4 Ways To Eat Healthier During the Holiday Season

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November marks the start of some of the unhealthiest months of the year: a carb-heavy Thanksgiving, a Chanukah loaded with oily latkes and sugar-filled jelly donuts, and the seemingly endless Christmas season laden with cookies, chocolates, and fattening hours oeuvres (just to name a few!). the 4 Ways to eat healthier during the holiday season are listed below

Considering that it’s Good Nutrition Month, as well as American Diabetes Month, it’s an ideal time to revamp your diet and introduce new and healthy foods into your holiday gatherings to balance out the treats. Here are four things you can do to help you stay health-conscious while still indulging in the joys and festivities of the season.

Instill “Try it Tuesday” to get your kids to eat healthy food:

I met someone in a clothing boutique and somehow we got on the topic of getting kids to eat vegetables. She told me her friend started ‘Try it Tuesdays,’ which meant that every Tuesday the kids (and adults!) would try a new vegetable or healthy protein. Each week the food would be a surprise, making it a fun experience for the kids—and even getting them excited about it! If your kids are reluctant to try new things and need to plan for them, you can let them know ahead of time what the item will be so they can learn about it and become more familiar with it. We all know our own kids best so proceed with a strategy that’s likely to work for them as individuals. Perhaps let them pick the day of the week they want to try something new.

Root vegetables as a table centerpiece

The fall is the perfect time to join a CSA because the root vegetables are beautiful, plentiful, delicious, and weird looking! Kids and adults alike can learn about and guess what the different vegetables are. Whoever wins gets to pick which night they try it or whatever other prize may work as an incentive to get excited about the bounty! Having the vegetables as a pretty centerpiece on your kitchen table or island reminds you that they’re there which may make them more likely to be eaten. Have the kids take turns arranging the centerpiece and then have fun watching it disappear as the week goes by!

Substitute dried dates for butter

For many of us, sweet treats are our downfall, but you can have your cake and eat it too if you simply take a little time and effort to replace unhealthier ingredients with healthier ones. For example, substitute honey for sugar, dried dates for butter, and almond or coconut flour in place of white flour.

Serve healthy snack options to kids

Talk with your social circle and the parents of your kids’ friends to take the ‘Winter Challenge’ of eating healthier foods like fruits and vegetables with dip, granola, and yogurt, or all-natural fruit leather for snacks when they’re at each others’ houses. If everyone is doing it, no one will end up being the ‘snack grinch’ and the kids may like it so much that they’ll continue with the plan throughout the year.

Modifying our eating and cooking behaviors in a fun way can get everyone in our family and community involvement to make our world as healthy as it can be during the holiday season!