How to Shed the Holiday Pounds: A Nutritionist's Tips

And now for health tips this holiday season, we're joined by registered dietitian and nutritionist Cindy Chan Phillips. Uh Cindy, good to see you again. Um you know, I feel like it's not uncommon uh for some people to feel sluggish or bloated after a holiday, especially after indulging in a bit more food than necessary. Can you just tell us what is happening to our bodies if that is the case and how do we get back to feeling normal? Well, happy holiday, Don. What would holidays be without the uh traditional family dinners and yummy treats, right? So, yes, you're right. A lot of people are struggling with um maybe extra few pounds and the feeling of sluggishness as you said. But the good news is that most of the treats that we enjoy during the holidays are high in sugar and high in salt. Both sugar and salt make our body retain water. So the weight the number on the scale many of those pounds are likely due to water weight. So after the holidays when you resume your normal routine your body your water weight should you should see your water weight go away. But let me um just point out a very common mistake that I see among my uh uh followers and among uh women I talk to is that many of them try to get rid of the post holiday pounds by overcompensating in restricting their calories. Now this is not the this is a wrong way to go because what happen is if you do salad during the day, salad at night, you get hungry and you find yourself going back to the kitchen when your family sleeps and that goes against your goal of losing weight. You find yourself ended up in a spiral of binge. So but I also want to have you think about this now. Why would we easily gain weight from just having a piece of uh apple pie or pumpkin pie or extra servings of turkey? Why would our body gain weight so easily? Maybe it's not the calories. Let's flip the script. Maybe it's because uh we let our body get too weak in our metabolism. Our metabolism is ability to turn food into energy that you feel as opposed to storing as body fat. But there are several things that you can do easily that can help you um overcome that. And I'm going to share with you three things you can do in your nutrition, in your exercise, and also in your lifestyle as well. Number one, after the holidays, just go back to your diet. Focus on protein. Reach for 20 to 25 gram of protein for each meal. For example, have a palm size of grilled steak sliced over a bed of salad. That's your 20 25 grams of protein. Protein helps you stay full and also support your metabolism and it'll also make your exercise a lot more effective in weight loss. Now, number two, I know a lot of people thought think about, well, you know, I've got to um spend an extra half an hour on a treadmill or maybe push myself extra hard on a cardio to burn more calories. I totally understand that, Don, because we've been conditioned saying that in order to lose weight, you have to burn more calories and fewer calories. Now the government guideline is that we should aim for 150 minutes per week in moderate to intense exercise. What does that mean? That means you can still carry on a a conversation but barely or 75 minutes a week of intense activity that is you cannot carry on a conversation. So, if you want to lose weight, you might increase the number of minutes to 300 minutes. But I want to say that it's not about looking at the display on the treadmill how many calories you burn. It's more about aiming to boost your in your metabolism and muscle is very important. So, make sure that you change up your exercise routine and include resistance and train strength training. For example, working with weights, using your body as the weight, such as squats, plank, or situp. They all help. But I want also to add, make sure after the holidays are over, you practice self-care and get yourself 7 to 8 hours of sleep. That will help you normalize your hormones and help you with the weight loss. >> Okay. Well, Cindy, that is a very comprehensive answer. you answer in that single response. You answered like a handful of my questions that I was thinking of. Uh, okay. I have this question as well. You know, what do you do if you get that urge to eat unhealthy food sometimes? And I'm going to be honest with you. Uh, I do get those urges sometimes. What do we do? >> It's very common, Don. Um, look, after the holiday, you're going to have a counter full of cookie tin and and gifts and cake from your neighbors, right? So, I think the important thing is I'm going to share two things with you. Number one is as I said, make sure that you have enough protein at your meals. The protein help you stay full and help you feel satisfied. A lot of time the craving is really the hunger in the mind. we just feel that we haven't eaten and a lot of time because you are um uh our meals are deficient in protein. Number two is just give yourself a little pause and if you find yourself the urge particularly around 11 p.m. If you find yourself going back to the kitchen just check with yourself am I hungry? Am I hungry? So just giving yourself one minute or two minute pause will help you control the intensity of the cravings. And look, we're holidays here. It only comes around once a year. So let's enjoy let's enjoy the piece of cookie. Let's enjoy a piece of cheesecake because after all food creates memory and that makes us happy. You know what? You can lose weight easier when you are happy and not the other way around. But practice those tips that we just shared. You will find that you will go from getting stuck to feeling um energized, keeping your weight off and still enjoy what you eat and eat what you love. >> Yeah, that is really positive advice. Cindy, can I just ask you one more thing here? Um, do you recommend having uh, let's say normalsized to a larger size dinner versus uh, a smaller size dinner? What do you recommend? >> I would recommend um, it's going for a normalsized dinner, not oversized dinner. Here's why. Many people get 60% of the calories from one meal. And guess what that meal is? That's dinner, right? we skim breakfast, we uh kind of get by through lunch and then we sit down and have have our big dinner. No, you want to spread it out. In fact, you don't want to have u majority of your calories at dinner because you know what? When we sleep, our digestion goes down. So, just not as healthy. Um so, aim for um protein in the morning. Aim for a normal maybe a a turkey wrap for lunch and aim for as I said you can have a grilled chicken over a bed of salad or a bowl of chili for dinner. So spread out your protein amount through three meals. That's the key. >> Well, all right, Cindy, thank you for talking to us about this. You know, personally, I'm guilty of having larger sized dinners. Maybe I I should reconsider after hearing your advice. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Thank you for having me.