binge eating

Prepare for the Holiday Binge!

Don’t let the most recent heat wave fool you. Fall is upon us, and we all know what that means. The holiday season will be in full swing soon enough. And for many of us, that means more binge eating and less exercise … leading to lower energy reserves, bigger guts, and-perhaps the most uncomfortable outcome of holiday overindulgence-a tight-fitting wardrobe.

Save your 2011 New Years Resolution for something you can’t prevent right now. And here’s how…

Ideally we would all just watch our diets and not over-eat, but lets get real. If you are going to overindulge, prepare your body first. If you know you have a late afternoon feast to attend, start the day off with a workout. Anticipate the cake, the eggnog, the butter-filled buns. Earn your hearty holiday meals by counteracting the extra calories with extra exercise beforehand.

Stay hydrated. It can be easy to fill up on the food and forget about water. Fruit is tasty to the tongue, won’t fill you up, and refreshes the body with water. Need help with digesting all that food? Sneak over to the kitchen and down a glass of lemon water. If you’re going to clean your plate, at least give your body what it needs to process all that food.

Set a time for the eating adventures to stop. 8 or 9pm. Save the leftovers for tomorrow’s lunch rather than midnight’s fat-packing snack.

The next day… Starving yourself the day after binge eating is not the answer. Your body is in a state of recovery, and recovery requires nutrients. Eat a healthy breakfast and set aside some time to exercise. All those extra calories from turkey and pie have left your body filled with energy stores. Use that energy up! This is ideal for a long, sustained workout. Although try not to overexert yourself. The goal is to burn off those extra calories, not kill yourself in the process. A long scenic walk can go a long way towards curbing the weight gain holiday trend.

TIP: If you feel up for it, add some free weights to your walk or run. Doing this can vastly increase the calories burned and maximize your time.

Staying in shape in these weeks leading up to the many feasts that await us will dramatically increase the body’s ability to bounce back after falling off the diet wagon. With a little motivation and exercise, you will feel healthier and look better. And if another freak heat wave hits Southern California in January, your body will be “summertime fit” and ready to hit the beach and catch some rays.

binge eating

The Dine Out and Binge Trend. . .

Tell me this doesn’t sound familiar: You go out to eat with family and friends, but when your dinner arrives the portion of food is immense. Perhaps even twice as immense as a meal you’d prepare for yourself at home. And depending on your cooking habits, and the restaurant or diner, chances are a lot less nutritious-potentially tripling your normal calorie intake, if not more! … But you’d hate to waste any food, and you know you probably won’t heat it up later. … Or perhaps, staring down at the plate of pasta or burger or greasy “single-serving” pizza, you form a plan in your mind to save half of the dish for later. … But after a little while, comfortable in your booth, enjoying family and friends, soon that half-dish becomes a third. A third becomes a quarter. … And before you know, that double portion of food as vanished from the plate!

Now consider this: Your stomach is roughly the size of your fist. Even though it’s a muscle and can expand, you shouldn’t need more food than about the size of your fist in order to feel satisfied. The problem when dining out is that people tend to find themselves:

Ordering too much food

Eating too quickly (keep your eyes peeled in future articles for more on the dangers of eating too quickly…)

Drinking alcohol

Alcohol not only tacks on more calories to an already double portion dine out binge, but it manages to actually increase one’s appetite. And because the liver has to work harder to process the booze, the body has a much harder time metabolizing fat, let a lone a more-than-usual portion!