We all know how incredibly hard it can be to maintain a healthy lifestyle during the winter months. Along with indulging in comfort foods with our families, we’re attending countless work related events while struggling to maintain our waistline. Before long our “healthy living” goals becomes one of those elusive New Years resolutions.
So, if you’re trying to figure out how to enjoy the holiday festivities while maintaining a healthy diet, here are some survival tips to remember and apps to keep in your pocket:
- Plan Ahead – If your company or client is having a company party at a restaurant, research the menu items the night before the event so that you can see how it fits into your meal plan. For those of us watching our waist size, the Weight Watcher Mobile app makes dinning out a little easier. Here’s how it works: Enter a menu item and the app calculates the PointsPlus value. You can also compare meals from your favorite restaurants and make the smart choice. Â The app is available for free on the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.
- Eat Beforehand —Web.md suggests eating a small, nutritious snack before leaving for the party. This helps to take the edge off of your appetite and gives you willpower to resist hors d’oeuvres, saving your calories for the meal.
- Choose Wisely – Use a smaller plate, such as the dessert plate, to help you reduce your portion size. Kevin Curry, Founder of Fit Men Cook also recommends the following food choices when dining out:
- Choose grilled seafood or chicken breast over beef at restaurants
- Ask for steamed or grilled veggies and NO butter or oil
- Avoid heavy, creamy gravies and fried foods
- Vodka + lemon + (soda) water will help you keep it lower calorie;
If all else fails and you just can’t seem to figure the calories out—there’s an app for that. MyFitnessPal, a popular calorie counter lets users track their daily activity and food intake. And, it includes a database of nutritional information for over 3,000,000+ food items and cuisines.
Here’s how it works: Enter your fitness profile and the app will recommend a daily Net Calorie target for you to achieve your weight loss goals. As you eat and exercise throughout the day, you can log your meals and exercise in the Food and Exercise diaries. MyFitnessPal will calculate the number of calories you’ve consumed from food and burned from exercise and let you know how many calories you have left to eat for the day.
The app is available for free on the iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, Blackberry, Android, and Windows.