Don't Blow Your Diet
Enjoyment does not equal no holds barred
December 2007 | by Elaine Ambrose
Reprinted with permission from Taste For Life

You’ve worked too hard all year to blow your diet in a holiday whirlwind. The good news is that you can enjoy the holidays without gaining weight. And yes, that means you can enjoy the tastes you love, but be wise! 

Choose whole foods (particularly fruits and cut-up veggies), be selective, stay active, and don’t fall into the I’ll-just-forget-about-December-and-go-back-to-my-diet-in-January pitfall, which is a sure recipe for weight gain and self recrimination when the new year rolls around.

be selective
Don’t deny yourself favorite dishes over the holidays, but do eat selectively. Start each day with fiber-rich whole grains to keep you feeling satisfied all morning. If you’ll be enjoying a holiday dinner later, eat a light lunch of soup or salad. During the day, drink plenty of pure water, and never arrive at festivities on an empty stomach. Before you party, snack on low-fat yogurt or an apple. At buffets, fill your plate with two-thirds vegetables, fruits, beans, and whole grains, and one-third lean protein.

stay active
Eat enough and keep moving during this season of plenty. Hunger and activity level—too much of the first, too little of the second—are most likely to cause holiday weight gain. Staying active not only maintains a healthy weight but also helps you handle holiday stress, sleep better, and have more energy. Indulge in a brisk walk, make time for a yoga class, or squeeze in a few sit-ups here and there, but keep moving.

make healthy choices
Weight gain is not simply a lack of discipline. Dietary starch, the main ingredient in “white” carbohydrates (bread, potatoes, and rice), releases blood sugar, or glucose, rapidly into the bloodstream. “Instead of traversing the full 22 feet of your digestive tract as other foods do,” says Rob Thompson, MD, “starch short-circuits into your bloodstream,” failing to reach the part of your intestine where appetite-suppressing hormones appear. “Even though starch is chock-full of calories, a few hours after eating it, you’re hungry again,” he adds.

Even worse is drinking sugary beverages. “Sugar in liquids behaves much differently in your body than sugar in solids,” says Dr. Thompson. In candy, for example, sugar interacts with your taste buds while you chew—and this helps to suppress your appetite. By contrast, sugar dissolved in liquid goes di-rectly into the bloodstream, where it can cause glucose shock even in a meal with plenty of low-glycemic foods. So avoid soft drinks, dilute fruit juices, and eat whole fruits instead. Enjoy these guilt-free holiday recipes. *

selected source

• The Glycemic-Load Diet by Rob Thompson, MD ($16.95, McGraw-Hill, 2006

* "Holiday Weight Gain Slight, But May Last a Lifetime," National Institues of Health, 3/00