It’s that time of year again! Time to celebrate the festive season with family and friends. This usually means overindulging in rich food & wine, undoing all the hard work you’ve done to trim down and have you feeling and looking like the stuffed turkey in no time.

This doesn’t have to be the case, as long as you plan and prepare, stay in control and stay focused.  Things to do:

• Mark in your diary the upcoming social engagements
• Then schedule in exercise sessions, making sure you exercise on those days and add an extra session (even if only a 20 minute walk) to compensate for the extra calories you’re likely to consume. Don’t try to find the time, you never will, MAKE the time and it will happen
• Adjust your eating, not only on the day (but if necessary the day before and after), if you know you have a dinner or party that you are going to that you will be consuming more food and probably more of the things you don’t usually eat.
• Stay focused & remember your health & fitness goal – this will help you stay on track as much as possible!
• Remember to alternate alcoholic drinks with water, or better still, if you have a number of nights out be the designated driver. This will certainly cut your calorie intake.
• Even if it’s an early cocktail party, eat before you go. Then you won’t be tempted to eat the deep fried, high fat foods that may be offered
• If going over to a friend or familys house, offer to take some food and make something you know you can eat that isn’t high in fat & sugar.
• Remind yourself how good you feel when you stay in control!

Here are a few ‘eating out’ tips to help ensure you don’t consume unneccesary extra calories.

• Don’t arrive starving
• Eat something light an hour or so before you go out e.g. Soup,  yoghurt & fruit or mixed raw vegetables with a low fat dip.  Then you’ll be in control, choose appropriately from the menu and not eat the entire breadbasket before the food arrives.
• Never assume you know how something is/has been cooked.
• A number of times I’ve made the mistake of thinking the sauce accompanying my fish, chicken, or pasta will be tomato based only to find its butter or cream.  That’s enough to set you back a day on your weight loss plan.
• Limit Alcohol.
• Wine is fine; it makes the dining experience more pleasurable, but you must remember moderation is the key. It still has calories and usually the more you drink, the more you want to eat, especially the next day when you have the lovely hangover!
• Sit on water until your meal arrives then enjoy a glass or two of wine with your dinner.
• If eating out, suggest the restaurant where you know you can chose healthy options

Stay focused over the next 12 weeks and you will be able to welcome in 2016 feeling fit & healthy rather than like a stuffed turkey!