Tis the season

Tis the season for food, family, and fun!  I hope this Christmas brings you many joyous times and you are able to relax and recall fond memories from Christmas’s before.  However, as we all know this is also the time for sweets and desserts galore!  So how are we to go through this Christmas without over-indulging or without feeling deprived?  Well, my first suggestion is to have a “game plan” and have a good mind-set before your holiday feast.  For some of us, it is simply unrealistic to say we will eat NO desserts or sweets.  Then there are also some of us who have a very difficult time stopping once we have started eating those yummy sweets.  But there is middle ground, it doesn’t have to be black and white, there can be a gray area.  Here are a few tips to try and keep our sweet intake to moderation: 

1. Choose a small piece or maybe even a very small piece
2. Chew slowly, allowing the sweet to almost melt in your mouth
3. Set down your fork or cookie between small bites
4. Get your small piece and move away from the dessert table
5. Drink water or unsweetened tea between bites and after you finish

 So, yes, if you would like some cookies or candies this Christmas please help your self, but please do not feel guilty about your indulgence.  Realize this is a very special time of year, but also please remember the reason for the season is not our homemade sugar cookies or assorted chocolate candies, but instead this is our time to reflect on the things in life that we are most blessed and thankful for.  Merry Christmas to you all and I will “chat” with you in the New Year!  Greta Hopke, RD, LD

Posted: 2006-12-20