7 Tips on How to Avoid Overeating During Holiday Break

The holiday season brings us a lot of joyful and fun days, which are especially awaited with all the pandemic controlling our everyday life. It allows us to gather with our family and friends, enjoy ourselves, and get energized. However, it also might affect our weight gain too with all the delicious festive meals and treats. Here are the best tips on how you can keep fit and avoid overeating throughout this season.

Stick to a Schedule

Eating the same portions of a meal at the same time each day is one of the easiest ways to avoid overeating and set a healthy eating habit. When defining a perfect portion of food for you, follow a guide that will allow you to understand how much food your body actually needs.

When you don’t have a routine or schedule, it’s much easier to overeat as you get very hungry and crave more food. You can choose as many meals daily as you find good for you – 2-3 bigger meals or 5-6 smaller meals daily. It all depends on your body and metabolism.

Eat Slowly

When you start eating, your body needs some time to understand that your stomach is already full. This means that you don’t really feel that you had enough when you are eating very fast. It’s a good rule to eat slowly and take your time when chewing. 

A lot of nutritionists say that you need to leave your dining table with a slight feeling of hunger that will soon disappear because it takes around 20 minutes for your brain to get the message from your stomach that the digesting process has started. Just stop eating before you feel full.

Mind Your Snack Habits

Snacking often feels so innocent that we don’t really pay attention to what we are putting in our mouths. However, you might be overeating and consuming too many calories per day, namely due to your snacking habit. Check out the list of the best snacks for your health.

When snacking with chips, a piece of cake with soda, fast food, etc., you consume way more calories than you expect, even if the rest of your meals were healthy and balanced. 

Eat Mindfully

Another problem that all of us face is that we are often eating mindlessly while doing homework, watching a movie, etc. This also results in overeating as you don’t really notice how much food you are consuming at these moments because your brain is distracted by information on a TV screen or a book page.

What you should do is to always pay attention to what and how much you eat. Focus on the process and just enjoy your food. You will feel full and satisfied if doing so, avoiding overeating. It’s also great for your digestive system.

Don’t Drink Much 

Alcohol is known for being very rich in calories and makes you really gain weight fast. Holidays, in their turn, are the time for parties and family dinners with lots of alcohol. What you need to do if you don’t want to gain weight is to alternate each beverage with a glass of water. It will help you lower your blood’s alcohol level and avoid consuming too much alcohol during parties. Remember that the majority of cocktails lead to an increasing level of blood sugar, which later makes you very hungry.

Don’t Shop or Party When Hungry

This is actually one of the best pieces of advice that work all the time. Don’t leave your house hungry, no matter where you are going. If you are going to a local supermarket while hungry, chances are you will buy more food than you actually need. If you are going for a walk – you might stop to get some street food. If you are going to a party – you will eat a lot of delicious meals that your body actually doesn’t need.

So, it’s a good rule to stick to – eat according to your schedule, not according to some events and plans. A lot of people don’t eat during the day to “save some space” for dinner with friends, but it ends up in large portions of food being consumed at a time, badly affecting your eating habits and even making your stomach bigger, increasing hunger. Adding cocktails, dessert, and lots of food eaten while casually chatting results in bad overeating throughout such evenings.

Serve Yourself

Whenever you are having dinner with your family or friends, always serve yourself and control how much food you put on your plate. It’s always easier to overeat when a host serves you food, and you don’t want to hurt their feelings. 

You can also try to use smaller plates as it is a simple way to trick your brain into thinking that you have more food than when you eat using a bigger plate. 

These were the best tips from us on how to avoid overeating when visiting your family during holiday breaks. Do you have any useful tips that you want to share? Let us know in the comments.