Strategies for the holiday dinner.

In our culture it is just ridiculous to be counting calories over the holidays. I have read websites where they give you tips such as stay away from the buffet table, don't take gravy, skip the desert. But when I do that, people start asking me if I have anorexia. I just prefer to eat whatever I want at the holiday dinner. But remember if you do that you are probably eating your entire days calories in one meal. There are two strategies that I recommend, fasting before the holiday dinner or fasting afterwards. The fasting before is probably easiest, fasting afterwards would be more difficult because you would have to eat less calories the following day to account for the extra calories consumed the day before. If you have practiced fasting beforehand you will have experience in making it through a fast before you attempt the pre-holiday dinner fast. The day of the holiday dinner if you wake up and have a really light breakfast and then go all day without eating, you will be able to enjoy the holiday dinner to its full extent without having to worry about the extra calories. The problem with most people is that they have a normal day and then add the extra calories to that day later on at the holiday dinner. You put on part of a pound that way, but if you never work to take it off, it will always be there. That is how the pounds creep up over the years. You could do that and just return to a week of your "weight loss" diet, if you are currently on a "weight maintenance" plan. But you have to be experienced to remember how to switch back and forth from the two plans, "maintenance" vs. "weight loss." Holiday eating doesn't have to be stressful as long as you have a plan.