Whew, I survived Thanksgiving without gaining a pound! It wasn’t because I passed on seconds, skipped dessert or binged and purged; In fact, I celebrated Thanksgiving twice and baked cookies and pies during the break. So what’s my secret to avoiding holiday weight gain? Not being at work.
When I’m not at work, I can have toast and coffee for breakfast, a Zone bar around 2 p.m. and then not eat anything else until dinner. But when I’m in the office, I feel famished two hours after breakfast, drink two cups of coffee every day and snack on cookies, Chex mix and whatever else I can get my hands on between meals. I eat due to stress. I eat socially with my coworkers. (“Sure, I’ll go eat lunch even though I just finished breakfast!”). I eat to avoid working on a project.
Because I must work and since stress on the job is pretty much inevitable, I have to do my part to keep the weight off while also feeding my never-ending pit of a stomach. By no means am I an expert, but here are 10 tip’s that seems to work for me:
- Drink a lot of water.
- Bring in “healthy snacks” like fruit, vegetables and crackers to offset cravings.
- Don’t deny yourself anything but practice portion control.
- This one is terrible, I know, but drinking diet soda helps curb my sweet tooth.
- Try to exercise every day for at least 30 minutes, including weekends.
- Be mindful of calories but don’t fixate on them.
- Keep a bag of M&Ms around (peanut or almond M&Ms work well) and have five or fewer when you need something sweet. Your goal is to make that bag last as long as possible.
- Minimize your consumption of frozen meals. From everything I’ve read they’re just not good for you.
- Make sure your weekly ratio of good meals to bad meals leans more toward the good.
- Go grocery shopping and include fruit, vegetables, high fiber cereals and everything you need for a sandwich on your list.
