Digesting the Holidays

Whose more stuffed, the turkey or you?

Before you fall into the same holiday over-eating trap consider this – the average Thanksgiving meal is over 3,000 calories!!!  Read on to see how your body responds to the holiday feast:

Minute 1 = your taste buds are excited and send pleasure signals to the brain (I want some more please). As you chew, enzymes in your saliva break down the sugars and starches in the stuffing you’ve just stuffed into your gobbler.

First 5 Minutes = your stomach is frantically working to dissolve food and shuttle it into the small intestine, which will ferry nutrients like fat and protein into your blood stream.

Within 15 Minutes = both your stomach and the small intestine alert your brain – via hormones – that you are beyond capacity. But, if you have eat like a Hobbit – your brain won’t get the message until after you’ve helped yourself to secondsies and thirdsies.

Within the first hour = post desert, your insulin levels have spiked in an attempt to control the sugar that is coursing through your blood stream. Within 30-minutes of eating a salty meal, your blood vessels may become slightly less supple. If your diet is always packed with salty foods, you may develop stiff blood vessels, a risk factor for heart disease.

Thanksgiving Coma

After 1 hour = feeling sleepy yet? Turkey’s get a bad wrap for putting people to sleep. Even though it does contain a sleep agent – tryptophan – and your body does convert this amino acid into the sleep promoting serotonin – it is not the real cause of your zzz’s. The true cause of fatigue – you have stuffed yourself so full, your body is working overtime to digest. So, the body puts you to sleep so it can digest all 3,000 calories you’ve just downed in 1 meal. It is taking all of your body’s energy to digest the food.

Your stomach is also being stretched like a balloon and is pushing against your surrounding organs, possibly making it hard to breath, making your feel achy or potentially nauseous

After 1-2 hours = your liver has converted the food into nutrients that your organs can absorb. If your carb reserves are not full – most of the fat and calories will be converted into short-term energy (if you had worked out before binging, you’d have more room in the storehouse for all those calories). However, most of us have not exercised and you have eaten twice as much as what your body needs for daily function. So, the excess food is being converted into layaway triglycerides and is being packed into the fat cells around the thighs, butt, and belly.

After 2 hours = Breathe a sigh of relief – your stomach has emptied and your blood vessels are back to normal. Just because your stomach is empty and the blood vessels are back to normal, does not mean it is time to start all over again.

 

Before Thanksgiving dinner starts – or better yet – after dinner is finished, go for a walk. Just move a little, help your body digest all of the food and potentially burn off some of the excess calories before it gets turned into mashed potato butt, corn-on-the cob thighs, or turkey stuffing stomach. Remember, this is a great opportunity to slow down, enjoy your family’s company around the dinner table. Take longer than 30 minutes to eat 1 plate of food. Limit how many helpings you have and the serving size on the plate. Thanksgiving is not an excuse to go off your healthy eating lifestyle.  It is an opportunity to practice some self-regulation and be thankful that we have the ability to put food on our plates. Not everyone around the world (even in our own country) has the ability to feed themselves or their own families. Be thankful, by not overeating this year.

Outside Advantage

Be Thankful for The Great Outdoors

Is there an advantage to exercising outside?  Right now you are probably thinking of Thanksgiving dinner – but, what about all the ways you are going to enjoy dinner (by not overeating) and how you are going to burn off those Thanksgiving calories. Just because it is a holiday, does not mean you can fall off the health wagon (well, as long as the turkey is not fried – then it is good).

But, back to the original question – is there an advantage to exercising outside?  I know many people would anecdotally say that exercising outside is better for you, but now there is some research to back it up.  According to a recent study at the University of Rome, exercising in the outdoors is generally more enjoyable.  After two 20-minute workouts – one on a treadmill, one on an outdoor track – participants were shown to have kept a steadier speed/pace. And they also reported feeling the exercise experience outside was more pleasant. 

One reason why people might like exercising outside – the scenery. The study also reported that people perceive the exercise to be less strenuous when they are outside.  With the winter weather on it’s way, it may no longer be possible for some to enjoy exercising outside. So, if you do have to go into a gym, pick a treadmill in a crowded section (I know – most of us avoid this treadmill), but people watching can be an excellent diversion in the gym. Also, listening to music or watching your favorite TV program can also help make exercise indoors more tolerable until Spring rolls around.

Some of us are also lucky enough to live in communities which create safe, pleasant outdoor experiences. This makes it easier and more convenient to enjoy the outdoors while exercising. Seattle has earned top honor for walk-ability (and cycling). There were 10 other communities which were named Walk Friendly Communities:

1.     Seattle, WA

2.     Ann Arbor, MI

3.     Arlington, VA

4.     Hoboken, NJ

5.     Santa Barbara, CA

6.     Charlottesville, VA

7.     Decatur, GA

8.     Austin, TX

9.     Flagstaff, AZ

10.   Wilsonville, OR

If you want to help make your city Walk Friendly here are a few things you can do:

·        petition to your local city officials for more walkways

·        report problem sidewalks or lighting issues

·         create a local area map or guide for walking and cycling trails

·        Start a walking group, cycling group, or family friendly weekends where everyone can get outside to enjoy being healthy

Actually, creating more areas for walking and cycling can help to stimulate the local economy as well. This is a great way to provide green jobs to people. Once the walk ways and cycling tracks are complete – they can be used in charity events, civic events, and for local school events. This generates a great sense of community, green jobs, and healthy living – Everyone is a winner!

The Holiday Dilemma

Food, Stress, & Gratitude

Even though we are in the season of gratitude we are also in the season of FOOD!!!

          Here is the ultimate dilemma of the holidays – we come together to celebrate (using food to help us celebrate), but we are surrounded by people who have the potential to create stress: the in-laws, the weird cousin that you are not sure how they are related, but they come to every family event, the critical mother who never likes your apple pie = STRESS.

          And if that wasn’t enough – stress triggers our body to produce more cortisol. Cortisol is a powerful hunger inducer. In fact, it actually causes us to store fat!!

Holiday Family Functions = Stress = cortisol production = feeling hungry = diving face first into the candied yams = gaining weight and feeling terrible about yourself = making New Year’s resolutions to lose weight & get back in shape = more stress!!

(Does it ever stop?)

          Before you go down this vicious holiday cycle we need to change our relationship with food (you don’t need to stuff yourself as full as the turkey). Contrary to popular belief, wearing the stretchy pants or being able to unbutton your pants after a holiday meal does not make for a good holiday had by all.  Let’s do a few things different this year!!

Thanksgiving Dinner

1^st Step – Don’t over prepare - Maybe this year we don’t make a lot of leftovers. I know, leftover turkey sandwiches are great, but typically when we make a ton of food for a special holiday occasion we tend overeat. Playing Scrabble, Cranium, or Wii Fit is a far better game, than seeing who can make 3 round trips of the buffet table.  Make just enough food for you and your family to be satiated with minimal leftovers.

2^nd Step – Downsize the plates – we tend to grab the huge plates in our cupboards during the holidays. Most of us have the philosophy of making sure we try every dish which is prepared for the occasion.  It is okay to have a smaller plate with smaller portions. If you are still hungry, then you can go back and grab whatever dish you missed – but keep the portion small.  When we have large plates we tend to pile on the food. So, this makes it very difficult for us to even gauge how much we’ve eaten

3^rd Step – Manage your appetite -  If you are feeling hungry try a few other tricks of the trade first. Sometimes our bodies are dehydrated we feel hungry, even though it is really thirst. Start by drinking a glass of water (even try adding in some orange slices, cucumber slice, or frozen raspberries vs. ice cubes), after you have a glass of water see if you are still hungry. If you are have a small healthy snack.  Also, you can try doing physical activity too - go for a walk, play a game of touch football in the yard – do something to distract yourself from creating your own mashed potato mountain (a la Close Encounters).

4^th Step – RELAX!!!  Luckily the holidays are only once a year, so you only have to see your nagging in-laws in these close confided quarters sporadically throughout the year. But, one thing to remember – you only have control over YOUR THOUGHTS, YOUR FEELINGS, & YOUR BEHAVIORS. Everything else is out of your control. So, since it is out of your control – don’t worry about it!! See the holidays as a chance to unwind, get back to the basics of what the holidays are truly intended for – to give thanks.

The holidays are for practicing the art of gratitude, not for impressing a tough family critic. If, someone doesn’t like your cooking – who cares!!! Don’t waste your time trying to please someone who has created unrealistic standards and expectations for you. Instead, forget the stress of cooking this year and donate more food, money or time to a local charity kitchen, food bank or other charitable service. You know your efforts will be much appreciated here.  

 The holidays are about spending quality time with your family and friends. It isn’t a competition for who can have the best party, the best decorations, or the best Martha Stewart motif.  If there is someone who is going to rain on your enjoyment of the season, maybe this year you downsize and only spend quality time with the immediate family and friends who appreciate you and don’t judge you. Take the stress out of the holiday before it begins.

We’ve all had a rough few years with the economy, so this year is a perfect opportunity for us to get back to basics. We don’t need to stuff ourselves silly at meal time – give more food to charity than to your belly. We don’t need tons of gifts and presents – give each other just 1 or 2 things that we truly need…(maybe 1 want)….and give the money which you would have spent on the 3^rd gift to charity.  Put the money you would have spent on the 4^th gift into savings.  Remember – it’s not about the stuff. It’s about being thankful for what you have.

Halloween Candy

Is it a trick or really a treat?

New Research from the Louisiana State University is showing that people who eat candy are thinner than those who don't. After studying more than 15,000 adults, the researchers found that those who ate candy (a little over one ounce a day on average) tended to have smaller waists, a lower body mass index and a lower risk of elevated blood pressure.

I know - may sound too good to be true. But, keep in mind MODERATION!!! Also, when we deny our body something it wants ~ a bit of chocolate perhaps....it sets us up to gorge on something sweet or unhealthy the next time we are tempted. So instead of eating a bag full of cookies, maybe it would be okay to allow yourself 3 mini-candy bars (notice I did say mini....just like the kind in the trick or treat basket).

Another way to moderate your 'vice intake' ~ allow yourself a cheat day. "If I make it through Wednesday without drinking soda, eating sweets, having friend food, etc., etc. - then I can treat myself to one 'bad food' item in moderation on Thursday." This isn't such a bad rule. It will help you get through the week without feeling like you have to gorge on 'bad food' over the weekend. Keep in mind we still have to exercise. Just because this article is saying that people who indulge in a few sweets from time to time tend to be thinner - it didn't go into the overall lifestyle habits of those studied. So, have a lolly - but then go for a walk.



Halloween Candy