If we can get you to January only 5 pounds heavier, we’ll feel we’ve made it a better world

Once again we approach the season of sauces and gravies and baked goods and candied fruit and calories beyond tabulation. Allow me to be among the first to beat you over the head with the annual presentation of tips, hints, rules and data to help you not totally blast your weight-maintenance program to smithereens between now and New Year’s Day.

Thanks-but-no-Thanksgiving

The holiday season begins with the day most devoted to gluttony and culinary self-indulgence in the entire year. If you succumb to all its temptations and delights, you will be heading into this season the way the Titanic headed out of Southampton: destined to founder.

Here is what you’re dealing with, in numbers of calories, with the typical Thanksgiving meal:

• Six ounces of turkey (half white meat, half dark): 450
• One cup of homemade dressing: 400
• One cup of mashed potatoes: 350
• One cup of giblet gravy: 300
• One cup of candied sweet potatoes: 400
• One-half cup of cranberry sauce: 200
• Two buttered rolls: 300
• One cup of peas with butte: 150
• Two glasses of wine, punch, or cider: 300
• One slice of pecan pie, or pumpkin pie with topping: 650

This totals out to a resounding 3,500 total calories, which is about a thousand more than you need in an entire day, even if you’re active and in shape to begin with. And that’s not counting seconds, appetizers, pre-meal munchies, or people who have to have a slice of both kinds of pie.

You may tell yourself that heck, you have four weeks to work it all off before Christmas Day — but this is a lie unworthy of you, since you know that the next 30 days will be a promenade of parties, get-togethers, dinners, potlucks and takeout foods. No, to keep your poundage in check you’re going to have to begin exercising self control on November 27, and maintain it until the ball has dropped in Times Square.

Kaiser has all the heart attack patients and diabetics it can handle already, thank you

Apparently with that in mind, the Kaiser Permanente HMO has compiled a list of tips that can help you celebrate the season without gaining weight. Here are the essentials.

• Don’t skip an earlier meal as an excuse to overeat later; you’ll be ravenous and go totally overboard.
• Don’t compulsively load your plate; if there are plates of varying sizes use a smaller one, and take only
• items you really like, not just some of everything within reach.
• In buffet situations, make your selections and then get away, and stay away, from the buffet table.
• Monitor yourself; when you are no longer hungry and are feeling satisfied, stop eating.
• Socialize — when you’re talking, you’re not chewing and swallowing . . . we hope.

A toast: to minimizing the evils of drink

And one more tip: limit your alcoholic intake. Though it may be the lubricant of holiday festivities, booze actually stimulates your appetite, and is rich in calories and other evils. How rich, and what evils? Consider the following popular seasonal libations.

A simple Irish coffee contains 78-92 calories per cup without the customary whipped topping, which adds 80 calories. Bailey’s and cocoa slams home 240 calories, 32 grams of carbs, and nine grams fat, again without adding topping.

Bailey’s and coffee cuts this to 150 calories, 10 carbs and seven grams of fat. Spanish coffee (coffee liqueur, rum, coffee) delivers 270 calories, 17 carbs, seven grams of fat. Hot buttered rum contains around 200 calories and four grams of fat, while a Hot Toddy packs a mere 100 calories, depending on the type of liquor chosen.

As for eggnog, you’re looking at 343 calories (plus 11 grams of fat and over 34 carbs) before you even add the booze; if you have any concern about your weight whatsoever, don’t even think about it.

Other than that, have a happy and fulfilling holiday season.

(By Robert S. Wieder for CalorieLab Calorie Counter News)

Subscribe to our RSS feed | Weekly e-mail updates | Follow us on Twitter

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 18th, 2008 and is filed under Food miscellaneous, Holidays and seasons. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed. Permalink.