Wow, Thanksgiving is around the corner, with all the great food and family that comes with it. If you’re trying to watch your weight or even (gasp!) lose weight during the holidays, this one can be a real diet-breaker. Face it, what’s more traditional that eating a huge meal and falling asleep on the couch later?

Here are some tips for you to keep in mind to mitigate the damage!

1. Fill up your plate once, and don’t go back for seconds.
2. If you’re eating at someone else’s house, don’t bring home leftovers. If you’re having people at your house, then plan on sending leftovers home with everyone!
3. Fill up your plate with lower-calorie items like vegetables, fruits, and lean turkey before adding on the more fattening items like stuffing, mashed potatoes, etc.
4. If you have any control over the timing of the meal, try for mid afternoon so you won’t be eating both lunch and dinner.
5. Buy fat-free gravy in a jar rather than making homemade.
6. Make other “smart” substitutions like using lower-fat milk, sour cream, mayonnaise, etc. in your cooking.
7. Whether you’re cooking the entire meal or only a dish or two, try to fix something that you really like AND that’s lower in calories. You’ll have something that feels like a treat and that won’t blow your diet.
8. For dessert, try fruit or cranberry salad instead of heavier desserts.
9. If you must have a “real” dessert, skip the whipped cream. Eat the pie filling and not the crust.
10.  Drink diet soda, water or coffee with the meal.
11.  Take a walk afterwards instead of a nap!

Even if you eat more than you really ought to, relax. Don’t let one day turn into several days of overeating.

The holidays are fast approaching, and these are our first after my husband’s diabetes diagnosis. This year, we’ll be working extra hard to stay on track with diet and exercise through the holiday season, and I’ll be writing about that on the blog over the next couple of months.

To kick things off, let’s start with some useful links.

Phil Morris gives some tips on avoiding holiday weight gain. I like his suggestion to show up late. That’s not a bad idea!

Dr. Val is setting up a group to actually lose weight over the holidays.

Kathryn Lively also gives some tips for taking control through the holiday season.

It’s tough to change habits — you already know that. Here’s a tip that’s working well for me. I’m trying to pack my lunch more often. For one thing, it’s cheaper. More importantly, it’s healthier. Still, I have a tough time giving up eating lunch out. I’m not sure why it is, but I somehow feel deprived if I pack my lunch, so it’s been a really tough thing for me to change.

Here’s what I’ve decided to do, and so far it’s working fine. For each day that I pack lunch, I put what I would have spent eating out into my “mad money” stash. You can use a jar, piggy bank, bank account, envelope, whatever. It’s important that you actually pay yourself the money, first off. If you don’t the reward won’t seem real. Go to the ATM if you have to, but make sure that you give yourself the reward.

Also, don’t put it in your regular checking account; it will just get spent. Put it in a separate account, or put the cash somewhere. This should be special money, or “mad money” as I call it. This is guilt-free spending money! You’ve earned it.

Finally, choose something you want to buy with the money, and focus on that when you’re tempted to cheat. For me, it’s buying new carpet for one of our bedrooms. Maybe you want a new laptop, an outfit, or a mini-vacation.

This really brings home how much I spend eating out. I’m putting away almost $10 a day! Whatever habit you’d like to change, this is a technique you might want to try, especially if you’ve had your eye on something for yourself and just don’t have the cash to get it right now.

Just to repeat…I know you’ll be tempted to dip in to your money for something else. Maybe it’ll be an unexpected bill, a gift for someone else, or something equally practical. Try, try, try not to do this! Remember, this money would have been gone had you not been saving it. If you use it for something that you don’t enjoy, you take away the motivation to keep up the saving and risk stopping the habit entirely. Treat yourself! You deserve it.

You’ve probably read about how getting enough sleep can help you lose weight. Along those lines, I wanted to talk about something I’ve been experiencing lately.

Several things have combined to keep me really tired this week. Stress, loss of sleep, etc. have really taken a toll, and I’ve noticed that I’m eating a lot more as a result. In particular, I tend to crave a snack in the afternoons, simply because I’m so tired by then I feel that I need to do something to make it through the rest of the workday.

I’ve been trying to be more aware of what I’m doing. In particular, I’m trying to focus on the fact that I want to eat because I’m tired, not because I’m hungry. I’m also trying to do other things (besides snack) to keep my energy level up. One thing that works for me is taking a short walk. On bad days, I might walk down the hall and back every 30-45 minutes. I’ll also shut the door and stretch or just stand up for a while. Another thing to try is drinking instead of eating. I’ll have coffee or tea (both decaf). I might drink some water too.

Of course, the real solution is getting enough rest! I’m working on that one too.

Read more…

How Sleep can help Weight Loss

Another Sleep/Weight Loss Article

Sleep and Weight Gain