As the holidays approach, be more tempted to decorate your home rather than your stomachs!!

It’s around this time of year, people tend to throw all of their healthy eating habits out the window to indulge in festive foods and fried delights. “I’m going to treat myself,” they say, not knowing that one treat may turn into two month’s of damage.

This is not to deter you from enjoying your holidays because trust me, I sneak in a few spoons of sweet potato pie and mac and cheese very often, but instead this should provide you with a few tricks and tips to help you make wiser choices during the holiday season so you don’t regret it on January 2nd of the following year.

Don’t skip meals on the day of the event

If you are anything like me, then you find yourself not eating breakfast on holidays like thanksgiving because you know there will be loads of goodies to eat later that day. If this sounds like you, stop skipping meals! We tend to overeat and fill our plates with a lot of food because our eyes equate an abundance of food with being full. If you have the time to eat in the morning, especially on a holiday, do so. You will be less tempted to fill your plate with extra scoops of potatoes because your body won’t be in starvation mode. Just because you’ll be eating great foods later in the day it doesn’t mean that you have to mistreat your body and skip the nutrients it needs in the morning.

Only Eat when you’re hungry

I am definitely a third plate culprit. When there is a huge spread of food assortments in front of me and my plate is way too small, please believe I will fill two more plates with the foods I haven’t yet tried. Give yourself some time to digest your food this holiday season. If you wait about thirty minutes after you’ve eaten your first plate of food, you may realize that you weren’t really hungry at all. Only revisit the food table when you’re absolutely hungry to reduce the chance of ingesting unnecessary calories.

Take Smaller portions of foods

As I mentioned before, sometimes our eyes are larger than our stomachs, meaning we think we are hungry because we see food but we really aren’t. When you are filling your plate up with food try taking smaller portions of the corn bread or chicken. Once you’ve eaten let the food digest for a while and if you’re still hungry because the portions were way too small, then grab a second plate of food with small portions as well. Empty spaces are always great on a plate, so make sure you can still see your plate after you shared yourself food.

Drink a glass of water before your meal

The times we feel like we are super hungry could be great indications of true thirst. Practice drinking an 8 ounce glass of water before eating your meal. The water will hydrate you and decrease your need to eat large portions of food. You’re supposed to drink half your body weight in water anyway so why not get a glass in before your meal?

Skip the dressing

For my salad lovers, try finding a dressing substitute this year. Yes, the thousand island dressing, and wishbone French dressings are to die for, however they pack on a lot of unnecessary calories and sugars, that are much better spent on a nice dessert. If you are unsure of alternatives to dressings you can try to use a nice olive oil mixture to spice up your salad. Or, don’t use dressing at all!

Bring a healthy dish to the festivities

If it’s Thanksgiving and you don’t want to be tempted by your grandmother’s pie, or that cheesy mac and cheese, try making a healthy dish to bring. Share the concept of healthy eating and commitment if you don’t care for indulging in fatty foods.

Plan ahead

My family usually coordinates who’s bringing what dish and what time dinner will start. I get super excited at thought of turkey and curry chicken as they are always staples during the holidays. Because I know what exactly will be there I am able to plan what I am going to eat ahead of time. It may sound weird but if i’m going to ruminate on the awesome food ahead of me, I might as well plan my meal ahead of time, this way when I get to the event I won’t feel overwhelmed with deciding what to eat.