The secret to losing weight around the fire! Remember these 5 tips to keep yourself from getting fat during the Chinese New Year

What the Cofit nutrition team wants to tell you is: Eat New Year dishes like this and you won’t gain weight during the New Year

The New Year is coming, and it is another fattening season when people do nothing and watch TV. The big fish and meat on New Year’s Eve are not only eaten when people gather around the fire, but they will also eat them for several days in a row. Families with the custom of worshiping each other not only eat the leftovers from the gathering around the fire, but also the vegetarian dishes for the daily worship. After five days of New Year’s holiday, you may gain several kilograms. But don’t worry, as long as you grasp these principles, you will definitely not gain weight from eating New Year’s dishes!

1. No frying and no sugar

New Year dishes are all big dishes, and many of them have to be fried first. There is also a lot of sugar hidden when they are cooked, making New Year dishes not healthy at all. Let’s cook New Year’s dishes in a healthy way this year, using lighter cooking methods. Blanching squid, steaming white pomfret, and stir-frying vegetables are all great New Year’s dishes. Hot pot is also a cause of obesity. The soup base we use is often high in calories and oil, and combined with hot pot ingredients and fried noodles. It is recommended to use vegetables as the soup base, add plenty of vegetables when cooking, eat less hot pot ingredients, and use Japanese-style soy sauce instead of sauces. These are all good ways to reduce the burden.

2. Drink a cup of tea before eating

Studies have shown that drinking water or tea before meals can reduce overall calorie intake, and has been very effective in some clinical weight loss programs, helping to control intake and achieve weight loss results. Therefore, it is recommended to drink a cup of sugar-free tea before serving the food to fill your stomach and not let the New Year dishes fill up your stomach.

3. Vegetable and lean meat rice

Vegetables are often omitted in Chinese New Year dishes, so this year you must stir-fry a large plate of vegetables, and eat the vegetables first and then the meat when serving. Let the protein, oil and dietary fiber provide a sense of fullness before eating starch. This will avoid eating large amounts of refined grains and reduce calories. It is recommended to cook a pot of healthy whole-grain rice to minimize the amount of refined grains in the New Year dishes!

4. Don’t eat too much

The Chinese New Year dishes are usually not available on ordinary days, and people always think that it’s a rare occasion of indulgence, so it doesn’t matter. Even after eating, people will have the mentality of not wasting food and will eat the leftovers. It is this idea that makes you eat more than you want to eat during the Chinese New Year dishes! Avoid eating too much around the stove, just take a plate and eat a certain amount of food! Calculate the amount you want to eat in a meal, and stop eating after you are done, thus easily reducing excess calories.

5. Collect the dishes after eating

During the Chinese New Year, the whole family gathers around the fire. It is common for everyone to eat and chat while putting food into their mouths, or to continue eating when they are bored while watching TV. This way, they consume a lot of unnecessary calories without realizing it. So avoid picking up food out of boredom after eating, and put the used dishes in the sink! This way, there won’t be any bowls or chopsticks to use to pick up food, which will definitely save a lot of calories!

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