Originally posted by Brianna from the Live Naturally Healthy blog

First, avoid the alcohol. Cocktails and beer are usually served at holiday parties, but they can be full of calories. When you drink, you also have a decreased will power when it comes to saying no to other holiday foods and your appetite will be stimulate, so you’ll eat even more than you normally would eat at a party. Having one drink on a special occasion may be fine, but don’t overdo it every time you head out to celebrate the season.

Another great tip to stick to your plan during the holiday season is to show up fashionably late after you’ve already eaten a meal. If you do this, you won’t feel pressured to eat an entire meal of junk foods or snack on cookie or hot chocolate. Of course, showing up late may be insulting at smaller parties, so make sure you are not rude to the party host.

Use the holidays to get outside as well. You can play in the snow if the weather allows, which actually burns tons of calories. Walking up the hill to sled and having a snowball fight are great ways to get your heart pumping as well as work off those candy canes.

If the weather isn’t cold or snowy, use your time to head to the mall. When gift shopping, make a number of laps around the mall and take the stairs instead of the escalator. Keep this in mind at parties as well—get up and move around as much as possible. Christmas caroling is also a great way to stay off of your rear. This will allow you to do some walking while spreading the holiday cheer.

Lastly, avoid gifts of food. Of course, you can’t tell people what to buy for you, but if you find yourself with a bunch of brownies or boxes or chocolates, why not share the love? You can take these products into work or even donate unopened items to your local food bank. These tips keep you staying slim, as you’re surrounded by goodies.

The average person will gain about 2-3 pounds between Thanksgiving and New Years’. It’s not just the actual holiday meals that will be the problem. It will be the other invites from friends, relatives, gym dinners, work holiday parties, etc. There may be half a dozen or more parties in between the above two holidays.

Use a small plate

If your plate real estate is too small to fit all the appetizers and dinners, you’ll limit yourself with the amount of food you eat.

The Journal of the American Medical Association printed a study done by Brian Wansink, PhD from Cornell University and Matthew M. Cheney, MS from the University of Illinois showed the participants ate 146 more calories when using larger bowls than the ones’ using the smaller bowls. May not sound like much, but if you did that for every dinner for a year, you would pack on an additional 15 pounds.

So, go for the smaller plate.

Too many choices

Going to those catered holiday parties can surely pack on the weight as well. The buffet table seems like a mile long with dozens of different foods. Many people will try a little bit of everything and maybe go back for some more of the foods they really enjoyed. Refrain from trying everything and only take one or every other one of each appetizer. Remember, there’s usually dinner right after.

The empty calories of alcohol

The calories of an alcoholic drink do nothing for your nutritional intake. Those calories are called empty calories because they contain zero protein, carbohydrate or fat content. Nonetheless, alcohol still has 7 calories per gram of alcohol.

Next to not drinking alcohol, the next best thing is to drink a glass of water in between each drink. It will fill you up faster and slow down your alcoholic intake.

Eat more vegetables

You’ve seen those platters. The broccoli, carrots, celery and cauliflower with the big bowl of creamy dip in the middle. This should be your best choice of the party, but without the dip. Those raw vegetables will fill you up nicely without many calories as long as you don’t consume too much of the fatty dip in the middle.

Weigh yourself on the November 26th, follow the above tips and then weigh yourself on January 2nd. If you weigh the same or less, you’ve done a good job!