Healthy on the go for the holidays

You’ve been shopping for hours and feel like you could eat a house. You want to watch your waistline as you know you’ll be indulging this holiday season, but at this very moment in time you’re shaking with hunger and ready to bite someone’s head off.

[attach]3101[/attach]Dare you hit the food court? Is it really possible to eat a healthy meal or snack at the mall? And, in the near panic of a hunger attack, do you really care?

Mary Bamford, registered dietician at the Sports Medicine Specialists at Yonge and Eglinton and owner of midtown-based Essence Nutrition Counseling, says you can eat well at the mall, but it’s more important to get a handle on how you’re feeling when you find yourself in this situation.

Bamford advises taking a moment to calm down.

“This kind of hunger causes anxiety.”

You’ll be far more rational in your food choices if you literally take a breather and ask yourself what you want and what your goal is, she says.

Ask yourself if you’re planning on having a meal or just a snack at the mall.

“If you know it will be chaos when you get home, take the time to sit down and have a meal,” Bamford says. “If not, have a tea and a snack.”

Being aware of what a little indulgence in the food court will mean for you is another strategy you can employ to help you decide what to eat.

“You can only have so many treats in a week without gaining weight,” she says. “So ask yourself, do you want your treat to be fries or your sister’s famous shortbread?”

It’s okay if it’s the fries that get you through, she adds — it’s all about what you’re prepared to accept for yourself.

For example, gaining two or three pounds over the holidays means you have to be prepared for three to four weeks of hard work in January to take the weight off, she says — otherwise those pounds will stay on and you’ll keep adding to them each consecutive year.

Knowing your triggers in the mall, where fast food is plentiful, is also important.

It’s far too easy to celebrate or de-stress with food and reward yourself after a hard day’s shopping with junk food — actually Bamford says it’s natural.

“Stress does trigger that desire for problematic eating.”

Even if you’ve managed to stay clear of the burgers and fries, Bamford says you need to look for the right foods. A combination of carbohydrates and protein — carbs to fuel brain and protein to keep you going — is what you need as carbs on their own will convert to sugars and you’ll crash in an hour, she says.

A muffin — perhaps the easiest snack of all to grab when shopping or on the run — is all carbs, she says, and many contain lots of transfats or cheap oil that can add up to 300-500 calories per muffin.

“Considering a meal for a woman shouldn’t exceed 500 calories, that muffin will be your dinner.”

A better choice would be half a whole grain bagel with a teaspoon of peanut butter on top.

If you’re really in a situation where your blood sugar is tanking and you’re shaking, Bamford says a banana is a good choice as it has a high glycemic index (meaning it will boost your blood sugar quickly) — either that or half a cup of juice followed with a protein food within 15 minutes.

To avoid those ravenous moments that could lead to a blood sugar crash, get in the habit of carrying snacks with you to see you through, Bamford advises.

Protein bars you can find at health stores, with 200 calories or less, will do the trick even though they don’t taste great, she says.

And before you hit the shopping centres, make sure you eat a wholesome breakfast like whole grain fibre bread, eggs and milk.

While Bamford says you can find healthy food options at the mall, you also need to be critical of your choices. Some food options that are dubbed healthy choices on fast food menus aren’t so healthy — for example there’s a reason you’ll never be able to make your chicken breast as plump and juicy as it is at the fast food counter.

“There’s a ton of sodium in that stuff,” she says. “It’s highly processed.”

And if you happen to give into the odd fast food craving, sometimes it’s best to admit you’ve succumbed to a craving and move on.

“Don’t beat yourself up.”