7 smart ways to celebrate the holidays when you have diabetes
The holiday season is a time of family, friends, and festivities. With food and temptations seemingly everywhere, it can be a challenge sticking to a healthy diabetes plan. Here's help.
“For a person with diabetes, there’s so much that’s hard to predict around the holidays,” says Joanne Rinker, a spokesperson for the American Association of Diabetes Educators. “There may be treats around the break room at work for weeks, and parties and dinners may not offer good choices for someone with diabetes.”
Rinker shares seven simple tips to make smart choices and have plenty of holiday fun, too.
Bring good food to share. To ensure that you’ll have something healthy to eat at holiday parties, bring a salad or raw veggies with hummus. Invite others to share.
Mentally section your plate. A good rule of thumb: Fill half your plate with plenty of vegetables, a quarter with starch, and another quarter with protein. Eat slowly.
Stick to your routine. Don’t starve yourself to save calories for parties. Continue to eat three meals a day. Then, you’ll feel fuller when you hit the holiday party circuit. And during each meal, eat a consistent number of carbohydrates. This strategy can keep your blood sugar stable and help to avoid spikes and drops.
Be quizzical. When dining out, ask lots of questions to make sure you’re getting a meal that you know will be a healthy balance of carbohydrates, lean protein, and healthy fats. Ask if the kitchen uses MSG, if they can dial back the amount of salt used, and if they’d be willing to skip the butter.
Keep healthy snacks handy. Cut up some veggies and place them in a small plastic bag to take to work. Keep fruit handy as a quick snack.
Leave sweets at parties. Don’t bring home desserts or other treats that may be tempting. It will be much easier to make healthy choices this way.
Drink light. Limit yourself to only one or two alcoholic drinks. Choose light beer or red wine while avoiding sugary, high-calorie cocktails, such as margaritas and White Russians. When having a mixed drink, opt for a mixer that is low in calories, such as club soda or fruit-flavored sparkling water.
