5 Healthy Ways to Make Room for Holiday Treats

Hello and thanks for joining me! I was having lunch with friends yesterday and we started talking about the upcoming holidays and how much more challenging it was going to be to maintain our relatively healthy lifestyles. With pumpkin pies and mashed potatoes looming on the horizon, it’s a tough time of year for those of us who tend to gain weight easily.

With that in mind, I’d like to talk about some easy ways to cut calories from your regular diet so that you can make room for the occasional pie splurge without completely ruining your figure. You’re going to be surprised at some of the things that you can do to trim the fat (so to speak) without sacrificing flavor or completely skipping the goodies.

1. Use fat-free cream cheese instead of regular. Yes, it’s easy to grab a bagel on your way to work but that cream cheese is killer, especially considering how much the shop will add. Four ounces, which is about what a typical chain slathers on a bagel, has a whopping 160 calories, 14 grams of fat and only 1.6g of protein.

Opt for fat-free cream cheese and you’re only looking at 60 calories, plus you’re getting 4g of protein. Even better, trade that bagel with cream cheese for 1 slice of whole grain toast with 1 tablespoon of peanut butter. You’ll save another 200 calories or so and stay full longer. In terms of holiday eating, you just made room for a serving of mashed potatoes and gravy.

2. Cook with spray instead of butter. Each tablespoon of butter has about 100 calories, but the spray only has about 7, and you can get flavored spray to boost the appeal. That’s more than enough calorie banking to have a sugar cookie!

3. Skip the croutons. There are about 100 calories in 1/2 cup of croutons, and chances are good that you won’t even notice that they’re missing from your salad. Plus, you just shaved more than enough calories to have a hot roll with Thanksgiving dinner.

To trim even more calories, use the fork-dip method of adding dressing instead of
dumping in over your salad. Dip your fork in the dressing before picking up a bite of
salad. You’ll save another 100 calories or so without losing flavor. That gives you room for 2 guilt-free chocolate covered cherries.

4. Replace at least 1 soda, sports drink, or fruit juice per day with a bottle of water.

A regular soda, sports drink or juice has about 120 calories per 8-ounce serving, and
there are at least 2 servings in a bottle. Opt for plain water or a zero-calorie flavored water and you’re saving around 240 calories. Just FYI, that’s about the same amount of calories as a half-slice of pumpkin pie with fat-free whipped cream.

5. Use salsa or bean dip instead of ranch dressing for your veggies. 40 148 15 Bean dip has about 40 calories in 2 tablespoons and the same amount of salsa weighs in at about 15 calories. Their chunky-dunking cousin, ranch dressing, weighs in at about 150 calories for the portion. Since veggie trays are common around the holidays, this tip just saves you calories for the skinny of it!

According to some studies, the average person gains about 5 pounds between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and if you are 40 and over the harder those 5 pounds are to lose! If you’re careful and make some minor health-conscious decisions, you can still have most of the goodies without picking up the extra baggage. Until next time, live well and be happy!


Did you like this? Share it: