You are prepped and ready for days upon days of holiday cooking, yet you are worried about your weight loss goals. Have no fear; there are a few things you can do in the kitchen to keep those goals in sight. Your weight loss goals will thank you if you only do just a few things like:
Skip the sugar – Sugar and the holidays go hand in hand, or so it seems. Despite what would seem like a perfect pair, nothing can destroy some weight loss goals quite like gobs and gobs of sugar. This is the perfect time to start looking for some sugar substitutes.
You can often replace sugar with honey. Do keep in mind that honey can raise a persons blood sugar levels higher than that of cane sugar. The advantage to honey is that it is much healthier for you. You can also look at things like sugar substitutes known as Splenda, Stevia, and NutraSweet just to name a few. Do your research on these before you use them, as some people do not like how some of these are manufactured sweeteners.
Reduce butter and oil – Have you ever noticed how many of grandpa’s best winter recipes call for hordes of butter and oil? Most winter foods are made in a way to help tack on a layer of body fat as insulation in the cold months. Nothing will decimate your weight loss goals quicker than eating some holiday bread that consists of two sticks of cinnamon butter. This is a perfect time to just reduce the amount of butter and oil that goes into recipes. Your recipe may end up a bit dryer thanks to this, but your weight loss lifestyle will not be in jeopardy.
Cut the cream – One last item to cut is cream. Yes, cream makes some great additions to things like fudge, breads, and holiday sauces, but it will trounce all over your weight loss achievements from the past few months. You can do two things for cutting cream. The first is to just find a replacement for cream. Water may work well in your recipe. Another way to cut cream is to cut the amount of cream you use in your recipes. By this, instead of using a full cup of cream, use ½ a cup of cream combined with ½ a cup of water or skim milk. This cuts the fat and calories, while keeping you on the road to weight loss success.
Make smaller portions – The last thing you can do that people may not even notice is to make smaller portions of food. If you are making cookies, make smaller cookies. Cut holiday breads into thinner slices, same with pies. When shelling out bountiful dinners, use smaller portions and load up on healthier items like steamed veggies. You can also use smaller plates as many folks will only load up one plate of food. Smaller portions are a sure fire way to helping keep you, and your guests, on the road to weight loss success.
If you are the grand pubah in the kitchen, then you have full control over how weight loss friendly your holiday meals are. Keep your food eye appealing and nobody will even notice that you used a fraction of the sugar than what you were originally supposed to.
