Portion Control this Holiday Season (and all year round!)

You can feel justified in overeating at holiday meals to the point of feeling sick and going into a “food coma”. I probably don’t need to tell you it’s not healthy, but what can you do to still have fun but not set your progress back?

As Americans, we sadly “specialize” in gorging ourselves around the holidays. Thanksgiving as an example just doesn’t seem complete if everyone isn’t passed out on the couch after dinner watching football.

I’m not sure how that came to be the “norm” but like so many of our dietary habits, it’s not a good one.

Here are some tips to use to enjoy your meals with family and friends without feeling ill or sabotaging your health.

Eat slowly

This can be tough because there’s such an abundance of food and you don’t want to miss out on anything. If you’re at a buffet, be mindful of what you’re putting on your plate, both quality and quantity, and disregard what others are doing.

Just because your brother or aunt have their plates piled high, doesn’t mean you have to also.

Choose what’s healthy, indulge in a little that’s not perfectly healthy, if you must, and then sit down to eat.

Holidays and special occasions are about enjoying the company of others.

Use this social time to take a bit, chew well, and then put your fork down as you engage in some conversation. If you’ve ever been to Italy perhaps you observed an Italian family eating over the course of several hours. They eat and talk and talk some more and then eat some more. What they’re doing right is not eating quickly.

Allow your brain to tell you that you’ve eaten enough

The brilliance about eating slowly is that you give your brain time to register that your stomach is full. This signal from your gut to your brain takes 20-30 minutes typically to occur.

If you’re eating slowly, you’ll notice when you’re full.

If you’re eating quickly, you can chow down twice what you normally eat in less than half an hour. By the time that message gets through to your brain you realize that you are truly overstuffed and you likely won’t feel good about it.

Eat the “good” stuff first

If you’ve decided that Mom’s apple pie or pecan pie (or…insert your favorite dessert here) is just something you cannot live without, try this. Eat a good healthy meal, using the eating slowly tip above. This trick works because you’re full after the meal and even if you choose to cheat, you won’t have much room left to overindulge.

As someone who truly has had a sugar addiction, I fully understand the concept of the “dessert stomach”. Meaning, you can be full, but when sugar comes knocking at the door, you can still find room for it, almost as if you had a separate stomach for dessert.

If you are that person you will need to exert some willpower. But for everyone else, filling up on good, healthy food can really help restrict excess sugar consumption.

It’s truly a decision

Food is pleasurable and is a social part of life. Pair it with holidays or other special occasions and you can choose how you’re going to handle it.

You can decide to throw caution to the wind, overeat, eat poorly, and then deal with the consequences. By the way, I’ve seen patients set back months after such indulgences.

Or you can choose to enjoy yourself with friends and family, eat mostly good, with a measurable amount of “cheating” and be just fine.

Are you ready to improve your health?

I hope this was helpful. If your health is not the way you want it to be or a member of your family’s health is not the way you want it to be, please reach out. That’s why we’re here.

We specialize in identifying the underlying reason why you have the symptoms which are bothering you.

We have great tools to really get the answers of not only “why” but what can be done about it.

You deserve to enjoy great health; please give me a call if you want some help.