How to Avoid Holiday Weight Gain

If you've got a social calendar from October to January 1st, we've got a few tips to help you avoid gaining weight during the holidays. Eating healthily during this season will make getting back to bikini season shape that much easier!

10-Pick a Protein

When looking at the buffet table, or a beautiful Thanksgiving spread, first pick a protein to put on your plate. Turkey, ham, quinoa, lentils...all of these can help you feel full and satisfied. If you know there won't be any "healthy" eats, offer to bring a quinoa salad, or baked beans.

9-Sneak in Extra Vegetables

When doing your holiday baking, add in pureed vegetables, (like pumpkin) to keep it moist and fresh. This also ups the fiber content of your food, helping you feel satisfied and full.

8-Make a Dessert Sampler

Rather than having 3 entire slices of pie for dessert, make a sampler plate of smaller slices so that you can try a few bites of everything. Having the variety will help you to feel like you get to taste everything, but scaling down on the portions will help you from overdoing it...leading to that sugar coma.

7-Drink Water

If there is a more important day to consume water, I don't know it! Increasing your water intake will help you to feel full, and rather than indulging on juice and soda all day, drink water so that you can treat yourself to one glass of eggnog, wine, or whatever you fancy.

6-Destress

The holidays can be stressful. Perhaps you've spent too much on gifts, and your finances are out of whack, or maybe your crazy relatives are coming to spend the holidays at your house. Taking a few minutes each day to relax and destress will help to decrease the levels of cortisol (the stress hormone) in your body, which in turn will curb some of your sugar cravings.

5-Dance Party or Buffet?

Divert your attention from the buffet table to socializing. Many people play games with their loved ones, catch up on current events, and even dance. Shift your focus from the food to investing time in relationships with the people who are important to you.

4-Start a New Tradition

Before gorging on turkey, look at your local area events to see if there is a 5k Turkey trot, bicycle races, or skiing events that you can participate in with your entire family.

3-Weigh Yourself

Weigh yourself during the holidays once a week, and if the scale keeps rising, you know you need to scale back on your indulgences.

2-An Extra Ten Minutes

Start your day with ten minutes of exercise: brisk walking, jumproping, or even a dance video to get your body moving first thing in the AM. By doing this, you are more likely to be aware of healthy decisions throughout your day.

1-Share Your Leftovers

Send home some of your leftovers with your family and friends. Indulging one day will not lead to weight gain, but repeatedly eating the leftover pie for breakfast, and flaky rolls for snacks will lead to bad habits, and increased weight.