Yule Survive

 By Stephanie Osfield
12/4/2001

With nibbles lining the coffee table and sumptuous snacks stuffed into the refrigerator, the best of intentions often fly out the chimney during the holiday season, as taste buds take over. Here's how to survive temptation with your waistline intact: 

1. Make an eating plan. Your journal can be your best friend this time of year. Be scrupulous in recording absolutely everything you put in your mouth, down to that spoonful of gravy on your potatoes. "Simply knowing that you'll have to face the list of all the candies you sampled could be enough to make you think twice about what you eat," says Chicago psychotherapist Allison Evans, who specializes in counseling people with body image and weight issues. 

2. Decide why you're eating. Often at Christmas time, we eat for all the wrong reasons - to keep Aunt Mable happy because she went to so much trouble, because we got a box of chocolates as a gift, because there's just so much food lying around the office. "Instead, savor your favorite holiday foods when you are really hungry, and leave the others behind," suggests Karen Miller-Kovach, MS, RD, Weight Watchers' chief scientist.

3. Minimize alcohol intake. Alcohol adds empty calories and helps you lose sight of your goals. To minimize your alcohol intake, Miller-Kovach suggests using low- or no-POINTS beverages as mixers, drinking wine spritzers or alternating alcoholic drinks with low-calorie or calorie-free soft drinks, or water.

4. Find other comfort options. Depressed over the annual family bickering or the lack of money in your gift budget? Instead of reaching for comfort food, go for a long walk, meditate, play uplifting music or rent a funny movie.

5. Call a friend to vent your feelings. Or connect with other dieters that are roughing the holidays on the Weight Watchers message boards.

6. Go to a meeting. Seeing a room of smiling, understanding faces will help you survive the season. Don't know where to go. Try our Find a Meeting locator.

7. Avoid overreacting to overeating. Telling yourself you're hopeless because you racked up too many POINTS one day won't help. Remember: 'There's no such thing as failure. Only Feedback.' Write down what you ate and why you think you might have splurged. Then learn from it, and plan ahead the next time you might be in that situation. "Don't punish yourself for overeating," urges Evans, the psychotherapist. "Treat tomorrow as a brand new day."