Kerrie Ann Frey

It’s the holidays.  Do you still have any sanity left?  I’m fairly certain I left mine in between Macys and Toys R Us in the ladies restroom.  You don’t have enough time, you have too many obligations and you want to eat too much to make it all better.

Please don’t.  You’ll hate yourself in the morning (the morning after New Year’s Day when America suddenly wakes up out of its food hangover from the previous weeks).  Try these few, easy suggestions to making it through the holidays – based in reality, not Biggest Loser Campus-land.

1.  Eat Fast Food.  But not the kind you are thinking.  Do you know what’s faster than fast food?  A microwave heating up the healthy dinner you made last night.  Leftover chicken casserole is warmer, less caloric and more filling than Filet O Fish.  I promise.

2.  Put down at least one bad item you were planning on eating.  I know that the temptations are dancing around the office, home or school.  I’m not saying not to indulge, but indulge responsibly.  Eat one cookie.  Have a bite of cake.  Then walk away knowing you allowed yourself to taste, but didn’t dive into it like Michael Phelps in the off season.

3.  Sneak in the exercise.  At the mall?  In between every second gift you buy, take a walking trip through the mall at a rapid pace.  If you are buying ten gifts, that’s five extra walks around the mall.  Depending on your speed, you could burn an extra 300 calories…while you shop!

4.  Burn, baby, burn.  One day each week this season, push yourself harder than you normally would during your workout.  If you run 4 miles, do it faster or add an extra mile.  If you do an exercise tape, add a few higher impact jumps.  Just a little added effort will burn that extra appetizer you know you’ll want at the office party.

5.  Go slow.  Turn on the slow cooker in the morning.  Throw in some chicken, veggies, broth and seasoning and leave for the day.  By the time you come back, you’ll have something warm that can be eaten as is or can be accessorized for some even fancier.  Throw it on brown rice or put in on crusty French bread and you’ll have that wonderful, healthy dinner you can bring to lunch tomorrow instead of fast food.

The holidays are just that – a couple of days to enjoy being with family and then leaving them at the airport while you speed away with glee towards home and white wine…wait, that might be just me.  The holidays, however, are NOT four weeks of unadulterated eating.  Sorry.  Pull it together and enjoy yourself, but don’t stuff yourself.  Leave that to Santa.

Ho, ho, ho, people!

Answer: Go without your family.

Sometimes when I’m feeling lonely grocery shopping without my children, I play a pre-recorded message on my ipod over and over…

“Can I get this? I want this! Why can’t I eat sugar with some sugar on top for breakfast? He touched me! Why does she get that and I don’t? I want…I need…Please, please, pleeeeeeaaaasssee????”

Kids in the grocery store are a recipe for Stuff in the Cart You Didn’t Plan on Buying. If you can, go it alone and with a list. Preparation is the key and the answer to one of the biggest issues I hear my mom clients complain about: they don’t know what to buy when they get there and they don’t have the ingredients at home.

That’s because the ingredients are in the grocery store. Taking a pre-made list with will make finding them even easier.

However, if you are with the small people whose eyes are closest to the shelves with unhealthy, nutritionally-dead food, you will be sidetracked no matter how deftly you try to avoid them. If you can create your list at home and not deviate from it once you get to the store, you’ll make the right choices. Leaving the children at home is not always an option, but giving them tasks while in the aisle with you can help keep them busy. Let them pick out the beans or choose the vegetable for dinner that night. Even I allow some democratic decisions to occur around mealtimes.

A good, recent article on healthy, affordable groceries is at http://nutrition.suite101.com/article.cfm/healthy_frugal_family_food_shopping. The only part I disagree with is purchasing canned veggies. Try to stay away from canned food – too much sodium and smushy veggies are never really good, even if it is cheaper. The big joke in my house is that everything I want is expensive from my shoes to my groceries. But I don’t plan on coating my stomach or my feet with cheap, inedible stuff. Healthier groceries do cost a little more, I agree. However, by not buying the extra garbage (how many 100 calorie snack bags do you really need? ), you will save those extra pennies to go towards the good stuff.

Fit Mom offers a service to moms that includes compiling healthy recipes from ingredients that your family likes to eat. We’ll send you the ingredient list and the recipe with its coordinating nutritional values. Just let us know at kerrie@fitmomusa.com

Happy Eating!