Eat Without Guilt This Holiday Season

A perusal of the internet shows an avalanche of last minute advice to avoid a holiday eating disaster: healthful low fat recipes to include with your meal, lists of the “must avoid” foods which predictably includes eggnog, and simple steps you can take to offset the inevitable indulgence. 

Why all the advice? Because excess during the holiday season is as predictable as Black Friday sales. Most of us are going to have (at least) one too many of our favorite cookies.

The common wisdom is that people gain around 5 to 7 pounds over the holidays. The good news is that this is actually an over-estimate. A study performed by the National Institutes of Health followed nearly 200 people over the holiday season and found that, on average, the weight gain was only 1 pound over the months of November and December.

So here’s our advice for the holidays. Enjoy the celebrations, spend time with the ones you love, participate fully in your family traditions.

And then get back to your healthy routine: go for your morning walk or run, have Step One Pancakes for breakfast and treat yourself to a Dark Chocolate Crunch Bar in the afternoon.

Because this isn’t about a day or a week of your life — it’s about having the best life.

Reference: Yanovski JA et al. A Prospective Study of Holiday Weight Gain. N Engl J Med 2000; 342:861-867