With a day of baking sugar cookies and making holiday fudge and other treats, some people find themselves in the late afternoon having sampled too many of the goodies along the way. (My Mom used to call spatulas “child cheaters” since it left less in the bowl for us to lick.)
Come 5-6-7 pm, it is time for dinner and with having sampled ones way through the day we: a) don’t NEED any more calories, and b) just aren’t HUNGRY!
But before writing off dinner altogether, we have to have a strategy that will prevent us from venturing back to the kitchen to nibble on another “tiny” bite of fudge or just a small cookie before bed.
It’s a tough thing, and this tends go against some conventional dietitian wisdom, but we want to make sure things start out “right” tomorrow. We need to eat a balanced “dinner” or light snack tonight, and do it at a reasonable hour.
If you have eaten too much sugar today, you will likely not feel your best tomorrow to start out right. Tomorrow will be the day to start all over (not next week, or New Years Day, tomorrow), so to head off any sugar hangover or headache, we need to make sure it is balanced out today.
To help out, have some protein and whole grains for dinner. If your calories went too high from the snacking, definitely go with something “light,” but balanced – between 250 – 400 calories.
Remember too many calories today won’t lead to overall weight gain. It is too many calories over many days, consistently, that will lead to weight gain.
Even though this dinner or snack is going to put you over your daily calories some more, keep this in mind over the next couple of days, and don’t over sugar yourself again – and really watch the calories over the next several days. Keep the calories in line for you and a bit under (exercise helps here).
Here are some ideas for the light snack/dinner:
Come 5-6-7 pm, it is time for dinner and with having sampled ones way through the day we: a) don’t NEED any more calories, and b) just aren’t HUNGRY!
But before writing off dinner altogether, we have to have a strategy that will prevent us from venturing back to the kitchen to nibble on another “tiny” bite of fudge or just a small cookie before bed.
It’s a tough thing, and this tends go against some conventional dietitian wisdom, but we want to make sure things start out “right” tomorrow. We need to eat a balanced “dinner” or light snack tonight, and do it at a reasonable hour.
If you have eaten too much sugar today, you will likely not feel your best tomorrow to start out right. Tomorrow will be the day to start all over (not next week, or New Years Day, tomorrow), so to head off any sugar hangover or headache, we need to make sure it is balanced out today.
To help out, have some protein and whole grains for dinner. If your calories went too high from the snacking, definitely go with something “light,” but balanced – between 250 – 400 calories.
Remember too many calories today won’t lead to overall weight gain. It is too many calories over many days, consistently, that will lead to weight gain.
Even though this dinner or snack is going to put you over your daily calories some more, keep this in mind over the next couple of days, and don’t over sugar yourself again – and really watch the calories over the next several days. Keep the calories in line for you and a bit under (exercise helps here).
Here are some ideas for the light snack/dinner:
- Light or nonfat yogurt with a tablespoon each of wheat germ and chopped nuts (you can add fruit if you wish).
- Half to whole sandwich: peanut butter (1-2 Tb.) and jelly/honey or lean turkey (1 oz.) with mustard on whole wheat bread.
- Any kind of bean soup and toast – if you are lucky enough to have any leftover homemade have that! I do so love the classic Campbell’s Bean with Bacon Soup. However, there are so many soups out there now that is easy to keep in the pantry – any of them are good. I just recommend the bean soups since they are full of healthy protein. Choose the lower sodium versions when available (since sodium will aid in fluid retention).
These are a few small suggestions to balance the baking binges, should you find yourself a “victim” – whether they are light baking recipes or not…
Eat Well, Live Well, Be Well. And balance the unintentional sugar binges with light healthy foods too!
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