{"id":60071,"date":"2011-12-08T13:51:47","date_gmt":"2011-12-08T18:51:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/?p=60071"},"modified":"2011-12-08T13:52:59","modified_gmt":"2011-12-08T18:52:59","slug":"embrace-balance-to-avoid-fearing-holiday-meals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/12\/embrace-balance-to-avoid-fearing-holiday-meals\/","title":{"rendered":"Embrace Balance to Avoid Fearing Holiday Meals"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Anda T. writes about her weight loss struggles, victories and every day life at www.leavingfatville.com<\/a>. She also runs www.greatclothingexchange.com<\/a> in her spare time when not chasing a toddler, cooking, cleaning, working and trying to take over the world. <\/em><\/p>\n

Holidays mean a time for family to get together, share good food and maybe some wine and enjoy each other\u2019s company. Sounds like a great time, right? It wasn\u2019t until I started my weight loss journey back in 2026 that I realized how the holidays could make or break my diet. Suddenly, November and December struck fear into my heart. How would I get through all the food? How was I going to track the calories? How was I not going to be starving all the time?<\/p>\n

The first year, I got ambitious. I decided I\u2019d cook everything. No one had to bring a dish, desserts were Cooking Light<\/a><\/strong> approved, and sides never saw one ounce of canned soup. The menu was amazing and diverse and people never missed the favorites. Me, though? I missed everything because I was in the kitchen. There was no visiting, and no chatting over some wine or an appetizer before lunch\/dinner. I was dashing around the kitchen like a madwoman. I did it not once, but twice. By New Year\u2019s Eve, I was exhausted. My holiday vacation wasn\u2019t a vacation at all. I\u2019d stressed out so much the entire time about food that I completely forgot to have fun. Sure, I stayed on track, but I missed so much of the festivities, I still felt like I\u2019d been cheated.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The second year, I said I wasn\u2019t cooking. I had an idea of what good nutrition was, and I planned my meal according to that. I brought one healthy side and one healthy dessert<\/a><\/strong> and I knew, if nothing else was edible, I could eat those \"\"<\/a>and be fine. I steered away from the canned soup\/green bean\/fried onion concoction and went for the fresh veggies. The turkey was easy, and I still indulged in a little cranberry sauce (hey, a girl\u2019s got to have \u2013something- with her turkey). The ham was small portions and the least amount of glaze possible and you saw more plate than food by the time I was done making the rounds. I ate it all without guilt while I got to visit with the family I\u2019d missed so much the year before.<\/p>\n

Sure, my holiday meal wasn\u2019t the healthiest it could have been, but I didn\u2019t feel cheated. I learned the balance and it made me happy to accomplish that level of control over something that used to be a source of gluttony for me.<\/p>\n

But the most important thing I learned about the holidays and eating right? DON\u2019T take home the leftovers! If it\u2019s not there, you won\u2019t feel compelled to eat more of it.<\/p>\n

Have a great and healthy holiday season!<\/p>\n

___________________________________________________<\/p>\n

Guest Blog Series:<\/strong> Look for the following badge on your favorite health sites to see if they have been a featured guest blogger on DietsInReview.com<\/em><\/a><\/strong>. See other posts in the <\/em>Guest Blog series<\/em><\/a><\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n

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If you would like to apply to be featured as a guest blogger, please <\/em>contact us<\/em><\/a><\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anda T. writes about her weight loss struggles, victories and every day life at www.leavingfatville.com. She also runs www.greatclothingexchange.com in her spare time when not chasing a toddler, cooking, cleaning, working and trying to take over the world. Holidays mean … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3695],"tags":[8821,23,3864,5485,74],"class_list":["post-60071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-diet-and-nutrition","tag-anda-t","tag-guest-blog","tag-healthy-holidays","tag-healthy-meals","tag-weight-loss"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60071"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60071\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60082,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60071\/revisions\/60082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}