Archive for the ‘Holidays, Parties, Vacations’ Category

So many of us toast to the New Year with drink in hand – alcoholic or not.

Here’s a quick primer so you can make some informed choices:

• A standard drink is 1.5 ounces of hard liquor, 5 ounces of wine, or 12 ounces of beer.
• Nutritionally:

1. 12 ounces of beer has 153 calories and 13.9 grams of alcohol
2. 12 ounces of lite beer has 103 calories and 11 grams of alcohol
3. 5 ounces red wine has 125 calories and 15.6 grams of alcohol
4. 5 ounces of white wine has 121 calories and 15.1 grams of alcohol
5. 1 1/2 ounces (a jigger) of 80 proof (40% alcohol) liquor has 97 calories and 14 grams of alcohol

• Alcohol has 7 calories per gram but doesn’t fill you up the way food does, so you can drink a lot and not feel stuffed.
• Alcohol lowers your inhibitions and your resolve not to eat everything at the buffet table often flies right out the window.
• Eating something before drinking can help blunt alcohol’s intoxicating effects.
• Drinking light beer rather than regular saves about 50 calories a bottle.
• Mixed drinks and fancy drinks significantly up the calories.   For instance,

1. A frozen margarita has about 45 calories an ounce
2. A plain martini, no olives or lemon twist, has about 61 calories an ounce
3. An 8-ounce white Russian made with light cream has 715 calories.
4. The alcohol, heavy cream, eggs, and sugar in a cup of eggnog has about 343 calories and 19 grams of fat
5. Mulled wine, a combination of red wine, sugar/honey, spices, orange and lemon peel has about 210 to 300 calories per 5 ounces, depending on how much sweetener is added.

• Watch your mixers — per ounce club soda has no calories, tonic has10, classic coke has 12, Canada Dry ginger ale has 11, orange juice has 15, and cranberry juice has 16.
• And, if you’re toasting to health and happiness in the New Year with champagne – it’s a comparative caloric bargain at about 19 calories an ounce! To your health!

My very best wishes for a very happy and healthy New Year.

After a very successful year, starting in 2011  SocialDieter  will be “wearing” a brand new look and donning a new name — but keeping the same “attitude.” Our new name will be My foodMAPs, a moniker that better represents our approach to healthy eating and weight management.  For a sneak peak at the new look go to www.MyfoodMAPs.com

Please note that even if you are receiving email delivery of SocialDieter you will have to sign-up for email delivery of MyfoodMAPs.

I invite you to receive email delivery of MyfoodMAPs  by clicking here:  http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify?uri=MyFoodMaps&loc=en_US

It’s a time of celebration for both you and your pets.

As the big week of celebrations approaches, here are some quick tips to keep your pet family members safe and healthy during the winter holidays.

• If the weather turns nasty and you need to use salt and de-icing materials, remember that they can get into your pet’s paws and onto their stomachs as they climb over snow mounds.  Wipe their paws and tummies with a damp rag.  Antifreeze tastes sweet to dogs and cats so  mop up any spills and bottle drips.

• We find tree ornaments fun to look at and pets absolutely adore them, but metal, glass, ribbons, styrofoam and tinsel can cause serious medical emergencies for your pet.  So can artificial snow and the snow in snow globes.  Ditto for holiday wrappings that get thrown around and fall everywhere.   These can be a hazard for little kids, too.

• We may want our homes to look festive, but ivy, holly, mistletoe, lilies, poinsettia, and some Christmas greens can be toxic to pets if they nibble on them.  Christmas tree water with tree preservative can be attractive to thirsty pets — and harmful, too.

• The holidays are a time to welcome visitors into your home.  Too much activity and too many people can frighten your pets — and sometimes cause them to run away.  Consider putting them in a room away from the roaring crowd and make certain they are wearing  collars with current tags.

• Oh how we love to feast on our holiday treats!  So do our pets. My Golden Retriever, Rufus, was carbo-dog and adored desserts.  Spike, my pug, given his druthers, would eat anything, anytime, anywhere. Some foods can be harmful and cause GI or choking problems. Chocolate that is so prevalent in holiday treats can be quite harmful to our pets.  We truly love out animals, but giving them table scraps is not a good way to show it. And, if you don’t want the leftovers, send them home with visitors or toss them – don’t feed them to the dog — not all of them are healthy for animals.

SocialDieter will be “wearing” a brand new look and offering weight management educational and accountability programs called My foodMAPs (starting in January).  For a sneak peak at the new look, go to www.myfoodMAPs.com.

Have a wonderful, safe, happy, and healthy holiday.

Pound?   Doesn’t it feel like at least seven pounds of weight gain, all of it blubber?

A lot of us start indulging at Thanksgiving (some at Halloween) and don’t stop the free style calorie fest until those onerous New Year’s Resolutions.  Then, because we feel guilty about indulgences, we swear we won’t touch another cookie or piece of cake or candy until we lose massive amounts of weight.

That resolution is doomed to fail because it is unrealistic.  Banning something entirely (unless it is for very specific reasons) equates to deprivation. That almost always leads to you know what: admitting you can’t stand it and chowing down on a box of cookies, half a pie, or three candy bars (definitely super-sized) in a row.

Some Facts

A study of holiday related weight gain published in The New England Journal of Medicine found:

• 85% of the study’s participants made no effort to control their calorie intake
• the average weight gain between Thanksgiving and New Year’s was slightly less than a pound
• participants thought they had gained four times as much
• less than 10% gained five pounds or more
• participants who gained the most weight were more likely to already be overweight or obese

The problem is that most of us don’t lose that extra pound that attaches itself  during the holidays. That means that some of midlife weight gain can be explained by holiday eating.

And, for those of us already overweight, the news is worse. Although the average holiday gain is only one pound, people who are already overweight tend to gain a lot more – one study found five or more pounds during the holidays.

Something To Think About

You need to eat 3,500 extra calories to gain a pound. The average Christmas dinner has about 956 calories. What packs on the weight?

Most of the extra calories don’t come from the “day of” holiday meal but from the nibbling during the holiday season. It’s way too easy to add on 500 extra calories a day which means a pound in a week (7 x 500 = 3500 calories, or 1 pound).

Some Common 500 (around) Calorie Indulgences

•                12 ounces of eggnog

•                1 piece of pecan pie

•                3 ounces of mixed nuts

•                22.5 Hershey’s Kisses

•                Starbucks Venti Peppermint Mocha with whipped cream

•                4 glasses (5oz.) of wine

•                10 regular size candy canes

•                2-3 large Christmas cookies

Some Questions To Ask Yourself

• Do I really want it or does it look good, smell good, or just mean Christmas?
• Is it worth the calories?
• Do I need all of it (or any of it) to be happy?
• What is most important to me?

Answer your questions and decide what you want to do.  Eat mindfully and enjoy.

Happy Holidays!

Chocolate bark at the receptionist’s desk.  Candy canes at the dry cleaners.  A rotating selection of Christmas cookies on just about everyone’s desk.  Happy holiday food gifts from grateful clients.  And that doesn’t include the fantastic spreads at holiday parties and family events!

It’s All So Tempting

It‘s incredibly difficult not to nibble your way through the day when you have all of these treats tempting you at every turn.  How many times do your senses need to be assaulted by the sight of sparkly cookies and the holiday scent of eggnog or spiced roasted nuts before your hand reaches out and the treat is popped into your mouth?

Be Realistic

It’s the holidays and even though some of these treats are a week’s worth of calories, by depriving yourself of them you are denying yourself the tradition of celebrating with food.

Make the distinction between mindful indulgence in the spirit of celebration as opposed to mindless indulgence in the spirit of trying to taste everything or to soothe your psyche by eating.  The first is part of the nurturing, sharing, and communal spirit of eating, the latter is an element of overeating.

Nix The Restrictive Thinking

Creating a restrictive mentality by denying yourself a treat that has always been part of your holiday celebration means it’s just a matter of time until you start an eating fest that only ends when there’s no more left to taste. Think of this:  what would it be like to swear that you won’t eat a single Christmas cookie when those cookies have been a part of your Christmas since you were a little kid when you baked them with your Mom?

Pick One – And Make It Special

You know that you are going to indulge.  Pick your treat, limit it to one, and enjoy it.  To help control the temptation, decide early in the day what your treat will be and stick with your decision. If you wait until later in the day when all the food is right in front of you and you’re hungry and tired, you’ll find that your resolve is not quite as strong!

Make an informed choice, too.  Being informed doesn’t deprive you of deliciousness, but does arm you with an element of control.  If you know the calorie count of certain foods, you can make the best choice.  For instance, perhaps you enjoy both wine and eggnog.  If you know that one cup of eggnog has around 343 calories and 19 grams of fat and a five ounce glass of red wine has around 125 calories and no fat – which would you choose?

There are many online sites that will give you the calorie count for specific foods, but I find that keeping a calorie counter book for quick checks is very helpful.  One that lists just about everything, including restaurant food, is the 2011 edition of The Calorie King, Calorie, Fat & Carbohydrate Counter.

A Time For Giving Thanks and a Celebration of Abundance

Those of us who are lucky enough to go to or host a Thanksgiving dinner are often faced with a dilemma:  overabundance.  The Thanksgiving meal has become associated with a true groaning table – a table loaded with turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes in multiple formats, cranberry sauce, gravy, green bean casserole, brussel sprouts, and traditional family specialties. For closers there’s apple pie, pecan pie, pumpkin pie, ice cream, cookies, and whatever other desserts Grandma, Aunt Sue, and Mom decide to make or bring.

A Feast and a Caloric Overload

How can you enjoy your traditional Thanksgiving dinner and not feel like a slug for days afterward? The ironic thing is that the usual main dish is really lean poultry (turkey), and the main vegetables and condiments are nutritional powerhouses (sweet potatoes, brussel sprouts, and cranberries).  The traditional dessert is made from a vegetable (pumpkin pie) or nuts (pecan pie) so you wouldn’t think this would be so difficult.

The calories in a traditional Thanksgiving dinner are estimated to range from 2,000 to 4,500, depending on what you put on your plate. Given that people of average size who get moderate activity should eat between 1,600 to 2,400 calories per day, Thanksgiving dinner is quite a hefty meal. Not everyone gains weight over the holidays, but if you do, those pounds rarely come off.

Who Wants to Count Calories on a Holiday?

Most of us don’t want to count calories on a day of celebration. If you deprive yourself of the traditional foods you come to associate with holidays, more often than not you end up paying the piper. That’s when you find yourself standing in front of an open fridge rummaging for leftovers because you feel deprived from the stare down you had with your favorite foods earlier in the day.

Have Your Own Plan of Attack

Create an eating plan of attack before the celebration day. You know you’ll eat a bit more – or maybe a bit more than a bit more – than on a typical day. Mathematically allow for your holiday meal. Remember, calories in – calories out. Compensate by eating a little lighter the days before and after. Add in a long walk.

Don’t starve yourself the day of the grand meal. If you do in an attempt to save up calories for a splurge, you’ll probably be so hungry by the time dinner is ready you’ll end up shoving food into your mouth faster than you can say turkey.

The Key Is Balance, Not Deprivation

Inevitably if you deprive or restrict yourself you eventually end up overeating. The mantra becomes – “it’s just one day.” The problem is the one day extends to leftovers the next day – then the weekend – then to Christmas parties – then to the New Year’s Eve party. It could even extend to Super Bowl Sunday!

Celebrations the day of are fine. Celebrating for weeks on end is not. Plus, you end up hating yourself!

Try some of these:

• Give yourself permission to not eat something just because it’s tradition.
• Only eat it if you want it. Eat what you want not what you think you should.
• Say no to the friend or relative who is pushing the extra piece of pie. You’re the one stepping on the scale or zipping up your jeans the next day – not them.
• Make some rules for yourself and commit to them.
• Make a deal (with yourself) that you can eat what you want during dinner. Put the food on your plate and enjoy every last morsel. I’m not even suggesting that you leave some on your plate. But – that’s it. No seconds and no double-decking the plate.
• Limit the hors d’oeuvres. They really pack in calories. Make eating one or two your rule.
• Trade hors d’oeuvres for a luscious piece of pie for dessert.
• Alcohol adds calories (7 calories/gram). Alcohol with mixers adds more calories. Plus, alcohol takes the edge off lots of things – including your ability to stick to your plan.
• Drink water. It fills you up. Have a diet soda if you want. If you’re going to drink, limit the amount – alternate with water.
• Control your environment. Don’t hang around the buffet table or stand next to the platter of delicious whatevers. Why are you tempting yourself?
• Talk to someone. It’s hard to shove food in your mouth when you’re talking.
• Get rid of leftovers. The best laid plans have been defeated by leftover stuffing.
• Don’t nibble during clean-up (or preparation for that matter). Broken cookies, pieces of piecrust, and the last spoonfuls of stuffing haven’t magically lost their calories.

If you ignored a lot of this, you ate everything is sight, and your exercise was walking back and forth to the to the buffet table, put on the tourniquet. It was just one day — just don’t let it stretch into days or weeks.

Remember to enjoy the holidays. Be grateful. That’s the point, isn’t it?

I’ll be posting more holiday facts and tips on my blog: www.SocialDieter.com as we enjoy this celebratory season. I invite you to share some of your own.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.