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Understanding the psychological rewards of bad habits
Creating new habits to replace old ones
Developing self-discipline
2. Have a food gift strategy
You don’t have to immediately eat all the cookies, breads, and chocolates that friends and neighbors deliver during the holiday season.
Many goodies freeze well, so you can enjoy them over the next few months rather than the next few days:
- If possible, divide the treats into individual portions so that you only defrost as many servings as you need.
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5. Be smart about appetizers
At cocktail parties, stick to three or so items (or six if the appetizers are doubling as dinner) to keep calories in check. Skip the fried foods and go for items like shrimp cocktail, vegetable-stuffed mushrooms, or hummus and veggies. Before holiday meals, go easy on the munchies.
Do you ...
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7. Eat your veggies first at your meal
You’ll fill up on foods that are packed with vitamins and minerals and lower in calories, leaving less room for less unhealthy stuff. It doesn’t need to be boring, though.
For instance, if dinner is at your house, try making the first course a festive seasonal salad, with goodies like pome...
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9. Take a walk between dinner and dessert
For some families (mine included), this is a holiday tradition. It’s a nice way to bond with relatives and helps you sneak in some activity. But it also does more.
It takes some time for the brain to recognize how much you’ve eaten. If you go straight from the meal to dess...
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8. Make some simple swaps
There are all sorts of ways to insert healthier ingredients into your meal without sacrificing much by way of flavor.
- For example, use balsamic vinegar and olive oil instead of store-bought dressing, which is often high in sodium.
- Yogurt can replace sour cream in creamy dips ...
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3. Don’t skip breakfast
It’s a common practice to skip early meals on a big day of eating, fasting in advance of the dinner ahead.
But this approach has a high probability of backfiring; people often end up overeating later. Instead, opt for a sensible morning meal—say, oatmeal, yogurt, and a piece of fruit—and i...
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1. Stock the fridge
It’s true that the holiday season and tempting treats go hand in hand, but you probably won’t be faced with them every day.
If you have plenty of healthy ingredients—vegetables, whole grains, beans, and fruit—you’ll have an easier time making your meals extra-healthy. That will help offset...
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These are the 9 Tips on Healthy Eating for the Holidays
- Stock the fridge
- Have a food gift strategy
- Don’t skip breakfast
- Start with a drink ... of water, that is
- Be smart about appetizers
- Survey the buffet
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4. Start with a drink ... of water, that is.
Your brain sometimes has trouble distinguishing thirst from hunger, so at parties and holiday dinners, sip a glass of water before you have a cocktail or eat anything.
And if you do drink alcohol, stick to one or two, sipping a glass of seltzer between each one. That will keep you hydrated...
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6. Survey the buffet
Many holiday meals are served buffet style, with a variety of dishes on offer. The typical advice is to have a little taste of everything, but there’s some research that shows this can leave you feeling less satisfied.
When you’re exposed to too many different flavors in a meal, you don’t ...
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You don’t want to make food the enemy, but it’s good to play a little dietary defense.
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