Fit food guru shares advice on staying on track during the holidays
November 18, 9:56 AM

Sara Shepard, certified personal fitness chef, personal trainer and owner of Eat Fit photo courtesy of Eat Fit

The average caloric expenditure of Midwesterners tends to drop 15 to 20 percent during the winter months. This makes eating right during the holidays is more important than ever for Chicagoans.

“When it comes to holiday fitness and nutrition, the biggest obstacle is time,” says Sara Shepard, certified personal fitness chef and personal trainer.
Owner of Eat Fit, Sara sees to it that her clients have the tools, tip and tantalizing meals it takes to stay fit from Thanksgiving to New Years—and the rest of the year as well.
“Have a plan. Schedule your workouts like you’re scheduling lunch with a friend,” Sara advises. “Work out in the morning if you have holiday events later in the day.”

Sara’s tips to keep the pounds off during the holidays:

Prepare your veggies for the week during free time. Chop up celery, peppers and other healthy ingredients ahead of time so that you won’t be tempted to leave them out because of time constraints.

Cook up chicken breasts en masse and throw them into salads, pastas or other entrees all week long.

Snack on something healthy--with fiber and protein--before you attend holiday functions. This will make you more likely to eat light while you are socializing.

Bring a healthy appetizer to the party you are attending. In this way, you’ll know exactly what you’re putting in your mouth—and helping your host as well!

Limit your alcohol. The alcohol itself has calories, and it also make you forget to control your food intake.

Say no. If you are overtired and overscheduled, don’t feel guilt over politely declining a party invitation.

Keep a calendar and schedule your workouts.

If it’s not dangerous, get outside for walk, a run or a calorie-burning winter activity like skiing or skating.

Enlist help in the form of a personal trainer or meal preparation service.

Sara’s business, Eat Fit, offers personal training, in-home meal preparation, meal delivery and other personalized services for clients in Chicago and its suburbs. New clients are given a personalized consultation including a basal metabolic rate measurement, and specialized meals to combat diabetes and high blood pressure are available. To learn more, visit eatfitchicago.com.

Elementary school kids learn nutrition through MyPyramid

Last Thursday I had the pleasure of spending the day at an Elementary school in Lake Forest and talking with each of the grade levels about nutrition and how to make healthy food choices. Childhood obesity is a major issue in our country so it is extremely important that we are teaching these kids how to make healthy choices. The kids had a ton of fun playing a healthy food game and learning how to make Crunchy Banana Snacks.

Ingredients:
1 Banana, sliced
1 baggie
1 cup healthy cereal, such as Kashi Crunch or Low Fat Granola

Place the cup of cereal into the baggie and have the kids crunch the cereal into pieces with their hands. Then place 1 piece of sliced banana into the baggie at a time and shake until the banana is covered in cereal. Remove and finish with the rest of the banana for a fun and healthy snack.