Does just the thought of checking your weight nearly trigger a panic attack right now?
Or maybe you’re like me, and you’ve pushed the scale so far under the bathroom sink that you’d have to crawl under there to find it again. After all, out of sight, out of mind, right?
There’s no doubt about it. The holiday season makes it tough to maintain your weight.
That’s why I’ve always thought a more appropriate date for Halloween would be sometime AFTER Christmas and New Year’s. Because, for my money, there’s nothing scarier than stepping on a scale in January.
But if your resolution to lose the holiday weight is already turning into something to tackle “next week” (or the fourth of never), then I’m here with some help.
Because two recent studies have revealed a couple of easy and delicious additions to your daily diet that could help you lose weight with less effort and angst.
2 great foods 1 BIG benefit
The pandemic isn’t over yet. But even as omicron cases jumped, the vaccines did allow many folks to finally gather with their families for holiday celebrations.
And it looks like a lot of us made up for some lost time during those events tucking into huge holiday meals and saying “yes please” to ALL of the treats. One report found Americans expected to gain about eight pounds over the holidays.
But now it’s time to get to work burning them back off. And this new research arrives just in time to help us do that.
It turns out shedding the extra weight is far easier when you add two tasty and easy additions to your menu. One makes a perfect healthy snack, and the other adds a rich and creamy punch to your meals.
Together, this tag team helps you feel fuller, satisfying your hunger so that you naturally just eat less. And with fewer cravings and no hunger pains, you won’t feel like you’re starving yourself to drop those holiday pounds.
Dried plums boost weight loss
Prunes, or dried plums, are best known as a good (and tasty) source of the fiber that helps move things along in the bathroom. But one of the new studies finds prunes can play an equally important role when it comes to your waistline.
Dieters were given either prunes, raisins, or jellybeans to eat as their daily snack for 12 weeks while they followed a simple weight-loss plan.
The volunteers who ate the prunes lost an extra pound over that time. The research team declared the difference wasn’t significant. But when you’re just trying to lose those few extra pounds you put on in December, it’s certainly a step in the right direction.
Plus, the prunes delivered another benefit that’s just as important as weight loss in many ways. The folks who ate them had an easier time with the diet.
They had fewer hunger pains, and overall just felt fuller and more satisfied. And that means they could eat less without the stress that usually accompanies dieting.
And that’s the ticket, right? Because the reason diets fail is you get sick of being hungry and start to cheat. But a daily snack of prunes may prevent that.
Feel full and lose weight with avocado
The second study finds avocados can do something very similar.
They’re loaded with healthy fats. Those are the kinds that make you feel fuller, longer. So it’s no surprise that families given 14 avocados a week ate less overall in the new study.
And, of course, eating less without even trying leads to effortless weight loss.
There are dozens of ways you can use avocados in your meals. Some of my favorites include…
- slicing it into a salad
- smushing it up and placing it on top of grilled chicken
- cutting one open, sprinkling with Himalayan sea salt, and digging in
But frequently eating avocados can bring some even more important benefits to the table than helping with weight loss.
Research has found avocados could help you control and, in some cases, reverse diabetes. In fact, “alligator pears” (a common nickname) could even help you avoid developing the disease in the first place. You can learn more about that benefit right here.
Plus, another study found a daily dose of avocado can boost your microbiome, improving digestive health.
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