t happened again: you promised yourself that you wouldn’t overeat at the holiday party and you went ahead and did it anyway—BIG time.

What should you do?
A)   Go home and raid the refrigerator—you’ve already blown your diet so you may as well binge.
B)   Go directly to the gym and sweat it off on the treadmill for the next three hours.
C)   Fast all day tomorrow since you probably ate about two days’ worth of food.
D)   None of the above.

If you answered D, then you are correct, but don’t laugh off the other options since they are the most common responses to this exact situation. A lot of people view eating in black and white, categorizing foods and dietary practices as either good or bad, healthy or unhealthy, right or wrong. When there are no shades of gray, extreme behaviors like options A) through C) are common, but neither giving up nor overcompensating are the best ways to deal with dietary damage; there are many productive and positive ways to manage any situation, barrier, or saboteur that may jeopardize the success of your healthful eating or weight-maintenance plans this holiday season.

I’ve probably told you this before, but it is worth repeating: the holidays are not a good time to lose weight, but they are a great time to practice maintaining your weight. If you lost weight in September and October and even the first part of November, then good for you! I don’t want to discourage your efforts, but I also don’t want you to feel disappointed. Trying to eat perfectly on a holiday or at a party is setting yourself up for failure. The only way to eat perfectly is to stay home, but that’s impractical. When you eat healthfully, it’s important to understand the 90-10 principle: you should eat well 90% of the time so that the other 10% of the time you can eat what you love during holidays and at parties. Perhaps November and December are more like 80-20 months—but that’s okay! I’m not giving you permission to gain weight, but I am encouraging you to enjoy your food without going overboard. This seems like a very thin line to tread, but it can be done. I think that the key to indulging without over indulging is to go to your parties with a plan. There is more than one good plan for dealing with holiday eating. I’ll make several suggestions and allow you to decide what will work best for you:

• Weigh yourself daily or every couple of days to make sure that your 10 or 20% of fun does not turn into 30 or 40% of recklessness.
  
  
• Identify and control your emotional eating if holiday stress creeps up on you. Refocus your energy away from eating and onto other productive and healthful activities, such as walking or yoga.
  
  
• Although food is part of the holiday experience, the people and the social interactions are what will make the holidays memorable. Put your energy into visiting with friends and family instead of checking out the dessert buffet.
  
  
• Plan get-togethers with friends around activities instead of meals. Gift-wrapping parties, exercise classes, spa days and volunteering at soup kitchens or nursing homes are great ways to spend quality time with friends without packing on the pounds.
  
  
• Eat breakfast, lunch and dinner every day, even if your previous meal was huge. Skipping meals is not a way to compensate for eating too much and actually sets you up for overeating again. Breakfast is especially important, because it influences the healthfulness of your food choices for the rest of the day.
  
  
• Try to stick to your normal pattern of healthful eating so that you will feel nourished and satisfied at most meals. Maintaining your good eating habits on a daily basis means you will not be as tempted to eat with abandon when you’re at the holiday dining table.
  
  
• Have a healthy snack before you leave for a party so that you won’t arrive there starving. Otherwise, extreme hunger could force you to throw your healthy strategies out the window and drive you to eat every morsel of food in sight, regardless of how unhealthy it is.
  
  
• Only allow yourself to indulge once a day. If you are invited to two parties in one day, either sit one out or eat a healthy meal before you go so that you won’t eat while you are there.
  
  
• If you’re at a buffet meal, strictly enforce the “one plate rule.” Basically, you’re only allowed to eat as much as you can fit on one plate and you can’t go back for seconds. If you’re not sure what’s good, don’t be the first in line. Wait a little bit, survey the spread, ask someone who’s already started eating what’s good, and then grab a plate.
  
  
• Wake up a few minutes earlier and go for a brisk walk or do an exercise video at home. If you get your activity out of the way first thing in the morning, you won’t have to make excuses in order to avoid it later in the day.
  
  
• Use exercise to keep yourself healthy and grounded, not as a way to purge the extra calories you’ve eaten. Instead of spending hours at the gym a couple of days a week, keep your exercise moderate and regular—you’re more likely to stick with it throughout the season.
  
  
• Beware of caloric beverages since those calories add up fast. Try to drink mostly water and, when you do drink, try to choose the lower calorie options. Alcoholic drinks with the fewest calories are wine, beer, mimosas and Bloody Marys.
  
  
• When you’re at a party, be sure to have a glass of sparkling or flat water in your hand from the very beginning—how much can you eat if you only have one free hand?
  
  
• Choose your “poison” before the party: alcohol, bread/stuffing or dessert. Allow yourself one of the three, but not all of them.
  
  
• If you’re preparing a holiday dinner, make sure there are lots of vegetable dishes to choose from. If you’re a guest at a dinner, try to bring a salad or vegetable dish that you know is light and healthy. Nothing is lower in calories or more nutrient-dense than vegetables, so fill up on them to eat less of the high-calorie stuff.

Successful damage control entails being proactive now to prevent regret later on. If you go into the season with a good weight maintenance plan, you should feel strong and prepared, not deprived and lost. Whatever you do, remember to have fun and connect with people. This month you’ll probably find yourself in a situation where you can’t employ any of your carefully planned strategies. When that happens, employ the strategy of moderation. Eat what you like, but eat it in moderation—and enjoy every bite!