A Simple Recipe To Stop Holiday Binge Eating

Binge eating during the holidays happens to nearly all of us. In the moment we push back thoughts of gluttony and chow down with abandon. Afterwards, as the burping, acid reflect and bursting guts ensue, we’re contrite. Well, get armed and fight back those impulses with this simple recipe to stop holiday binge eating.

A Simple Recipe To Stop Holiday Binge EatingABOUT 15 minutes ago, I returned from my weekly grocery shop at Trader Joe’s.  With Thanksgiving right around the corner, the place was stuffed with turkey and people soon to be stuffed with turkey.

As I pushed the cart around and selected my usual foodstuff, I wondered how many of my fellow shoppers would be binge eating this holiday.

Judging by the overflowing shopping carts, I’d say quite a few.

Now, if you’re of the mindset that the whole point of Thanksgiving and other holiday-based meals is to binge on food and drink till you groan in some twilight stupor, then binge on.

But after all those past holiday meals, you look back and say to yourself something like,

“Hey, I would have been completely satisfied with just that one heaping plate of turkey, mashed potatoes, ham, sweet potatoes, carrots, gravy and asparagus, rather than the two I wolfed down”…

then I have a simple recipe to stop your holiday binge eating.

This recipe pivots on preparation.

One distinction about holiday meals is that they’re typically not spontaneous.  Lots of time and preparation goes into them.  And so – whether or not you’re making the meal — you have time to prepare yourself to withstand the siren calls of delectable food and drink that lead to binge eating.

What you need do is to audition for the big event.

 

A Simple Recipe To Stop Holiday Binge Eating

Do the following three things and you’ll eat less and congratulate yourself the next morning, marveling at your self control and peerless preparation:

1. One hour before your holiday meal, eat some celery with peanut or almond butter on it. Three or four stalks, one tablespoon of your favorite nut butter on each should do the trick.  If this is unpalatable, eat a whole avocado. The idea here is to get some satiation going by consuming healthy fats.

2. One-half hour before your holiday meal, drink 8 ounces of lemon water with psyllium husk powder, and then follow that with another 8 ounces of water several minutes later.

It’s unlikely that you have psyllium husk powder lurking somewhere in your cupboard, so you’ll get some prior to the holiday meal. (It’s available in most health food stores.)

The idea behind the psyllium husk powder is that it expands in your stomach, thus helping to make you feel full, or at least take the edge of your humongous pre-holiday feast. If you aren’t interested in buying some, just drink the lemon water. The juice of one whole lemon will do nicely as it curbs appetite and is cleansing.

That’s it.

If you’re human and you do either of the two suggestions cited above, you should sit down to the holiday dinner table much less ravenous than if you did nothing to curb your appetite.

Yeah, I know this advice is hardly novel or insightful (unless you’ve never heard of psyllium husk powder before), but that’s not the point or the value of this particular post.

The benefit to you is to simply do these simple tips
.

Let this post be a reminder that with a bit of preparation, you will not gain weight this holiday season, nor beat yourself up for losing all control and binge eat like a ravenous wolf.

 

Extra Credit: Supplement and Exercise

To those of you who are still muttering how inane is the advice just rendered, well, have I got a challenge for you.

You want something novel and tough?

OK, I submit for your examination two posts, one inspired by self-promoter (and I say that admiringly), life style hacker extraordinaire, Tim Ferriss, and the other by renown strength coach, Charles Poliquin.

By reading and following the suggestions contained in both of these posts — This Holiday, Overeat And Gain No Weight and in Tips To Avoid Getting Fat This Holiday Season, — you can minimize the damage (ie body fat creation) that excess calories will do by ingesting specific supplements and doing certain exercises pre and post binging.

(Thank you Tim Ferriss and Charles Poliquin for the inspiration.)

The strategy has three principals:
  • Minimize the release of insulin
  • Get the food out quickly
  • Perform brief, multiple-muscle contractions throughout the binge

This extra credit will be well earned because this strategy takes some study, requires buying some supplements and takes effort, but – what the heck – at least go click on one of the two links above and check it out.

So now you have both a simple and not-so-simple recipe to stop and/or prevent your holiday binge eating from messing with your body.

Good luck, and let us know how you fare in the Comments below.

Bon appetite!

Last Updated on November 14, 2014 by Joe Garma

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Joe Garma
 

I help people live with more vitality and strength. I'm a big believer in sustainability, and am a bit nutty about optimizing my diet, supplements, hormones and exercise. To get exclusive Updates, tips and be on your way to a stronger, more youthful body, join my weekly Newsletter. You can also find me on LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram.

Click Here to Leave a Comment Below 2 comments
Peg - November 27, 2013

Thank you, Joe! Peg

(aka GoodDog 0325 from HuffPo

Reply
    Joseph Garma - November 27, 2013

    You’re welcome, Peg… should you try any of this “recipe”, let us know if it’s worthwhile for you.

    Reply

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