Holiday Eating (for real)

From WebMD comes some great advice from Susan J. Bartlett, Ph.D., an associate director of clinical psychology at Johns Hopkins Weight Management Center, on how to get through the holidays without leaving your fitness goals in shambles. I'd recommend reading the whole article, but here are some highlights:

Set achievable goals

Sure, you may be able to exercise four days a week and eat only 1,400 calories a day at other times, but is it really feasible during the holidays? You're much more likely to stick to your plan and succeed if you set your expectations more realistically, aiming to maintain your weight or to minimize weight gain to, say, one to three pounds."

Write It Down

When you've figured out your goals, write them down and keep a diary of what you eat. "When researchers talk to people who are successful at losing weight and keeping it off, they inevitably say that writing everything down made the biggest difference. It's that willingness to stay in touch with what you're eating that's important."

Buddy Up

It's easy to underestimate the toll that the season takes — physically, psychologically, and emotionally. To avoid gaining weight, you need commitment and awareness. It's best to do this with a group of people — even one or two friends or a close buddy — whom you can call upon to talk about eating concerns."

One more important piece of advice from the article: keep weighing yourself.  Don't stay away from the scale for fear of bad news.  Personally, I find that staying away from the scale for too long always leads to an unpleasant shock when I finally return.

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/8078381@N03/ / CC BY 2.0