Marilu Henner - Party Hearty: Hot, Sexy, Have-a-Blast Food & Fun All Year Round

M ARILU H ENNER

with L ORIN H ENNER

Party Hearty

H OT , S EXY , H AVE - A - B LAST , H EALTHY
F OOD & F UN A LL Y EAR R OUND

Previously published under
the title Healthy Holidays

To my family and friends,
and to holiday lovers everywhere

H ealthy holidays. It sounds like an oxymoron, right? Its right up there with jumbo shrimp, slumber party, and working vacation. Its kind of like saying disciplined indulgence. I was telling a friend of mine recently that I was writing a book called Party Hearty, and he said, Healthy holidays? Is that even possible? Well Im here to tell you that not only is it possible, its guaranteed if you follow just a few simple rules. After reading this book and enjoying a few healthy holidays of your own, Im sure you will agree that making your holidays healthy is the best way to enjoy them to their fullest.

I used to see every holiday as an opportunity to completely fall apart. And I actually looked forward to falling apart! I would even factor in recovery time, naturally building it into my year. I would plan for those days of indulgence and accept the consequencesextra weight, puffy face, watery eyes, stuffy nose, headache, constipation, and bloatingas though they were supposed to be a natural part of the celebration. (Not to mention a pimple or two within the following week!) To most of us, the essence of a holiday is indulgence. And it should be. But overindulgence is often the factor that ruins a holiday or party. The suffering usually outweighs the pleasure, not to mention how dangerous it is for our health.

The essence of a holiday is friends and family sharing and celebrating with a meal that usually involves some kind of guilty pleasure, a little naughty and perhaps a little unhealthy, but one that we look forward to because it isnt a part of our everyday routine. In fact, celebrating the holidays is a way of balancing our routine. We work forty-plus hours a week, and a holiday is a way of letting off steam and taking a break from that work. We have been working hard and have been mentally building toward a reward. Holidays are usually celebrated on a weekend, now that most of them have been moved to a convenient Monday, and the main objective is to gather with friends and family, eat a little more, play a little more, and drink a little more. In short: live a little more. Sometimes a lot more!

Now I dont want you to think that this is a book about avoiding those things we love during the holidays. Its not about being overly disciplined on holidays or at partiesyou wont be eating only raw food at your next Thanksgiving dinner. This book is about building a few simple corrective actions right into your holiday routine so that you wont gain weight or be sick, hung over, or forced to diet and detox for days or weeks after the holiday. Youre going to build a few of the elements of detox and diet right into your dayand barely notice it.

This is analogous to sound financial planning. If your overall goal is to be financially stable, its best to budget and have a balanced and secure financial plan. If you overspend during the holidays and blow money carelessly on every vacation, youre likely to go into debtunless, of course, you are extremely wealthy. But you can never reach a point with your health that would be equivalent to a billionaire with his money. You can never be so healthy that it would be possible to eat and drink large quantities of junk and still be healthy and look great. And even though the most affluent people can afford reckless spending, I find it interesting that they usually tend to budget the most. It is one of the main reasons the wealthy stay wealthy. And that is the mentality I would like you to adopt regarding your health. I want you to stay healthy and still thoroughly enjoy the holidaysin fact, youll probably enjoy them more. And you wont need to recover for three days afterward.

People are always going to overdo it. Its human nature to want to contrast working hard with overindulging. But if you can embrace little ways to keep yourself from falling off the deep end, you will also teach your children some healthy habits in the process. Balanced eating during the holidays is a great message to send our kids. We teach them by showing a good example, which plants the seed in their heads that extreme eating habits are not a good idea. This is more important than ever today, when there is so much junk food in our childrens environment compared to when we were growing up, and so many more opportunities for them to pick up bad habits.

When I was growing up, I would eagerly wait for the holiday season, starting with Halloween. I knew I was going to be sick the day after eating all that junk, but there was no way I was going to skip even one candy corn. And after Thanksgiving dinner, I knew I was going to be full and bloated and sick. Its not just an American tradition to be miserable after every holiday. Its the law! And we dont feel satisfied until we are completely stuffed. It is our goal to actually become the turkey.

I remember returning to school every January after Christmas vacation, even when I was as young as fourth grade, realizing Oh my gosh, my uniform doesnt fit anymore. As a teenager I would always begin a serious diet every January. I know Im not the only who approached January this way. In fact, most people still do. The average person gains seven or eight pounds between Thanksgiving and New Years Day, and everyone, at one time or another, attempts to change his or her life beginning in January right after the big holiday sweep. These attempts are called New Years resolutions.

If youre familiar with my books Marilu Henners Total Health Makeover, The 30-Day Total Health Makeover, and Healthy Life Kitchen, you know that one of the most important elements Ive strived for in developing the Total Health Makeover (or THM) lifestyle over the past twenty-three years has been to find a way of eating that I could live with every day. So, of course, much of this lifestyle had to be flexible and forgiving, especially during the holidays. I have always been somewhat of a party girl, so it was important for me to find a way of getting through the holidays while still indulging and enjoying myself. To this day, I associate holidays with being a little naughty and eating and partying too much, but now I dont fall apart. And I enjoy the holidays now more than ever!

People always make fun of me for eating what they consider to be a strict diet. They cant believe I have the discipline to never eat meat, sugar, or dairy products. When I dine with friends for the first time, they will often apologize for ordering something that I would not eat myself. What they dont realize is that flavor-wise and satisfaction-wise my diet is identical to theirs. Its just healthier. My taste buds now prefer healthier, better food.

I threw a holiday party once for three hundred people. I carefully went over the THM guidelines with the caterer (no meat, no sugar, no dairy). It was an endless feast with many hors doeuvres, entres, dessertseverything devilish you can imagine. Because the food was so incredible, people said, Wow, you really broke the rules tonight, didnt you? They couldnt believe it when I told them that all the food fit within the THM guidelines, and that not one item was served that I would not eat myself. THM is simply a way to eat, enjoy, indulge, and not feel sick the next day.

Have you ever gotten into really great shape, just to fall apart? We get in shape to go on vacation, be someones Valentine, see our relatives at Christmas, fit into that slinky Halloween costume or tight little black dress. We bust our butts and do whatever we must to get in perfect shape, and then blow it all in one night by going for everything weve been missing. Its all about the entrance. You want to look great for that moment when he, she, or they (whoever youve been dieting for) see you for the first time. Once that moment has passed, you relax and dont stop eating and drinking until the party or holiday is over. You may be thinking, Oh, big deal! So I gain one or two or ten pounds over the holidays. That will only set me back a few days. Well, I think a few days five to ten times a year