Scaling back: There are plenty of ways to keep holiday weight gain at bay

Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2001 | 8:49 a.m.

The weight-watcher's war zone is on the horizon.

The annual battle of the bulge begins before Thanksgiving and ends after New Year's.

Marching into the front lines are those of us who are too weak-willed to yell "incoming" and duck for cover when a tray of fudge is launched our way.

Or to sidestep those pumpkin-pie land mines.

Or are too blind to see enemies walking in our midst, disguised as friends.

"I'm a strawberry, a fruit. I'm good for you. Eat me," the double-agent beckons.

"But you're dipped in chocolate," replies the wary soldier.

"But fruit is good."

"Chocolate is bad."

"Not if you eat just one."

And the struggle is on. You eat one and don't feel any fatter, so you eat another and soon you are in a sugar fog. Your face is smeared with chocolate, the strawberries are gone, and you're chasing those treats with cheesecake and washing it down with eggnog.

Before the war is over on Jan. 1, you are among the waddling wounded.

But don't despair. There is hope. A good soldier is a trained soldier, able to recognize the merciless calories sniping at us from their hiding places in fondue pots and bowls of dip.

A number of health professionals offer advice about how to prepare yourself for the six-week siege that includes skirmishes on many fronts -- in the home, at office parties and (especially in Las Vegas) in the buffet line, all of which are headquarters for an elite army corps of calories.

"You have to be realistic," said dietician Mary Dunaway of the Anders and Dunaway Nutrition Consultants firm in Las Vegas. "Sometimes people go to a Christmas party or a family gathering and expect to not overeat.

"The trick is to be selective. Focus more on quality, not quantity."

That's easy, until you stumble upon a Boston cream pie.

"You have to have a game plan," Dunaway said. "If you know you are going to a party, find out what the menu is in advance."

If you know in advance there will be a three-layer chocolate mousse cake or a carrot cake with cream-cheese frosting topped with pecans, you can mentally prepare yourself to avoid them.

"You need to have a game plan," Dunaway said. "Take small portions. Eat little bites. Eat slowly. Chew gum."

Alcohol is the equivalent of chemical warfare.

"It's a concentrated source of empty calories," Dunaway said. "Limit your alcohol intake. Drink club soda or water instead."

Every soldier needs a buddy in the foxhole. "Go (to the social gathering) with a partner, someone who knows your game plan," Dunaway said.

Curb the appetite

Susan Meacham, chairwoman of University of Nevada, Las Vegas' Department of Nutrition Sciences, is a general in the war against the bulging waistline.

"Before going to a holiday function, have a normal meal at home, so the first focus when you come through the door is not the table," Meacham said. "The foods (on those tables) are typically high in fat. Have a salad and soup before you leave home.

"Be conscious and aware at all times. Take a small plate, and fill it once. Go for the carrots."

And drink a lot of water.

"People don't drink enough water anyway," Meacham noted. "The feeling of fullness (from the water) will curb the desire to hover around the table."

Meacham said going to a gathering doesn't have to be dull.

"We don't call any foods forbidden," she said. "A few chips are not going to be the overall cause of disease, it's if we eat too many of them."

Have a chip, but gorge on green-pepper wedges, carrots and fresh-snapped peas. And don't smother the veggies in dip.

"You have to train yourself not to dip the carrots in ranch dressing," she said. "Carrots themselves have sugar."

As long as you make the right choices, buffets and social gatherings are not lethal to the waistline.

"With a conscious approach you can keep your portion sizes reasonable, which means small," Meacham said. "And we don't have to have a desert. We can go back for another serving of salad or fresh fruit and still maintain our normal calorie intake."

Self-control is the key.

"Even though many of us know what we're supposed to do, the practical matter is that control during the holidays is difficult," Meacham said. "Food is intertwined with social activity."

She said people forget that the reason they are getting together with family and friends is for social interaction, not eating.

"Replace alcohol with water," Meacham said. "One or two glasses of wine is great, and there is no reason you shouldn't have them. Indications are they are healthy and relaxing. But after that you start adding on calories and lose track of whatever else you've been eating.

"So after a glass or two of wine, switch to a nonalcoholic drink or water, and you still have the feeling of social interaction but you don't lose track of what you are eating."

Pre-planning can't be stressed enough, Meacham said. Plan to increase the amount of exercising you do to compensate the added food intake. Plan not to give into the social pressure of overindulging.

Healthy cafe

Frank Canez, chef at the Canyon Ranch Cafe, is an expert on healthy eating. It's what the restaurant in the Canyon Ranch Spa Club at The Venetian is all about.

"What people are forgetting is that eating is more about the flavor and the experience," Canez said. "This is a time of year when tables are bountiful and people have a tendency to get in as much of the bounty as possible."

Canez said people could take a lesson from the menu at his restaurant, which is open to the public, not only to spa patrons.

"Our menu is kind of an Asian and fusion menu, a little of everything," he said.

Canez said the recipes used for menu items strike a balance between fat, fiber, vitamins, minerals and other essential elements our bodies need.

"We offer nutritionally balanced meals, not depriving them of flavor," he said. Asian chicken stir-fry and salmon teriyaki are popular items.

"Our healthy breakfast is one of our biggest draws here," Canez said. "One of the things on the breakfast menu is French toast with no eggs or milk in it."

A lot of people seek out the spa during and after the holidays.

"It's a frantic time of year," Canez said. "A lot of people feel guilty about celebrating the holidays with so much food -- but healthy food doesn't have to be boring. You don't have to just have carrot sticks and alfalfa sprouts."

Take notes

Personal trainer Liz O'Sullivan advises people to take control of eating habits before the holidays.

"Small, daily steps will create a lifestyle transformation in three weeks' time," she said. "Within 12 weeks there will be a physical transformation."

To attain such transformations, O'Sullivan said, start a journal.

"Draw a line down the middle of a blank sheet of paper and, on a daily basis, write down on one side of the paper what you plan to do in terms of eating and exercise, and on the other side what you actually do," she said.

O'Sullivan said seeing the plan on paper helps a person to avoid making the same mistakes over and over.

"When you aren't getting the results you desire you can make the appropriate changes," she said. "You see your strategy in writing.

"Our mind plays tricks on us. We think we are eating well and exercising, but then we see it on paper and we see we did not eat as well as we thought we ate or exercise as much as we thought we did."

The journal, O'Sullivan said, is a way to monitor progress.

"You aren't going to lie to yourself," she said. "Write down every glass of wine, every piece of peanut brittle."

O'Sullivan said people should eat five or six small meals a day.

"Don't go three hours without some sort of nutrition ... If you do, when a lot of food is placed in front of you, you will eat whatever is available," she said. "What happens when people deny themselves of food for more than three hours, their metabolism slows down and the body then is prone to store fat and the energy level goes down.

"Eat small, frequent meals and your stomach will be shrunk and you will be able to think rationally when you make food choices. Keep ahead of the edge of hunger so you can make sensible choices. The hardest thing for dieters to recognize is that starving yourself and going without food is the quickest way to gain weight.

"Remember," she said, "if you fail to plan, then you plan to fail."

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