There are hundreds of hints to support the goal of keeping calories down during the holiday season. I’ve written many myself in the past, but this year I decided that I’d just choose four to mention. I know you’re busy during the holidays (and so am I) so I’m just mentioning these few; hope they’re helpful.

1. Don’t skip meals trying to save up your entire calorie needs for the one huge meal. Unfortunately, this technique generally backfires. You become very hungry and then tend to have a ravenous appetite for all the high calorie holiday foods. Eating small, lower calorie than usual meals takes the edge off your appetite and may even give you the control you need for some moderation in eating.
2. Picky, picky, picky! This is the time for being picky. Think of yourself as a detective; carefully scrutinize the buffet table. Skip all the foods that are frequently available and/or foods you don’t really You don’t need to taste everything on the buffet. When you find those favorites, mindfully enjoy each bite.
3. Mindful Eating: Here I go talking about Brian Wansink and his Cornell University colleagues’ research again. This latest research is pretty clever, as usual. They discovered and wrote in the journal Health Education and Behavior that women who keep fresh fruit out on the counter were more likely to be normal weight. Women with similarly easy access to snacks, boxed cereals and sodas were significantly more likely to be overweight or obese. Protect yourself from “see” food – what you see is what you eat. If you don’t see holiday treats dropped off by friends, it will help you to not eat them. And if you do see fruit, you will be more likely to eat fruit.
4. Another hint coming from Wansink’s Mindless Eating lore is to only put two items on your plate when you go to the food table. Return to the buffet, but only take two items each time. This suggestion is based on Wansink’s findings that variety stimulates appetite; if you limit your choices to just a few items and stick with these, it will be easier to control than eating a little bit of 20 different dishes.

Knowing that our plan is to eat at Stein Eriksen’s incredible Park City buffet with our daughter’s family this Christmas Day, I realize that I better have some plans for restraint; being picky, only putting a couple of items on my plate and techniques to focus on people – not just food. If I eat lightly during the day, I probably won’t do as poorly as if I head up there with a ravenous appetite. I know that having a plan will increase my chance of not ending up with a huge empty plate and me full of un-needed calories and regret.

I’m sending my very best wishes for a beautiful holiday season.