Plan now for facing holiday food temptations
Fall is finally here -- on the calendar as well as in the forecast -- and winter is on the way. Which means holidays. Which means lots of potential dietary land mines.
What to do? Well, starting with all of that Halloween candy, remember that usually, out of sight is out of mind.
Mary Wilson, a registered dietitian and extension nutrition specialist with the University of Nevada Cooperative Extension, said she usually waits until the last days before Halloween to buy her candy, and then she buys something that she doesn't personally like. And she makes sure it's not in plain view.
"As the holidays come up and you're putting food around the house, keeping tempting foods out of sight is a good strategy," Wilson said. "Because that's a trigger for us all -- when we see something we really like."
One way of dealing with leftover candy after Halloween is over -- or the candy the kids bring home from their own trick-or-treating forays -- is to freeze it. Then, Wilson said, "it's not just sitting around the house, and you can dole it out in smaller amounts later on."
As the holiday season wears on and you start thinking about baking, don't fall into old habits.
"Think smaller amounts, so there isn't a whole bunch left over that you can eat," Wilson said. "We make volumes of sweets and cookies with the excuse that we're making them for the holidays. While we are -- to a point -- we're making lots of extras so we can eat them."
Figure out what the pitfalls are for you, and avoid them.
"If your usual Thanksgiving pattern is to have a big meal on Thursday and then it's a free-for-all with leftovers all day Friday, plan a strategy that lets you eat the leftovers on Friday with some amount of control," she said.
Wilson noted that she used to make sweet potatoes but that she was the only one who ate them, and then she ended up eating all of the leftovers. So now she skips the Thanksgiving sweet potatoes, or simply bakes one for herself.
And don't let entertaining be an excuse for overindulging, by keeping tempting foods in the house.
"You're not keeping foods around the house 'just in case' and then end up eating them yourself," she said, adding that those would include things such as sweets, nuts and eggnog.
"Keep foods that are maybe not triggers for you around for unexpected guests," she said. "Vegetables always come to mind. If you have those in the refrigerator all the time, you can put them out with a low-fat dip."
As for snacks at your office or other workplace, she suggests eliminating them completely or limiting them to foods such as a banana, orange or apple.
"Really, people do not gain weight eating fruits and vegetables," Wilson said. "It's just not going to happen. It's all the other junk."
Las Vegas Losers
LAS VEGAS LOSERS UPDATE A long, hot summer and a yearlong weight-loss challenge may be testing the endurance of the Las Vegas Losers. Sixteen members attended the September weigh-in at the Las Vegas Athletic Clubs. As a group, they weighed 3,317 pounds, and experienced a net loss of just 1 pound since August. They've lost 239 pounds since the program began in January. Of course, it's the individual success stories that matter, and the top three losers this month -- by percentage of weight lost -- are Robert Moore, Jeff Mank and Paular Cornejo. Moore, who lost 7 pounds, or 2.97 percent of his body weight, is following a low-carb plan. He will receive a fitness-oriented prize. Leslie Yowell Van Ginkel has lost the most weight since the program started, with 51 pounds, or 19.92 percent of her body weight, followed by Christine Zerkich and Jerry Socea. Others who recorded a weight loss in the previous month were Laura Alton, Van Ginkel, Anne Gravett, Socea and Zerkich.
