Just in time for the holidays, DietsInReview.com had a chance to talk with Lisa as she shared with us some of her tips for making the season fun, festive and healthy. She also gave us the scoop on her soon-to-be-released, Chew the Right Thing, a perfect guilt-free gift for the holidays.

Listen now to the audio of my conversation with Lisa, or continue reading the transcipt below.

1. The holidays are upon us. What do you recommend for how we can walk the tightrope of eating our favorite holiday foods but not gain weight?

During the holidays, we don’t want to hear that we can’t indulge or that certain foods are off-limits. You have to find a happy medium, and indulge in things you really love and swap out those high calorie foods for healthy alternatives.

I’m a big believer in planning what you are going to eat before you go to an event.  If you know you’re going to a big party, have a snack ahead of time so you’re not starving and eat everything once you get there. Pay attention to the food that is there before you start eating. That way, you can make a healthy decision.

Plus, it is important to drink a lot of water throughout the day. It fills you up and keeps you hydrated.

2. What are some of your favorite pre-party snacks?

Whether I’m at home or the office, I always keep things around to help curb cravings. During the holidays, I love candy canes; They are low calorie, they taste festive, and peppermint has been shown help to reduce cravings. I also love fat-free yogurt, particularly, Fiber One Yoplait yogurt, which has only 50 calories plus five grams of fiber and three grams of protein. You get a lot of bang for that snack. And it is Hungry Girl-approved. Portion control snacks, like 100-calorie packs of almonds, are also a favorite go-to healthy snack of mine.

3. Not all holiday food is bad. Many ingredients used are made with healthy, low-cal foods like pumpkin, butternut squash and lean turkey breast. Can you give a few tips for how to use these naturally, low-cal ingredients in our favorite holiday dishes and still keep them somewhat low calorie?

Many of the foods in holiday dishes are healthy. You can do things like use chicken stock in place butter to keep dishes moist. I do this in a stuffing I make called Save-the-Day Stuffing, which is made with light bread and apples. I have the recipe for it in my first cookbook. I make my Too Good To-Deny Pumpkin Pie with Fiber One breakfast cereal for the crust and pure pumpkin, not pumpkin pie mix, for the filling.

Green bean casserole is another great example. You don’t have to use high fat, crispy-fried onions as a topping. I use garlic and onion-flavored soy crisps as a topping and 98 percent fat-free cream of celery soup rather than the full-fat versions. It keeps calories and fat grams down but it tastes just as good.

It’s about dissecting the recipe and replacing some of the ingredients with smarter ingredients.

4. Your latest creation, Chew the Right Thing, releases on December 8, 2009. This isn’t a book but rather, it is a set of 50 recipe cards. Can you tell us a bit more about these cards and how to use them?

I’m so excited about this. Chew the Right Thing is so cute and it’s a great holiday gift. Each of the 50 recipe swaps are Hungry Girl favorites like Lord of the Onion Rings and De-Pudged Pigs in a Blanket. Instead of a cookbook, they are  colorful and fun recipe cards that are easy to keep around the kitchen or on the counter. Plus, you can purchase the recipe cards for ten dollars or less, which makes it a fantastic and inexpensive holiday gift.

5. What is one of your favorite Hungry Girl holiday recipes?

That is a tough question. I love I Can’t Believe It’s Not Sweet Potato Pie, Too Good To Deny Pumpkin Pie, and Pumpkin-licicous Nog. I’m not usually a fan of eggnog but I love this recipe. It’s amazing. Sorry, I guess I listed a few more than just one.

Thanks Lisa!

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Hungry Girl’s Healthy Holiday Tips

These five tips involve slashing sugar, saturated and trans fats, and cutting back on calories so you can lose weight and better control your blood sugar levels.

1. Swap water for calorie beverages. Water has zero calories, that’s the bottom line. Used to sodas? Try sparkling water with a twist of lime. Need more flavor? Add some mint or unsweetened iced tea. I love using herbal teas! You’ll save 17 teaspoons of sugar for each 20-ounce soda.

2. Swap a coffee beverage with a small skim milk latte. A small pumpkin spice latte made with 2% milk has almost 40 grams of sugar (about 10 teaspoons – a day’s worth of added sugar), whereas a small, fat-free latte has only 16 grams sugar and that comes from the milk! If you would like, you can always “split the difference” and ask for one pump of pumpkin spice. That’s about 10 grams of added sugar – just under three teaspoons. Sure beats 10, doesn’t it?

3. Swap a hamburger with a portobello mushroom burger. If you’ve never had a grilled portobello mushroom you have no idea what you are missing. This large vegetable has a thick “meaty” texture. The saturated fat is no comparison. You’ll save grams of saturated fat.

4. Swap “partially hydrogenated” on packaged foods with whole or packaged foods without. If you can avoid packaged and fried foods altogether then you can avoid most of the world’s trans fat. That’s not realistic for a lot of people, so the next best thing is to cut down on the amount and frequency of those kinds of foods. Look at an ingredients list for the words “partially hydrogenated” and rethink your purchase. The good news is that most companies have taken it out of foods.

5. Swap full-fat cheese for lighter. I love cheese, but the saturated fat in that tiny thumb-sized portion is enough to make your arteries clog in sheer terror! OK, not exactly, but even so, just remember full-fat dairy products are mostly saturated fat. I like to use low-fat cottage cheese for a “most of the time” food. I also like the reduced-fat mozzarella and cheddar cheeses in the store. Up to 50% reduced fat of a good brand will slash the saturated fat in half, but you don’t notice a taste difference. I also like goat and feta cheese because they are strong. A little goes a long way and their “softness” means more water and guess what, less saturated fat per serving.

Hopefully you can choose at least one of these tips today to work on!

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Five Easy Food Swaps to Prevent Diabetes

Several female clients of mine have come to me over the past few months and stated that they really wanted to lose weight. I told them to write down everything that they ate and what activities they did each day outside of the workouts that we were doing together. After a few months of keeping a food journal and activity log, every single client saw results and were completely satisfied with how they were feeling and looking.

Below are the top weight loss tips and a sample exercise routine that I use with my clients who are trying to lose weight.

1. Keep a Food Log: This will help you see and understand what you are putting into your body
2. Keep an Exercise/Activity Log: This will allow you to increase your intensity and length of workouts
3. Exercise 5 Days a Week: If you are not sweating, you are not working hard enough
4. Drink 64-100 Ounces of Water a Day: Hydration is a huge factor in weight loss and appetite suppression
5. Chew Gum: Helps keep the mind and stomach satisfied
6. No More Soda: Cut the pop and other sugars out of your diet
7. No More Alcohol: Reduce the empty calories
8. Reduce T.V. Time: Stay active rather than sitting around and watching television
9. Don’t Snack After 7 p.m.: Snack during the day, but not at night because your activity levels have decreased
10. Get 8 Hours Of Sleep a Night: Refreshes the body and allows for a more productive day

Try this Weight Loss Routine:

Do 45-60 minutes of cardio, plus:

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10 Tips for Achieving Successful Weight Loss

Overeating not only causes rapid weight gain, but high blood pressure, diabetes, kidney disease, or even a ruptured stomach can be result. Serving sizes have been blow out of proportion these days and can actually be rather scary. Below are the recommended serving sizes as well as a few helpful tips to prevent overeating.

Recommended Serving Sizes

Bread/Cereal/Rice/Pasta: 1 slice of bread/toast or 1/2 cup (eat 6-11 servings per day)

Fruit: 1 piece of fruit or 6 oz. glass of 100% fruit juice (eat 2-4 servings per day)

Vegetables: 1 cup or 1 whole medium baked potato (eat 3-5 servings per day)

Meat/Poultry/Fish/Nuts/Eggs: 1 egg, 3 oz. of meat/poultry/fish, or 1 oz. of nuts (eat 2-3 servings per day)

Dairy: 8 oz. glass of skim milk or 1 oz. cheese (eat 2-3 servings per day)

Fats/Oils/Sweets: Use sparingly (less than 10% of daily food intake)

Top 10 Ways To Prevent Overeating

1. Don’t buy food in bulk
2. Eat recommended serving sizes
3. Drink a glass of water before, during, and after a meal
4. Don’t grocery shop on an empty stomach
5. Take your time while eating
6. Start a meal with fruit (apple) or raw vegetables
7. Eat small, healthy snacks throughout the day to reduce hunger
8. Avoid stressful situations
9. When dining out, ask the server to box half the meal in a to-go box before serving it
10. Exercise

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Top 10 Ways To Prevent Overeating

It can take up to 15 minutes for your brain to register with your stomach that food is in your system, a large proponent for overeating. Many times we will keep eating the food that is on our plate waiting for that “feeling of full,” only to have completely surpassed it. Eating a snack or appetizer prior to eating your main meal will help start that communication between your stomach and your brain, so by the time you go to eat your main course you will only need to eat a portion of it to fulfill your bodies’ needs.

While having an appetizer or snack can help with overeating and the communication between the brain and your stomach, it is important to keep the calories and fat in check. Having fried calamari or chicken wings to start will not provide the weight loss and health benefits that having a good healthy start to your meal will offer. I suggest having a light salad or soup to start. One of my personal favorites is a spinach salad with tomatoes, cucumber, cranberries, nuts and a balsamic vinaigrette. A quick toss to kick off your meal. For a soup example I typically like clear broths like miso soup with some tofu and spinach.

Think about options in which you can incorporate a smaller, healthier meal into your dining routine.

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Eat an Appetizer to Promote Weight Loss

When I arrived home, I realized just how often I do give in to my impulses when the best sushi in the city and the grocery are both within walking distance. Instead, I looked in my cabinets, got creative, and ate more vegetables.

I was able to get some cash from the bank, but I still don’t yet have the ease of credit cards. Perhaps, they are too easy. Research shows that we consider the consequences of purchases less when we use plastic instead of cash. I wasn’t sure how accurate that was for me until this weekend. Credit cards, commercialism, and fast food make it easy for us to grant ourselves our every whim.

Are you considering the health consequences of your whims? If you had to budget and pay in cash, how much would you really eat? Is your wallet weighing you down?

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Eating Rationaly, Not Impulsively

Translation: Basically, Americans are overdrawing the “calorie funds” in their “discretionary calories” bank account. Discretionary calories are what’s left over in the budget AFTER you have prioritized healthy, nourishing foods to meet nutrient needs (the ole fruits, veggies, whole grains, beans). While your bank would charge you an overdraft fee, unfortunately your body can’t do that.

So, what does this have to do with the diligent dieter? I’ve got some tips for how you can respond to the advice, if you need to.

• Take inventory – write down what you eat for a few days on MyPyramid.gov’s free tracker. This food journal tool will tell you how many “discretionary calories” you are over/under budget.
• Remember balance and moderation – the advice of 100 calories a day for women doesn’t equate to “never drink juice or soda or ever eat a candy bar,” but it does mean moderation. Some people love their juice. OK, so either have 100 percent juice with no added sugar or have a cup (eight ounce) of the sweetened stuff a few times a week. One cup of sweetened O.J. is 30 “discretionary calories.”  Like chocolate? Two Hershey’s miniatures with almonds has 74 discretionary calories. So it fits in the budget as a sometimes treat.
• Read and understand food labels – bypass all the marketing on the front of package and look at the nutrition facts and ingredients to hunt down added sugars. Be sure to watch my video on moderating sugar intake for a refresher on this.

The bottom line is pick your favorites and spend calories wisely. Portion control is always the number one thing you can do to eat more healthily. Don’t fool yourself and think that a daily sweet tea beverage or milkshake is a a good idea. But also be careful of foods that appear to have a “health halo.”

A small eight ounce fruit flavored low-fat yogurt has 108 “discretionary calories,” which puts it over the budget. You’re better off trying plain (no added sugars) low-fat yogurt or my personal fave, plain fat-free Greek yogurt and add your own fresh fruit. Try adding 1/4 cup of blueberries and a tablespoon of raw slivered almonds to a cup of Greek yogurt. MMMmmm…

Hopefully, this post help to put the AHA’s quick advice into perspective. Changes are individual so find out where you stand on discretionary calories with My Pyramid and think of changing the portion or frequency of your “treats” or find a healthier swap out.

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How to Cut the Sugar and Sweets from Your Diet

Put down the chips. No matter how far you’ve fallen – and, sometimes, you fall pretty far – it’s never too late to get back up and start all over again. You did it once, you can do it again. Go back to the basics.

• Stop eating after 8 p.m.
• Eat breakfast every morning.
• Cut the sodas, the gourmet coffees, the cakes and cookies.
• Take a walk every night or before you go to work.
• Every commercial break, vow (and then do!) to complete a set of squats/push-ups/sit-ups.
• Take your kids to the park and play on the equipment.
• Bike to the grocery store instead of driving a mile.
• Add an extra fruit or veggie choice to each meal.

Any positive move is a step in the right direction and it’s a life-long journey, not a sprint.

So lace up those shoes and start again. As many times as it takes – you can always start again.

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What to do When You’ve Lost Your Workout Mojo

1. Dieting at Night – The key to weight loss is eating, believe it or not. You need to fuel your body with healthy food during the day, starting with breakfast and have a lighter dinner; then let the dieting begin right when you are winding down. I usually tell my clients to focus on “protein and produce” at dinner. Swap your salad at lunch for a tuna wrap (choose either light mayo or cheese not both) and have an entree salad at dinner.

2. Controlling Alcohol Intake – This is probably the #1 behavior I see with clients who are trying to lose weight when they first come in. They say they drink 1-2 times a week, but then their food journal shows 2 glasses of wine. When we talk about weekends they usually have 1-2 on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. That’s almost half of the week people. That adds up to 600 extra calories that you aren’t getting from food, let alone the temptation to eat salty snacks with alcoholic drinks. If you take my advice, you’ll limit alcohol to 1-2 drinks once a week.

3. Sleeping 7-8 hours most nights of the week. Turn off the T.V. Stop surfing the ‘net. You have to get sleep if you want to lose weight. Sleep allows you to recover from your workouts (that you ARE doing because you know you will do better with long term weight loss if you exercise.) Sleep also keeps your hormone balance in check, especially leptin and ghrelin. According to researchers at Stanford, people with short sleep (5 hours a night) have reduced leptin (thin hormone) and elevated ghrelin (hunger hormone). Based on what the hormones do in the body, the researchers claimed the differences in leptin and ghrelin are likely to increase appetite, possibly explaining the increased BMI observed with short sleep duration.

4. Fitting in the Veggies. It might sound old, but you need your veggies. The fiber makes them filling. The low calories makes them “figure friendly,” the phytochemicals and antioxidants help prevent diseases (like many cancers), and they help repair blood vessel damage. Try these fun ways to have veggie “finger foods” on the go:

• celery and almond butter
• avocado stuffed cherry tomatoes
• blanched broccoli with lemon
• prosciutto wrapped asparagus

All these choices make great snacks! Personally, I recommend that people keep carbs as low as possible at snacks and save them for meal times.

5. Eating Mindfully. Mindfulness is a state of being aware, ‘in the moment,’ present, and engaged. Rarely do we spend time in the day being truly mindful, especially when it comes to food. It’s amazing the mental and emotional transformation that happens when people take back the pleasure of eating. When you choose nourishing foods and take your time to enjoy them bite-by-bite, you engage all your senses – not just “taste.” Notice the colors, smell the aroma, appreciate your food choice for all the ways it is going to give health to your body.

All of a sudden, the drive-through window and 100-calorie packs become less appealing. If you make one change, try making each meal last 30 minutes and spend the first five engaging all your senses except taste. When eating mindfully, you will notice that it gets easier to choose healthy from the start and stop eating when you feel satisfied not when the plate is clear.

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5 Weight Loss Rules You aren’t Following

• Embrace the power of portions! With portion size in mind, you can truly have whatever you want. Just not too much. By giving priority to putting fresh fruits and veggies on the plate, you’ll fill up on nutrients and fiber but not on calories. So a few bites of a high calorie dessert you “can’t resist” can fit in while you are on vacation.

• Moderate. Moderate. Moderate.  I tell people to “choose between.” If you’re in the mood for a rich breakfast like pancakes, have a pancake with a couple egg whites and then for lunch have some healthy greens with grilled fish. Choose a glass of wine with dinner or dessert, but not both. Alcohol lowers the inhibitions and once you’ve had a few, resisting the “munchies” is like staying away from a BOGO shoe sale – IT AIN’T HAPPENING!

• Rethink convenience foods. Fresh fruits are nature’s convenience food. Fruits like oranges, bananas, and apples come in their own packaging (how’s that for going green?). Road tripping? Bring a cooler of fresh fruit, 2% mozzarella string cheese, grape tomatoes, Fig Newtons, hard boiled eggs, and whole wheat crackers with a small schmear of natural peanut butter. Be sure to eat a balanced meal before you hit the road and then rely on the cooler for healthy noshes between destinations. If you are full, you won’t feel tempted by the roadside fast food.

• Don’t be “the rationalizer.” You know who I’m talking about… the person who says “I’m on vacation so I don’t care.” “Just one more.” Bottom line: you can have fun and nourish yourself at the same time. If you’re out for a week, pick one or two truly “carefree” food days and balance them out with some extra activity. But don’t sign up for a week of overdoing it. The emotional fallout you may feel when you come home is not worth the few days of food frenzy.

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How to Avoid a Nutrition Vacation