St. Elizabeth Weight Management Center

St. Elizabeth Healthcare Weight management Center

 

It’s that time of year when we get together with friends and family to celebrate the holidays. Holiday celebrations usually mean feasting on sweets and other high-fat foods. Lindsey House, clinical dietician at St. Elizabeth Healthcare’s Weight Management Center shares a few tips for enjoying the holidays without putting on those extra pounds.

 

She says:

 

1) Start your New Year’s Resolution early. Most individuals set at least one New Year’s Resolution that involves exercise or diet. Take the time to sit down and write out ideas for resolutions, choose one or two important goals and post them on the refrigerator to remind yourself about what you’re working on. The holidays may bring more time off work, and this may be a golden opportunity to jump-start extra exercise and healthy meal planning.

 

2) Keep a food and fitness journal. Knowledge is power and a journal will reveal all of your dirty secrets or extra nibbles in the day. Journaling is often motivating when it relates to exercise; it can be fun to write down all that you have accomplished in the day.

 

3) Pre-plan and prepare: Why is it that we’re willing to write out a holiday list, but we don’t write down meal plans because they take too much time? Before leaving the house, try preparing a couple of healthy snacks to take with you to avoid stopping at fast food restaurants or shopping mall food courts. You could save hundreds of calories just by taking 10 minutes in the morning to plan your day.

 

4) Love it or leave it. The holidays bring parties, family gatherings and food everywhere you turn. The trick to keeping your calories under control is by choosing only the foods that are special to you. Too often we eat a gingerbread cookie because it’s only available once a year, not because we truly love gingerbread cookies. Leave behind the foods that you don’t absolutely love. Try rating the foods available and if it’s not a 10, leave it.

 

5) Small changes count. Take every opportunity to make small changes in your day to reduce calories and increase physical activity. Avoid random handfuls of holiday nuts, have a small glass of wine instead of eggnog, be extra good during the day if the evening brings a holiday party and increase your daily movement. One little change does not prevent weight gain; however, multiple small changes could be the secret to avoiding the holiday pounds.

 

Lindsey is just one of the many clinical dieticians at St. Elizabeth Healthcare’s Weight Management Center who work to help people achieve permanent weight solutions and live healthier lives. They work with each patient to determine what weight-loss methods will work best for them. Often times a non-surgical weight loss program works best for the individual. Our team of physicians, registered dieticians, behavioral health specialists, registered nurses and fitness specialists use medically proven methods for weight-loss that not only help the patient achieve their goals but help them continue to make healthy lifestyle choices. But other times surgical weight-loss is the best option for someone suffering from obesity. Our team of professionals at the Center also provide education and counseling in both group and individual settings for nutrition, behavior modification and emotional readiness, fitness and surgical care to ensure a safe and comfortable experience for bariatric surgical patients.

 

Obesity is a chronic, often relapsing, disease. If you or a loved one is suffering from obesity, we can help. For more information, you can contact the St. Elizabeth Weight Management Center (859) 212-GOAL (4625) or visit our website at www.stelizabeth.com/weightmanagementcenter.