?  Try to budget your eating during the day.  Below are some tips to think about throughout the day:
  • Eat every 3 hours
  • Breakfast – Eat within 1 hour of waking up beginning with protein 
  • Snack – Always eat within 45 minutes of finishing your workout
  • Pay Attention when you eat. Focus – Do not eat while you are doing anything else (i.e., watching TV, working, surfing on the computer, etc.). Focus on chewing your food and relaxing while you eat.
  • Dinner – Eat 3 hours before you go to bed

Budget your Splurge – You’re going to do it anyway, Let’s just be honest, Ok!  I’m not talking about you having a piece of cake because you did more than usual in the gym that day.  I’m talking about planning out your splurge for an appointed day.  If you have to get your calendar out then get your calendar out, but your splurge shouldn’t be often.  I recommend twice per month.  Once per week is too frequent, remember it is our goal to live a healthy lifestyle not just to diet.  Prepare for your splurge, what I mean by that is, make sure you earn your splurge…Have you been eating healthy, have you been working out hard, did the scale move? So make sure you earn it.

Alright hope this helps, Remember, Yes We can lose weight during the holidays! All is not lost! 

LOVE YOU WITH THE LOVE OF THE LORD JESUS AND THERE AIN’T NOTHING YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT! TTYL and DON’T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE, REPOST, COMMENT AND SHARE!