A New and Improved Healthy Writer Blog is at www.HealthyWriter.com

As we've discussed before, holidays, anniversaries and birthdays are wonderful times to pause, evaluate where we are, celebrate what we've accomplished, and make plans for needed improvements. This kind of self-reflection inspired Trish Milburn to start this blog in anticipation of the big 4-0, and we all continue to embrace that same spirit with everything we do. With the approach of the Healthy Writer blog's one-year anniversary at the end of July 2010, we saw a wonderful opportunity to push even further with what we can achieve individually and as a group.

The celebration begins with a new, improved, redesigned Healthy Writer at www.HealthyWriter.com!

Come visit us there!

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What is a healthy approach to eating during holidays and vacations?

In mid May I spent two, lovely weeks in California. The first, several days were spent in L.A. for an annual industry conference I attend for work. It's always a fun occasion that I anticipate, and one of its highlights this year was an exclusive party at Universal Studios Park with a free concert by Maroon 5 at the Gibson Theater. After the conference ended, my parents met me for a vacation in central California and L.A. We drove along the coast and stopped in many cute towns, went to Santa Barbara and Solvang, toured three missions and Hearst Castle in San Simeon, visited the Reagan and Nixon presidential libraries and San Luis Obispo's tiny historical museum, and spent a day along the piers and boardwalks of three, tony beach towns north of L.A. We also ate a lot. All my meals were catered or eaten in restaurants, and I did a fair amount of snacking at receptions, coffee shops, bakeries and even in the car.

I never approach a holiday, vacation or conference expecting to lose weight. I want to enjoy my life and all the many opportunities I have to experience new things. Food is part of that. I don't want to spend time worrying about counting points or fearing I will gain weight while on holiday. At the same time, I am very aware of all the hard work and effort I've put into finding ways to control my tendency to overeat and my weakness for emotional eating.

I'm not sure it is healthy that I seemed to ignore most of what I have learned about healthy eating during those two weeks in California. I was aware of what I was eating every day, and there were moments when I had pangs about how bad my portion control, snacking and meal choices were. Some days were better than others, but I did not have one "good" eating day where I stayed within my point/calorie count for the day. I didn't beat myself up about this, but I do wonder if I'd given myself too much latitude to overeat.

I knew when I approached the scale at Weight Watchers on the first Tuesday after I returned from California that it wasn't going to be pretty. I joked with myself that I hoped I hadn't gained more than 5 pounds, so I wasn't surprised to see I had gained 5.2 pounds. I didn't freak. My clothes still fit. It's not time to panic, but I didn't like to see that I'm now down only 27.4 pounds since 1/09, and I'm not particularly fond of how much I weighed that night. I can't change what I ate in California, and honestly, I had a really good time. I'm not going to beat myself up about it, but I do want to figure out if I should develop a different approach to holidays or vacations in the future.

Since January of 2009, I have gained weight during weeks with work conferences, holidays or vacations. I always lost that weight fairly quickly and went on to lose more. In fact, the last time I gained 5 pounds in 2 weeks was during August 2009, and that gain was what finally broke the exercise-induced plateau that had been haunting me for months that summer. It could be that this 5 pound gain is what will finally break this 3 month streak I had going of staying between 31 and 33 pounds down, and I will be able to start a several month long streak of losing weight. Naturally, I would have rather broken this (possible) plateau by losing weight, but I'll take whatever works.

All of this may be way too much optimistic spin, and I still don't know if I should change my approach in the future. While today is a day to honor military personnel who have died for their country, many also consider it the unofficial start of the summer. I have several more holidays and vacations to anticipate the next few months, the rest of the year and even this week. My birthday is this Friday. I plan to enjoy all my special occasions for the rest of my life, but I'm not sure I want to have any more five pound weight gains in two weeks during my journey to becoming and staying a healthy writer.

What do you think is a healthy approach to eating during holidays and vacations? Do you have any tips for me for my next holiday or vacation?

Michelle Butler has made becoming a healthy writer a priority. She lives, works and writes in the Washington, DC, area. You can follow her on twitter at http://twitter.com/healthywrtr

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The Dark Side of the Holidays

By now, you have probably heard more times than you care to how much weight the average person gains over the holidays. The usual assumption is that people gain weight because they can’t resist the temptation of all the yummy foods that are everywhere this time of the year. I think some of that weight gain may be caused by the darker side of the holidays – the negative thoughts and emotions this time of year can engender. If you are an emotional eater, you may want to dive into that plate of Christmas cookies to push down those unsettling feelings. Many people turn to food for comfort, and I can be at the front of that line.

I honestly believe that one of the best ways to combat emotional eating is to try to work out the negative thoughts, feelings, and emotions that you’d rather suppress by eating. Furthermore, working out these feelings can help you control other, more negative reactions than stuffing your face. This is hard stuff, but awareness is the first step of that battle. Are you feeling any negative thoughts or emotions because of the holidays? Does any of the following sound familiar?

Stress: The holidays are supposedly a time of joy and happiness and all you feel is stressed out. There is so much to do this time of the year, and a lot of it is left to the wife or mother to accomplish. You may be struggling to get it all done and feel resentful that you aren’t enjoying all the work you are putting into the holidays or the fact that nobody seems to appreciate your efforts. You are starting to skip doing the stuff that you do just for yourself and sliding back into bad health habits. You may resent that this seems so much easier for everyone else. You may even be looking forward to January when things return to normal. You deserve a pick-me-up in the form of a cookie or two or three. Eating for reward is so tempting.

Financial Concerns: The holidays are so expensive. I’ve often thought that I just can’t save during the holidays and have, at times, worried about acquiring debt from the presents I feel I have to purchase or the travel plans I make to spend time with family. This is an even tougher year financially for most. Are you worried about money and feel like the holidays are making you lose control? How many presents do you need to give your children so that they aren’t deprived? How much do you splurge on your plans for the festive meals? How do you pay for it all – especially if you are worried about being laid off or you have recently lost your job?

Loneliness: The holidays are supposedly about family. If you don’t have one, you’re estranged from your own, or you live far away from them, you may feel lonely now. You may not feel like you should fuss over the holidays or decorating if it’s all just for you. All the commercials, holiday specials and holiday movies show perfect looking people bonding over their family ties – or at least that’s how it looks to you. Single people may feel their lack of a life partner most keenly right now. Many profiles on EHarmony or Match.com have been completely rewritten in the past few weeks. The latest version of those darn match and eHarmony commercials are showing up on TV during your favorite shows. You feel like everyone in the whole world has someone to share this special time with but you, so why shouldn’t you bake dozens of your favorite cookies and eat them this weekend.

Who’s Missing at the Celebration?: Is someone you love currently deployed? The year my father was in Panama for Operation Just Cause instead of in Connecticut for Christmas Eve is not my favorite holiday ever. Has someone you loved passed away in the past year? You’re going to miss them keenly at the holidays and relieve part of the grieving process. You may miss someone who passed away 10, 20 or 30 years ago. The loved one may be at the celebration but seems so changed that you still miss him or her. You may be with your in-laws or friends and wish you were with your own family or vice versa.

Merry Christmas from the Family: Have you ever heard this Robert Earl Keen song? It’s about a dysfunctional family celebrating Christmas, and it’s not Currier & Ives type stuff, but it may be much more realistic than your favorite holiday movie. Are there suppressed emotions, disagreements, or other unpleasantness that always seem to erupt at dinner – or are you so sick of seeing others ignore it?

Time Flies: How can it be the holidays again already? Where did the time go? It’s another year gone and you’re getting older. You had so many things you wanted to accomplish this year with nothing to show for it.

Spiritual Emptiness: Christmas is a major religious holiday for some, and Hanukkah has become more important than it was for centuries. Are you feeling it? Do you want to? Do you believe? Did you before but not anymore? Are you a Christmas/Easter Christian and feeling guilty? Do you resent the questions?

I’m not Christian and I wish everyone would stop talking about Christmas: You cannot escape from all the Carols. You are so sick of secular and religious celebrants of Christmas shoving the holiday in your face and making it more difficult for you and your family to stay true to your beliefs.

Does any of the above sound familiar? Are there other issues that you are struggling with right now? Are they making you overeat? Figuring out what’s bothering you may help you start working out the issues and help prevent the average weight gain of the holidays. More importantly, it’ll help you feel better and help you enjoy the festive aspects of this time of the year.

Photo: Elise Hayes and I enjoyed the festive aspects of the holidays at yesterday's WRW Holiday Party.

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Resisting Food Pushers

In late summer, the management of the building where I work held an ice cream social. I had just returned from a work conference during which I had eaten way too much and was trying to get my eating back under control. I planned to skip the event.

Not one, not two, not three, but four people came by my office at different times to make sure I knew about the event and invite me to go downstairs with them. I was able to put off the first two by saying I was doing some work then but would try to go down later. The next two offered to wait for me and pushed hard to get me to commit to a time that I would go to the event with them.

Now, of course, I wanted to go eat the ice cream. I pretty much want to eat fun food whenever I have the opportunity, but I know I can’t do that and reach or maintain a healthy weight. I was really struggling with my weight loss in August 2009 and wanted to show I had what it takes to make this a success. I wish I could say this is a triumphant anecdote and I figured out a way to avoid going to the social. I went with the fourth person and had a big sundae. It was pretty tasty, and I gained more than three pounds that week.

It’s hard to resist food pushers - particularly when you combine their influence with your own desire to eat whatever they are currently shoving at you. This only increases during the holidays. Food pushers run amuck from Halloween through New Year’s Day. Thinking of strategies to resist their efforts can be very necessary.

First, you should plan how much you are willing to eat going into any given situation. You are ultimately in control of what you eat. You may want to figure out what treats you’ll allow and which ones you’ll avoid to try to balance out your calorie intake. This will make it easy to refuse the initial offers. You may get lucky and there is only one offer.

If the food pusher offers again or insists, you may want to expand on your simple no, thank you. You may say you had a big lunch and aren’t hungry. You could say you aren’t feeling well. You could offer many reasons why you can’t eat that big piece of cake.

Another helpful suggestion I heard was to say no and then change the subject. No, thank you. By the way, how is your kid, your favorite pet, or some other topic the pusher can’t resist talking about endlessly.

Another element that can make it harder to resist food pushers is if you are in a family situation where food is more than just food. I made this for my beloved daughter, niece, granddaughter, daughter-in-law because I know you love it. The implication of how can you refuse my culinary effort and my love for you can be a powerful force that convinces you to eat something you’d rather not. Or, you have a father like mine who just loves to order people to eat more for some reason. Understanding how the appeal to other emotions besides the desire for food can encourage you to overeat is helpful. You have to resist two powerful appeals at one time. Realizing this by being conscious of all that is working against you is very clarifying. Knowing that can help you find ways to resist eating more especially when you really are full, don’t want the food in question, or are motivated to keep up with your healthy journey.

I am getting much better at avoiding and resisting food pushers. Being aware of all the forces working against me and having strategies to resist them is extremely helpful.

Do you have any tips for resisting Food Pushers? What has worked for you?

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A Quick and Healthy Meal during the Holidays

I’m sure you’ve heard before that the average person gains 7 pounds over the holidays. If you already have a weight problem, you tend to keep that new addition around permanently. While the holiday season can be a lot of fun, it’s also full of temptations and challenges to a healthy lifestyle. One of the ways you can keep yourself on the right path is to arm yourself with some very quick and easy but healthy and tasty recipes. I’ve got a great one for you!

Southwest Easy-Oven Chicken

Ingredients:

1 cup low-sodium chicken broth

1 15 oz can black beans

1 15 oz can pinto beans (original recipe calls for kidney beans)

Jar of salsa (original recipe recommended ¾ cup – use your favorite)

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breasts

Optional additions:

1 onion, chopped

1 green pepper, chopped

Cumin or chili powder – 1 teaspoon each

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Dump it all into a 13-by-9 inch baking pan. (Original recipe does say to rinse and drain the beans - I find that a waste of time.) I make sure the chicken breasts are buried by the liquid, beans, etc.

3. Bake, stirring once, until the chicken is cooked through and the liquid is reduced, about 45 minutes. Once cool enough to touch, shred the chicken and add it back to the pan.

There are lots of options in how to serve this. One day, I may eat it “straight”. The next day, I may serve it on a baked potato. I use it as taco filling and serve it on corn tortillas. I also like to cut the tortillas in quarters, bake them until they are like chips, and then use them to eat the southwest chicken dish like chips and salsa.

The original recipe appears on page 139 of Weight Watchers Simply the Best 250 Prizewinning Family Recipes published in 1997.

It makes 6 servings. Each serving is 4 points and provides: 2 breads, 2 protein/milks

Per Serving: 241 Calories, 2 g Total Fat, 0 g Saturated Fat, 42 mg Cholesterol, 385 mg Sodium, 29 g Total Carbohydrate, 3 g Dietary Fiber, 27 g Protein, 43 mg Calcium.

Do you have any favorite “quick and easy by healthy and tasty” recipes you’d like to share?

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All Those Little Things Count!

‘Tis the Season of jammed schedules, overwhelming stress and cookie overload. I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that people gain more weight during the months of November and December than they do the rest of the year combined. It’s so easy to get overwhelmed and busy, and to skip workouts. Or in the rush from here to there, the busy shopping sprints and plethora of holiday parties, to make poor food choices.

So how do we avoid working our way to a Santa-esque silhouette? In keeping with the Twelve Days of Christmas, here are twelve ideas to keep you on track toward your healthy goals this holiday season.

1. Make your shopping trip a workout. Wear your pedometer. Park as far away from the store as possible. Use the stairs instead of the escalator. Bicep curl those shopping bags. Power walk from store to store.

2. Crank up the holiday tunes and dance. Sing loudly and move your bootie while you decorate, wrap gifts, bake and clean house. The music will pump you up, the movement will help energize you while giving you a little bit of a workout.

3. Make a one-a-day rule for holiday treats. Instead of denying yourself the seasonal goodies you love, allow yourself one treat a day. That means one cookie. One piece of fudge. One small piece of fruitcake. One treat will translate to roughly 100 calories – but for smarter tracking, calculate it before you eat. And don’t forget to write it in your food journal.

4. Speaking of, keep that journal up this season. Having to honestly track and write down everything you eat –before you eat it. That habit will force you to take a brief pause, usually enough to let you decide if the food is really worth the calories.

5. Eat a salad or light soup before you hit the holiday party. If you’ve already filled up with healthy veggies or soup, you won’t be as tempted to scarf down at the buffet.

6. Drink carefully. Most alcohol packs a caloric wallop, as well as lowering your inhibitions. And sometimes there is only one inhibition standing between you and that spinach dip, so losing it is bad news. If you do drink, alternate a lower calorie choice like a glass of wine between every two or three glasses of waters.

7. Bake goodies. Yes, I know, being surrounded by all that tempting goodness can be scary. But my experience is that after spending a day slaving over it, you’re so sick of even the smell of fudge, divinity, caramels and cookies that you won’t be tempted to even taste a bite (your mileage on this may vary, so use this tip with caution).

8. Take time to de-stress. Even if it’s only fifteen minutes stolen between commitments, allow yourself to totally relax. Meditate, power nap, read a chapter in your latest romance novel.

9. Add pampering yourself to your holiday to-do list. Get a massage, a facial, a pedicure (be sure to check out the cute holiday nail art, too!).

10. Create a budget and stick to it. Both for shopping, and for calories.

11. Find non-food ways to celebrate. Go caroling, walk the neighborhood and admire the decorations, ice skate. Dive into that snowball fight with the kids, go sledding, experiment with different ways to enjoy the wonder and magic of the season.

12. Cut yourself some slack. We’re often stuck on the Super Woman track. We expect ourselves to write, decorate, bake, shop, diet, exercise, party and be the perfect holiday hostess, wife and mother. If you give yourself permission to only do half of your list this year, you’ll be so much more relaxed and quite likely find yourself even more productive.

How about you? Do you have any tips or ideas to help keep the pounds off, the smiles bright and the joy of the season front and center?

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Can You Take a Break?

A very common complaint of dieters is that they get so sick of having to be aware of everything they put in their mouths and constantly counting calories or points. They want to be able to eat “like everyone else” and not have to work so hard at this. They’re particularly jealous of thin people who seem to be able to eat whatever they want and still stay skinny.

This is definitely a complaint I’ve thought, felt and said through the years. I’ve gone so far as to say I’m going to take a break from keeping a food diary and stop obsessing about how many calories I’m eating. I’d often do this for a vacation, a business trip, a holiday or just whenever I needed a break.

The problem with this was that my old, bad habits were waiting to embrace me with open arms and I almost always gained weight. Whenever I went home to Connecticut for the holidays or vacation, it seemed like open season on overeating started as soon as I hit the airport. The smell of Cinnabuns or Five Guys would call my name so strongly that I’d kick off my trip by eating almost my whole calorie allotment for the day in one sitting.

I don’t want to do this the week I’m in Connecticut for Thanksgiving or later in December for Christmas. I’ve thought long and hard about how I can prevent this. I don’t plan to count points/calories on Thanksgiving Day, but I do plan to do that on the other days I’m out of town.

There have been previous trips home for Thanksgiving when I did not gain weight, and that was when I got a travel pass for the gym and worked out at a local Gold’s while in Connecticut. I got my travel pass yesterday and plan to work out both in November and late December.

My accomplishments on my journey to become healthy have inspired my Mom to go back to Weight Watchers and my Dad to try to lose weight. I know my Mom and I can encourage each other to be good starting Friday. I plan to go to a Weight Watchers meeting with her after Thanksgiving to put a stop to the holiday.

To further counterbalance the fear that I’ll gain a lot of weight at home – something that I could obsess over too much and let ruin my vacation – I’ve also given myself credit for what I’ve accomplished this year. I have changed a lot of my bad habits. I just can’t eat as much as I used to. Even if I could, there’s no way I could regain 30 pounds in one week. The stakes aren’t that high.

Furthermore, I’ve paid attention to my “thin” friends when they were eating enough the past couple of years to realize that I typically ate more than them at any one sitting. For the most part, they practiced much better portion control and balanced their calories in and calories out better than I did. This allowed me to stop being so jealous of how easy it was for them to be thin because I realized that they weren’t thin because they hit some genetic jackpot. They were thin because of healthy behaviors.

Realizing this allowed me to concentrate just on myself and what I need to do to change my life in terms of diet and fitness. I can finally say that I am on a lifestyle change and not a diet. There is no break from that. Even if I do gain weight while home for Thanksgiving, I’ll lose it once I return. I really am changing my life here and a blip here or a blip there is not going to keep me from continuing my journey to becoming and staying a healthy writer.

Do you take breaks from your efforts to become healthy? Do you have any good strategies for not allowing a break to keep you off track? Do you have any strategies for not gaining weight while on vacation or during the holidays?

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The Holiday Season and Your Health Goals

Today is one of the busiest and most important work days of the whole year for me as the annual conference for the association I work for has just begun, and tonight is the awards ceremony for a program I manage. To say that the stress of getting ready for this has posed challenges to my journey to becoming a healthy writer would be an understatement. While I will work to make sure I enjoy as much of this week in Denver as possible, part of me looks forward to returning to a normal pace and the chance to devote more energy to my journey to becoming healthy and other personal goals.

I will return to the D.C. area on Thursday night just days before Halloween, the start of the holiday season for many people. Halloween through New Year’s Day poses many challenges to people trying to become or remain healthy. While I think it is really important that you let yourself enjoy the festivities, I also think we all should think about what we want this two-month period to do to our health goals. Do you want to continue losing weight? Do you want to maintain? Do you want to give yourself permission to gain a little weight with the intention of losing it in 2010?

I intend to lose more weight in the next two months. Now, I’m not so militant that I expect to lose weight Thanksgiving week or the week of Christmas, but I think I can lose weight during most of the other weeks. I will plan around the big (eating) events in the next two months and will be extra good on the days and weeks that don’t have holiday parties or other festive occasions. I will also focus more on the social aspects of the holidays than the culinary delights.

What do you plan to do during the holiday season? Do you have any advice on how one can still lose weight during November and December?

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