Healthy Winter Eating

Winter can be an easy time to gain weight with tracksuits and baggy jumpers hiding extra kilos gained over the colder months.

But after a few months the sun will shine again and reality will hit, so let’s make this winter a healthy one.

Here are my tips for healthy winter eating:

Fill up on veggies

Fill up on lots of vegetables at dinnertime, they contain great fibre and will help you feel full. Veggies have a minute amount of fat and are sooo good for you, make veggie soups and stir-fries to keep you satisfied.

Remove the fat

When making casseroles cut off all visible fat from meat which will halve the fat count. Remove as much fat off the top of stews/casseroles, best to leave the stew to cool and then you will be able to see the fat settle on the top and then scoop it all off. When you buy mince buy the premium mince, you really do get what you pay for with meat, the cheap meat is normally very fatty.

Keep eating fruit

Eat fruit even if it is cold, the fibre is important. Why don’t you stew your fruit on those cold nights and serve with low fat custard or ice cream.

Healhy snacks

Some great snack ideas over winter are raisin toast, crumpets, cup a soups, or make some low-fat cakes or muffins from my cookbooks. Make batches up and freeze them so you always have something nice to have that is also good for you. A bowl of high fibre cereal is always a great snack. You can’t beat a bowl of hot porridge as it is quite filling, low in fat and good for you. Another great filler-upper is a Smoothie (Book 3). If you have the afternoon munchies make a batch of Corn Chips (Book 1) they got me through the 4 o’clock snack time when I was losing my weight.

Don’t drink full-fat

Use skim milk in hot chocolate drinks and buy the diet chocolate powder drinks in supermarkets they are great tasting and low in fat and not too high in sugar. I like Jarrah Choc o Lait the best. Remember the more you feed your sweet tooth the more you will crave it so keep sweet treats as just that ‘a treat’.

Stay hydrated

You need to be hydrated all year round so don’t slacken off at winter time. Instead of drinking cold water why not boil your water and add a wedge of fresh lemon, very refreshing and a fantastic way to help cleanse the body. We can often mistake dehydration for hunger so drink lots of water and not only will your skin, hair and body in general benefit you may find you will be less hungry.

Annette’s cookbooks SYMPLY TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE 1-7 are sold in all good newsagencies.

49 Comments

- - ozstarlett said
  - 31 Jul 2014
    11:25 am
great tips – will be using some of these

- - hayley91 said
  - 29 Jul 2014
    12:07 pm
These sound like fantastic ways to keep healthy will be saving this page

- - jabelle said
  - 28 Jul 2014
    10:00 am
I wish I’d read this at the start of Winter! I do make lots of lovely soups in winter though which has been my saviour to feel full and get the comfort food feeling without gaining weight.

- - mggarner said
  - 26 Jul 2014
    5:54 pm
Eat healthy and exercise is always been the key for us

- - jenniw said
  - 25 Jul 2014
    8:41 am
These are great reminders. I seems to be able to control my eating over winter but lack motivation to move! I feel that I can eat the same thing but it I don’t move I put on weight… can’t wait until the end of these cold days!

- - mom61924 said
  - 22 Jul 2014
    12:46 pm
I need to print this out & put it up in my kitchen! Reminders! 🙂

- - no1ladydj said
  - 20 Jul 2014
    12:13 am
I wish that there was a way for me to get rid of the sugar-cravings that I have in the evenings. In half an hour after dinner, eating rubbish, I can undo all the good work I’d done during the day by eating right & exercising.
- sisterhood27 replied
  
  20 Jul 2014 , 12:32 pm
  Sounds a little like me I have the same sugar craving problem
  - memo replied
    
    25 Jul 2014 , 8:56 pm
    
    me too, I crave sweets after eating well all day
- - mouse said
  - 19 Jul 2014
    9:32 am
I have limited fat for over a month now and still seem to be gaining weight

- - memo said
  - 18 Jul 2014
    10:50 pm
funny to know we are on the right track most of the time, we eat raisin toast and crumpets or porridge at breakkie, thought the first two were fattening. Eat heaps of roasted veggies cooked on baking paper. Have gone back to using regular mince instead of premium low fat as it is tastier, I just drain off any excess fat before adding sauces etc. Thanks for the ideas.

- - nicky732 said
  - 18 Jul 2014
    9:30 pm
Great ideas!! I am trying to lose weight at the moment and I have your first four books which I am using regularly. I never thought about porridge for a snack! Don’t know why, but i love porridge so it will be added to the list, and i have seen jarrah choc a lait at the supermarket, but haven’t been game enough to buy it, as many diet things aren’t so great! But you’ve given me the push! I’ll be buying it now! Thanks Annette as always, great advice!

- - Michelle said
  - 18 Jul 2014
    12:41 am
I know I should be following these, thanks for the article.

- - Statho2000 said
  - 17 Jul 2014
    11:01 am
Good reminder. Thanks for the tips!

- - rachkap said
  - 17 Jul 2014
    2:21 am
Thanks for these great tips

- - josa12 said
  - 17 Jul 2014
    12:19 am
I always believe to eat in moderation and exercise daily. I just need to motivate myself to exercise more and more veggies in my food intake.

- - deangunna said
  - 16 Jul 2014
    10:38 pm
I love winter stews, but it is so easy to lay on the couch in front of the fire and eat yummy food in winter.

- - stephrat said
  - 16 Jul 2014
    9:48 pm
I so needed to read through the tips as I feel hungry all the time during the winter season!

- - cherz said
  - 16 Jul 2014
    9:48 pm
So easy to over eat in winter as eating comforting foods warms us up in chilly weather. One must be always vigilant. thanks for the tips.

- - mom71845 said
  - 16 Jul 2014
    8:40 pm
Definitely worth the read. Eating healthy in winter to also keep warm is hard. Although soups with lots of veggies yum.

- - crystalangela said
  - 16 Jul 2014
    5:24 pm
These are all excellent ways to help you stay trim during winter but I found the biggest help to me to be portion size.

Just by cutting my portion size and a bit af careful eating I have dropped 20 kilos in 15 months. I am not trying to lose it fast or it goes fast back on but slowly changing is the best.

- - rachaelchara said
  - 16 Jul 2014
    5:17 pm
Useful tips, I like the idea of warm water and lemon. Great information.