Navigating Special Occasions: Conquering the obstacles of special occasions, Discovering the best food options for you in any situation and Listing the top low-glycemic choices for holidays, vacations, and parties.

Navigating Special Occasions

In This Chapter

▶ Conquering the obstacles of special occasions

▶ Discovering the best food options for you in any situation

▶ Listing the top low-glycemic choices for holidays, vacations, and parties

If you’ve followed specific dietary guidelines for weight loss or a health condition in the past, then you’re all too aware of how easy it is to slide back into old habits during the holidays, at parties, and on vacations. Balance is the key to staying on track in these situations — but that of course is easier to write about than to actually find. If you lean too much toward the moderation side, you can end up going overboard. On the contrary, if you lean too much toward the strict side, you can end up being miserable, or worse, miss- ing out on special occasions.

Healthcare and wellness professionals throw out the word balance all the time, but very few of them define what that may look like and how it can be realistic for your lifestyle. In this chapter, I help you find that ever-elusive balance so you can enjoy special occasions without backsliding for months afterward.

Overcoming the Challenges Posed by Vacations, Holidays, and Parties

Odds are you’ve experienced setbacks to your weight-loss goals when faced with a work party, family or religious holiday, or a week-long vacation. But do you really understand why you got thrown off course? Following are some reasons why these special occasions pose a problem:

✓ People insist on giving you high-glycemic, high-calorie food gifts.

Getting homemade cookies from your friends during the winter holidays is common. You may even love to make these treats yourself. Although indulging a little is fine, having too many treats can work against you.

✓ Holiday gatherings and parties feature a limited amount of healthy choices and too much of the high-glycemic, high-calorie stuff. When you show up at either of these events, you never know whether low-glycemic foods will be on the menu. What you do know is that the number of high- glycemic, high-calorie foods will be, well, sky high! Being surrounded by so many foods can make it difficult to find the right balance on your plate. Fortunately parties and holiday gatherings are usually just one-day affairs, which won’t hurt your weight-loss efforts. During the holiday season, how- ever, you may find yourself going to many parties, which makes the ability to find that right balance far more important.

✓ Your motivation to make balanced choices is decidedly lacking.

Special occasions can easily lead to a lack of motivation, which means not thinking (or caring) about your food choices. It’s almost like an internal switch turns off during vacations, parties, and holidays, leading to unconscious eating.

✓ Past conditioning has you thinking it’s okay to eat “all bad foods” on special occasions. Many people view foods as good and bad. “Good”foods are for regular situations; “bad” foods are for special occasions, like vacations and holidays. Do you ever find yourself thinking, “When I’m on vacation, I’m going to eat everything bad”? This mindset treats the “bad” food like a reward or a natural part of your vacation. Such conditioning can be passed down through families.

One or two days of overindulging can’t cause you to gain weight, but several weeks or even months of overindulging most certainly can. When you give in to any of the challenges posed by special occasions, the effects almost always linger for a longer period of time than the actual event.

However, now that you know some of the reasons why holidays, vacations, and parties are so tough to get through, you’re better prepared to overcome the challenges they present. In the following sections, I share advice for eating what you want on special occasions while still staying on track with your low-glycemic lifestyle.

Avoiding the all-or-nothing mentality

I’m a firm believer that an all-or-nothing attitude toward dietary guidelines is not only one of the biggest diet traps but that it also makes true lifestyle change more difficult. Only a handful of people do really well with a strict diet protocol (and that’s often only because they must follow a strict diet due to a food allergy or gastrointestinal problems). Most people do better with a diet that leaves room for flexibility, which is one of the draws of the low- glycemic diet.

Perhaps you’ve found yourself in the all-or-nothing trap (also known as the good-and-bad trap) before. You feel that you’re either being “good” because you’re following your guidelines to a tee or being “bad” because you’re not following them at all. People fall into this trap during regular times of the year, but I see it happen most often during holidays and vacations. Why? Because in most cases people have either made a conscious decision that they’ll get back on track next month post-holiday/vacation or they’ve decided to be completely unconscious and not think about their food choices at all.

The problem with the all-or-nothing mentality is that you end up treating your new dietary guidelines as a temporary thing and not a part of your low-glycemic lifestyle. Telling yourself you’re being good or bad can lead you to think, “Well, if I’m going to be bad, then I’d better eat everything now.” When you think this way during the holidays or for one or two weeks while on vacation, you run the risk of regaining some weight, which often leads to feelings of guilt and frustration as well as a never-ending cycle of gaining and losing weight.

Getting rid of that all-or-nothing mentality helps you realize that you can enjoy all foods in your diet. The trick is balancing them so you don’t eat them all at one sitting every time you go on vacation or attend a party. Following are some suggestions for banishing the all-or-nothing mentality from your mind:

✓ Don’t think of slip-ups as failures. Instead, use them as tools to learn from for the future.

✓ Remember that you’re in this for the long haul. Don’t think of making good food choices as a short-term diet. You want to be able to incorporate all foods to make a low-glycemic lifestyle realistic for you.

✓ Embrace a support system. Peers and/or health professionals can encourage your weight loss by helping you set realistic goals and maintain a positive mindset. (Turn to Chapter 14 for help finding a solid sup- port system.)

Discovering moderation with high- glycemic, special-occasion foods

Moderation is more important than ever during special occasions such as holidays, parties, and vacations. Creating a balance of low- and high-glycemic foods on your plate when faced with the challenges presented earlier in this chapter can be difficult — but not if you have a strategic plan of action for achieving moderation.

How many calories does it take to gain a pound?

One of the biggest reasons moderation always wins out over the all-or-nothing mentality is because of the way people gain weight. To gain a pound of body weight, you need to eat 3,500 calories more than the amount of calories needed to maintain your weight. It’s highly unlikely that you’ll consume that much in one day of overindulging. However, if you throw caution to the wind and eat an extra 500 calories for every day of your week-long vacation, you’ll gain weight. Here’s the math: 500 extra calories × 7 days = 3,500 calories, or 1 pound of body fat.

No, 1 pound isn’t the end of the world, but for many people it’s a major setback. After you abandon your healthy guidelines for a week, it takes a while to get back on track. “A while” can easily turn into another couple weeks and subsequent pounds. If you tend to gain and lose 5 to 10 pounds regularly, this may be why.

Here’s a step-by-step breakdown of how to find moderation with your meals on special occasions (for more-general moderation guidelines, head to Chapter 9):

1. Scan the area and make a note of all the available high-glycemic, high- calorie foods you love.

2. Pick your top three most-loved foods from that list.

Whatever you do, don’t skip this step! Often when you give yourself the okay to eat everything in sight, you wind up overindulging on items you may not even like that much. I’ve been known to try something like an almond cookie even though it isn’t really anything I love and I know I could do without it easily. Pick your favorites instead of trying a little of everything.

3. Only eat the high-glycemic, high-calorie foods that made your top- three list.

As you try to focus on eating your top-three foods, you may dis- cover that you love lots of different foods that aren’t so good for you.

Remember: This party/holiday gathering/vacation isn’t the last time you can have these foods. You’re living a low-glycemic lifestyle, not following a strict diet, so you aren’t going to be deprived of all of these foods. You can have them at a later date — and should in moderation, of course. For now, either encourage yourself to stick to your top-three foods and eat smaller portions of these or get your very top favorite so you can eat a little more of this food.

4. Now scan the area for your favorite low-glycemic, low-calorie foods.

Maybe you really love a tossed greens salad, but you have a mental block against eating it at a party or ordering it on vacation. I once had a client who loved yogurt but tended to associate it with “diet food” after eating it while she was on one diet after another. She now eats yogurt less often, not because she doesn’t enjoy it but because it’s a mental block to restrictive diets of the past. To conquer a mental block of your own, simply ask yourself one question: Do you really enjoy this particular low-glycemic, low-calorie food? If so, you’ll likely enjoy it just as much as your higher-glycemic picks.

5. Slow down and enjoy your food.

The faster you eat, the less satisfied you’ll be — and the more you’ll want. I promise you’ll feel more satisfied if you slow down your eating and really take the time to enjoy your food.

By following these five steps, you can still indulge in all of your favorite foods on special occasions — without wasting calories and increasing your blood sugar over foods you don’t really love. Think of it as retraining your brain to eat what you love instead of munching on something because it’s there.

Creating balance for the day

Creating balance simply means taking into account all of your various food and lifestyle choices for the day. It goes hand in hand with moderation and is a good habit to get into. Balancing your food choices and physical activity also helps you steer clear of the all-or-nothing mentality (described earlier in this chapter) so you can feel okay rather than guilty when you overindulge a little here and there.

The trick to balancing your day is you have to feel good about doing it. If creating balance between your food and lifestyle choices seems like punishment, then you’ll feel like you’re dieting, and you won’t want to stick to this approach. There’s no need to punish yourself for not getting balance “right” because there are so many different ways to find a little balance in your day. For example, if you’re having a big brunch with your family, have a light lunch and dinner (think salad and soup). Another idea may be to just incorporate more exercise that day. Doing so helps stop your blood sugar from spiking all day and keeps your calorie level a little more under control.

To stand a better chance of being able to create balance in your day when you’re on vacation or attending a party or holiday gathering, use some of the following ideas (or brainstorm your own solutions that will work for you):

✓ When you know you’ll have one big meal in a day, eat light for the other meals. (Don’t skip the other meals though. That can hurt your metabolism, as explained in Chapter 8.)

✓ Incorporate exercise and movement. This may be as simple as taking the stairs more often or going on a walk to catch up with a friend or family member. If you’re on a destination vacation, take advantage of the fun activities that may be available, such as a nature hike or swimming.

✓ If you go to a party and can’t spot any low-glycemic foods for the life of you, just choose smaller portions of the high-glycemic foods that are available.

✓ Remember that you can have it all while on vacation, so there’s no need to splurge every meal of every day. For example, avoid choosing a high-glycemic, high-calorie breakfast every day. Instead, eat a healthier option on some days and indulge a little on the others. Also, if you know you’re going to go to a recommended ice cream parlor one night, make sure to eat healthy choices throughout the day leading up to your ice cream excursion.

✓ Grab or order a smaller piece of dessert, or just share a dessert with a friend or family member.

✓ Choose smaller portions of high-glycemic foods and bigger portions of low-glycemic foods. For example, if you’re faced with potatoes, macaroni salad, and a tossed greens salad at a picnic, choose a small serving (around 1⁄3 cup) of the potatoes and macaroni salad and fill the rest of your plate with the tossed greens salad.

✓ Avoid drinking too much. Whether you’re having mojitos at the beach or hot buttered rums at a holiday party, drinks add more calories to your diet. They may even increase your glycemic load for that meal. Make sure to drink plenty of water during the day to stay hydrated because dehydration can cause you to feel hungrier than you really are.

If you end up having a full day of indulging, don’t get upset. That’s absolutely, 100 percent not worth it. One day typically isn’t enough to make a difference in your weight or health. The goal is to get back on track the next day. Take a walk or eat a healthy, low-glycemic breakfast the morning after a day of indulging. Creating balance in your day (even if it’s the next day) is as easy as that. After you get the hang of this balance act, you’ll never again have to endure the frustrating weight-loss/weight-gain cycle.

Finding the Meal Items That Work for You

When you’re preparing your own meals in your own kitchen, making balanced choices that complement your low-glycemic diet is easy. Throw special occasions into the mix — when you often have little to no control over the available food options — and finding the foods that work right for you takes a little more creativity and planning. No matter the scenario, you can always find the best-choice option for your low-glycemic lifestyle. All you need to balance your way to success are the strategies and easy solutions I present in the sections that follow.

Being prepared for almost anything

Even though you can’t prepare for every circumstance, most of the time you do have some idea what to expect. That’s more than enough information to make a game plan ahead of the event.

Go through this checklist of questions to help you become more prepared to find foods that’ll work for you in a variety of special-occasion scenarios. I offer strategies for each one to give you some ideas, but you’re welcome to brain- storm your own strategies too.

✓ Is this event a one-time meal or a week-long deal, like a vacation? One meal isn’t too big an issue; you can just make the best choices when you get there. A vacation is another story. Think about where you’re going and what types of foods will be available in either the supermarkets or the restaurants so you can plan ahead.

✓ Will you have a kitchen at your vacation destination, or will you be depending on restaurants? Having a kitchen handy makes a huge difference for your vacation. When you have your own kitchen, you can shop at the local grocery store and create some fabulous healthy meals while limiting how much you eat out. If eating out is your only option, that’s okay. Just start looking at the local restaurants online to make sure you have basic-meal options. If your only options are restaurants that offer big, elaborate meals, you’ll be more likely to overindulge at every meal, which will inevitably lead to weight gain.

✓ Do you have a long drive to get to your destination? If the answer’s yes, pack a cooler with some sandwiches, fruits, and other healthy snacks. That way you’ll have less of a need to stop for fast food while you’re on the road.

✓ Do you know the person serving the meal at the party? If so, then you probably know her style of cooking. If she tends to prepare high-glycemic, high-calorie dishes most of the time, then eat lighter meals for the rest of the day.

✓ Is the event a holiday meal where you know exactly what will be served? A lot of families have traditional menus for holidays such as Thanksgiving. When you know the menu in advance, you can better plan how to balance out your plate. Load up your plate with the healthier foods and go easy on the high-glycemic, high-calorie foods. Stick to your top-three high-glycemic favorites and just eat smaller amounts, as explained in the earlier “Discovering moderation with high-glycemic, special-occasion foods” section.

✓ Is the event a one-time party where you have no idea what will be served? Don’t worry too much! Make your best choices and remember that one meal isn’t going to blow everything for you. Go for a walk that morning to get a little extra movement in for the day.

Respecting your host

When you’re invited to a dinner party or other event, never tell your host that you’re follow- ing a low-glycemic diet and ask him or her to change the menu just for you. If you have food allergies or a gastrointestinal disorder that keeps you from eating certain items, that’s one thing. Demanding healthier alternatives to complement your weight-loss program is another thing entirely. Your host may have other guests he or she needs to accommodate, and it can be overwhelming (not to mention downright rude and insulting) to receive many different requests to meet everyone’s needs.

Remember: To avoid disrespecting your host while still sticking to your low-glycemic lifestyle, offer to bring a low-glycemic side dish (without making a big deal that it’s low-glycemic). Or just ask what your host is planning on serving so you can be prepared.

Here’s a tip: If you want family and friends to ask about your dietary preferences, then make the effort to do that yourself whenever you host a party. Ask your guests, particularly if the party is a small affair, whether they have any special dietary considerations. Not only will people be appreciative that you asked, but they may even pick up on your cue.

Volunteering to bring a low-glycemic side dish

When the special occasion is a potluck (where everyone attending contributes a dish) or a gathering thrown by family or close friends, your best bet for regaining some control over your food options is to volunteer to bring a dish. No one has to know you’re bringing a dish that fulfills your low-glycemic dietary guide- lines. To others, you’ll just be bringing a yummy, healthy-looking side.

Afraid your healthy, low-glycemic side dish won’t taste good enough for a party or that people will turn up their noses? Don’t be. With so many people trying to lose weight, lower their cholesterol, or manage their blood sugar, having some healthy options at a party or potluck is sometimes a relief!

As for whether people will badmouth the food you bring, well, you’d be surprised how much people can enjoy good-tasting healthy food when they don’t realize what it is. One of my past clients brought a lowfat pumpkin pie to Thanksgiving with very picky relatives (as in the kind who immediately assume something tastes boring or bland if it’s healthier). My client just brought the pie and didn’t say a word about it. Guess what? She got rave reviews, and some of her relatives even asked for the recipe. At that point, she had to let the cat out of the bag and tell them it was actually a lowfat, low-calorie version of traditional pumpkin pie, but by then the “damage” was already done: She’d successfully introduced her family to a healthier way of eating without them even realizing it! Check out Part IV of this book to find tasty recipes for any meal or occasion.

Presenting the Best Low-Glycemic Food Picks for Special Occasions

A low-glycemic diet doesn’t restrict your food choices too much for special occasions. In fact, because a low-glycemic lifestyle is all about moderation, you can rest easy knowing that having a few medium- to high-glycemic items once in a while won’t ruin your efforts.

Whether you’re at a holiday gathering, on vacation, or at a party, you can almost always find some good choices. The following sections cover your top low-glycemic picks for these three main types of special occasions.

Holidays

The fall and winter holidays are often the most challenging time for many people working toward a health goal such as weight loss. The core culprit? All those goodies just hanging around at work and at home. However, when you really look at it, many holiday meal items work beautifully with your low- glycemic diet. Here are some top picks for the holidays:

✓ Halloween:

• Pumpkin dip

• Pumpkin soup

• Pumpkin seeds

If it’s not Halloween to you without a little candy, Peanut M&M’s and Dove dark chocolates are low-glycemic. They’re still high in calories though, so just eat a little bit to avoid overdoing it.

✓ Thanksgiving:

• Turkey

• Green beans

• Tossed greens salad

• Pumpkin pie

If you’re like me, then of course you want stuffing and mashed potatoes too. Go ahead and indulge that craving; just have a smaller portion of each one.

✓ Christmas:

• Roast beef

• Turkey

• Seafood

• Tossed greens salad

• Roasted vegetables

• Pumpkin pie

Desserts are probably the biggest challenge at Christmas. Pick your favorite and enjoy, but try not to nibble on treats all day.

✓ Hanukkah:

• Brisket

• Roasted chicken

• Applesauce

• Salad

Latkes are probably the biggest temptation during this holiday. Either eat a small amount or try to make vegetable latkes to provide a different spin on the traditional potato version (which is definitely high-glycemic).

✓ Kwanzaa:

• Carrot salad

• Succotash

• Okra and greens

• Red snapper or other seafood

Black-eyed peas are another popular Kwanzaa dish. With their medium- glycemic load, black-eyed peas are also a good choice.

Vacations

Whether you’re traveling across Europe, going on a cruise, or camping at a nearby lake, the main goal with vacations is twofold: Do a little planning ahead and remember to balance all foods so you can enjoy yourself and still maintain your weight.

Because so many types of vacations exist, narrowing down the possible low- glycemic food options into a list is difficult. Following are just a few tips of what to buy or look for on a menu:

✓ Grilled, baked, or roasted chicken, turkey, lean beef, or pork

✓ Seafood (make sure it’s not fried or dipped in a lot of butter)

✓ Side vegetables

✓ Side salads and soups (sometimes these may be your only choice for veggies)

✓ Fresh fruits

✓ Hot cereal for breakfast

✓ Scrambled or poached eggs with whole-wheat toast

Indulging on vacation is okay; just don’t do it for every meal of every day. Instead, balance your indulgences with some healthy choices that you enjoy just as much. For example, I prefer fresh salmon over steak, so that’s an easy choice for me. What are easy choices for you?

Although losing weight on vacation is possible, you may just want to set a goal to maintain your weight when you’re away from home. Doing so helps you avoid unrealistic expectations so you can focus on the more realistic goal of not gaining a significant amount of weight (which is where balance and moderation come into play, as explained earlier in this chapter).

Parties

Parties often feature a wide assortment of food choices. Whether you’re attending a work party, a graduation shindig, or a summer barbeque, you should be able to find some great traditional choices, such as the following:

✓ Grilled, roasted, or baked chicken, lean beef, or pork

✓ Seafood

✓ Side vegetables (raw or cooked)

✓ Three-bean salad

✓ Bean dips

✓ Artichokes

✓ Olives

✓ Nuts

✓ Tossed greens salad

✓ Fruit or fruit salad

✓ Corn on the cob

✓ Tortilla chips

Putting ideas into action: Balancing choices at a family barbeque It’s one thing to think and talk about balancing food choices, but actually doing it is another. With any luck, this common real-world example can help you get started.

Think of your average family barbeque. The foods available at this barbeque are potato chips, tortilla chips, fruit salad, hot dogs, ham- burgers (with white buns), grilled chicken, potato salad, macaroni salad, and a tossed greens salad.

You can approach this event in one of several ways:

✓ Choose all low-glycemic foods by filling your plate with fruit salad, tossed greens salad, grilled chicken, and a few tortilla chips.

✓ If you really want a hamburger, have the hamburger with the fruit salad and tossed greens salad.

✓ If the potato salad is calling your name, choose the grilled chicken, potato salad, and tossed greens salad.

As you can see, there are many ways to eat what you love and not go overboard with high-glycemic, high-calorie foods. It’s all in how you balance your choices. When you get used to balancing your choices like this, you’ll find it easier to lose weight and maintain your weight loss long term. You won’t feel deprived because you can still enjoy the foods you love in moderation.