Top 10 Christmas Day strategies when you want to Lose Weight

1. Decide to have a lighter Christmas this year

You have a choice between stuffing yourself silly and enjoying
the delights of Christmas more modestly. Eating too much will
leave you feeling uncomfortable and remorseful. Eating just
enough will leave you feeling great. It’s up to you to decide
how you want to feel at the end of the day.

2. Eat what you really want

So much of the food on Christmas Day is eaten “because it’s
there” even though you don’t really want it. Eat when you’re
hungry, choose what you really want and eat just enough to
satisfy.

Don’t feel you have to fill up on nutritious food before you get
to the chocolate gateau you hanker after. Save room for dessert
if that’s what you really want. You’ll not suffer from vitamin
deficiency by not eating properly for a single day! Don’t pile
your plate with anything and especially not with food you do not
care about.

3. Don’t let boredom set in

The other reason we eat food we don’t really need is because it
passes the time. Cooped up in a roomful of relatives, gradually
losing the will to live, can have you nibbling away before you
know it at whatever’s on offer.

Instead of sitting around, get active. Help with the
preparations. Concentrate on trying to make a meaningful
conversation with your old aunt. Suggest a walk after lunch or a
game of charades. Keep busy even if you land with the washing up!

4. If you are the cook

Look for some lighter foods to serve and offer these as an
option, for example strawberry pavlova or fresh fruit salad as
an alternative to Christmas pudding. And choose a light salad
based starter too. Look online for hints and tips about reducing
the fat content in a typical Christmas lunch. You can reduce the
calories by half and still serve up a delicious meal. At the
very least remove the skin from turkey and any visible fat from
meat and make the gravy ahead of time so that you can skim the
fat from the surface when it cools.

5. Go easy on the alcohol

Alcohol is not only full of calories but it also lowers your
inhibitions about eating everything in sight, and, lets face it,
there will be a lot of temptation around. Sip your drink slowly
and drink plenty of water so you don’t end up drinking a lot
just because you’re thirsty.

6. Shrug off hurtful comments

Families are not always the most tactful bunch and whether
you’re overweight or not and whether or not they mean any harm,
their comments and probing questions can sometimes hurt. They
won’t change just because it’s Christmas, no matter how many
messages of “Peace and Goodwill” they send out on cards.

When the barbed comments hit their mark, avoid drowning your
sorrows in drink or a faceful of cake. You are only hurting
yourself more. Remind yourself before the event of the likely
comments you’ll get – they may be the same from year to year -
and think about how you’ll deal with them. At least have some
positive things you can say to yourself when someone gets you
down. And smile to yourself whenever someone comes up with one
of the things you thought they might say. So predictable!

7. Forget Perfection

Your Christmas like my Christmas and everyone else’s Christmas
will not be perfect. We have real families who, apart from
making comments, will have their own idiosyncrasies. They might
very well annoy you, fall asleep after lunch, argue and make
boring conversation. That’s families for you! Decide how you
want Christmas to be and do all you can to make it as you want,
but just enjoy it for what it is, in the end, for it will never
be perfect.

8. Looking good

Wear your best clothes and do your make-up and hair so that you
feel at your very best. A beautiful fragrance and good grooming
will make you feel special, help lift the day out of the
ordinary and make you feel that it really is worth watching what
you eat, even just a little.

9. Wrap it Up

Sometimes we spend ages choosing and wrapping special gifts for
others only to be disappointed when we open our own parcels.
Make sure there’s something you really want under the Christmas
tree this year by buying yourself a gift and wrapping it
beautifully. Show yourself you deserve the very best – because
you do!

10. And the Day After?

Whatever you ate or didn’t eat on Christmas Day is immaterial.
What’s done is done. Get rid of the leftovers (throw them out or
give them away) and get right back on track by eating normally
again. Don’t starve yourself to make up for eating too much,
you’ll only set yourself up for a binge. But it won’t help you
either if you decide that you might as well wait until January
to work off the excess pounds you’ve gained over Christmas.
Another week of overeating will simply add to the pounds you
have to lose. Unless you still have wall-to-wall parties to cope
with, the day after Christmas is a great time to start planning
your new trim figure for next year and making an early start on
your weight loss goals.

Copyright 2005, Janice Elizabeth Small

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