We can talk till we’re blue in the face about making good choices at holiday parties—but sometimes you want to throw calorie-caution to the wind and simply celebrate the season.
You can eat what you want and not gain a pound—if you’ve banked calories to spend. Here are 10 simple ways to free up an extra 1,000 calories for a future splurge.
- Have green tea instead of coffee with cream and sugar. For a 12-ounce size, this will save you about 100 calories.
- Run or walk an extra mile: either way, you’ll torch about 100 calories.
- Have an English muffin instead of a bagel. You’ll save 100 calories if that bagel was 4 inches in diameter—and even more if it was a bigger one from the bakery.
- Lose the top piece of bread on your sandwich. An open-face sandwich is often just as satisfying as one with double the bread. Isn’t the filling the best part anyway?
- Skip the cheese (on that sandwich) too. Load it up with veggies and you’re less likely to miss it.
- Swap that heaping tablespoon of mayo for some mustard. Mayo delivers 90 calories in just 1 tablespoon. Mustard adds a spicy bite to your sandwich at only about 10 calories per tablespoon.
- Halve the amount of rice you have with your stir-fry. A cup of rice (200 calories) is technically two servings of grains, actually. Which is fine: even if you’re eating only 1,200 calories—the lowest calorie level that’s considered healthy—you still need six servings of grains a day. But if you’re trying to bank calories, it’s a place to cut back.
- Snack on popcorn (2 cups, 62 calories) instead of peanuts (1 ounce, 170 calories). Yes, nuts have heart-healthy fats, but popcorn is significantly lower in calories. Plus, it counts as a whole grain!
- Dress your salad with 2 teaspoons of olive oil (40 calories) and plenty of lemon juice (6 calories per ½ lemon) instead of 2 tablespoons of ranch dressing (145 calories).
- Spread 1.5 tablespoons of hummus instead of 1.5 tablespoons of peanut butter on a whole-grain rice cake and save 106 calories.
This article is written by Nicci Micco
