Just cause it’s the holidays is not an excuse to binge eat and ruin all the hard work you’ve been putting in all year! Yes, I know those comfy winter sweaters and stretchy pants make it oh so easy to forget how stuffed we are but the scale won’t. With Thanksgiving upon us, I decided I’d kick off our holiday tips but I’m sure they’ll be more to come before Christmas/Hannukah.

Thanksgiving Eve : I bet some people gain more weight on the night before Thanksgiving than on the day itself. Just because alcohol is a liquid does not mean it has any less calories! Be conscious of what you put into your body, stick to clear beverages with soda water and low calorie light beers. You’ll still get drunk I promise, which is what leads me to my next point. Don’t get drunk and binge eat. Yes, it’s 4am and I know that pizza looks appetizing but stop and think of how you’ll feel in the AM and resist!!

Wear tight clothes. Do it. Trust me. You’ll have a much better indicator of how full you are and be more likely to pace the amount of food you eat. That comfy sweat shirt is not your friend when it comes to holiday eating. Show off your cute little figure in a cute little dress or tight jeans and you’ll help keep your figure that way.

Veggies!! Vegetables are your friend. Learn to love them. While your impatiently waiting for your turkey or tofurkey to be ready, let the the vegetables in your crudite keep your mouth and tummy busy. Not only will you fill up on all that fiber and be less likely to overdose on stuffing or sweet potato caserole but you’ll save your self hundred of calories by avoiding the cheese/crackers or any other dip/fried/fattening h’ors deurves.

Help the host: (if your not hosting) Not only is this polite but it will also keep you from vegetating on the couch while watching football and eating chips. Keep yourself busy setting things up or preparing food and you won’t be tempted to eat out of boredom. Your friend or family member will surely appreciate the help and we can keep your true intentions between us.

Good luck! Remember, it’s only one day, if you want to indulge pick your favorite dish and go for it but try to remember moderation and portion control. And a gym sesh on Friday if all else fails..

So after a long hiatus and completely burying the idea of blogging about my little cooking/healthy eating fascination under a mountain of unfulfilling part time jobs, I am back, thanks to a DVD of “Julie and Julia” I received in the mail a few days ago. And I decided tonight, after a particularly amazing yoga class, that I would treat myself to an evening of watching it while baking some vegan oatmeal muffins. Lo and behold, the muffins are AMAZING (and I will post the recipe! ) and here I am at my computer resurrecting this wonderful website back from the dead.

So where have I been and what have I been eating? Well, shortly after finishing my juice fast, I went back to the completely vegan side and stopped dabbling in animal products. My body feels fantastic and I really don’t have a terribly hard time eating healthy and staying full. In fact, being vegan has given me a kind of freedom I have never had before in my life. It gives me the freedom of not being on a diet. I don’t count calories anymore and I eat till I’m full. If I can make it vegan, I can eat it. Bagels, muffins, cookies, ice cream, anything at all I want, I allow myself to eat it. Now let’s be honest, I don’t live on these kind of treats or I would surely gain weight, but I never deny myself them. It’s a whole new world for me. I’m pretty sure this is the longest in my life I have gone without being on a diet. To be honest, I now finally understand what they mean when they say ‘it can’t be a diet, it has to be a lifestyle’. Vegan is my lifestyle, it’s not some crazy fad I’m doing for the next 3 months till bathing suit season or something ridiculous like that, it’s just how I eat.

I don’t want to preach and I would never force my views on anyone else (or judge them for eating meat!) but I figured I’d explain a little more about my particular lifestyle choice because I know it might seem a bit extreme. I love animals, yes, I have an awesome little Westie named Charlie who might as well be my little brother. However, I am not a vegan ONLY because of this. I truly disagree with the way our animals are handled in mass quantities and pretty much bred to be slaughtered. It’s gross and I personally don’t need that kind of karma in my life but for the sake of food chain logic, let’s go beyond that. The hormones, the pesticides, the infections, and the illnesses of these animals are seeping into our food supply and that is truly what I want to stay away from. Cows, chickens, pigs, etc are fed hormones to make them grow faster and gain weight so that the farms can expedite the slaughtering process. Now I absolutely do not need those kinds of hormones in my system, nooo thannk youu! Not to mentions the illnesses and infections these animals get because of the treacherous conditions they live in or the pesticides put on the grass/greens their fed – completely unappetizing.

Enough about that though, in all fairness I must admit I do slip off the vegan wagon from time to time and as a lover of food and cooking, it is hard to deny how amazing some animal products taste. I can’t promise I’ll be vegan for the rest of my life but I’m pretty sure I’ll always err toward the vegan side of the scale. I confess to missing fish (particularly salmon) and brie the most but I don’t ever see myself eating steak or drinking milk again.

* If your interested in learning more about living vegan, I strongly recommend checking out the books “The Kind Diet” and “Skinny Bitch”.

It’s been a long, exhausting road for me when it comes to diets and exercise. I’ve tried everything, well almost everything, you could imagine. I’ve done Weight Watchers, Low-Carb, Low-Cal, Vegan, Juice fasts, etc. The thing is I’m not fat. In fact, some would even classify me on the thin side but what I haven’t found is something I can stick with. I’m on a constant search for a diet to end all diets or something to get me back on track. I’m also a gym rat. I love cardio and I adore yoga.  This has been my saving grace a lot of the time when I end another diet in disaster. However, this site is going to change all that. I’m going to stick it through, explore my options and help us both find the best lifestyle choices to stay skinny in the city.

However, I felt as a way to jump into this exploration, what better way to start than doing a cleanse! And what better cleanse than “The Master Cleanse”. I know some may feel skeptical or suspicious about the legitimacy of the Master Cleanse and I agree with your feelings completely and this is partly why I’m going to try it. I feel like the Master Cleanse is the urban legend of all detox diets. Everyone has heard about it, most people know someone who’s done it, and everyone wants to know if Beyonce really did lose 20lbs when she did it for a film. I’ve tried it before and was unsuccessful simply and most glaringly because I was able to talk myself out of doing it after a day or two. It’s so controversial, it’s easy to rationalize not doing it. To be completely honest, I’m flip-flopping between it or a juice fast to kick off this blog for numerous reasons. Either way, I think a cleanse/fast for a few days is a great way (for me personally) to get myself back in to a healthy mind set. After a few days (no need to torture yourself longer than a week and not wise to do for your metabolism anyway) of light/limited consumption you start to feel rejuvenated, refreshed and lighter. Once it’s over, decisions to make healthy choices become easier because you want to keep your body on the route to optimal health and feeling good.

Be warned, these are not for everyone! If you think at the end of your 5 -day cleanse or what not you are going to order a double-cheeseburger and fries from Mc Donalds..don’t even waste your time! Your metabolism does slow down, not dramatically, but enough to where you will put on weight if you go back to eat junk when your done. Why ruin all that hard work? Just don’t do it! Everyone is different, so if this is not for you just follow along my journey and begin your own. What’s your biggest vice? Do you eat a lot of fast food? Eat multiple servings at dinner? Load up on soda and sugary lattes? Whatever it is for you, take a baby steps, instead of fasting make the decision to only order take out one day this week or only have one can of soda a day. A little cut back can go a long way on the road to getting healthy and skinny!

Thanks for coming to check out ‘Skinny in the City’! I’m really excited to get started with this blog and help new yorkers (and anyone else interested) get skinny in the city. This site will be all about my journey to lose and keep off those last 5,10, 15lbs and will hopefully be full of useful information to anyone who wants to get healthy, stay in shape and get skinny! I will personally test drive some popular cleanses, detoxes, diets, fitness routines, etc so that you can get some first hand insight and feedback. I’ll also post recipes that are delicious AND low in fat and calories and keep you in the loop about some skinny spots around NYC for when you need to eat out.

To find out a little more about me and my personal reason for starting this site, check out the ‘About Me’ page. I’m also a huge fan of feedback and suggestions since this is supposed to be for YOU so feel free to email me at NYCSkinnyChick@gmail.com if you have any suggestions of cleanses, diets, detoxes, programs etc you would like to hear about on the site! And lastly follow me on twitter to get skinnystatus updates!