My 7 tips for eating healthy and staying well during the holidays

Do the stress of the holidays and the outlook for months of winter hibernation have you craving un-healthy foods? Are you starting to see the pounds creep up? First get a new scale (yours must be broken!) and then take a deep breath! 2020 is an unusually stressful year, so don’t be too harsh on yourself.

If you’re ready to resume a more healthy approach to eating, here are my seven tips for maintaining a healthy lifestyle during the holidays and into 2021:

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• Practice moderation: There is nothing wrong with indulging in a big, festive dinner with a few glasses of wine or having some Christmas cookies and a cocktail. But make sure you’re surrounding those big meals and occasional unhealthy snacks with healthy and nutritious meals. If you have big dinner plans, don’t skip lunch. Instead, enjoy a light and healthy lunch first and follow up with a healthy breakfast the next morning, like hot oatmeal topped with fruits. And try to moderate your alcohol consumption. That will not only save you lots of calories, but will make it easier to stick to your intentions.

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• Avoid processed foods: Canned, processed, and pre-made foods are convenient, but they are usually loaded with salt and sugar. So make friends with your kitchen and make your food from scratch. To make meal planning more convenient, I subscribe to a weekly meal kit service, which sends me all the ingredients for 4 main dishes on a weekly basis. This service removes the stress of figuring out what to cook and having to shop for the ingredients, leaving me to do just the cooking. Take whatever shortcuts work for you to make home cooked meals.

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• Find healthy alternatives for your creative dishes. Healthy eating doesn’t mean you have to give up your holiday favorites — all they need are a few modifications. You can use less butter and bacon in green bean casseroles, yogurt instead of mayonnaise in the deviled eggs, and bake the turkey instead of deep frying it. With these simple tricks, you can keep all your favorites on your plate with fewer calories. You can find lots of suggesting by simply searching on Google for healthy eating alternatives.

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• Eat without distractions and more slowly. Many of us eat our meals while watching TV or having some other distractions, hardly even noticing what and how much we eat. I encourage you to turn off all your devices while you’re eating and maybe even light a candle to create a relaxing atmosphere. It’s also best to eat slowly to give our stomachs enough time to send the hormonal signals to our brain telling us that we’re full, which will stop us from accidentally overeating. Slowing down my eating is a constant struggle for me. I eat super fast. This might be the result of being the youngest of 4 children and wanting to make sure there were seconds left for me when I was growing up.

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• Take a walk after dinner. Why don’t you grab your dog or partner after dinner to take a walk? Not only will this allow you to de-stress and start the digestive process, but it also provides you with a bit of exercise. I’m part of a daily walking challenge on Facebook. A new challenge starts on January 1st. If you want an incentive to go for your daily walks, I’m happy to share the link with you.

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• Do some kind of exercise every day. I’m not talking about some sweat-inducing workout at the gym. I’m talking about 1/2 hour of simple movement every day, whether that is yoga, walking, swimming, tai chi, etc. If you want to participate in my Sunday slow flow yoga classes, click here to register.​

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• Be sure to get enough sleep. Have you noticed that you eat more junk food when you’re tired? Be sure to get 7-8 hours of sleep every night, which will help you fight weight gain.

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Most of all, remember what the season is about — celebrating and connecting (virtually this year) with the people you care about. When you focus more on the fun, it’s easier to focus less on the food.

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Happy holidays!

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Best, Christine

P.S. If you enjoyed this article and want to get practical tips and tools about wellness directly in your inbox every Saturday morning, I invite you to sign up for my wellness newsletter:

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