How not to fall into Christmas excesses. A healthy lifestyle.

The stress and rush of Christmas preparations, the huge variety of delicious-looking festive foods in shops and restaurants, the gifts of food we receive and the eating behaviour of those around us create the perfect formula for overeating at this time of year – all circumstances that can ruin a healthy life.

Many people arrive in January with a few extra kilos and an urgent need to take a break from all the rich festive food.

If you want to avoid excessive weight gain and the sagging skin this can cause while still enjoying your food without overindulging, pay attention to some of the following tips we’ll show you.

We can eat mindfully and still enjoy different festive foods and drinks during the Christmas season without going overboard.

Tips for healthy eating and living over the Christmas period

1- Plan and create feeding strategies

When we set out to do something in advance, we are more likely to do it.

Having a clear idea of how to do something can enable you to be more effective, rather than what happens if you have a vague idea of what you want to do. It is important to decide in advance the approximate events or situations about what and how much you are going to eat or drink during the Christmas holidays.

You can opt for take your own healthy snacks with you to the office or decide how many chocolates, cakes or biscuits you will limit yourself to eating during the day. If you tend to enjoy second helpings at meals, plan in advance to only eat one serving, especially if you know from experience that you tend to get saturated when you eat a second helping and may not enjoy it as much as the first.

Decide on a strategy for dealing with leftovers, such as freezing them or turning them into a practical meal for the next day. If you’re eating out over Christmas, plan ahead to make sure you don’t overeat and, if you’re going to opt for three courses, make sure that at least one of them is a lighter and healthier option.

It is also necessary to consider avoiding high-fat foods such as fried foods or creamy or cheesy sauces.

2- Don't be influenced by other people.

Don’t let other people decide what or how much you eat or drink, since some people tend to encourage eating; perhaps your co-workers will put food on your table, or your loved ones will buy you a snack or bring you sweets when you are watching TV without your asking for them.

Maybe the way you eat will help them justify their eating and make them feel better about their own eating, so beware of others sabotaging your intentions, as ifyou are prone to overeating or comfort eating, you should be aware that you may be accepting other people’s offers of food to satisfy your need or desire to eat. If you want to avoid overeating during the holidays, communicates your needs and intentions to others.

3- Eat what you really want

It is important to enjoy food, while still feeling responsible for it, and when you overeat senselessly, you can enjoy very little.

A good way to regulate your eating is to opt for the foods you really crave and leave out the others, and then savour and fully enjoy the ones you like.

We often seek that hit of pleasure in food, and if we don’t particularly enjoy a food, we may keep eating until we find something that gives us that hit. If there is a box of chocolates, give away the ones you don’t like and enjoy the ones you do like.

How can Christmas excesses affect us?

Bingeing on high-fat foods, even for a short period of time, can lead to a reduction in the body’s sensitivity to insulin.. This is a hormone that is crucial for regulating our blood sugar levels.

Insulin is not as effective in controlling blood sugar levels after ‘indulging’ in a high-calorie, high-fat diet. The kind of foods that are synonymous with the festive season such as sausages and cheese are particularly rich in saturated fats.

More than sugar, it is fatty foods that are more detrimental to our ability to regulate blood sugar levels. These foods remain in our body in the form of fat, which is difficult to eliminate, leading to weight gain and sagging skin.

Get back to healthy living over the Christmas period with the help of Clinica Rigo in Tarragona

If you want to avoid overeating at Christmas, there are many steps you can take to feel more in control of your eating.

Treatments such as integrative nutrition or Pronokal methodology help you to eat in moderation using mindful eating strategies, such strategies can be very enjoyable and more pleasurable than mindless overeating, and you can arrive at the end of Christmas with a sense of accomplishment, rather than rushing back to that diet to lose all the pounds you gained.

These treatments are non-restrictive, non-depriving, flexible and more balanced, which means you no longer have to go on restrictive diets.span,

You just have to pay a little more attention to what you eat and how much you eat, and eat according to your body’s needs while eating foods you really enjoy.

Contact and book an appointment with Clinica Rigo Aesthetic Medicine in Tarragona, to help you enjoy the Christmas holidays without the remorse of overeating or if you have sinned too much we also have a solution.span,

Don’t wait any longer and come and visit us at our clinic in Tarragona to find together the right treatment for your needs.