Health - Blogger - Kimberley Elliott
Holiday Weight Management: It's in the Palm of Your Hand
Posted: Nov 10, 2011 10:49 PM
Updated: Nov 10, 2011 10:58 PM
Tis the Season to think about the ensuing plethora of holiday temptations. It starts with the Thanksgiving Feast, followed by the Christmas Eve and Day Smorgasbord, and finishes with the New Year's Day Buffet. How does one keep the waistline in check with so many pitfalls barreling down on them? The answer is in the palm of your hand.
This holiday season lend yourself a hand. Take a look at the marvelous gift of dexterity and duality your hand provides to you. Each of us has unique hands which keeps their general shape and size even when our waistline ebbs and flows. Use your hands as your unique guide to portion control during the holiday season.
STEP ONE - Think of the palm of your hand as your protein director. If you are a typical American and eat three meals a day each meal should include a protein that fits in the palm of your hand. You should look at the palm of your hand in diameter and thickness. So if you want some turkey, ham, eggs, beans or roast beef; you may look to your palm to gauge the appropriate portion size.
STEP TWO - Look at your hand stretched out wide, think of how you held it when you made the first tracing of your hand on a piece of paper and put a gobbler under your thumb a beak at the tip and turned your other digits in to lovely turkey feathers. That provides a visual guide for the amount of green leafy or low starch vegetables you should be consuming.
STEP THREE - Thank goodness for our thumb which allows us to grasp a fork, a plate and a thumb sized piece of dessert or sweet to take the edge off the sugar blues. This would equate to a thin slice of pie or if you want a taste of ice cream touch your index finger to your thumb to make a circle. The circle made represents the approximate size of the scoop of ice cream, sorbet, or fruit you can enjoy.
STEP FOUR - Don't go back for seconds and keep an eye on the liquid portions. Eggnog, alcohol, flavored drinks can all add up quickly to a caloric tsunami. If you choose to indulge pick one meal and have one drink. Water, decaffeinated tea or coffee, and low fat milk are the go to fluids for all other meals.
Take care and be healthy,
Kimberley
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