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Healthy Holiday Tips (Part 2)

Trick Yourself with Small Plates. Believe it or not, the size of your plate determines how much you serve yourself and ultimately how much you eat. The same serving of cookies looks like a lot on a small plate, but looks deceivingly skimpy on a larger one. Dr. Brain Wansink, author of Mindless Eating, has found larger plates lead people to overeat an average of 20-30% more than they normally would.

Work for Your Food. The more hassle it is to eat a food, the less you are going to eat. Station yourself away from the hors d’oeuvres table or choose foods that take more effort to eat (like nuts in the shell that you crack one-by-one, or vegetables that you have to chew – carrots, celery, etc).

Keep Moving. I know it sounds passe, but exercise really does help keep the pounds away. Keep your regularly scheduled Pilates sessions, walks, or fitness classes during the holidays. If anything, think of this – exercise speeds up your metabolism, allowing you a little more wiggle room to indulge.

Veggies: Eat them because you want to, not because you have to

Your guide to making vegetables taste seriously good

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Lily Nichols is a Registered Dietitian/Nutritionist, Certified Diabetes Educator, researcher, and author with a passion for evidence-based prenatal nutrition and exercise. Her work is known for being research-focused, thorough, and unapologetically critical of outdated dietary guidelines. She is the author of two bestselling books, Real Food for Pregnancy and Real Food for Gestational Diabetes.

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