Healthy Christmas

Have you heard all the talk about the skyrocketing obesity rate in the United States and wanted to change your ways?  They say that the average person gains 9 pounds during the holidays.  I don’t know about you, but in that case I want to be BELOW average!

What does a healthy Christmas look like?  I have a few ideas on this subject.

1. Do we really need to make cookies so many times during the holidays? How many cookie exchanges to we need to participate with? Do we need to make such a huge quantity of Christmas cookies?  I suggest you scale down to 1 cookie baking day this season, if that. Make 1/2 the recipe that you are used to. No one will probably notice. Try healthier alternatives to the traditional cookies. Try using wheat flour or 1/2 wheat flour and 1/2 white flour, dates or stevia for sweetening, add bananas, apples, or carrots to a cookie recipe to make it more healthy.  There are many alternatives if you just start experimenting.

2. Just tell your children you want to make this Christmas a little healthier. You’ll be surprised at how much they want to help you come up with better ideas.

3. Read the labels. If you avoid some of the big health busters you will naturally be able to have a more healthy Christmas. What are the health busters? MSG (monosodium glutamate) and it’s other names like autolyzed yeast extract, partially hydrogenated oils, and high fructose corn syrup. If you really start looking at the labels and commit yourself to not purchasing anything with any of those ingredients in it, you will have a healthier Christmas.

You might need to do some research, ask some other people who eat healthy, or get creative to be able to have a healthy Christmas. It IS possible if you put your mind to it and keep the junk out of your house.  I know for me and my family, if there is something unhealthy in the house we will eat that first.  Forget will power – just don’t have it around. I hope this post has helped you. Please feel free to email me or post a comment if you have any questions or comments.