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Hoodia - remedy or Ripoff

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The Sound & Town Report
December 24, 2004

Holiday Defensive Eating Strategies

by Gerald Anzalone, D.C.

Holidays typically threaten significant weight gain in millions of Americans due to excessive eating, dramatic changes in the foods consumed, and disruptions of normal eating routines, but one weight-loss expert advocates several basic defensive eating techniques to foil excess holiday calories and weight gain.

"Prepare yourself for several weeks before holidays and party time by banking calories," advises Dennis Gage, M.D., author of The Thinderella Syndrome: A Practical Guide to Individualized Permanent Weight Loss. "Look at your three meal patterns, and save 100 calories per day by eliminating some non-essential or less healthy food items. For example, I leave out deserts and some pasta dishes. This banking technique gives me leeway to spend an additional 2,000 calories or so at holiday time should I desire to do so."

In his book, Dr. Gage examines the phenomenon of epidemic obesity and its related diseases, the reasons why fad diets simply do not work, and he outlines his approach to long-term weight loss based on positive behavior and lifestyle changes. Gage, a Mamaroneck resident, is a board-certified physician in Internal Medicine, Endocrinology, Metabolism, and Clinical Nutrition. He is a Clinical Instructor in Medicine at New York University Medical School and is a Clinical Attending at Lenox Hill Hospital. He also runs a private clinical practice in New York City that is mainly devoted to the treatment of obesity and metabolically related diseases.

"You should also try to spend the holidays at someone else's house, lest you be held hostage to holiday food leftovers for the next three days. Even a restaurant meal may be better than having all those left-over meals," said Gage.

However, if you are celebrating holidays at home, Gage offers these defensive eating strategies:

  1. Pre-plan a holiday meal when you are not hungry, avoid buying large-size pre-fabricated foods, and emphasize healthy, low-calorie vegetables. Splash food dishes with a variety of colored seasonal vegetables.
  2. Avoid filling the house with danger foods such as candy, cakes, and breads.
  3. Follow the European style of eating to control portions. Enjoy a plate of food served directly to each person rather than placing all of the food on the table for self-service.
  4. Substitute a colorful variety of healthy fresh fruits for baked desserts.
  5. Get rid of leftovers by providing guests with take-home packages.

If you are spending the holidays as a guest in someone else's home, Gage suggests:

  1. Avoid hanging around the dinner table after you have eaten your meal.
  2. Try chewing gum in between meals if you are tempted to eat.
  3. Substitute wine spritzers for higher-calorie alcoholic beverages. Remember that water is the best beverage during and in between mealtimes.
  4. Avoid eating while standing.
  5. Seat yourself away from danger foods such as high-calorie junk food snacks.
  6. Before going to a party, eat a light, healthy snack to avoid feeling hungry, and be certain not to skip a meal, particularly breakfast.
  7. Take a walk after a meal to burn off excessive calories.

"These defensive eating strategies will not only help reduce the risk of weight gain during a holiday, but they also lay the foundation of a healthful eating approach that can be used year-round. The main thing to remember is that for permanent changes, you live a diet, you don't do a diet," emphasized Gage.

The Thinderella Syndrome, published by Vantage Press (August 2004), is available through Amazon at Gage's web site at www.thethinderellasyndrome.com.

 

 

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