by beth king

Created on: December 05, 2009

Being on a diet is difficult and trying to diet during the holiday season and over Christmas is just about impossible to stick with. It's great to want to eat healthy and lose unwanted pounds but sometimes restricting yourself too much and putting too much pressure on yourself can actually backfire and cause binging and weight gain.

The time between Thanksgiving and New Years is perhaps the most difficult time to not only start a diet but to stick with one. There seem to be treats everywhere you turn, from the office goodies, to the parties and then the holiday feast and there is only so much will power a person can muster up.

So what can you do? First, you are much better off planning on going off your program, at least for a specific period. That is the key, planning. There will be days that you won't be subjected to the goodies and those are the days that you should work harder at eating healthier. Forget any type of restrictive program now and focus more on eating a healthy, well balanced diet.

Plan for those times that you know you will be tempted. Try to eat a snack before you arrive at the party and eat the items that are unique and aren't available during the year since they are more special.

If you are at a big holiday feast, try to pick items that are lower in fat and calories and eat more of those and less of the higher fat and calorie items. Skip the high calorie soda and have water instead, make choices which foods you will eat and what you will skip.

The important thing is to be realistic and not set unfair expectations on yourself and set yourself up for failure. If you enjoy the special treats, homemade baked goods, then by all means, enjoy them. Just try to cut back elsewhere, have a low calorie breakfast, eat a light dinner or eat light during the day if your splurge is in the evening.

Just because it's the holidays doesn't mean you have to undo the hard work and good you have already done. Plan for your times to go off the diet and don't feel guilty about it. In fact, you may enjoy it more since it is planned for and you can look forward to it. If you maintain a balance of splurging and eating right you should make it through the entire season with out gaining a pound. If that doesn't happen and you have put on a little weight, make sure you tell yourself it's ok. You are not on a sprint but on a steady process of developing life long eating habits that are healthy and therefore you will achieve your weight loss goals.

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