Tips to avoid weight gain over the festive season

• The number 1 thing to remember is that you have a choice.  No one else is responsible for what goes in your mouth and it is possible to leave an event having eaten and drunk in a way that makes you feel empowered. 
   
• If you are invited out to friends' houses for a BBQ or meal, ask if you can bring a green salad.  How many times have you gone to someone’s house for a BBQ and found that either there was no green salad or it was so small that you could seriously have eaten the whole thing yourself?
   
• If you know that the BBQ meal is going to be served late and there will be nibbles first, have a light meal such as a poached egg on toast before you go.  Then, don’t touch the nibbles!  Once you get your hand on those platters it is all over.  Having had something to eat first it is much easier to say No to those platters.
   
• Limit your alcohol intake.  Remember that 3 decent sized glasses of wine is the equivalent of SIX slices of bread!  Would you really expect to eat 6 slices of bread and not gain weight?  Seriously? 
   
• For a delicious non-alcoholic alternative drink put ice cubes, slices of lime or lemon and a few pieces of chopped strawberry in the bottom of a long glass and fill with soda water or sparkling water.
   
• Try freezing ice cubes with blueberries, raspberries or green grapes in them as a novelty cooler for your drinks.
   
• Try half half wine and soda water.
   
• Consider trying some of the new lower alcohol wines that are out now. There are quite a few to choose from and being lower alcohol means they are also lower calorie.
   
• Ask family and friends NOW to support you by not giving you tempting treats as gifts. We all know how hard it is to resist an opened box of chocolates!
   
• If you are given treats that you don’t want to eat, then re-gift them, or take them to another social gathering, or hand them around when you have enough people to share them with.  If you do end up with quite a few boxes of goodies, consider taking them to a rest home to help cheer up someone who might not otherwise have received treats for Christmas.  Just get them out of the house!
   
• For healthy entertaining platter ideas check out my recipes
   
• Keep up your fibrous vegetable intake.  As well as salads, try BBQ-ing veggies such as courgettes, mushrooms, capsicums, onions, garlic, asparagus and eggplant.  Mix up some low fat plain yoghurt with crushed garlic and chopped mint for a refreshing sauce for the veggies.
   
• If you are looking for ideas to make your salads more interesting, then check out my recipies
   
• Just because you are taking a break from work doesn’t mean you need to take a break from exercise.  How hard is it to go for a 45 minute brisk walk each day?  Even better, get up early and get it over and done with before breakfast and before it gets too hot, or you get too busy to make it happen.