Today’s episode is all about healthy ideas for eating and cooking through the holidays. I share tips and tricks to stay on your diet or in maintenance through the holiday period. I also share recipe ideas for cooking a healthy Thanksgiving or Christmas meal.
Thanks for listening! Feel free to reach out at links below
Today’s episode is all about healthy ideas for eating and cooking through the holidays. I share tips and tricks to stay on your diet or in maintenance through the holiday period. I also share recipe ideas for cooking a healthy Thanksgiving or Christmas meal.
Thanks for listening! Feel free to reach out at links below
Hi I'm Thomas welcome to the parachute advice. My life has taken a lot of twists and turns and on this podcast I will dive into those. The goal is to help everyone listening learn from my experiences and hopefully avoid some of the mistakes I've made hi welcome to today's episode of the parachute advice podcast I'm your host Thomas today, I want to discuss cooking during the holidays this can be a real landmine field for people to navigate who are on a diet or even in maintenance phase of weight loss, I'll cover some simple ideas I've used over the past few years first off before we go too deep into this keep in mind, if you're following a solid diet or maintenance plan don't stress over the holidays one or two days won't ruin everything. To that point you should also not let holidays or any sort of event be an excuse to just abandon everything you've been doing, let's take Thanksgiving through the New Year this is a tough period of time you have a major holiday then immediately roll into the holiday party season with happy hours and family get-togethers, it seems like every event is built around drinking and eating and I feel like it's every other day, when I hit that. I pick a select few things while deviate from plan and then make sure that every other day I'm 100% focused on my plan. So for example I'll indulge on Thanksgiving day but make sure that the next day Friday I'm right back on plan. Alright let's step back a minute for those outside of the United States who may not have heard about this Thanksgiving is celebrated the fourth Thursday of November here in the US traditionally it's one of the few Universal holidays where everyone has off of work Thursday and Friday. And often people have a half day on Wednesday as a result it's the most common holiday where everyone will get together with extended family and friends. It's also one of the most traveled holidays in the u.s. because of the set schedule and the number of people who haul have off at the same time, as a result there is often parties and multiple events over the course of those days traditionally if you've traveled home Wednesday night is the big party night with your friends. Then dinner or meal with family on Thursday and then casual party or event with family and friends and Friday. Okay so we've talked a lot about how an order to lose a pound a week you have to be in a calorie deficit of 3500 calories a week. You can quickly see how between multiple days of events you will miss that goal for the week and potentially undo several weeks of hard work. So this is where limiting what you partake in has to be a focus, you can't let a few days off plan ruin the long-term goal as I mentioned don't let your plan ruin your holidays but at the same time balance is key so don't let the holidays ruin all your progress, maybe it means just a few drinks in A light meal on Wednesday and then enjoy Thursday and back on plan for Friday look at what you drink it's too easy to over-consume liquid calories take these examples. I'm going to assume that you're going out Wednesday night and you're going to have four drinks for the evening. That would mean for Miller Lites is 392 calories for higher alcohol content craft beers maybe 600 to 1000 calories, okay so now you're not a beer person then look at these four vodka Seltzer's is 392 calories but for vodka tonics would be 700 to 800 calories there's even lower calorie options like Bud 55 select are MGD 64, finally, don't assume a non-alcoholic beers low-calorie I've seen those be as high as 150 200 calories per beer as well another great example is a difference between a rum and Coke and a Diet rum and coke, this can have a difference of up to 85 to 100 calories per drink I'll be honest when it comes to mix cocktails ordered at a packed bar I don't depend on them to give me a diet versus regular so I tend to stick to things where I know the ingredients and calories like a light beer, a low-calorie can Seltzer or a vodka soda, another tip here is order beer in bottles or cans to avoid the potential for pictures and getting quote topped off while you're drinking. It gets too hard to track what you've drank from a calorie point of view which can hurt it's also too easy a way to get drunk and potentially risk getting a drunk driving ticket, when I'm worried about sticking a plan I tend to just drink Miller Lite in a bottle or can and make sure to switch back and forth between a drink and water Okay so we've survived the Wednesday night party, now the cooking and eating will be in full swing. This gets hard but it doesn't have to be impossible if you're hosting that is the best situation especially if you're the one cooking for everyone. Little changes and loading all your recipes in an app like MyFitnessPal can help a ton first off I'll enter everything into the recipe feature of MyFitnessPal to know what calories are, or I'll look for similar recipes online that have that info. Next is to look for ways to cut calories without ruining the food what do I mean what is the dish really need as much oil butter or fat as it calls for. I warned you here don't screw with baking unless you've done it in the past those recipes are very specific. Also just like anything recipes are not always perfect either with all my years of cooking experience and formal training I can't tell you how many times I've read a recipe and immediately noticed something is way off, like a step is out of order or a quantity just doesn't make sense I tell people all the time if a recipe fails don't always assume you screwed up it could have been the recipe, honestly I recently just struggled with a bread recipe that kept coming out too dense I finally figured out it was the water to flour ratio. It was creating far too dense to do that wouldn't rise correctly okay, let's use this example my family's famous stuffing recipe that we've been making for over 40 years it uses a ton of butter, and chicken livers both high in fat and calories, it's so good but it's not great for a diet so this past Thanksgiving to get the earthy flavor from the livers I replace the one pound of chicken livers with three pounds of mushrooms and I replace the butter with just a half a stick. It turned out great my sister came over and I asked her her thoughts without telling you the changes I made she obviously noticed it was different but really liked it and thought it was still pretty close to the original so big win there. Next was our traditional candied sweet potatoes which we stew in brown sugar and butter, this has been a favorite of mine since I was a kid I followed the recipe but drastically reduce the amount of butter and sugar so it was more like a glaze versus a stood bowl of butter and sugar with some sweet potatoes. Alright let's talk about dessert look for lower sugar and lower fat options I personally have never been a big sweet person so this helps. But take the past year my sister always enjoys baking and wanted to make something so she did a crustless pumpkin pie this reduce the calories per slice by over 200 calories thing about that the calories were 200 less per slice. For another holiday she made what's called a cranberry Cliff loot a I think I pronounce that right but honestly I'm not sure this is a dessert that's a simple French dish it's like a sweet custardy cake. Each half cup serving was just 175 calories again far better than most desserts you could eat hell, this is the same calories as two-and-a-half Oreos or honestly the same as two and a half of any store bought cookie, let's not even discuss the famous crumbled cookies a popular chain that's really become all the rage and is very popular amongst my friends each one of those cookies is 100 calories per serving on average but just so you're aware, each cookie is 5.5 servings who the hell cuts a cookie into five pieces let alone each just one piece of that cookie, come on seriously. Now for your meal add in a salad and some low calorie vegetables for a filler with your dinner and you can easily enjoy a Thanksgiving meal without ruining your plan. Let's not forget to Turkey if you avoid the skin and the dark meat you have a low calorie lean protein. The lean protein and vegetables assuming they are not loaded with fat are great spot to load up so you feel full and hit your macro targets for the day if that's your thing, you can easily enjoy your holiday and not exceed 2000 calories for the day hell even if you hit 3000 calories but cut back just a bit over the rest of the week you can stay in weight loss or maintenance, or at worst maintained for the week with little effort, when I go into the holiday season I set a goal to maintain even when I'm on a diet it eliminates the pressure and yet doesn't justify abandon your plan completely. What is this look like well it means is strict plan on the weeks between the holiday and plan deviations. But remember it's not a free-for-all over that whole period as always make sure to track everything it's all about holding yourself accountable, we've covered this a few times but make sure you're not consuming your calories informs that make it too easy to overdo it, like grazing at parties this is when I still struggle with all the time it's so easy to walk past the table and your way to say the bathroom and grab a piece of cheese and sausage or a cookie, boom that's 100 or 200 calories than your way back through maybe a handful of chips or Chex Mix boom another 100 calories all of a sudden you've eaten a thousand calories and not even gotten to the main meal, worse yet there's the pressure to eat even if you filled up on all those snacks. We've all had that friend or family member who offers you the plate with some turkey and ham and some sides and suddenly you're at 2000 calories and we haven't even gotten a desert, it's not to say you can't do this if that's your plan for the day then do it but make sure you have a set plan. I just had a party where I decided I wasn't going to worry about what I ate or drank I just set my calories for the day to 3501 at it, nothing crazy but I certainly enjoyed myself I had a set plan to do that for just the day first thing the next day I was right back on my plan. How on my way home that night I even grabbed a Snickers bar from the gas station after I got off the bus I've been craving a Snickers bar for months. Strangely after I ate it I didn't even enjoy it that much. I thought I'd like it more but it just wasn't as good as I remember that is one of the reasons why I think sometimes it's worth having a day where you enjoy yourself within reason, it helps me remember personally how much I don't enjoy eating garbage food anymore on top of that I physically felt terrible for several days after, I eat so healthy now that when I go off plan I feel like crap for days it's like a food hangover for me okay let's get back to some cooking ideas. Let's map out a few items for a meal all right easy appetizer idea, if you enjoyed smoked fish this is one of my favorites get plain fat-free Greek yogurt and mix that with dried dill lemon juice and lemon zest, chop up smoked fish like trout or salmon and mix it all together you can serve this with crackers bagel chips or even vegetables if you're not a smoked fish person you can use the same recipe with cooked chicken or even canned chicken. Hell you can even leave the protein out of it altogether and just eat it like a dip. Really you could use plain fat-free Greek yogurt to make any of your traditional dips and save the calories from fat of full fat sour cream or yogurt. Next let's talk about side dishes season vegetables is a great option like are fried Brussels sprouts or even oven-roasted he'll do a mix of vegetables tossed with very lightly with oil roast them till their dark brown and delicious. What about a starch like potatoes. One of my favorite ideas here and I've talked about another episodes is petite potatoes like Yukon Golds or red potatoes cut them in half and then lay them cut side down on a cookie sheet coated in salt and a fat of your choice, I would use one tablespoon of bacon fat for a 9 by 13 cookie sheet when done pour in a bowl toss add salt and pepper if needed, and serve or do a salad of couscous or quinoa which shop vegetables mixed in. Don't underestimate the benefit of a basic salad or vegetable with your meal to help you feel Fuller and not eat a ton of calories. For example a simple spring mix salad with a light dressing maybe top with some roasted chop nuts and dried fruit and some crumbled cheese. Just limit how much toppings you're putting on can be because they can be very calorie dense. How roasted vegetables are such a great filler and side dish you can even do a mix of broccoli cauliflower eggplant and peppers roasted in the oven until Brown and then toss with just salt and pepper. Even steamed and seasoned vegetables can be enjoyable. I've become a big fan of some of the McCormick seasoning Blends like they're griller Blends hell all these has a great version of version of them as well sprinkle that over steamed or roasted vegetables and they're delicious. Protein frankly is the easiest one do a lean one like chicken or turkey and roast it if it has skin on when you eat it avoid the dark meat and skin and you have a great lean protein. Our house it's the holidays enjoy a little crispy skin but tracking an account for it. All right we've danced around ideas and Concepts I've used but I know for a lot of people the abstract is not helpful, I have the luxury of years of cooking experience in restaurants catering and getting a colony to going to make this a lot easier for me so let me lay out a great plan for Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner. That I think anyone can follow all right I'm going to walk through this as step-by-step as possible, here's your plan for any holiday really I think it's fairly easy and pretty much anyone with basic cooking skills can do it. First off in easiest get a salad mix like spring mix from Aldis you can get a huge tub for five dollars, if you want to make it fancy get Kraft fat-free raspberry vinaigrette dried cranberries and some sliver done. And some slivered almonds and crumbled feta if Done Right each portion will be 20 calories for the lettuce 30 calories for the dressing 50 calories for The Cranberries 64 the almonds and 24 the feta. You have a salad for 180 calories apportion and I was probably honestly high in estimating the calories for the toppings but better safe than sorry. Another option cut wedges of iceberg lettuce make a dressing of sour sour cream fat-free yogurt or low-fat sour cream, Deshawn mustard chopped fresh herbs red wine vinegar and salt and pepper drizzle over the wedges you could even sprinkle a little cheese overt or crushed up breadcrumbs for texture. You have 100 calories salad or skip the toppings and just do the lettuce and dressing for a 50 cal salad. Next do a roast lean protein like turkey breast or chicken. An easy one is the Frozen Jennie-O oven ready Homestyle boneless turkey breast with gravy packet I love this product even just for a standard dinner. What really makes it great is it go straight from Frozen to oven with no prep. You often see these for sale around the holidays let's say you eat 6 ounces of cooked roast turkey and some of the gravy you're at 260 calories for the protein, another option is to get a preseason item like the Smithfield garlic and herb pork loin filet 6 ounces would be about 280 calories. Or do something like a roasted side of salmon or another healthy fish you could also do a leaner cut of beef like tenderloin, but just remember it's going to be higher calorie so you're at about 250 calories per 3 oz you'll notice they're virtually double the calories of a lean protein like turkey, you could even skip a roast and marinate a bunch of chicken cuts, roast them grow them broil them or air fry them or even just pan sear them even mix it up do some chicken breasts that are boneless and skinless and then throw in some chicken thighs just watch them because they will cook at different rates and have different calorie counts. You can even marinate them with a simple marinade. Of one or two tablespoons of olive oil lemon juice garlic and chopped herbs roast that right in the marinade till done and serve. Think about it this way well a tablespoon of olive oil is 100 calories when spread across five servings that's only 20 calories. It's what I loved about using marinades and roasting versus pan sauces or pan saute night Em's, okay side dishes let's keep this super simple you could do something like Idaho and instant mashed potatoes for 110 calories a serving but let's be serious here you're eating two servings so that's 220 calories. How get a flavored version like the cheddar and top it with a little fat free cheese to fancy it up. They even make a great red potato one with the skins in it it's a great way to cheat and make people think you made them from scratch. Want to cheat and trick people into thinking you made your mashed potatoes from scratch, cook one or two potatoes and hand mash them then stir the chunkier pieces into the instant mashed potatoes for texture just take into account that you've added calories or portions so if you make one for serving packet and Anna mashed potatoes of your own, you either have more calories per portion or more portions like six instead of four, also don't be afraid to buy things that are pre-made that have calorie info on them and fit into your plan worked hard all day in the kitchen is to buy premade items and then serve them in your own containers, or you could do simple baked potatoes topped with fat-free plain Greek yogurt and fat-free cheese you're at about 200 calories per potato there. You can make your own mashed potatoes with fat-free plain Greek yogurt to make them rich and creamy and toss in Salt and Pepper with some low calorie margarine or butter seasoning like a butter popcorn salt for your salt option. Just make sure you're tracking what you're putting into the potatoes. Or something fancier use that roasted potato recipe I mentioned earlier in today's episode let's talk about that in more detail get baby potatoes and cut them in half, Kota cookie sheet with a tablespoon of oil or fat of your choice put down a healthy amount of salt say 1 or 2 tablespoons for a 9 by 13 pan and place the potatoes cut side down and roast at 375 degrees until crispy on the bottom and done through. Another easy option is a rice pilaf do a baked rice with seasoning and mix in a little veggies and a touch of oil and gas have a cup of this for about 2 to 220 calories. The key here is if you add some oil, I like to add a low calorie filler like chop vegetables so that a cup is closer to the original calories of just plain rice accounting for the extra calories from the fat. Plus if you're doing a big batch of rice pilaf you don't need a lot of oil, all right vegetables this is an easy one for those not on a diet offer butter or cheese sauce, do roasted broccoli and cauliflower for you who are trying to stick to a calorie plan just a light mist of cooking spray salt and pepper roast till brown and serve that way. Or you could steam frozen veggies in a microwave then toss with salt and pepper and serve with the options of butter cheese sauce or flavor them up with some plain fat-free Greek yogurt. Alright where are we at so far talking to this plan let's say 180 calories for the salad. 224 the protein 204 a potato option and 75 for steamed or roasted vegetable with only salt and pepper on them. That's just 675 calories for dinner so far. How let's add in 110 calories for a roll and a little light I Can't Believe It's Not Butter and we're at eight hundred and twenty calories now dessert. You could do a crustless pumpkin pie for 170 calories a slice. Or do a real Slice of Cherry Pie 475 calories maybe some cake for 300 calories. Another option if you want to go lighter is angel food cake topped with some strawberries or berries of your choice tossed and Stevia or sweetener of your choice and top it off with fat-free reddi whip, he'd be at 170 calories per slice for that frozen fruit is a great option to top something like angel food cake because it's already kind of broken down and it will create its own sauce when you mix in the sweetener, all right so between the meal and dessert we're now at about 992 1160 calories for dinner. Assuming you do not eat other items or drink some liquid calories and assume a light lunch earlier in the day of 400 calories and you're only at 1560 calories for the day. As you can hear this example eating on a diet on the holiday isn't hard, plus all of this I think was pretty easy to cook for a person even if you have limited skills in the kitchen. Lastly again I would suggest building all of these recipes in the recipe feature MyFitnessPal and then it will make logging your dinner that much easier, for other cooking ideas I would highly suggest you check out my Instagram page parachute advice I post a lot of what I cook there and you will hopefully get inspiration for ideas thank you for listening please join me again for future episodes. You can contact me at parachute advice podcast at gmail.com again that's all one word parachute advice podcast at gmail.com, you can also follow me on Instagram at parachute advice again thank you for listening and please like And subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Music.