The holidays can derail any weight loss diet without the right planning. Office parties, family gatherings, and similar holiday events often feature cookies, candy, eggnog, meat and cheese platters, and other high-fat, high-sugar, high-calorie temptations. Whether you recently started a weight management regimen or want to maintain the body you’ve been working so hard on, remember the following advice.

How to Keep Your Weight Loss This Season

1. Load Up on Vegetables

Practice portion control at holiday shindigs by enjoying smaller amounts of comfort food and larger servings of vegetables. As high-fiber, low-calorie foods, veggies fill you up fast so you aren’t reaching for second helpings of macaroni and cheese. Also, try to eat a healthy meal with protein and fiber before you attend holiday events so you don’t make poor food decisions because you’re hungry.

2. Limit Alcohol

Skip alcoholic drinks entirely or limit your intake to one glass of good wine or a snifter of low-calorie hard liquor on the rocks. Eggnog and many other holiday libations are high in empty calories and since the body recognizes alcohol as a toxin, it sends the liver into overdrive to get rid of it. Metabolism slows as a result, causing food to be stored as fat instead of being burned as energy. Alcohol also lowers inhibitions to make junk food choices more likely.

3. Keep Exercising

Stay on your exercise course or rev up your current regimen to help your weight loss diet this holiday. Combine strength training with cardio to tone your muscles as you eliminate fat. If belly fat is an issue, try dance workouts or start doing 50+ jumping jacks every day.

4. Distract Yourself

Maintain a mindful eating outlook. Are you really hungry, or simply excited by the food options? Distract yourself by talking to friends and family, staying out of rooms with food, playing with your kids, nephews, or nieces, looking at holiday decorations, or completing any other tasks that take your mind off the buffet.

5. Get Enough Sleep

Control hunger hormones by sleeping seven to eight hours a night. Sleep deprivation prevents the body from regulating these hormones, making weight gain more likely. It can also lower your metabolism as well as your desire to exercise because you feel sluggish all the time. 

If you need additional help with your weight loss diet during the holiday season or any other time, schedule a consultation at Nebraska Weight Management Institute. With convenient locations in Lincoln and Omaha, NE, this medical weight management center offers metabolic rate testing, nutrition counseling, and the nonsurgical OPTIFAST® program among other services. Call (402) 483-4770 (Lincoln clinic) or (402) 399-9386 (Omaha clinic) to make an appointment or visit the website for more information. Get additional weight loss diet tips on Facebook.