CELEBRATING the rest of the holiday season might ruin your health and fitness efforts you’ve worked hard for the whole year. You can easily consume more than 1,500 calories in one holiday meal.

You have two options on how to maintain your weight while enjoying the season. First, increase your physical activities—walking or home/gym workout. Second, lessen and/or modify your holiday meals to maintain your usual caloric intake.

Try healthier and low-calorie alternatives.

‘Simbang gabi’

If you want to reward yourself with Christmas foods like puto bumbong after the 4:30 a.m. Mass:

Lessen the margarine and sugar on puto bumbong or bibingka by half of the usual serving.
When drinking hot chocolate, choose low-fat. If you prefer coffee, limit sugar and cream to 1 tsp each.

Noche Buena

Eat something light 3-4 hours before Noche Buena to avoid overeating. Have fresh fruits, homemade fruit shake or healthy fruit salad (less cream and condensed milk than your mom’s version).

Start your meal with vegetable salad with light dressing and clear soup so that you don’t eat as much of the main course. Avoid canned and cream-based soups to limit fat and sodium consumption.

Have a slice of queso de bola, thin slice of fat-free ham, serving of chicken, meat or pork which is just a size of a deck of cards.

For carbohydrate intake, stick to the one serving portion rule. It’s either half a cup of rice or potatoes or 2 thin slices of bread or ½ cup of pasta or noodles.

Avoid sauces, creams and deep-fried foods. Remove visible fats, breading and skin. Limit consumption of rich sauces to not more than one tablespoon.

For dessert, choose fruits. If you can’t avoid the pastries, take a 1”x1” serving size. Christmas pastries (2”X2”) like brownie, food for the gods, revel bar and butterscotch contain the same calories as regular slice of cake because it’s more compact and rich. A slice of pie (pecan, apple, fruit) contains 500 to 700 calories.

New Year’s Eve

Avoid skipping meals during the day just to eat in huge amounts during Media Noche.

Try seafood dinner. According to David Zinczenco’s book, “Eat This, Not That,” 12 large shrimps with 2 tablespoons of cocktail sauce is only 165 calories with less than 1 gram of fat since shrimps are fat-fee and protein-packed.

If you have chicken dishes, avoid the wings since they have more fat than the drumstick. Remove chicken skin to save calories.

Limit alcohol consumption and avoid hard drinks. A glass of champagne (6 oz) contains 130 calories as compared to a glass of gin and tonic which contains 240 calories (8 oz).

Make cauliflower and broccoli part of your meal. You can add spices and flavorings like pepper, minced garlic, ½ tsp of olive oil, white wine to a medium head of broccoli (which makes four servings) and still consume only 50 calories per serving.

Avoid ordering a box of pizza for dinner because a slice is already 500-800 calories. Make your own low-calorie version by using pita bread with vegetable and lean meat or chicken toppings and lesser amount of cheese.

Have yogurt fruit shake for dessert instead of creamy ice cream and cake.

Drink more water. If you can’t avoid soft drinks, choose the calorie-free ones.

Have a healthy Christmas and happy New Year!

E-mail the author at mitchfelipe@gmail.com