We all manage to survive the onslaught of theThanksgiving feast, the office cookie exchange, the fattening food gifts and the numerous holiday parties we go to between Thanksgiving and New Year's. Many of us slug through, fully expecting to fill our 'big people' pants rather quickly. Many people think 'Well, I'll get this weight off me after New Year's but they rarely do.

For those people who are trying hard to lose weight, the holidays are one of the most anxiety ridden times of the year. I hear it from many people in the weight loss challenges this time of year. Temptations are everywhere, happy memories revolve around eating, family pressures exist to 'try Aunt Bertha's special dessert' while willpower slowly fades away.

Lets face it, keeping your weight in control over the holidays is not a task for the weak minded and for better or worse there is no one else who can tackle eating healthy throughout the holiday season but you. So you might as well make an upfront decision about what you are going to do or simply give in and go with the flow. After all, you can get those five extra pounds off after the New Year's. Right?

Want some ideas to help yo prepare better? If you are doing the cooking consider these:

Reduce the calories in the foods you prepare. Making changes in the ingredients and the ways you prepare your favorite dishes can make a huge difference in the total calorie count.

Substitute 2% milk for whole milk or cream in your recipies
Use real whole grain breads instead of enriched packaged stuffing mixes
Add more sauteed mushrooms and decrease the amount of bread in the stuffing
Find low fat recipies for your pies and side dishes. For example, using fat free sweetened condensed milk instead of evaporated milk can lower the calories of your pumpkin pie .

Select lower calorie food preparations. Steam your broccoli instead of smothering it in cheese sauce. Using a simple sweet potato recipe instead of the traditional marshmallow laden recipe can shave off 192 calories from one serving alone. Use Your imagination. If you don't have a very good imagination, go surfing on the internet. You can find a wealth of healthy recipes there.

Provide low calorie snacks for your guests. They are going to eat a lot that day, so why make it worse with cheese balls and cream dips and chips. Serve them a colorful bowl of cut up fresh vegetables and some hummus. They will thank you one day.

So, what do you do when you are attending all those holiday functions? Here are some ideas to help you enjoy your foods but not overindulge."

Prepare yourself before the event. Whatever you do, DO NOT starve your self all day. It slows down your metabolism and sets you up to gorge yourself into oblivion at the main event. Make sure you have a balanced breakfast and lunch. If the event is in the evening, have a small healthy snack with a big glass of water about an hour before you get to your destination. This will take the edge off your hunger and give you more self control.

Speaking of water, keep in mind that the brain actually cannot distinguish between hunger and thirst. Drinking a large glass of water a half hour before you eat will help satisfy your cravings.

Get some exercise in during the day of the event. Yes! YOU! Put on your jogging shoes and your coat and take a brisk half hour walk. You can thank me later. Exercising suppresses appetite and increases your metabolism.

During the Event: Know your portion sizes. In my opinion weight control mostly boils down to how much food you eat. That's why it is critical that you have a mental image of what a portion of food looks like.

Meat: One portion is the size of a deck of cards
Side dishes: 1/2 cup or about the size of your fist unless you have hands like a linebacker, then it is the size of your mother's fist. Simply prepared veggie dishes can go over a little on size because they are lower in calories and will fill you up.
Stuffing: Same thing, 1/2 cup or about the size of a fist.
Gravy: Remember, this is mostly liquid fat and calories. If you must, a tablespoon is about the size of your thumb. Do not bathe everything on your plate with gravy. Gravy provides a taste accent on food. It is not a beverage.


Use a smaller plate to put your food on. It is well known that we are visual eaters and if you try to put three dollops of food on a big old plate you will feel cheated and angry and make take it out on the pecan pie. If you use a smaller plate and fill it, you eat less, but you will feel satisfied emotionally.


How about that salad fork? What is the advantage of using a smaller fork to eat with? Simple! You will put less food on the fork and it will take you longer to finish your plate, giving your brain more time to tell your stomach that you are full.


Make good food choices. Start with your serving of meat and healthy veggies, then small spoonfuls of all the other stuff that calls your name. Eat your meat and veggies first to give the protein a chance to tell your brain that you are getting full. If a food is heavily fat and calorie laden and you have little willpower, leave it off of your plate.


Be mindful of the Food Police. These are the well intentioned people at events who pressure you and 'guilt' you into eating foods that will blow up your waistline. You know the names of these Food Police. It's your Mom, your Dad, your Aunts and Uncles, your cousins and 'well meaning' people who somehow won't be happy unless you cave into their demands. I can't really tell you how to deal with them but somehow you need to find a way to work around their demands without doing too much damage to yourself or hurting their feelings. As I said before, only YOU can make yourself healthy. sometimes the path to wellness has bumps along the road. If you want to be a healthier person, then, you have got to demonstrate some backbone in following through with what's good for you.

I used to have two very good friends, Belle and Flo, whom I visited from time to time. They always had a plate of cookies and candy stationed right at the door. And, from the moment you took off your coat the 'plate' was passed to you to indulge in. The pressure was relentless. 'You're too thin, You're wasting away, It's just one little bite, These are really fresh'. They would continue for several minutes despite my telling them 'no-thanks' and finally they would stop asking but sometimes I would have to tell them it was time to stop with the pressuring.

Like I said, it isn't easy but it is necessary to stand up for your self. And, now you are armed with a few ideas. Do you homework and develop some strategies on how you are going to enjoy yourself over the holidays, yet not gain a bunch of weight. No one else can do it for you.