5 Tips To Prevent Over-Indulging These Holidays
The holidays are a wonderful time to spend with friends and family, or even just to have some downtime for yourself. However, it can often lead to overindulging as you ‘let go’ and feel that you can eat and drink what you like because it’s the holidays. This can derail your goals and result in low mood and lethargy. See our tips below to prevent overindulging these holidays.
Don’t Cut Out Any Of Your Favourite Foods
By telling yourself that you aren’t ‘allowed’ to eat certain foods (such as sweets) over the holiday period sets you up for failure. By making those foods ‘off limits’, you will increase your desire to consume them. This means that you will be more likely to overconsume those foods when they are available to you. Instead, allow yourself occasional treats in moderation with a healthy diet.
Fill Your Meals With High Volume Foods
You should be filling up on lower-calorie, high-fibre foods such as fruits and vegetables. High volume foods are great for boosting energy and maintaining a healthy diet as they contain greater quantities of fibre and water. High volume foods include salad greens, broccoli, tomatoes, oranges, and apples. Most fruits and vegetables would be considered high volume foods.
Eating your salad first may help curb the overeating of the more energy dense foods like sweets for example.
Eat Regular Meals
Some people mistakenly believe that cutting out breakfast can ‘save’ you from overeating later in the day. Research shows that regularly eating balanced meals throughout the day reduces hunger and overall food intake (La Bounty et al.,). Aim to eat 3 regular main meals as well as 2-3 balanced snacks that include a protein source.
Check out our Baked Oats recipe for a balanced breakfast to help you start your day off right. You can even add some Easter chocolate to your oats for a special treat!
Slow Down Your Eating Pace
Eating more slowly can increase your feelings of fullness and prevents overeating. Even over-consuming ‘healthier’ foods can lead to weight gain over time. Try chewing your food more mindfully, taking at least 20 minutes to finish each meal. This can help you to better enjoy all the flavours and textures of your food, increasing your overall satisfaction of the meal.
Be Wary Of Your Alcohol Intake
Drinking alcohol not only increases the amount of energy/calories you’re consuming; it also heightens your hunger levels. Reducing the number of alcoholic drinks you consume can prevent feelings of lethargy and low energy, which also tend to cause you to move less throughout your day, therefore burning less energy over the day. The Australian Government Guidelines are to drink no more than 10 standard drinks per week and no more than 4 standard drinks in one day. However, the less alcohol you consume, the better as there are no benefits to drinking alcohol at all. See below what 1 standard drink looks like.
Remember to keep these tips in mind to ensure you’re feeling your best over this holiday period!
Reference:
La Bounty, P.M., Campbell, B.I., Wilson, J., Galvan, E., Berardi, J., Kleiner, S.M., Kreider, R.B., Stout, J.R., Ziegenfuss, T., Spano, M., Smith, A. and Antonio, J. (2011). International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand: meal frequency. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 8(1). doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/1550-2783-8-4.
