Wassel, clogg, hot buttered rum, mulled wine.....OH MY... Honey cured ham with pineapple and clove, mashed potatoes, swell meats, sweet rolls, yams swimming in butter and brown sugar...OH MY... Chocolates, pumpkin pie, pumpkin rolls, plum pudding, sugar cookies, ginger bread.....OH MY... "Christmas is coming, Marie is getting fat.." Maybe the geese too? Tis the season, is it not? It's year's end...you've worked hard, you've had challenges this year. You deserve a bit of indulgence don't you? Yes, that's precisely what travels through my mind when this lovely season shows up. However, I curse myself every Valentine's Day when I try to squeeze into that little black dress. A result of joining in the merriment of the prior holiday season. I'm a writing this blog today because we are now in the advent of this entire indulgent season. I understand your plight if you are one that has weight problems. I know a bit about the ups and down of weight loss and weight gain. In high school at 16 I weighted 209 pounds. At 17 I weight 109. After university as a working adult I found myself at 165 pounds as a vegetarian. My brother introduced me to the Original Atkins diet and I lost 25 pound very quickly and kept it off for 10 years prior to the birth of my son. After the birth of my child I weighted a whopping 193 with a height of 5"5'. It took me 18 months to get to 150 and a size 8. Three years later I made it back to my normal weight of 140 and maintained a size 4. Last year I gain 37 pounds during a very stressful period of refinancing my house. What a nightmare that was. I lost those 37 pounds between February 3 to April 30. So for all of those who have struggled with weight...believe me I understand. My education and job is based in science. I took me years to understand the benefits of eating clean. There is a bit of chemistry to this. So I wanted to share some tips to help you out a bit. Food: If it doesn't exist in nature as it is presented to you, don't eat it. Veggies, nuts, meat, cheese, fruit are all okay. Try to fill up on these things first at the Holiday table instead of bread, potatoes, jello (ish!) salads and other offenders. Eat dark chocolate. Eat half of the serving of pie or pudding that you have been given. Drink wine instead of mixed drinks or those lovely holiday drinks. Love what you are eating. Don't let people force you in eating a dish because someone made it and you feel obligated to put it on my plate. My uncle, who was a physician, and I thought jello salads came directly from the bowls of Hell. There is no nutritional value and it's filled with sugar AND they aren't that palatable anyway. I used to eat this junk to appease my grandmother. I no longer do. Pick two days during November and December that you have delegated to eat whatever you want. Past those days, no sugar cookies pass your lips. When I go to my brother's I eat dark chocolate and nuts. I drink sugarless mulled wine, red wine and dark micro beer (my brother makes). I keeps me from all of the other pastries and sweets that my sister-in-law makes. Drink loads of water during the entire season. The last morsel of food should not pass your lips past 7pm. Also drink no sugary drinks after that either. Confine your intake to red wine. Exercise: After dinner, have a good brisk walk in the cold winter air for at least 30 minutes. I do 20 minutes of cardio, 40 minutes of weight lifting and 20 minutes of cardio every weekday.This kills my appetite. Wake up and take a good walk or use a tread mill or something. 30 minutes of cardio in the morning will raise your metabolism. Even light weight lifting will keep your body burning calories all day. Indeed, it has been weight lifting that has probably assisted the most in my weight loss and keeping my weight off. Cardio is a warm up and a warm down to my regiment. I like to run, too. I hope this helps. Just remember, try to keep your food "clean", processed sugar and wheat/corn free and you should be able to make it through this period relatively unscaved.