How to eat healthy around the holidays -- we think

We have a holiday tradition in our household that involves the local grocery store, a grocery cart, several bags of cute holiday-wrapped candy, and very little willpower. You can probably discern what this tradition might involve.

Some people may have tried to circumvent such temptation by going about their shopping trip with a handheld basket instead of a grocery cart the size of the Louisiana Purchase. But consumer research suggests that people who shop with a basket are actually MORE likely to make impulse purchases -- but only if they are holding the basket with their dominant hand. Honest. I wish I had known this sooner. All this time I've been carrying baskets with my nondominant hand. Think of all the impulse purchases I've missed out on!

The research of course implies that to avoid buying more than we intend to, we should carry the basket in our nondominant hand, in the hopes that the other hand will calmly, rationally, start picking up loaves of 17-grain bread, organic/dairy-free/wheat-free/vegetarian/calorie-free beets, etc. and place it in all someone else's bas -- I mean, in our basket.  

Recently I read some tips about how to consume more healthful foods during this time of holiday overeating. The first tip was what to eat for breakfast the day after Thanksgiving. The sensible advice given in the article was: Have a slice of pumpkin pie for breakfast. 

I liked this author immediately. Not that I am particularly fond of pumpkin pie, but might not the principle extend to, say, chocolate cake for breakfast? Her reasoning went something like this: You KNOW you are going to want that pie sometime during the day. Yet in an effort to behave yourself gastronomically, you will eat sensibly all day, telling yourself you will NOT eat any pie, and believeing yourself until about 10 p.m., when a little voice says, "You DESERVE this pie," and in the pie goes. Boom! You have just gone 350 calories over your limit that day. Whereas, if you consume the pie first thing in the morning, you have already factored those calories into the day's equation, and you can set about being virtuous the rest of the day.

This rationale was soundly denounced by my coworkers, who declared that were they to choose such a course, they would STILL have a second piece of pie at night.

Yet the idea fits in nicely with my own personal philosophy of rewarding yourself BEFORE you have really done anything to merit the reward. And if it theoretically works so well the day after Thanksgiving, why not EVERY morning? Indeed, the Hero is lobbying for just such a lifestyle change, citing another group with similar wise, healthy eating habits: the Shakers.

After watching a documentary on the Shakers, he announced that the Shakers were the wisest people ever, at least in respect to their breakfast meals, which according to the documentary included apple pie EVERY DAY. 

"Apple pie for breakfast! EVERY day!" He was in awe.

Sadly, the Shakers have pretty much disappeared into  history now, and with them this fine idea of eating pie for breakfast. I can think of only one improvement to make upon their ritual: Have breakfast all day long.