VeloMuse Nutrition Newsletter Edition 1 (courtesy Eva Pinotti, RD CDE, Sports Dietitian)

The holiday season presents some unique challenges to us all as cyclists. Often, we will struggle with weight gain (Americans gain an average of 1 pound a week between the mid November to early January period.) Oft times, folks retain that weight gained during the holidays….it is the “gift’ that keeps on giving!

Much of this is environmental factors like parties, hectic schedules that encourage mindless eating, large social gatherings that tend to have us eating and visiting at the same time…hence ignoring our satiety signals, and of coarse all the tempting snacks and treats at home and the office.

People generally exercise less during cold/rainy weather months, hence this seasonal variation in our activity can affect our weight/fitness level as well. Recent studies on runners have indicated that men and women who stopped or reduced running for a period of time could not lose the weight gained during their rest phase. The authors mentioned the reduced ability to lose weight might’ve been related to loss of “fat free mass” (muscle.) The message here is that maintaining a regular exercise program year round is critical to our health and fitness.

So what’s a busy girl to do during this challenging period to maintain health and fitness?
A few simple changes in our home, work and eating environments will reduce the number of opportunities to over consume.

In his book, Mindless Eating, Dr Brian Wansink offers several excellent tips on changing the environment in order to eat less.
1) Don’t leave serving bowls and platters on the table. Keep seconds a safe distance away.
2) Decide how much to eat prior to a meal or event. Go with a plan!
3) At buffets/parties avoid having more than two different foods on your plate at once.
4) Place low calorie nutritious foods towards the front of the refrigerator. Make high calorie less nutrient dense foods more difficult to reach/out of sight. Likely you will opt them less!
5) Use smaller plates and bowls. Use smaller serving utensils…you’ll eat less.
6) Wrap tempting goodies in foil/non transparent containers…out of sight out of mind. You wont eat them.
7) Stockpile up healthy low cal foods instead of goodies.
Don’t go to parties overly hungry. Have a healthy snack ahead of time.
9) My favorite Tip……Cover half your plate in vegetables at a buffet. The other half in a starch and low fat protein source.

Avoiding Holiday weight gain and fitness loss is possible. The few simple tips above may help!

Here’s a tasty healthful recipe that goes great for dipping veggies in, or spreading on bread.or crackers. It is much more healthful that spread on bread or many dips used for crackers, veggies. Its festive red color great choice for the holidays, too! It can be mildly or very spicy, depending on the type of chili used.

Red Pepper Spread

Ingredients:
1 ¼ lbs fleshy red bell peppers cored and coarsely chopped
1 small hot chili (Jalapeno or Serrano) seeds removed
Pinch of sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil

Directions:
Puree in a food processor or blender the bell peppers and chili with 2 tablespoons water, salt and sugar, until smooth. Transfer mixture to a saucepan and cook over medium heat stirring often until contents reduced to a “jam” like consistency. Blend in the Olive Oil then chill prior to service.

Yield: about 2/3 cup
Serving: 2 table spoons
Nutrition breakdown:
Calories: 47, Fiber: 2 grams, Fat: 2 grams.

Happy Healthy Holidays to all from Eva Pinotti RD CDE, Sports Dietitian
WWW.bayareasportsnutritionandwellness.com