Thanksgiving in the States is tomorrow…

A holiday that has turned into the biggest eating day of the entire year in the States.

On average, it’s suggested that American’s eat upwards of 4200 calories/day — about 3-4 times above "normal" — or what’s needed.

We’re all about enjoying yourself and the special holiday traditions.  In fact, it’s important to remind you that your daily habits are significantly more important than any single occasion.  BUT, avoiding that post Thanksgiving feeling of disgustingness (is that a word?), where you have no option other than unbuttoning your pants and collapsing on the couch, only to fall asleep and wake up bloated and uncomfortable, isn’t a bad thing.

Instead, this year, try these 3 ‘tricks’ that help you save on calories but not skimp on flavor or even miss out eating your favorites.

Consider it your Thanksgiving Survival Guide.

These Thanksgiving Survival Guide tricks are so simple they’re almost too easy.

1. Don’t let your foods touch on your plate.  Weird, I know — but most of the time the plate is piled so high, it’s like a giant mess of foods.  This year leave "white space" between each food.  Why?  You’ll pile less foods on one another meaning you eat your favorites, just not as much of each.
2. Skip the mindless eating.  Avoid the snack bowls, mixed nuts, and extras that are lying around the house…pre dinner, of course.  These are just extra calories that fill you up but aren’t "unique" to Thanksgiving, so you’re not mindlessly eating extra calories but aren’t even noticing (or enjoying) what you’re eating.  Enjoy the ‘unique’ foods — don’t waste calories on the basics you can get every day.
3. Fill your plate (without letting foods touch) and walk away from the buffet table.  Then wait 20 minutes before deciding to go up again.  Again, seems obvious.  But it’s not too common — walking away from the buffet table means you’ll be less likely to keep filling up on the extras just because.   And waiting the 20 minutes will allow you to truly determine if you’re physiologically hungry (not likely) or psychologically hungry (more likely).

There you have it.  These are simple, their straightforward, but they’re all effective ‘weird’ little tricks that can make a big difference.

Happy Thanksgiving to all our American readers. 

Losing belly fat isn’t impossible.  But there surely are some "tricks" that can make it more simple.

The thought of dieting to lose belly fat is crazy — who wants to focus on everything you CAN’T eat?

Instead, these belly fat blasting tricks are focused on all the simple, positive things you CAN do to still lose belly fat FAST!

Ready?

1.  Decrease the size of your plates — switch up your dinner plates for smaller, snack plates.  Same with your bowls.  Guaranteed you’ll eat less.

2.  Use smaller serving utensils and eating utensils.  Ever tried eating with chopsticks?  You go much more slowly — same idea when your fork or spoon is smaller.  And when you can’t serve with a shovel, you’ll get "bored" more quickly and ultimately eat less.  

3.  Use candles — heck, who doesn’t want a candelight dinner — particularly when doing so can help slash belly fat!  And it’s not because you’ll eat less to impress your date, it’s because research shows that those who eat in a nicer setting practice more portion control.

4.  Serve individual portions, not family style — when you have the option to go back for seconds and thirds, you will (think Thanksgiving).  

5.  Brush your teeth — well, hopefully you’re doing that now — but do so immediately after each meal (and snack) to incinerate belly fat.  More food, or dessert, won’t sound so appealing with minty fresh breath (and your company will like it too).

6.  Eat with your non dominant hand – seriously.  Go ahead and try.  It’s great for your mind, but will also slow down the speed you eat, which correlates to less belly fat in the long run.

7.  Surround yourself with positive, active, healthy people –  1 simple strategy is is sure to keep belly fat at bay.  Research shows WHO you spend time with will dictate fat loss success.

As you can see, these 7 simple belly fat breakthroughs couldn’t be easier.

These are each baby steps.  I didn’t say don’t eat X.  I didn’t say go out and start running now. When added together, these will all help you reach your ultimate goals … lose belly fat, maintain that healthy body, and have more energy than 6 year old child on a sugar high.

What do you have to add?  Share your belly fat busting secrets in the comment section!

Uh oh, it’s here.

The Holidays!

Thanksgiving is less than 2 weeks away.  We’ve venture into the "dangerous" holidays — the time when the average American gains 3-5 lbs during the 6 weeks between Thanksgiving and New Years.

Holiday parties.

Cookies.

Massive amounts of food.

Stress.

But it doesn’t have to be the downward spiral that most people think it is, spiraling off into a difficult time of overindulgence and weight gain.

We’re here to help — what are YOUR biggest struggles during this time?  We’ll be answering every single question left on the blog, so share your thoughts and struggles during this time of the year.

Click on the comment tab below and let us know what you think!

Do you know what the average weight gain is for the holidays?

We’ve heard it all…

…8-10 lbs, 12-15 lbs, and even as high as 20 lbs!  

Newsflash: if you gain 20 lbs in 6 weeks from overeating, it’s going to take a lot more than a few nutrition tips and strategies to help out!

Research published in the New England Journal of Medicine actually showed that the average weight gain is just 3-5 lbs.

"That’s it?" you ask?  Then who cares what I eat?!

But here’s the problem … it’s not that small weight gain during the holidays that’s the problem, it’s the fact that people don’t lose that weight year after year.

A 5 lb weight gain each year for the next 4 years means 20 lbs.  People tell us all the time that they’re not sure how they gained so much weight "it just crept up on them."

This is exactly how it happens.  You may not notice a few pounds.  They come on slowly, but surely.  And it’s all relative to your current weight.  What started out some pants that were just a bit tighter than last time you tried them on, gets quickly pushed aside as "I just got them out of the dryer."  And suddenly those same pants no longer fit.  But this process is slow, so we then rationalize that we’re getting older, so it’s just "middle age."

And the cycle continues.

Stop the insanity!

Thanksgiving is just a few days behind us.

There are approximately 4 weeks from now until January 1st.  
 
That means you can either gain the "average" 3-5 lbs during this time, or you can stick to your plan and maintain, if that’s your goal, or lose…if you’d like to.

How do you do that?  That is up to you.

These 5 Holiday Fat Loss Secrets can help.

1.  Remember the "holiday season" is just a few select days within a 6-week period.  Enjoy the food on the holiday itself, enjoy the work parties, social gatherings, and other holiday get togethers … but when they’re done, they need to be done.  Don’t let 1 night carry over into the next!

2.  Always make time for exercise.  While there’s no research to show there’s a "best" time of day, our own non scientific research, of working with 1000′s of individuals over the years, points to the morning as the best time to get exercise out of the way, so you can move on to your other daily tasks.

3.  Plan ahead.  Seems obvious, I know.  But this is a high stress time many people — getting gifts, seeing family and friends, and so much more.  And to top it all off, there’s just 3 weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas!  Plan, make time for you, and know that everything will get done…just like it always does.

4.  Don’t bake cookies as gifts, bake pies!  Seems like a weird fat loss recommendation, but when you’re giving cookies as gifts, it’s really easy to eat several of them without *anyone* (except you) knowing.  Try that with a pie and it might look a little weird if you give a pie with a piece taken out of it.  

5.  Never "save up" your calories so you can decidedly overeat later on.  Instead, eat normally throughout the day and then simply enjoy smaller portions of your favorite foods later on.  Starving yourself in anticipation of all the different foods will surely lead to overeating more than anything.

Any favorite tips that have helped YOU get through the holidays?