Christmas can be difficult, we want to look our best and we also want to party and indulge during the festive season. If you’ve been on the Metabolic Balance diet for a while or any other diet for that matter and done quite well, you can get a feeling of dread in the run up to Christmas, wondering how you’re going to avoid gaining back all the weight you’ve lost in the past few months.
It doesn’t have to be so hard, you just need to think about it and plan a bit before you get to the feasting and partying stage. Start by negotiating with yourself before Christmas regarding which meals are going to be off your diet and stick to that plan. You don’t have to indulge in two weeks of overeating you can just have a few treat meals, which makes you feel your part of the celebration without making you feel guilty about busting your diet.
Theoretically you could allow yourself two meals, say Christmas Day and New Years Eve, where you’re free to eat what you want. If you’ve got a lot going on and think it might be a struggle to keep to two treat meals over the holiday period, be generous and allow yourself three or four or say two and couple of sessions where you might have alcohol. Then eat healthily for your other meals to compensate, as this does have a powerful impact. Try drinking half the amount you usually drink, dilute wine with soda water or sparkling water, it tastes refreshing, minimises after effects and means you consume less wine. Much of the Christmas drinking and eating we indulge in is habit so if we make an effort to think about it before the event, it’s easier to resist just eating or drinking out of habit.
If you’re going to have alcohol on days other than the treat meal days, you can cut out all bread, crackers and fruit to compensate. So you could have two treat meals and two events where you drink some alcohol but then miss out bread, crackers and fruit on those days. It’s easy when you’re on a diet to get into that mindset that once you’ve blown out on a meal you might as well keep eating the naughty foods, but if you’ve planned everything in advance you know that as soon as the treat meal is over, it’s back to plan and you won’t have ruin your diet, but you’ll still get to enjoy Christmas.
Try and avoid grazing on chocolates, nuts, crisps etc and stick to 80% cocoa dark chocolate, as you will be less likely to overindulge and binge. Again negotiate with yourself in advance over how much you’re going to have and stick to that.
On Christmas day you can have a typical Metabolic balance breakfast or if you feel inspired to be more extravagant, go for scrambled eggs, smoked salmon and a mimosa and you can always stick to just two meals if the Christmas dinner’s going to be large.
If you find yourself eating out a lot during the festive period, also try and choose the foods on your plan but if they’re not available, choose foods that are put together in the same way as your plan. It’s helpful if you can get a look the menu beforehand to decide, then you might not be tempted to order something too naughty on the day. The idea is to keep starchy carbs as low as possible and try and guess the right portion sizes you should be eating, so as not to eat too much.
Keep your water levels up and enjoy teas and coffees with meals, opting for still or sparkling water if out with friends mid morning or afternoon. This is probably one of the most important rules. If you do have to have tea or coffee further away from a meal then push the next meal back.
Finally, just for a little treat because it’s difficult saying no to mince pies etc all the time you could try making this healthy version and have the odd one of them, instead of the high carb version.
Healthy Mince Pies
Mincemeat
- 2 apples
- 1 vanilla pod
- 100g raisins
- 100g sultana
- 100g dried cranberries
- ½ teaspoon of mixed spice
- Juice of 2 oranges
- 1tbsp coconut oil plus some for greasing tins
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
For the crust
- 400g ground almonds
- 6tbsp coconut oil
- 4 tbsp water
- 20 medjool dates (about 400 grammes) pitted
Chop the apples into small pieces and put in a saucepan. Scrape seeds from the vanilla pod and stir in remaining mincemeat ingredients. Place on medium heat and simmer until the apples are soft. Put all the crust ingredients in a food processor and blend for a minute until mixed and the dates are broken down. Roll the mixture on a floured surface until 1/2 cm thick. Preheat oven to gas mark 4/180C and grease muffin or tart tins with coconut oil. Line with the crust mixture and use any remaining to make stars for the top of the pie. Add two heaped teaspoons of mincemeat into each pie before placing a star on the top and bake them for 8 minutes. Leave them to cool and then enjoy your healthy mince pies.
For more information on the Metabolic balance diet and how it can help hypothyroid sufferers and women with polycystic ovarian syndrome to lose weight, call for a free no obligation chat on 0203 907 6848. You might want to try the Metabolic Balance programme after Christmas to shake off those extra pounds ready for the summer so start the New Year well and call for a chat and an appointment now.
*Disclaimer: The information and advice provided by The Nutritional Therapy Clinic is not intended as a substitute for medical advice. Any person suffering from conditions requiring medical attention, or who have symptoms that concern them, should consult a doctor. Testimonials on this site regarding weight loss and other issues are examples of what we have done for other clients and of what some of our clients have said about us. However, we cannot guarantee the results in any case. Your results may vary and every situation is different. Please see our disclaimer section for further information.