Eating during the holiday season can be a huge challenge. The key to healthy holiday eating is to plan ahead so that you are in control to enjoy the foods you love in moderate portions.

Here are 5 Tips to Prevent Holiday Party Temptations:

1) Don’t Arrive at the Party Hungry

It is especially challenging to resist overeating when we are hungry. Therefore, it is best to avoid skipping meals on the day of festivities. In addition, eating a nutritious 100-200 calorie snack with an 8-ounce glass of plain water about 30 minutes before you arrive will help to reduce the risk of overeating. Examples of snacks include Greek yogurt, a handful of nuts, a mozzarella cheese stick, or an apple with peanut butter.

2) Bring a Nutritious Dish to the Party

Bringing a dependable, nutritious dish that you know you will enjoy can help you feel confident and that you are in control, no matter what else is served at the party. In addition, bringing a nutritious dish is one way to show others that you value your health- AND their health! One of my favorite go-to dishes is a fruit salad (see below for recipe), which is always a crowd pleaser and can be eaten as part of the meal and/or for dessert. A nutritious dish is often very filling and satisfying, so that there is less room on your plate for those more tempting foods available at the party

3) Avoid Sugary Drinks and Alcohol

Both alcohol and sugary drinks (like soda, Gatorade, sweetened iced tea, and juice) have loads of added calories with no nutritional value. Even worse, with all of the added calories, they do not fill us up. As you may know, alcohol reduces our awareness and control to make good choices. Stick with plain water, coffee, or unsweetened tea. If you are lucky, there may be some sliced lemon that you can squeeze into your water to make it fruity and sweet.

4) Make a Plan to Discourage Food Pushers

Will you be seeing people at the gathering who encourage you to eat more or eat foods that you know are less healthy? As I tell my patients, it can be very difficult when you are trying hard to live a healthy lifestyle, but people in your life create obstacles that make your plans difficult.

Have you heard these common tactics before?

• Emotional Ties to Food: “I made this just for you because I love you.”
• Shaming Pressures to Eat: “One bite won’t hurt you” or “Can’t you break your rules just this one time?”

To combat these pressures, make a plan ahead of time to empower yourself. In this way, you can gently take back control. Practice phrases, such as, “Thank you so much! This looks wonderful, but I’m really full.” or “Of course I will try it, let me have a taste.”

5) Set Short-Term Goals

Holiday time is marked by many celebrations, with increased availability of meals and snacks in the workplace, parties, and in the home. Therefore, a practical approach is to set a short-term goal of maintaining your weight rather than weight loss during the holiday season. Attempt to eat as many regularly scheduled, nutritious meals at home while creating sensible portion sizes when eating at gatherings. Do not deprive yourself of the foods that you love; however, the idea is to be able to savor these foods that you enjoy at these celebrations in sensible portions to create a balance.

I hope that these tips will help with reducing some of the holiday party temptations! 

Dr. Novick's Amazing Fruit Salad

The whole idea with fruit salad is to make it as colorful as possible. Feel free to add your colors:

• 1 ripe cantaloupe (unpeeled and cubed)
• 1 ripe pineapple (unpeeled and cubed)
• 1 container strawberries (quartered)
• 1 pound green or red grapes
• 1 container blueberries