Stay on track this holiday season

Christmas holidays are around the corner, and you well know what awaits you: family dinners and office parties surrounded with holiday drinks. Maintaining your weight may sometimes be a challenge, but is still possible. Here are a few pointers:

Alcohol in moderation!

Give yourself a goal of a maximum of one consumption per hour or less, which is 1 bottle of light beer (341 ml) or a glass of wine (125 ml). Try to avoid any hard liquor as a portion is only 1 ½ ounces (43 ml). This can allow the liver to eliminate the alcohol more efficiently.

Alternate alcohol with non-alcoholic drinks . Ideally, drink a glass of water for every drink. This way, not only are you keeping hydrated, but drinking less calories and also preventing the day-after headaches! Adding fruit to some sparkling water is a great idea.

Keep moving!

Enjoy winter. There are so many outdoor activities during this cold season. Try tubing, skiing, outdoor skating, snowshoeing, or why not a healthy hike up North or even making a snowman with your kids. Chances are, during this festive time of the year, you will be eating more so make sure you move even more!

Eat well!

Do not skip meals. Instead of skipping lunch to allow more for supper, have a lighter meal including a protein (tuna or chicken sandwich, for example) and lots of veggies. Don’t forget to have a mid-afternoon snack like a yoghurt and fruit. Skipping meals will only make you hungrier later on, and chances are you will not make the best choices.

Balance your plate. This is an important rule to keep in mind when you are invited over during the holidays. Prepare your own plate when possible and always start by choosing vegetables (half your plate). Then add your protein (the size of your palm or a quarter of your plate). Finally, you may add your starch like mashed potatoes, rice or pasta to the other quarter of your plate (the size of your fist). Leave room for dessert, of course! In this case you can have a little less starch on your plate…

Keep busy. Keeping busy will keep you away from the table. So why not offer to help the host or hostess? If possible, leave the kitchen as soon as your meal is done and keep your glass of water handy.

This holiday season enjoy time with your loved ones, stay active and have fun!

By Christina Timotheatos dt.p. in collaboration with Tania Baratta intern 4, Université de Montreal

Stay on track this holiday season is a post from Nautilus Plus. The Nautilus Plus blog aims to help people in their journey to fitness through articles on training, nutrition, motivation, exercise and healthy recipes.
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