12 Best Tips for Making Healthy Food Choices During the Holidays for Those Over 50
Simple Tips for Healthy Holiday Eating
As we get older, it seems that maintaining or losing weight takes astronomical effort. That 5 to 10 pounds that you worked so hard to lose can jump right back on your body if you don't make wise choices during the holidays.
The holiday season is full of fun, family, and joy, but for those trying to make healthy food choices, this time of year can be difficult. Candy, cookies, cinnamon rolls, and other delicious things treats filled with sugar and high carbohydrates are everywhere. Here are a dozen tips for healthy holiday eating to help you reach your health goals.
1. Rate Your Food Choices at Holiday Meals
Before you get in line to fill your plate, survey the buffet. Then, mentally "rate" the food items, choosing which ones are your favorites and the most healthy. Fill your plate with a reasonable serving of your favorite foods and the most healthy options. Just because the food is there, it doesn't mean that you have to eat it.
2. Don't Eat Just to Make Other People Happy
Some people cook to make other people happy, and they genuinely take offense if everyone isn't eating it all. If you have loved ones like this, be sure that you affirm them in other ways. You may simply want to take a small bite of their cooking so that you can brag on them. Remember that as long as you are kind and loving, you are not responsible for other people's feelings about what you've eaten!
3. Choose Filling, Protein-Rich Options and Indulge Just a Bit
The homemade rolls, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and desserts are what make Thanksgiving Dinner so dangerous! Fill your plate with wiser choices and indulge in a tiny amount of those carb-heavy choices. Cut fresh veggies with hummus, fresh salads, green vegetables, and turkey are healthier options to start out your meal. When you fill up on healthy things, it's easier to say no to the less healthy choices. Then, you can have just a tiny bit of the desserts. If there is a special part of the meal that you might only get once a year, don't skip it! Just enjoy a small piece of Grandma's special cake or Aunt Judy's pie.
4. Do Some Research Before the Meal
Most of us have never given thought to the calories or carb counts of our holiday favorites. While a holiday meal is not the time to calculate the nutritional value of every bite that goes into your mouth, you may want to research some of your favorite foods before the big day. This will give you an idea of just how healthy and unhealthy various recipes actually are. You may be shocked to find that the huge puffy dinner rolls that you love have the equivalent of a whole day's carbs or that your granny's green bean casserole is loaded with fat and sodium.
5. Check in with Your Body
Our bodies are designed to send us signals about eating, but the unfortunate thing is that we often ignore these signals. Take a pause, setting down your fork for a few minutes, multiple times during holiday meals to consider what your body is saying to you. Are you still hungry or are you comfortably satiated? Stop eating before you get to the stuffed feeling because you will only feel sluggish and overly full later.
6. Only Eat Sitting Down at a Table with Proper Utensils
It can feel that food is everywhere during the holidays. A bowl of candies on a co-worker's desk at work, cupcakes on the counter at home, cookies at the holiday parade---you can probably nibble on unhealthy things all day if you want to. Make a commitment with yourself that you'll only eat sitting down at a table with a plate and a fork. This will keep you from snacking all day on random sweets and wrecking your health goals.
7. Celebrate with Other Things besides Food
Although the holidays are a time for indulging in tasty treats that come once a year, there are so many other ways to celebrate. Holiday concerts, movies, parades, decorations, snowball fights, chatting with family members, religious services, crafting, checking out holiday light displays---all of these are fantastic ways of celebrating that have nothing at all to do with food!
Fill your holiday season with so many beautiful things that you won't miss the indulgence of less healthy foods. Make a list of all the celebrations that your community offers and plan to enjoy every one that you can fit into the schedule.
8. Don't Skip Meals! Instead, Fill up with Healthy Options Before the Big Meal
While some people skip meals so that they can enjoy the indulgence of an enormous unhealthy meal without guilt, this plan can actually backfire. Not only will you be hungry and irritable leading up to the big meal, if you skip meals, it's likely that you will eat the equivalent of several meals because you're so starved!
Rather than skipping meals, fill up on nutritious, fiber rich options in the days before the big meal. Pack your menu with giant salads, raw vegetables, fresh fruits, and things like hummus, beans, and veggie heavy soups. If you only have had healthy options for a week to ten days before Thanksgiving, the indulgence of a single meal won't make as big of a difference. The day of the celebration, eat salads and raw veggies before you leave for the dinner, so you won't be ravenous and you'll make wiser choices.
9. Check Your Stress Level
While the holidays can be wonderful, for some families, relational dynamics can stress you out, leading to stress eating! If you struggle because Uncle Fred is spouting about politics or your nephew is ranting about religious issues, you are not alone. The temptation, however, to deal with your stress by stuffing food in your mouth or sipping on alcohol will not make you feel better. In fact, it will make you feel worse!
Before the next holiday meal, consider how you're going to handle these kinds of stressors. If the gathering is at your house, perhaps you can announce which topics are not up for discussion at the beginning of the meal. If people bring up the forbidden topic, just say with a smile, "Not today! Let's discuss something else."
If the gathering is at someone else's home, think of other ways to handle the stress. Maybe you can take a walk through the neighborhood or volunteer to do the dishes. Perhaps you can engage with a favorite relative and see what's going on with them. Or, if you consider the whole dinner to be problematic, maybe you should skip this year or just pop in for a few minutes to make an appearance.
10. Go through the Buffet Line Twice
Go back for seconds strategically at holiday meals. The first time through the line, avoid anything that is carbohydrate heavy and unhealthy. Fill your plate with meats, garden salads, and veggies. When you have filled up on healthy options, you may not even want seconds of the less healthy things. At the very least, it will be easier to have reasonable portions of the rolls, potatoes, and other things once your initial hunger and cravings are satisfied.
11. Watch the Beverages
Wine, egg nog, and hot cocoa are tasty ways of celebrating the holidays. The unfortunate part of this is that they are calorie heavy. When you consider your holiday eating plan, don't forget to account for the beverages that you may be tempted to consume.
12. Gauge how You're Doing Emotionally
Our emotions are a huge part of why we eat, what we eat, and how much we eat. If you're coming out of a stressful time or the holiday seasons bring tough memories, you'll want to be conscious of your emotional state. You may not be able to avoid all stress this holiday season, but just being aware that you're in a difficult space can make it easier to pay attention to your health goals. You may want to schedule some time to nuture yourself emotionally with a few visits to your therapist, a chat with a trusted friend, or some downtime if things are hard.
More with Mighty
Don't forget that physical activity can help moderate stress and difficult emotions, so prioritize your workout routine. Even if you have to split your half hour workout into 3 ten-minute sessions, make sure that it happens at some point during the day. Mighty Health has tons of at home, quick workouts you can watch from your phone or computer to help you stay active this holiday season!
