1. Decide to have a lighter Christmas this year
You have a choice between stuffing yourself silly and enjoyingthe delights of Christmas more modestly. Eating too much willleave you feeling uncomfortable and remorseful. Eating justenough will leave you feeling great. It's up to you to decidehow you want to feel at the end of the day.
2. Eat what you really want
So much of the food on Christmas Day is eaten "because it'sthere" even though you don't really want it. Eat when you'rehungry, choose what you really want and eat just enough tosatisfy.
Don't feel you have to fill up on nutritious food before you getto the chocolate gateau you hanker after. Save room for dessertif that's what you really want. You'll not suffer from vitamindeficiency by not eating properly for a single day! Don't pileyour plate with anything and especially not with food you do notcare about.
3. Don't let boredom set in
The other reason we eat food we don't really need is because itpasses the time. Cooped up in a roomful of relatives, graduallylosing the will to live, can have you nibbling away before youknow it at whatever's on offer.
Instead of sitting around, get active. Help with thepreparations. Concentrate on trying to make a meaningfulconversation with your old aunt. Suggest a walk after lunch or agame of charades. Keep busy even if you land with the washing up!
4. If you are the cook
Look for some lighter foods to serve and offer these as anoption, for example strawberry pavlova or fresh fruit salad asan alternative to Christmas pudding. And choose a light saladbased starter too. Look online for hints and tips about reducingthe fat content in a typical Christmas lunch. You can reduce thecalories by half and still serve up a delicious meal. At thevery least remove the skin from turkey and any visible fat frommeat and make the gravy ahead of time so that you can skim thefat from the surface when it cools.
5. Go easy on the alcohol
Alcohol is not only full of calories but it also lowers yourinhibitions about eating everything in sight, and, lets face it,there will be a lot of temptation around. Sip your drink slowlyand drink plenty of water so you don't end up drinking a lotjust because you're thirsty.
6. Shrug off hurtful comments
Families are not always the most tactful bunch and whetheryou're overweight or not and whether or not they mean any harm,their comments and probing questions can sometimes hurt. Theywon't change just because it's Christmas, no matter how manymessages of "Peace and Goodwill" they send out on cards.
When the barbed comments hit their mark, avoid drowning yoursorrows in drink or a faceful of cake. You are only hurtingyourself more. Remind yourself before the event of the likelycomments you'll get - they may be the same from year to year -and think about how you'll deal with them. At least have somepositive things you can say to yourself when someone gets youdown. And smile to yourself whenever someone comes up with oneof the things you thought they might say. So predictable!
7. Forget Perfection
Your Christmas like my Christmas and everyone else's Christmaswill not be perfect. We have real families who, apart frommaking comments, will have their own idiosyncrasies. They mightvery well annoy you, fall asleep after lunch, argue and makeboring conversation. That's families for you! Decide how youwant Christmas to be and do all you can to make it as you want,but just enjoy it for what it is, in the end, for it will neverbe perfect.
8. Looking good
Wear your best clothes and do your make-up and hair so that youfeel at your very best. A beautiful fragrance and good groomingwill make you feel special, help lift the day out of theordinary and make you feel that it really is worth watching whatyou eat, even just a little.
9. Wrap it Up
Sometimes we spend ages choosing and wrapping special gifts forothers only to be disappointed when we open our own parcels.Make sure there's something you really want under the Christmastree this year by buying yourself a gift and wrapping itbeautifully. Show yourself you deserve the very best - becauseyou do!
10. And the Day After?
Whatever you ate or didn't eat on Christmas Day is immaterial.What's done is done. Get rid of the leftovers (throw them out orgive them away) and get right back on track by eating normallyagain. Don't starve yourself to make up for eating too much,you'll only set yourself up for a binge. But it won't help youeither if you decide that you might as well wait until Januaryto work off the excess pounds you've gained over Christmas.Another week of overeating will simply add to the pounds youhave to lose. Unless you still have wall-to-wall parties to copewith, the day after Christmas is a great time to start planningyour new trim figure for next year and making an early start onyour goals.
Copyright 2005, Janice Elizabeth Small
About the author:Janice Elizabeth is a coach and author of "The DietExit Plan", the system that promotes permanent healthy andAUTOMATIC through making small changes to youreveryday habits. Visit http://www.SimplySlimming.com/Christmastoday to get the Simply Slimming FREE ezine full of tips andrecipes and a 24 page special report "How to have a GreatChristmas without piling on the pounds".
