Yes, Thanksgiving is just around the corner. Danger! Danger!

Then comes Christmas, New Year, parties, dinners, brunches, all loaded with tempting holiday fare and full of calories, fat, sugar, and salt.

Don’t fall into the trap of snacking and eating sweets starting the week before Thanksgiving (I’m assuming you somehow came through Halloween unscathed) and then continuing that pattern for the days in between the holidays as well. Before you know it, you’ve been indulging the whole season and you’ve gained five pounds or even more.

With a little smart planning and commitment, you can avoid weight gain and stay on a healthy eating plan.
Commit to eating healthy during those times when you are not at holiday fetes, and promise yourself you will exercise at least 3 times a week.

Live a little! Go ahead and indulge at parties and special dinners. But plan ahead to see when they occur and make sure that if here are many, that you plan to indulge less at some of them.   My trick is to “save” my excesses for occasions where I know the food will be exceptional.  Who wants to waste extra calories on ordinary chips or pretzels or ordinary cheeses or store-bought cookies and cake?  Not me! I can easily skip the food completely or stick to the raw vegetables and fruit. But if I know the food will be exquisite – involving goat cheese or extra-dark chocolate or someone’s special recipe, for example—I’ll eagerly eat them and thoroughly enjoy them.  The splurge will be worth it.

And then, I try to avoid the all-or-nothing mentality.  The next meal, or the next day, I’m right back on my healthy eating plan. I don’t use those cookies as an excuse to think I’ve blown it all, what the heck, I’m going to indulge for the rest of the week… which turns into another week, which turns into… forever.
And then, every year, we find ourselves a little heavier, or clothes a little tighter, our ability to climb stairs a little diminished.

So, go ahead, enjoy the holidays… but keep them special by choosing your indulgences wisely and sparingly, and then steer yourself right back to healthy eating afterward.