15 tips to enjoy the holidays without getting fat



1. Control your stress levels during the holidays

The festive season usually generates a series of social and family demands that often stress us more than we are. Meetings, gifts, commitments, visits, trips ... sometimes it's hard to combine everything!

Remember that if you are stressed or stressed it is very likely that you do not make the best decisions when sitting at the table. Stress wears you down, oxidizes and inflames you and does NOT help you lose weight.

If you want some wonderful advice from experts to combat stress at parties, do not miss this great article from one of my favorite blogs: "Eva Muerde la Manzana", written by a group of experts on the subject.

2. Take advantage, sleep as much as you can ... and a little more

Normally we are going to stop during the year. Take advantage of vacations or days off in December to recover the lack of sleep, to rest as much as you can.

Remember that if you do not sleep your hours, you will be more tired, more hungry and less exercise. The metabolism tends to diminish when you do not sleep and more hunger hormones are secreted.

You are much more likely to get fat if you do not sleep.

3. Stay active with your friends and family

You can take advantage of family gatherings or friends to organize outdoor outings or small excursions. Make walks on the beach, the city, the park ...

If you want to enjoy a party without getting fat, try not to stay all afternoon doing a meal in the same place, because besides not burning energy, you will end up eating more things like nougat, polvorones and other "sugar-festive" preparations.

If you practice sports frequently, do not abandon it!

4. Practice Mindful Eating

Pay attention and awareness to the food you are about to eat. Enjoy fully its aroma, flavor, texture, colors. Even if you are in the middle of a group of people, talking, laughing. Set aside a few seconds for each bite.

We do not usually talk when we chew, right? Take advantage of these seconds to feel in your mouth that food prepared with love for this occasion. Chew until you feel its texture become liquid before you swallow it.

Eat slowly, slowly, respectfully 🙂

5. If you know that a person with whom you will share a meal stresses you, it drives you crazy ... so sit as far as you can from her!

Take special care when it comes to lunch or dinner. Avoid sources of stress and tension that you know you can avoid. Covertly find out where that person is going to sit and sit at the other end of the table. Avoid contact during the meal. Try to eat in peace 🙂



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6. If you are the host in your house, pose a healthy lunch or dinner

Nowhere is it written that Christmas meals should provide thousands of calories, tons of sugars, or dozens of liters of alcohol.

If you plan a little you can surprise the diners with a different meal, in which the vegetables abound, with good quality proteins. Avoiding heavy sauces, fried, prepared with sugars or excess butters. We can all stop a few parties without getting fat if we think about it.

Restricts the amounts of alcohol. You can put some bottles of organic wine and a big jug of water.

For dessert, you can prepare a healthy cake like this for example or a good fresh fruit salad.

7. There are only a few special meals and dinners, try to keep your diet healthy the rest of the days.

If you already have a more careful, healthy, balanced diet try to keep it to the letter when you are not in a special event. You do not have to "get mad" during the 15 or 20 days of the holidays.

If at any time you pass, return to your good habits immediately in the next intake.

8. Arrive at the celebrations having eaten correctly for the rest of the day.

That "I will not eat anything during the day to arrive hungry at dinner" does not make any sense. You will end up exceeding yourself and then you will feel too full. To make matters worse, you will go to sleep with your belly full of food and rest much worse.

9. Focus on what you will eat and do not mix so much.

If you find yourself with numerous options at the table, observe each one well, value them. Decide what you will choose to eat, assemble a balanced plate. You do not need to taste absolutely everything on the table. I know selectiv . Think about what foods are good for you and what you like.

Remember to add a good amount of vegetables.

Serve yourself a good dish and practice Mindful Eating. Try eat it slowly. 20 minutes is the time you need to feel the signal of satiety. Avoid repeating just for gluttony. Less is more!

10. Serve a good portion of protein inside your plate

Whether you are vegetarian  or omnivore  this point is very important. The protein will help keep you sated for longer. If you eat a good portion of protein you can reduce the caloric intake as it will reduce your feeling of hunger.

Protein also helps keep your metabolism more active. Some good sources of protein are: legumes, white and small blue fish, organic eggs, and poultry meat.

11. Provide your favorite healthy dish

These parties are about sharing with loved ones. We come together to give and receive good energies. Food is a great way to do it.

Since you are on the way to take care of yourself, to practice a more conscious diet, share it. Surprise other people who do not eat like you.

Also this is your "nutritional insurance", because if most of the options served at the table do not fit your way of eating. You will always have your own favorite dish available to enjoy without worrying.

12. Avoid processed or highly sugary foodsCookies

Processed foods contain additives, sugars, a lot of salt and a long and destructive etcetera. They are unhealthy and very little
recommended if what you want is to enjoy the parties without getting fat.

Try to prepare homemade, light meals. And beware of nougat and candy of this type, they contain huge amounts of sugar!

13. Choose healthy desserts and drink them in moderation

Dessert seems an inescapable part of Christmas meals or dinners. If you are going to eat, try to choose something like a fruit salad, a lemon ice cream or a small piece of your favorite cake (it's not worth going for seconds!).

If you moderate, you will feel much better later, remember it.

14. Controls the intake of calories in liquids

Try to drink water during meals and if you wish, offer it with a glass of cava or champagne. If you are going to drink wine or beer, moderate the quantities, with one or maximum 2 drinks you already have more than enough.

Avoid at all costs the sugary soft drinks and carbonated drinks that so much sugar and empty calories contribute to your body.

15. Be consistent

If you have been taking care of yourself for a while, eating healthy foods, reducing your excess weight ... Do not throw everything away in a few days of celebration to start from scratch in January ...

Visualize each event in advance, plan how you will behave. Remember that you are in control and food does not control you. Plan, if you are going to eat at a house or a restaurant, find out what menu options you will have. Take your healthy dish to share or ask for a different menu if you consider it necessary.

To enjoy a good holiday we do not need more than good predisposition and be willing to give and receive affection. The stuffing of food and drink does not add more than kilos and subsequent guilt.

Perfect Breakfast: The Ultimate Guide

The definitive guide so that at last you can make yourself a perfect breakfast
Why it's so important to make a perfect breakfast
"Des-fast = break the fast"

They say that breakfast is the main meal of the day. Although we also now have semi-fasting supporters who recommend skipping breakfast and going directly to the midday meal by throwing liquids, such as juices, infusions or coffees.

Of what there is no doubt is that when you get up in the morning, you have spent about 8 to 10 hours without eating. In this time of rest, your body has been doing endless tasks of repair and regeneration of tissues, your blood has been filtered several times and your mind has processed the information of the previous day.

After these hours of fasting, it seems a good idea to provide your body with the nutrients it needs to face the waking state with the best conditions. Give him the necessary resources so that he has more opportunities to achieve the best results, whatever you do.

What happens if you do not eat breakfast
When you skip breakfast, you prolong the nocturnal fast to the waking state. This may not be a good idea. Most likely, your body has already consumed a large amount of resources in repair efforts and maintenance of basal metabolism.

It is likely that your blood glucose is quite low in the morning, this is the engine of your nervous system and muscles. In this way, when jumping breakfast you force your body to use its reserves as an energy source.

But glucose is not the only thing the body needs in the morning. You will need a good amount of good quality fats such as omega 3 for all its benefits or amino acids that will act as neurotransmitter precursors. Also vitamins and minerals that will act as cofactors of enzymatic reactions, water to hydrate and a good handful of phytonutrients will not come at all bad either.

If you do not eat breakfast you deprive your body of the possibility of having all these important nutrients. It will work with what you have available and it is very possible that you can not do it 100%.

Several studies found that school-age children who ate breakfast had better grades and school performance than those who did not eat breakfast. study - study

What happens to you when there are too many sugars in your breakfast
Unfortunately, the current trend in our culture is to make breakfasts too rich in simple carbohydrates.

For a few years and thanks to the insidious advertising presence we have been led to believe that a perfect breakfast is based on box cereals, with a little milk, honey and hopefully a banana is the ideal. If we add to that the orange juice and the coffee with milk with brown sugar we will have the perfect breakfast ... WHY NO!

I'm afraid they've cheated on us. A breakfast like the one described is nothing more than a sugar-laden bomb. Usually we just have breakfast and we sit in the car, motorcycle or subway to move to a job in which we probably do not dedicate ourselves to carrying 50-kilo bags on our shoulders.

If our breakfast is so rich in sugars, what we will do is generate a sudden rise in glucose in our blood, a condition that excites our nervous system generating an inflammatory response similar to that which occurs in people with diabetes. To counteract this harmful situation, the body will secrete a series of hormones that will cause this glucose to be rapidly absorbed, if we do not take advantage of it ... can you imagine what it will do with this valuable source of energy? Turn it into reserves: fat tissue!

And the thing does not end here, no. When rapidly absorbed, glucose levels fall very quickly from the blood, causing what we call reaction hypoglycemia. A condition in which you can feel nervous, tired, deconcentrated, with "bad milk". And most likely you will feel dead from wanting to eat something else sweet in a few hours.

Breakfast perecto

What happens to you when there are too many sugars in your breakfast CLICK TO TUITE

A breakfast where sugar predominates, does not contribute to your mental, emotional or organic balance. Glucose spikes upset your body and make you feel stressed, more tired and desirous of unhealthy foods. Also in this breakfast are missing other important nutrients to be truly nutritious, satiating and balancing. You can delve into the origins of this bad habit in this intresantísimo and fun post by Eva Muerde la Manzana.

There is, however, a much healthier formula ...

The sparing gene and how to deactivate it
The geneticist and diabetologist James Neel, back in 1962 formulated the hypothesis about the "saving gene". It suggests that our bodies, whose genetic code dates back to the times when we were mammoth hunters, are prepared to survive seasons of famine and fasting thanks to this thrifty gene. It allows to generate good reserves of fat in the body from sporadic food intakes.

For these populations that suffered such frequent famines this gene represented an evolutionary advantage that made their survival possible.

But in our days, we have access to all kinds of food at all times! The sparing gene is still active and could be one of the causes of obesity in an important part of the population.

In his book "Healthy for Life", the Heller doctors explain a theory to "turn off" this energy-saving gene since early morning. They argue that to prevent our body from beginning to produce lipid reserves from breakfast, it is necessary to incorporate a quantity of proteins and fats of good quality.


Avoid sudden rises and falls in blood glucose

While this "perfect breakfast" includes some carbohydrates, they will be complex, associated with fiber. For example: whole wheat rye, spelled or gluten-free bread, whole fruits with their skin and in some cases vegetables or vegetables.

Being associated with proteins, fats and fiber, these carbohydrates will be digested more slowly. For this reason, glucose will enter the blood more slowly. Providing sustained energy to your nervous system and your entire body.

You will also save yourself the destructive rises and falls of glucose that I just told you happen when you eat very refined or sweet foods, such as toast of white bread with honey or jam or a squeezed orange juice.

It keeps you sated for longer = decreases anxiety!
Proteins have very interesting and perhaps little known properties:

They can reduce the feeling of appetite and hunger as they produce a feeling of fullness for longer. Reduce levels of hunger hormone: ghrelin
In turn, they keep the YY peptides elevated for a longer time, which act as a hormone that makes us feel full and without hunger.
The combination of healthy fats, proteins and fiber delays stomach emptying
So during the morning you will not have that anxiety for food that many people wake up to. In fact, there will be some who in some cases will not need to eat more solid foods until the time of the meal. Or you can take a simple piece of fruit or nuts and you'll be so happy.

Breakfast paleo, without cereals

A delicious and very healthy option for omnivores. These are combinations of proteins and good quality fats with vegetables, tubers and vegetables.

Here the queen is creativity. You can take vegetables that you have cooked the day before, reheat them a bit and add one of the following from each group:

Good quality proteins:

eco eggs (trying to make the yolk always raw to make the most of its benefits)
small blue fish: anchovies, anchovies, mackerel, sardines
seafood like cuttlefish, mussels, prawns
Jamon
ecological turkey
+
Good fats:

extra virgin olive oil
coconut oil
avocados
ghee (clarified butter)
In order to give you very clear and illustrative examples, I have turned to an expert dietitian and disseminator in the Paleo diet and its application in autoimmune diseases. She is Montse Reus and you can see in the following link her nutritious photo gallery of paleo breakfasts.