11/30/20

#67 Goal Setting in the Festive Season & Healthy Dip Options

December is here! 

It might not always seem like it, but now is a great time to make some goals for the festive season. A really easy thing to do is to decide on your strategy, what do you want to achieve?

Are you going to:

•  Lose weight
• Maintain your current weight
• Be comfortable gaining 2-3 kilos. 

Be honest with yourself and write it down.

I'm a big believer of putting pen to paper as one of the first steps to committing to a goal and having a clear intention means you're making a conscious choice and that choice will help guide your decisions over the next two months. 

I advocate for keeping any weight gain under 2kg, in my experience over this can be soul-destroying and far more challenging to get off. 

To be successful, you need to stick to what you've committed to, even when it's tough and you really don't want to. That means one piece of Christmas Cake when you want 2, one bowl of ice cream when you want two and one glass of wine when you want 4. 

Make sure that you are fully committed to your goal. If you are not then change it- do not go in half-hearted. It is better to fully commit to maintaining than fail at losing.

Last week we talked about Chips and Crackers in Blog 66.

One of my go-to's is making my own dip with a yoghurt base and customising each by what I add in. Here are some suggestions:

• Plain yoghurt (the lower the fat the lower the calories) 
• Add a heaped teaspoon of pesto, salsa, relish or chutney 
• Add fresh herbs, chilli flakes and cut cucumber 
• Add pre-made pastes like Garden Gourmet Brand who have some great tubed stir-in pastes including Mediterranean and Thai 
• Add Best Food Mayonnaise, remember you are diluting the calories with the yoghurt base
• Garlic, Jalapenos and capers are also a great addition 

Other base options are Avocado blended up for guacamole type options or Philadelphia Cream Cheese Extra Lite (it needs to be extra lite as this is under 5g per 100g and the lite option is still 20g of fat per 100g) blended with tinned salmon.

Cottage cheese is another option as a base. I'm not a big fan of the texture.

Pre-made hummus dips can be great but be sure to read the nutritional table on the back and make a choice that is under 10g of fat per 100g. 

In our next Monday Motivation, we tackle sweet treats. I'm quite excited about some of the new research out especially around sweet treats and carbohydrates alongside women's hormones.