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November 17, 2003
Santa Cruz, Calif. (Business Wire)—The Thanksgiving Holiday is rapidly approaching. What is normally the
biggest travel weekend of the year will find many travelers returning home
packing more than their underwear. They'll be packing a few extra pounds as
well. To avoid looking like a stuffed turkey this year, Dr. Terry Riley,
author of the upcoming The Complete Travel Diet®
offers these simple tips.
1. Drink more water than you normally do. Why? For two reasons:
First, in the winter, the heating of homes, shopping malls and other
buildings such as transportation terminals, dehumidifies the air. In
addition, airplane passenger compartments have very low humidity. The low
humidity causes your body to lose water—water that must be replenished
for your digestive system to function efficiently. Second, a stomach that is
empty sends messages of hunger to your brain. A stomach that is filled, even
with just water, can lessen a sense of hunger, and help prevent you from
overeating.
2. Limit caffeine and alcohol. Alcohol, and to a lesser extent
caffeine, can act as diuretics—not the effect you are looking for when
you are trying to keep yourself hydrated.
3. Eat. Between traveling to visit your relatives and thinking
about a holiday meal, you may go without eating for many hours. Not good.
Putting your body in this state of deprivation will cause it to conserve,
rather than burn fat, and it will make you hungry (famished is the word
you'll probably use) causing you to overeat.
4. Take a walk. Whenever possible, avoid using trams, moving
sidewalks, people movers, escalators, elevators or other mechanical
conveyances. Walking between gates at a large airport can easily take 10
minutes, and if you are carrying luggage, you get an extra workout. You can
easily burn 50 calories just making connecting flights.
5. Enjoy yourself! This is the holiday season. It's time to
relax, to enjoy the company of your friends and relatives and to enjoy the
food. You can't do that if you are rushing through a meal. Take half of the
amounts than you might normally load on to your plate, keeping in mind that
you can always have "seconds." (The notion here is that by the time you get
around to having seconds, you're not all that hungry anymore.)
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