How to Survive Noche Buena Feasting

When November and December roll around, it’s almost a guarantee that people will gain weight thanks to all the holiday parties. Being part of a big Filipino family, much of our major get-togethers revolve around food, with Christmas and New Year being very big deals.

I find that to keep my sanity this time of year, a relaxed approach to food restrictions works. My main emphasis is on portion size so I can taste everything on the buffet with minimal impact to my waistline. (Exercising also is important, just to maintain the habit!)

Some of my friends and relatives have adopted the low-carb, high-fat diet commonly branded as the ketogenic diet — and are seeing some great weight loss and blood chemistry results. I also follow sports scientist Tim Noakes on Twitter, and he’s a major proponent of the LCHF diet known as Banting. The main premise of such LCHF diets is that adhering to this way of eating makes your body switch from burning carbs to burning fat. A side effect of having this much fat in your diet is that it suppresses appetite, and you will end up eating much less than you would on a high-carb diet. The major difference between LCHF and low-carb diets such as Atkins or South Beach is that the LCHF diets recommend a much higher ratio of fat-to-protein intake (1:1).

Whatever diet strategy you end up following, remember that for lasting results it’s got to be a lifestyle change, not a crash diet. My latest vlog takes you into our family Noche Buena celebration:

It’s important to keep in mind that if you feel like you’ve fallen off the weight loss wagon during the Christmas celebrations, it’s never too late to get back on track — and the New Year provides great motivation you can build on.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!