This week were gearing up for Christmas.
The average person gains 3-6lbs over Christmas; enough to make your clothes feel tight, or tip you into the next size up. Rather than denying yourself all those festive treats, just follow my guide to avoiding all the calorie pitfalls – and you wont have to be squeezing into your jeans in January!
How to avoid calories at Christmas parties
There’s little you can do about the food on offer at someone else’s do. However, there’s plenty you can do to stop it turning into a calorie-fest. If there’s going to be a buffet, have something small before you go. Try a small cup of soup an hour before you leave.
Or save half your sandwich from lunch and eat it at 4pm. Anything that stops you standing at the buffet table light-headed with hunger. Fill up half your plate with low-cal foods such as chopped carrots, cucumbers, celery, grapes and cherry tomatoes. Then have a small portion of lean protein, such as chicken, ham or prawns.
If you opt for a sandwich, don’t have more than four quarters – after all, you wouldn’t have more than that at lunch right? Go for brown or granary bread, with fillings such as tuna and cucumber, chicken, or egg mayo, which is surprisingly low in calories.
Avoid sausage rolls, quiche, garlic bread and spring rolls. Also, avoid anything you can pick at, such as peanuts, and fatty sides like mayo, potato salad, Thousand Island dressing and cheese.” And finally, Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without a little tipple, but alcohol is one of the main reasons we gain weight over the festive period.
People forget the calories in alcohol, often we’ll say no to treats like sweets or cake but happily pour ourselves another gin and tonic or glass of wine; which contains more calories than the cake or the chocolate. You don’t have to be tee-total over Christmas but try a few clever tricks to cut calories (and reduce your hangover, too).
You’ve heard it many times before but drinking a glass of tap water between every alcoholic drink really helps reduce your hangover and weight gain. Steer clear of creamy liquors, such as Baileys (180 calories and 8g fat per glass) and stick to champagne (111 calories, 0g fat per glass) or Tia Maria (131 calories).
Finally, go easy on the mulled wine – with 245 calories per glass (that’s more than a whole bar of Cadbury’s!) you’re best off just sticking to the one glass.
As seen on City Newspaper 28th December 2017.