Healthy Eating

The Holiday Season is upon us and that means that the holiday parties and get-togethers are also here.  While this can be a joyous time of year, the average American gains 7-10 lbs during the Holiday Season.  Here are a few tips to help you avoid weight gain at your parties this season:

1. Eat before you go out:  By filling up on something healthy, like a salad before you head off to a party, you’re less likely to overindulge on things you would normally pass up.    

2.  Get a plate:  If you’re eating fingerfood all night, the tendency is to overeat if you never get a plate and see how much you’re eating.  If you’re talking all night, you might not even remember half of the things you ate.  But if you put your food on a plate, you can be more conscious of what you’re eating.  And hopefully there will be a little bit of green on your plate.   

3.  Throw that plate away when you’re done and stick to it!  After you’ve eaten a plate of food, throw it away and enjoy the rest of the party.  If you ate something before and a plate of food at the party, you’re most likely satisfied.   Anything else that you eat will just be mindless, social eating and is going to make you have to make that dreaded New Years resolution of losing weight again next year.

With Thanksgiving upon us many will be hitting the grocery store to pick up items for very traditional, but very unhealthy recipes.  In this edition of the Transformation blog, we wanted to give you a healthy recipe that is sure to be an instant hit at your Thanksgiving Day Celebration.

ZUCCHINI HONEY BREAD

1 cup of olive oil

3 eggs

1 cup of honey

2 cups of zucchini pulp

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons sea salt

1/2 cup wheat germ

1 1/2 cup oat flour

1 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Mixture 1: Beat eggs, add oil and honey, beat until thick, and mix in zucchini pulp. Mixture 2: add flour, wheat germ, baking soda, baking powder and walnuts. Add mixtures 1 & 2 together. Pour into 2 greased loaf pans and bake for approximately 1 hour.

Wellness is first and foremost a choice to assume responsibility for the quality of your life. It begins with a conscious decision to shape a healthy lifestyle. Wellness is a mindset, a predisposition to adopt a series of key principles in varied life areas that lead to high levels of well-being and life satisfaction.

A consequence of this focus is that a wellness mindset will protect you against temptations to blame someone else, make excuses, shirk accountability, or whine.

Wellness is an alternative to dependency on doctors and drugs, to complacency, to mediocrity and to self-pity, boredom and slothfulness.

Many wellness promoters, myself included, see wellness as a philosophy that embraces many principles for good health.