Published: November 18, 2008 11:38 am      

Eating Well This Holiday Season

Ruthanne Hilbrich and Clarian Hospital provide the following healthy eating

tips for the holiday season.



• Focus on the family. The holidays don’t have to be about food. Food can be creative, nutritious, and wonderful, but choose to focus on people instead. Holidays are a time to reunite with good friends and family.

• Get the skinny on the menu. What kind of food will be served? When you know in advance, you can take control and plan ahead.

• Lead the pack and bring a healthy dish or dessert that you can eat as well as one that everyone will enjoy. Prove to people that great tasting holiday food doesn’t have to be prepared with a stick of butter and a cup of sour cream.

• Disaster relief. If you do have a bite of that pecan pie, don’t throw your day out the window and eat the rest of the pie. Forgive yourself and move on.

• Stay away. If food is the only thing you’re looking forward to at the party, you probably should not go.

• Out of sight, out of mind. Once you have your plate of holiday food, don’t stand around the table of offerings. If you do, you will be tempted to graze. Get your plate of food and take that with you while you socialize.

• New traditions. Instead of sitting around the TV after dinner, get bundled up and go caroling. Or take a brisk walk around the block. Play a game where you and your group decide which neighbor has the best outdoor holiday décor. Or instead of watching football, get outside and play your own ball game. Make it a tradition to break out the sled or play a family game of basketball after that Thanksgiving or Christmas lunch. Your children will love you for it, and it will become a sweet holiday memory they’ll never forget.

• Keep positively busy. Instead of sampling every dish and dessert brought to the party, make a positive goal to get to know other party guests. Be a good listener. You feel better about yourself when you uplift others. No food can give you that kind of good feeling.

• Drink in hand. If you choose to eat before you go, keep a non-alcoholic beverage in hand to sip on – a practical way to set yourself up to succeed.

• No fear. You have the power to take control of how your holiday season goes. Do not plan on dieting Jan. 1. That will set you up to gorge the whole month of December because you’ll tell yourself that you’ll eat nothing in January. This is a self-destructive mentality. Relax and enjoy the holiday season.