Susan Smith Jones, PhD

Just in Time for the Holiday Season: 20 Healthy Eating & Behavioral Modification Tips to Prevent Weight Gain & Promote Vitality

Here are 20 surefire tips that I use with my clients and friends that really work if you want to prevent weight gain or even lose weight during the holidays (or vacations, parties, and family gatherings year-round). In America, with all of the holiday festivities, parties, gatherings, and calorie-dense foods, it's not uncommon for people to gain weight between Thanksgiving week and the first week of January. In fact, over half of Americans will gain between 5 - 10 pounds during this short time. OUCH! Let's make this the first holiday season that you actually feel on top of the world when the New Year arrives — with soaring self-control and confidence and a healthier and stronger you — without gaining any extra weight.

You’ll find loads more valuable information in my 3-book healthy eating and living set published by Hay House — The Healing Power of NatureFoods, Health Bliss, and the full color recipe book with over 150 photographs Recipes for Health Bliss. You can find out how to purchase this special set at a substantial discount, known as the Blissful Living set, if you click HERE.

If you desire more information on being successful in the weight loss arena, click HERE. The Weight Loss Rebellion magazine provides lots of motivation.

And if you'd like to listen to Susan talk about all of these weight loss tips on a radio interview with host Jamie Dickerman, please click HERE.

1. Start the day in a healthy and positive way: Just as the first day of a new 30-day health and get-fit plan sets the tone for the entire month-long program, the first 40 minutes of each day sets the tone for the entire day. How do you want these first minutes to be in the morning? I want them to be relaxed, happy, healthy, positive, and sanguine. To make this happen, do what you can the night before so your first moments upon arising can be as positive as possible. Lay out your exercise clothes or your work clothes so you don't need to think about what to wear in the morning. Perhaps you can pack the lunches for yourself and your kids the night before. Or how about this? Set the kitchen table for breakfast the evening before so it's ready to greet you in the morning. When you begin the day in this most positive way, your entire day will flow more smoothly and confidently. During the holidays, there's so much added stress in our lives, so this simple practice of honoring those 40 minutes will make a profound difference in your life. Start tomorrow morning and contintue this simple practice thereafter. In an upcoming Blog, I'll share with you what I do the first 40 minutes of the day.

2. Take the best multivitamin in the morning: Whether it's during the holidays or any time year-round, it's important to start the day with a healthy breakfast and a good multivitamin. This will help you make better food choices throughout the day. Studies show that people who eat a healthy breakfast rarely overeat during the day. For 20 years, I have taken my favorite multivitamin called... 

E3Live. It's a superfood extraordinaire that I'd never be without. It's one of the reasons that I haven't had a cold or the flu in all this time. Last month, the national news shows in America were all over the latest study of multivitamins and how they can be unhealthy to take, and even downright dangerous. E3Live, in my estimation, is the world's safest and most effect multi-supplement anywhere — and millions talking it would agree.

Just last month, E3Live won the prestigious first place award for the "Best Superfood in the VegHealth Awards" at World VegFest. It provides 65 easily absorbed vitamins, minerals, and enzymes and has more active chlorophyll than any known food. It is harvested organically and sustainably. It's often referred to as Earth's first food. I begin each morning with 1-2 ounces of this liquid (it also comes in capsules, which I take with me when I travel). It fills in all the nutritional gaps that I might experience during the day, and especially during the holidays. I encourage you to order E3Live today. Within the first week of taking it, you will notice a positive difference with how you feel and look — and especially extra energy, focus, concentration, and endurance. Moreover, you'll experience a more positive attitude and mood because of its benefit on the brain and all of your 70+ trillion cells. And it will give you the edge that you need during the holidays to resist too many food temptations, too. The friendly and knowledgeable staff at the E3Live company can answer all of your questions about this award-winning nutritional supplement and how it will benefit your health. To order, call: 888-800-7070 (US & Canada) or 541-273-2212 (Intl), both PT.

3. Eat frequently and don’t skip meals. A common strategy, especially during the holidays, is to skip breakfast—and lunch—because you know a big meal is coming, so you save up the calories for the celebration. This strategy backfires, because you come to the meal starving and wind up eating way more than you ever intended. Eating frequently throughout the day on healthy foods helps to eliminate hunger, which in turn prevents overeating. It will also help stabilize your blood sugar. Even a small meal of something healthy is better than none at all.

4. Bring healthy snacks while out shopping or in the car. This is in line with guideline #3. Roaming the mall for hours or sitting in holiday traffic leaves everyone starving and vulnerable to the usually bad fast food choices. If you come prepared to roam around with some crunchy, healthy snacks such as apples, oranges, celery, carrots, or even nuts or raisins (just watch the portion size on these last two as they are calorie-dense foods), you’ll be less likely to succumb to the call of the food court or fast food restaurants. I always bring some kind of sprouts with me that I've grown at home. This way I'm assured of getting lots of nutrients. To learn more about the benefits of sprouts and growing your own, click on this Sprout Blog Series. If you want to purchase sprouting seeds and supplies, visit: HandyPantry.com. This is where I get all of my sprouting starter kits and supplies, microgreens starter kits and seeds, and wheatgrass starter kits and supplies. This is the premier company in the world for all things related to growing your own microgreens, sprouts, and vegetables at home indoors for pennies (and only a few minutes of your time weekly).

5. Have something before you go out, especially to a holiday party or big dinner. You know what foods you need to stay away from. Well, those foods are a lot harder to resist when you’re starving and your blood sugar is low. An ounce of prevention goes a long way here. A piece of fresh fruit, some whole grain crackers, or a piece of whole grain bread or toast with some fresh fruit jam, or a nut butter like peanut or almond, will keep your appetite at bay. Try any of them an hour before the big holiday dinner and watch your willpower soar while your waistline stays in place.

6. Don’t hang out near the food. Putting some distance between you and the food creates a necessary obstacle between you and calories. Besides, you will have to walk more to go back and forth between the foods and where you are hanging out and this will burn extra calories.

7. Don’t just eat to be “social”. Try to avoid eating just because others around you are. If you are not really hungry, nibble on a celery stick or sip on something low-calorie.

8. Watch out for processed carbs. Processed carbs, like breads, crackers, and chips are everywhere. Even though they aren’t always sweet, most are high in refined starch, which converts to sugar in the body quickly (and with no fiber to slow its release into the system) and can end up as stored fat.

9. Plan ahead. Especially during holidays like Christmas, Easter, New Year’s Day, try to plan around where you’re going, what temptations are likely to arise, and how you’re going to deal with them. Decide in advance what you’re going to allow yourself, but prepare for it so you don’t go overboard. It is okay to taste things without finishing them.

10. Fiber is your secret weapon. Not only is fiber supremely healthy and directly related to the reduction of risks for a whole host of diseases, it is a huge player in the weight-loss field. It also contributes to a feeling of fullness. Consume as many high-fiber foods as possible before attacking any other foods. Raw veggies contain sufficient bulk to fill you to some degree, before you turn to the high-sugar, low fiber junk that converts to fat right away.

11. Eat slowly. Hormones signal the brain when you’re full, but it takes about 20 minutes from start time before you feel it. Slow eating not only aids in digestion but also gives your brain a chance to know what the stomach is doing. If you make the meal last, by talking, putting down your fork between bites or just plain waiting, you’re less likely to eat on “automatic pilot” and more likely to realize you’re full. Besides eating slowly, chew your food thoroughly. You’ll be amazed how much will power you can generate when you take your time and give your “satiety center” an opportunity to tell you that you aren’t that hungry anymore.

ON THE FLIP SIDE — Finish your big meals within an hour of starting. The body produces a second insulin hit if it senses a lot of food coming in continuously. You can avoid that second hit (and the subsequent fat storage that it triggers) by finishing within an hour of starting. If you see something you like that you forgot to eat within the hour, that’s fine; just save it for tomorrow or later. It will still be there, and you won’t be wearing it on your hips.

12. When all else fails, portion control can help. Many people lose weight and keep it off with the simple strategy of portion control. Eliminating or even limiting certain foods is harder during certain times of the year such as the holiday season. So do the next best thing during those times. Eat reasonably small portions, limit the foods you know you should limit, and don’t stuff yourself.

13. Calorie density is the key. Calorie density may be the most important key to helping people lose weight and maintain a healthy weight. So remember the key principles of calorie density; by filling up on foods that are lower in calorie density first, you will be less likely to overeat on foods that are relatively higher in calorie density. The foods that are lowest in calorie density are fresh vegetables, fresh fruits, and unrefined complex carbohydrates. The foods that are highest in calorie density are refined carbohydrates and all high fat foods with oils and fats being the highest.

Also, if you are going to eat foods that are higher in calorie density, you can “dilute” the calories out by eating them with foods that are lower in calorie density. For example, have baked corn chips (high calorie-dense food) with salsa (low calorie-dense food). Low calorie dense foods fill you up and provide healthy fiber. Almost all produce qualifies as an excellent choice for a low calorie-dense food.

14. Fill up on salad. Whenever possible, always fill up on a salad first. A full salad plate looks like a lot of food and psychologically “feels” the same way. You can always go back for seconds, or even thirds; but all of this slows down the eating process, giving you more time to feel full. And more often than not, the larger portions of food you might have eaten if they had been on your plate will wind up staying on the buffet table. During the holidays, it's more important than ever to eat a healthy salad every day. For some delicious, nutritous, and easy-to-prepare holiday recipes that the entire family will love, and recipes you can use year-round, check out my new full color recipe book Recipes for Health Bliss. Regarding this celebrated book, renowned author and publisher Louise H. Hay says: "It's the most beautiful health book on the planet." You can peruse the Introduction, Table of Contents, and the first 30 pages of this book by clicking the link. It's makes a wonderful gift. When you purchase this book through the telephone number in green below at the bottom of this page, you can request a copy with a personal autograph from me, which comes with a bonus gift — a FREE natural remedy booklet/CD combo with each purchase.

15. Keep your body hydrated. Our bodies are 70% water. Our cells are 70% water and our planet earth is 70% water. That’s no coincidence. Each day we need to drink 8 glasses of purified water and even more when it’s hot, during exercise, or in a dry climate or dry atmosphere, like an airplane’s. You probably won’t feel thirsty every time you need to drink. Most of us have downplayed our water needs for so long that our thirst mechanism doesn’t work as well as it ought to. Interestingly, if you gradually work up to eight glasses of water every day, your thirst response will become more reliable. For those of you who desire to look younger, lack of moisture in faces causes wrinkles the way lack of moisture in grapes causes raisins or in plums creates prunes.

Water also is a safe, cheap, and effective appetite suppressant. Often when we think we’re hungry, we are actually thirsty. This is because the brain requires both water and sugar, and we can confuse the signals it sends us. The next time you think you’re hungry, but you ate not long ago, drink instead. If your body wants water, you’ll be satisfied. If not, eat something.

16. This is not about being perfect; it is about doing the best you can. Most of us know by now what our “trigger” foods are and the effects certain foods have on our mood, appetite and energy. We also know which are the worst foods that we should be staying away from. If you can’t abstain from problem foods all of the time, especially during the holidays, at least abstain from them most of the time. “Most of the time” is a lot better than “none of the time”.

17. This is NOT a diet! If you think of yourself as being “on” or “off” a diet, you’re going to get into trouble. Why? Because as soon as you think or feel like you have gone off the diet, you really go off, as in the deep end. Don’t set yourself up for this disaster. A taste of something doesn’t mean you’ve sinned and definitely doesn’t mean, “What the heck, I might as well eat the whole thing”. Also, one bad meal doesn’t mean you have to ruin the rest of the day (or week) either.

18. Visualize yourself as a healthy, positive person. Visualizing your food goals (and all of your health and other goals) as already completed will increase your motivation, keep you on course, and hasten your success.

19. Make sleep a top priority in your life and set the tone for the day. When you don’t get enough sleep nightly, around 7-9 hours, it sets your body up to hold on to all of the calories you eat and also causes you to crave foods that are not good for you – the most calorie-dense foods. Have you ever noticed that after a food night’s sleep, you are more positive in the morning and you make better food choices? It’s true. Also, keep this in mind. The first 40 minutes of the day sets the tone for the day. So make sure that during your morning routine, you are relaxed, happy, not rushing around, and you begin your day with a healthy meal within one hour of getting up. If you skip breakfast, it causes your metabolism to slow down. And if maintaining or losing weight is your goal, you definitely don’t want that to happen. Eating smaller meals (three reasonably-sized main meals and two snacks) throughout the day, as opposed to one or two really large meals during the day, keeps your metabolism stoked and this supports healthy weight loss.

20. Make it easy with a 30-day detox and rejuvenation program to jumpstart your vitality. My new book, Walking on Air: Your 30-Day Inside and Out Rejuvenation Makeover, is based on my decades of work with thousands of people around the world. It offers a 30-day, life-changing, step-by-step program for a healtheir, happier, and more successful YOU. Breaking down life changes into a manageable 30-day plan, I show you how to make simple, yet effective, choices with your food, your body, your personal style, your home, your relationships, your lifestyle, your finances, and your state of mind. Each shift is a daily turn toward better health, more conscious living, and greater awareness of the spiritual calm that can infuse all aspects of your life. Their cumulative effect is designed to bring you to a new level of vibrant health, deeper joy, and a more peaceful, balanced life so that your spirit soars. Designed to create lasting change, after a month's dedication to this plan, you'll feel rejuvenated both inside and out, less bound to earth by anxiety and physical complaints, and more like you are walking on air. This book was designed to go with its companions Recipes for Health Bliss and The Joy Factor: 10 Sacred Practices for Radiant Health. With each purchase of any of these three books, you can get a bonus gift — a FREE copy of one of my booklet/CD combos on natural remedies. You can pick which booklet/CD combo you would like as a gift — according to your health needs. In other words, if you purchase three books, you'll get three extra booklets as a gift with your purchase. To take advantage of this gift offer, call: 800-523-9971 (US & Canada) or 215-632-6100 (Intl), both ET, M - F.