by Catherine Barbaro

Created on: July 29, 2008   Last Updated: June 29, 2009

Instead of blowing off healthy, adopting a few strategies will keep the weight and the guilt off throughout the holiday season. It seems that every year, beginning with leftover Halloween candy, most of us fall mercy to the baking and snack purchasing whims of the season. Co-workers and well meaning friends dust off baking pans and refill candy dishes at a rapid rate. As December advances, the pace of excessive overeating intensifies with parties and gifts of food and drink that culminate in the traditional day of remorse on January 2. This is followed by short lived extreme diets and heavy doses of guilt. But weight gain and out of control eating doesn't have to be the rule. Planning ahead and making choices before being confronted with unhealthy temptations is the key. It also helps to add a little humor to the whole dilemma.

Planning ahead is the most successful of all strategies. Decide what method of sensible eating most suits your lifestyle. This may not be the time to plan on losing a significant amount of weight. The more live-able approach may be to plan on maintaining your weight through the holidays. Examine your eating personality. If you cut back during the day, will you overeat at night? Or, if you eat healthily before going out, will you still overindulge once the party begins? What behavior has been the downfall in the past? Do you not overeat at parties, but simply graze all day long on all the holiday treats? By choosing a strategy that compliments how you behave, success is boosted.

At work, remove the candy dish from your desk. Suggest healthier snacks options for the office. If your co-workers don't want to go along, buy the candy for the dish yourselfwisely choosing the candy that is the most undesirable to you. Keep the dish full from an extra bag in your desk. Smile and say "no thank you" instead of voicing dislike of that particular candy. The simple decline and lack of explanation give you a boost and keep some well-meaning friend from making a point to stock the dish with your personal favorite.

At parties, forgo the alcohol and you might not need to deprive yourself of anything else. Volunteer to be the designated driver. Which is more satisfying to you, alcoholic beverages or sweets? Pick one but not both. A 4 ounce martini is about 276 calories. A glass of eggnog is 258 calories a cup. A piece of fudge is 472 calories. A piece of cheesecake runs about 270 calories. A 3 inch doughnut is 120 calories. Compare the numbers and see if this option might work.

Change the focus from food to people. Carry a glass of water around. People really won't notice or care what you are consuming. They will be more interested in what they are consuming. Take the opportunity at social events to visit with people and enjoy without indulging. Be the designated photographer and stay busy snapping pictures instead of eating. And oh, what pictures will be possible! Think about the office parties of the past. Hmmm. It could really be interesting.

Sensible eating will result in more creative New Year's resolutions. Instead of the standard resolution to lose all the weight put on in the last couple of months, healthy strategies that kept the weight off will allow you to forgo resolutions all together or come up with some fun ones that don't include deprivation.

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