Everyone loves end of the year and new year time. It's the time for vacations and for catching up with family and friends over festive food and drinks. 

But if you're not careful, it won't be long before you'll realise that you're carrying extra weight into the new year.

Here are easy tips on how you can enjoy the festive season without going overboard on the eating.

10 Tips to avoid holiday overeating

1. Make healthier food choices

Having to festive eat doesn't mean that the food choices you make need to be unhealthy ones.

Eat cleaner by limiting or avoiding highly processed foods like ham, bacon, sausages, cakes and desserts. Processed foods carry too much sodium and saturated fats, so stick to good old-fashioned, nutritious carbohydrate foods such as brown rice, noodles in soup, plain baked potatoes and pasta in tomato-based sauces.

Also, opt for lean protein foods such as chicken, beef, pork, prawns, tofu, beans and lentils that are cooked in small amounts of oil and sauces.

2. Load up on fibre

Along the lines of making healthier eating choices, it's important to continue eating 2 servings of fruit and 2 servings of vegetables daily. 

Breaking it down per meal, The HPB 'My Healthy Plate’ recommends filling your plate with:

  • ½ plate of vegetables and fruit.

  • ¼ plate of carbs - make them whole grains

  • ¼ plate of proteins - try to choose plant proteins (like legumes, tofu, tempeh, nuts, seeds) if possible, or else take low fat meats, eggs, low-fat dairy products

Consuming more fibre has been proven to be beneficial for your gut and overall health, and keeps you feeling full longer to curb snack attacks.

3. Lighten up on the fat consumption

Cakes, cookies, pastries, sweets, desserts, fatty meats, cream-based foods etc. The list just goes on and on when it comes to festive foods and their sins.

Total avoidance of such foods during festive gatherings may be impossible but the key is moderation. Pick what you can lighten up on - for example, ditch the creamy dressing for your salad, remove the visible fat on meats, and pass on the sweet drinks and desserts. 

4. Drinking water is best

Just like fat, go easy on the sugared drinks and alcohol. It's best to have water, unsweetened iced tea or green tea with your meal.

If you must have a sweet beverage, choose low-calorie drinks. You can easily identify such drinks with the Healthier Choice Symbol (HCS) on them. Such drinks are lower in sugar compared to regular sugar drinks.

Don't forget, alcohol contains  calories too so if you must drink, drink responsibly. Never drink and drive! If as a driver, you are afraid that you may be pressured into drinking, mention that you are the designated driver and that the safety of others are in your hands.

5. Eat slower

Fact: It takes about 20 minutes for your brain to send out signals that you are full before you realise it.

So eat slowly, and take the extra time to pay attention to what we are eating and how much you have eaten. A simple trick is to chew every mouthful of food between 15 to 30 times. This will give your body time to tell the brain that you have eaten enough. 

If you gobble down your food quickly, you are more likely to overeat. By the time you realise that you're full, you would have already overeaten.

6. Practice portion control

Not paying attention (or being distracted) while you eat is one of the common reasons for overeating. During a dinner gathering with conversations flowing freely, paying attention to your eating can be hard to do.

A simple tip is to request for a smaller plate or bowl before the start of the meal. This will make it easier to keep track of the amount you eat.

Also, in the festive spirit of giving, offer to share your favourite foods with someone instead of having an entire portion to yourself!

7. Don't skip meals (before or after a festive meal)

Before or after a festive meal, you may think it is a good idea to avoid meals for that day.

However, what usually happens is this will end up making you feel hungrier, causing you to overeat during your next meal. 

Furthermore, for some when they feel hungry, they are more likely to consume calorie-dense unhealthy foods than healthier ones. 

8. Move more (than usual)

Apart from being mindful about what you eat and how much, ensuring that you're able to burn what you consume will help you to keep your weight in check this festive season.

If you're eating more than the usual, aim to exceed the basic 150 to 300 minutes of moderate aerobic physical activity that is recommended per week. 

Moderate aerobic physical activities elevate your heartrate and makes you breathe slightly harder than normal. Example of such activities include brisk walking or light jogging. To know if an activity is moderate, you should have enough breath to talk but not sing while performing the activity.

If you hardly or never exercise, start with a simple 10-minute brisk walk around your estate every evening, or choose the stairs over the escalator when outside.

9. Keep your home temptation-free

You are already going to have festive foods when out celebrating with friends and family, don't make it even harder for yourself to resist such tempting foods by keeping them in your home. 

Resist the urge to stock up on festive "goodies" like chocolates, chips, ice cream, sugary drinks or "exclusive Christmas specials/flavours". Stay clear of the supermarket aisles containing such items!

10. If you're hosting, choose a healthier menu

As the host, you get to decide what to put out for your guests. Do your family and friends a favour by opting for healthier foods, ingredients and cooking methods such as boiling, steaming, baking, roasting or grilling as these methods reduce the amount of fat in your dishes.

Also, instead of serving cake for dessert, why not serve fresh fruit? Chances are after all the unhealthy feasting that your loved ones have been having over this period of time, it may be a welcome sight!

Ref: H24

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