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Stuffed Like a Turkey
Terry Riley · November 17, 2003

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. Here are a few tips to avoid looking like a stuffed turkey come January.

Drink water, drink water, drink water. Oh, and drink more water. 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.

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.

Eat (You gotta like this one). 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.

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.

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.

Dr. Terry Riley is a psychologist and travel security authority based in Santa Cruz, Calif. He is the editor of the Web site Applied Psychology.