Cocktail Parties and Staying on Your Diet

First day of food logging paid off, as I knew ahead of the holiday cocktail party what I still had left to work with.
Here was my food log through lunch:

Monday:	Calories	Protein
4 oz OJ with greens	30
2 cups coffee with  cream/sugar	140
1 slice orowheat 12grain/almond butter	211	6.4
gala apple	77
panettone bread 1/2 piece	70

528 calories through lunch, leaving me about a thousand calories for the rest of the day.  I chose the protein rich nibbles at the cocktail party and had two 5 oz glasses of wine and a small piece of leftover pumpkin pie when I got home so that my total day looked like this:

Monday:	Calories	Protein
4 oz OJ with greens	30
2 cups coffee with  cream/sugar	140
1 slice orowheat 12grain/almond butter	211	6.4
gala apple	77
panettone bread 1/2 piece	70
7 jumbo shrimp	100	18
cocktail sauce	60
2 glasses of chardonnay	240
two pieces of bread and cheese	85	4
mussels in tomato sauce	194	26.9
blue cheese stuffed olive	25
small slice pumpkin pie	229	4.3
total	1461	59.6

I know that every day is not going to line up like this one did, but I felt very satisfied--I got to eat the things that I wanted and stayed on my calorie budget.

Happy Thanksgiving! Weight Watching Tips for the Holiday Season

Thanksgiving is two days away, and many dieters face the anxiety of all the food that will be available at family gatherings.  They aren't wrong.  Studies have shown that people tend to add one to two pounds of weight between Thanksgiving and New Years.

What to do then?  Here are some tips to keep in mind for sticking to your diet during the holidays

1) Stick to your same breakfast and lunch.  If you go out for a big brunch or a big lunch, you are going to have to cut way back on your holiday dinner.  To not offend Aunt Verdell by not eating the sweet potato fluff at dinner, don't blow out your calories at brunch earlier in the day.

2) Mind your cocktails.  Yes, alcohol makes the holidays more festive for many, but alcohol represents empty calories.  Many cocktails contain hundreds of calories each (margaritas, in particular), so sticking to wine spritzers and continuing to drink water throughout the day will help to reduce total calorie consumption at parties and family gatherings.

3) Remember how to portion out your plate.  Although there are many yummy starch side dishes during the holidays, your plate should be allocated 25% meat, 25% starch and 50% salads and green side dishes.  You can have a small taste of everything on the holiday table and not blow your diet if you keep your perspective on your plate and how much of each food group you are eating.

Enjoying the holidays and all they have to offer does not mean having to move up a pant size in January if you take a few steps early on to be mindful of how you are eating and drinking.  Happy Thanksgiving!