Weight Management

By Bonnie Jenkins, Advanced Natural Medicine

That long holiday season – from Thanksgiving to New Year’s – is upon us once again. That could spell trouble for people watching their weight, with more socializing, more entertaining and, of course, more temptation to overindulge.

How badly do we fall off the weight-watching wagon during the holidays? One study found that people ate 32 percent more during a Thanksgiving weekend than during a typical weekend. Another noted that people gained five times more weight during holiday weeks compared to non-holiday weeks.

Fortunately, there are some simple strategies that can help you keep your weight gain in check during this festive time of year.

Keep Track

Psychologists at the Center for Behavioral Medicine in Chicago studied 57 obese people enrolled in therapy-based weight-loss programs to test their theory that keeping track of intake with the help of counselor nudging can help participants avoid overeating and ward off weight gain during the highest-risk holiday period – Christmas to New Year’s. The participants wrote down everything they ate and drank for eight weeks over the holidays. Half the participants also received daily mailings and phone calls from their therapists during the last two weeks of December reminding them to self-monitor. The other half did not.

So did the reminders help? You bet. The nagged participants lost two pounds on average over the eight weeks with no weight gain during the high-risk weeks. In contrast, the comparison group gained two pounds.

Do-It Yourself

Kerri Boutelle, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist and lead author of the study, says the key to successfully negotiating the holidays is simply to look at what you’re doing. And, whatever you do, don’t judge yourself if you fall off the diet wagon. Several studies have shown that people who manage their weight by self-monitoring do better than people who don’t, even if they don’t write down everything they eat. But keeping a food journal can really help people without a strong sense of self-discipline. Oddly enough, it’s not so much what you write down, but the very act of writing that seems to make a difference, perhaps because it forces you to face up to your actions.

Best of all, you don’t need a therapist to nudge you. Boutelle recommends leaving food record books everywhere – in the bathroom, kitchen, car, desk and purse – as a visual reminder to write down what you eat. Or you can record your intake in a day planner.

A Helping Hand?

So can a friend or family member make a good surrogate therapist to nag you? Not necessarily. If you don’t have a therapist, you’re probably better off on your own.

If you’re anything like me, being nagged by your spouse or best friend can create feelings of resentment and anger. Besides, friends and family carry emotional baggage, which could cause even the best of intentions to backfire.

One Last Thing ...

Another way to control the amount you eat is to simply switch from your regular-sized plates to smaller dishware. Trading in your 11-inch dinner plate for a 7-inch salad plate will automatically provide portion control.

If you‘d rather not buy new dishware, mentally divide your plate into sections, filling one-fourth with about four ounces of meat (about the size of a deck of cards), one-fourth with a starch like potatoes or whole grains, and half the plate with salad and/or vegetables.

Keeping the amount of food you eat on a daily basis in check will give you the leeway to indulge in the occasional holiday treat without that five or ten pound gain so many of us experience during this festive time of year.

This Just In ...

While you’re busy trying to limit the amount of “bad” foods you eat during the holidays, don’t forget the good foods. Since 1991, the “5 A Day for Better Health” campaign has been a familiar tag line encouraging Americans to eat five or more servings of fruits and vegetables every day. Earlier this year, however, “5 A Day” reinvented itself and emerged as “Fruits and Veggies…More Matters.”

The updated campaign now recommends eating up to 13 servings of fruits and vegetables every day (that’s 2 to 6½ cups), depending on your calorie needs. Of course that’s easier said than done. Although experts agree we should eat more fruits and vegetables, a study in the April American Journal of Preventive Medicine reports intake 89 percent of those studied failed to meet government recommendations for fruit and vegetables.

How can you painlessly eat more? Making fruits and veggies quick, convenient and easy is the key. So, to be sure “more matters” in your diet, give some of these ideas a try:

• Buy fresh fruits and vegetables that will keep for a week or more. Good choices include apples, grapefruit, oranges, artichokes, beets, cabbage, carrots, celery, kale, onions, parsnips, potatoes, squash and sweet potatoes.

• Buy frozen produce in bags, not boxes. Use as much or as little as you want, then tie up the bag and save what’s left for another meal.

• Make extra salad to save for lunch the next day (minus the dressing, which can make leftover salad soggy). Add beans, chicken or shredded cheese and roll it into a whole-wheat tortilla for lunch.

• Make a meal out of a spud: Top a baked potato with canned vegetable chili and add steamed broccoli, carrots or cauliflower. Serve with fat-free sour cream or low-fat shredded cheese.

• Add lightly sautéed vegetables to a jar of pasta sauce. Try broccoli, onions, mushrooms, peppers, carrots, zucchini or eggplant. Serve over whole-wheat pasta.

• Dress up brown rice or couscous with diced tomatoes, shredded carrots, raisins and pine nuts.

• Top frozen whole-grain waffles with fresh or frozen fruit.

• Add dried fruit to your morning oatmeal. Dried apples are especially tasty.

• Heat canned fat-free refried beans in the microwave. Add low-fat cheese, vegetables and salsa and roll in a whole-wheat tortilla.

• Add dried cranberries or cherries to prepackaged romaine salad. Top with reduced-fat dressing and crumbled goat or feta cheese.

• Pick up a fresh fruit cup at the local grocery store. Pair it with low-fat yogurt or cottage cheese for an on-the-go snack or meal.

• Blend up a tasty smoothie: Combine low-fat yogurt, ice, low-fat soy milk and your favorite fruit (strawberries, bananas, pineapple, mango, blueberries, peaches). Try frozen fruit with no sugar added when you can’t get fresh.

And here’s the best tip of all: 13 servings of fruit and veggies doesn’t mean you have to eat 13 different foods. A serving is typically one-half cup. So if you eat 2 cups of salad, you’re getting four servings! Now isn’t that easy?

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References:

Boutelle KN, Dubbert P, Vander Weg M. “A pilot study evaluating a minimal contact telephone and mail weight management intervention for primary care patients.” Eating & Weight Disorders. 2005;10:e1-5.

Casagrande SS, Wang Y, Anderson C, et al. “Have Americans Increased Their Fruit and Vegetable Intake? The Trends Between 1988 and 2002.” American Journal of Preventive Medicine. 2007;32: 257-263.

More Matters. www.fruitsandveggiesmatter.gov

Yanovski JA, Yanovski SZ, Sovik KN, et al. “A prospective study of holiday weight gain.” New England Journal of Medicine. 2000;342:861-867.