It’s all to easy to get wrapped into the Christmas festivities and end up a few kilos heavier before you go back to work. But whatever happened to our ability to make educated choices? All logic seems to go out the window at Christmas time.

Here’s a few tips to make things more manageable.

• Turkey is a great meat, but be careful of the high sugar cranberry sauce addition. Also make sure you moderate portion size
• Why not roast a ham instead, or beef? All great sources of protein
• Veg is best steamed, you lose less goodness in that cooking method. Again, watch portion sizes. Green leafy veg is great!
• Watch your roasties. They are high carb and can be high fat content too depending how you cook them, so have a few less and savour that taste!
• We fall down on our sweets and puddings at Christmas. Buy sensibly and if you can’t be sensible, don’t buy it! When losing weight I used to have a fat and thin cupboard, the thin cupboard I would never ever open, as visuals were too tempting!
• Christmas cake will keep for ages, so have a smaller slice..
• Christmas pudding is best in small pieces.
• Eat slowly too and it will make you feel fuller for longer.
• Mince pies are incredibly high in sugar content, beware of this and eat sparingly. I know, all the best things are bad for us! So just be sensible 🙂
• Nuts and seeds are great, but a handful is an ample portion. Serve nibbles in smaller portions, it will help you to eat less.
• Alcohol is a must for the festive period. But, there is a high carb content in alcohol, specially beer. There is no fun in drinking ourselves to oblivion, plus it is a waste of time, so have a few less, be merry and remember everything!

Just to to prove ANYTHING is possible, let me show you my Christmas Day dinner and Boxing Day dinner.

Christmas dinner BBQ

Boxing Day dinner

I feel just as Christmassy as if I had had a huge roast.  I know it’s easy for me, in the sunny Southern Hemisphere, but what’s wrong with thinking outside the box?

Even for you?