A lot of us actually plan to overeat during the holidays – although we may not admit it:  think about it — do you know that you’re going to overeat?  Do you think it wouldn’t be normal or celebratory if you didn’t overindulge and eat three desserts at Christmas or double helpings of stuffing and sweet potato casserole on Thanksgiving?

It’s all too easy to do that.  Food is absolutely everywhere.  It’s there for the taking — and most of the time, holiday food is free (and in your face) at parties, on receptionist’s desks, as sample tastes while you shop.  How can you pass it up?

On top of it all, it’s sugary, fatty, and pretty.  How can you not try it?  Of course, sugary and fatty (salty, too) means you just crave more and more.   Do you really need it?  Do you even really want it?  If you eat it, will you feel awful later on?

Are you eating because of tradition – because you’ve been eating the same food during the holiday season since you were a kid?  Maybe you don’t even like the food anymore or it disagrees with you.  So why are you eating it?  Who’s forcing you to?

Do you think you won’t have a good time or you’ll be labeled Scrooge, Grinch, a party pooper, or offend your mother-in-law if you don’t eat everything in sight?  Really?

You can still love the holidays and you can still love the food. In the grand scheme of things overeating on one day isn’t such a big deal.  Overeating for multiple days that turn into weeks and then months can be become a bit and weighty deal.

The question is:  do you really want to overeat?  If you do, fine.  Enjoy every morsel and then take a nap.  Tomorrow is another day.  Just know that you don’t have to.  You make the decisions about what goes into your mouth.  Make thoughtful choices and enjoy them along with everything else the holiday represents.

What To Do

• Have a plan. Think about how you want to handle yourself in the face of food, family, eggnog, and pecan pie.  Nothing is engraved in stone but if you have an idea about what you want to do and how to do it you’ll be far less likely to nibble and nosh all day and night. You’re the one in charge of what goes into your mouth.

• Visualize the situation that you might find yourself in. What do you want the outcome to be? Rehearse, in your mind, how you’ll respond or behave to successfully navigate the eating challenges. Sports coaches use this technique to prepare their athletes to anticipate what might happen and to practice how to respond. Sports performance improves with visualization exercises—so can eating behavior.

• Make sure your plan is workable and realistic for what you’re aiming to achieve over the season.  The plan doesn’t have to be complex – just decide what you want to do and what steps you need to get there.

• Write it down –even if it’s on a napkin.  It will both reinforce your intentions and act as a measure of accountability.

• Consider what your surroundings will be.  Will your plan work for you – it may sound great, but is it doable for the situations you might find yourself in?  Will your host insist you try her special dessert and refuse to take no for an answer? Will you be eating in a restaurant known for its homemade breads or phenomenal wine list? Are your dining companions picky eaters, foodies, or fast food junkies? What will you do in these situations?

• Armed with your rehearsed plan, go out, use it, and stick to it as best you can. You assume control, not the circumstances and not the food.  You are in charge of what food and how much of it will go into your mouth.

Do you have an ipad or an iphone?  Maybe both?  Check out Eat Out Eat Well Magazine coming soon to the Apple Newsstand.

The post Do Holidays And Overeating Go Hand In Hand? appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

It’s a week into the New Year.  Your pants are uncomfortably tight and the number on the scale is in the wrong zip code. Trying to right the ship did you resolve – swear — to never again eat another chocolate chip cookie?  Or maybe you’ve taken an oath to lay off potato chips forever or to go to the gym six days a week at 6AM.

Resolutions Can Be Tricky

Count yourself among the legions of people who have a specific end game in mind and then set broad – huge – resolutions and goals to try to get there. Unfortunately, those resolutions and goals usually aim for perfect achievement – something that’s virtually impossible to accomplish.

Aiming For Perfection

Be honest.  You know that aiming for perfectionmeans lining yourself up for a big time fall. Inevitably, you end up feeling awful when you step over the theoretical line – or maybe it’s more like you fall off the cliff.  Why must pursuit of a goal be done that way?  Perfection, in this case, is really the enemy of good.  In the real world, isn’t movement toward achieving your goal good enough?

Two Tips

1.  Ditch the all-or-nothing thinking and overly ambitious goals. Drastic changes usually don’t sync with daily life and probably won’t last more than a few weeks.  Cycle through the drastic changes often enough and you solidly embed a “no can do” attitude in your brain. Remember, your less than ideal behaviors have taken time to develop and replacing them with more ideal, healthier ones takes time, too. Don’t reassess/alter everything at once. Instead, work toward changing one thing at a time. Human brains don’t like too much disruption all at once – they like their familiar way of doing things.  Pick one thing at a time and create a new habit around it. Then go on to the next thing on your list.

2.  Not having succeeded before doesn’t mean you won’t succeed this time. Everyone has made and broken resolutions. We’ve all tried to lose weight or eat more fruit and veggies.  Adopt a positive attitude and frame your resolution in positive terms. “I will eat vegetables instead of French fries twice a week” or I’ll have cereal only on Saturday mornings” is much more positive than “I’ll never eat French fries or cereal again.” It’s easier to put a new habit in place than to change an old one, so embed the positive behavior not the negative one.

30 Days Of Usable Tips And Strategies

For the next 30 days check in daily at EatOutEatWell.com for a practical, usable tip of the day to help you on your way to achieving – and keeping – your resolutions and goals.

The post Resolutions And Goals: Perfection Just Might Be The Enemy Of Good appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

It’s All So Tempting

It‘s incredibly difficult not to nibble your way through the day when you have all of these treats tempting you at every turn. How many times do your senses need to be assaulted by the sight of sparkly cookies and the holiday scent of eggnog or spiced roasted nuts before your hand reaches out and the treat is popped into your mouth?

Be Realistic

It’s the holidays and even though some of these treats are a week’s worth of calories, by depriving yourself of them you’re denying yourself the tradition of celebrating with food.

Make the distinction between mindful indulgence in the spirit of celebration as opposed to mindless indulgence in the spirit of trying to taste everything or to soothe your psyche by eating.  The first is part of the nurturing, sharing, and communal spirit of eating, the latter is an element of emotional and over eating.

Nix The Restrictive Thinking

Creating a restrictive mentality by denying yourself a treat that’s always been part of your holiday celebration means it’s just a matter of time until you start an eating fest that only ends when there’s no more left to taste. Think of this:  what would it be like to swear that you won’t eat a single Christmas cookie when those cookies have been a part of your Christmas since you were a little kid and you baked them with your Mom?

Pick One – And Make It Special

You know that you are going to indulge.  Pick your treat, limit it to one, and enjoy it. To help control the temptation, decide early in the day what your treat will be and stick with your decision. If you wait until later in the day when all the food is right in front of you and you’re hungry and tired, you’ll find that your resolve is not quite as strong!

Just remember that the added treats are added calories – on top of what your body already needs.  And, those treats are often forgotten calories – until you try to snap your jeans.  So remember to figure the treats into the overall scheme of things.

Of course, if you don’t want to indulge on any given day – no one is forcing you.  In the world of caloric checks and balances, that’s money in the band.

Make an informed choice, too.  Being informed doesn’t deprive you of deliciousness, but does arm you with an element of control.  If you know the calorie count of certain foods, you can make the best choice.  For instance, perhaps you enjoy both wine and eggnog.  If you know that one cup of eggnog has around 343 calories and 19 grams of fat and a five ounce glass of red wine has around 125 calories and no fat – which would you choose?

For more hints and tips about holiday eating get my book,  The Sensible Holiday Eating Guide: How To Enjoy Your Favorite Foods Without Gaining Weight, available from Amazon for your kindle or kindle reader.

The post Can You Deal With One Fantastic Holiday Treat A Day? appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

You really don’t have to feel obliged to eat out of courtesy – especially if you don’t want the food or you’re full.  Ditch the guilt – the calories are going into your mouth, not your host’s, your Mom’s, or your friend’s.

Who Are Food Pushers?

Food pushers pile your plate high with food and act insulted if you ask them to stop. Food pushers, despite your protests, insist that you try every kind of food.  Food pushers look at your plate and loudly ask why you’re not eating, if you don’t like something, or if you’re on a diet.  Food pushers are thorns in your side and don’t necessarily have your best interest at heart. Food pushers can be your partner, friend, parent, or sister. They may or may not realize what they’re doing.  What’s important is that you do.

What’s Your Game Plan?

You need to have a game plan for how you’re going to deal with food pushers.  A plan sounds clinical but it doesn’t have to be. It could be your saving grace.  Think about how you want to handle yourself in the face of food, family, someone’s special stuffing, your family’s traditional sweet potato casserole (which you may hate but always feel obliged to eat), and the array of desserts staring at you from seemingly every table and counter.

One size – or one plan – does not fit all.  You need to choose the plan of action and strategy that works best for you and your circumstances.

What are you going to do or say to the food pushers?  Are you going to stand firm and say you don’t want to eat the stuffing because you’re watching your carbs – and then steel yourself for the snarky look?  Are you going to say that you really need to watch your weight – or that you can’t eat that much – or that you get sleepy when you overeat and, unfortunately, you really have some work that you have to finish and you need to be alert?

Are you going to say that you really don’t care for pie – pumpkin or otherwise – and that your favorite dessert is fruit? If someone really hounds you about trying certain foods you can always claim an allergy or that you’re eating heart healthy (claiming an upset stomach might buy you an early exit or other guests avoiding you like the plague).

You’re In Charge

It’s so easy to default to shoving food in your mouth when faced with food pushers and potentially annoying family members, some of whom seem spend the entire time carping at one another.

Nothing is engraved in stone but if you have an idea about what you want to accomplish and how to go about it you’ll be far less likely to nibble and nosh all day and night. You’re the one in charge of what and how much food goes into your mouth. Take charge and remain in charge of you.

The post Do You Eat Something You Don’t Want Just To Be Polite? appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

What Do You Want the Result To Be?

There’s no one-size-fits-all answer since we all have our own needs and preferences. You may swoon over ten- layer chocolate cake while I can ignore it but can never pass up cheese fondue.

Part of the answer lies in figuring out what you really want the end result to be.   Then you can create your own individualized plan  — your own foodMAP — that you can use as a template for what to do when you find yourself in the land of food temptation.

Visualize

Visualizing a situation that you might find yourself in and then rehearsing your actions in your mind ahead of time will help you successfully navigate a whole host of food landmines and eating challenges. That’s a technique coaches use to prepare their athletes. They’re taught to anticipate what might happen and to practice how to respond to a situation. Sports performance improves with visualization exercises—so can eating behavior.

To do this effectively you have to be clear on what you want the end result to be. Is it to enjoy every kind of food available but in limited quantities – or is it to skip dessert but have a full range of tastes of all of the hors d’oeuvres?  Visualize what the environment will be like, where you’re going to be, and with whom. Think about what food is going to be available, how it will be served, how hungry you’re likely to be, what your usual eating pattern is like—and what you would like it to be.

Will your host insist you try her special dessert and refuse to take no for an answer? Will you be eating in a restaurant known for its homemade breads or phenomenal wine list? Are your dining companions picky eaters, foodies, or fast food junkies?  Will your host be really annoyed if you don’t finish every course at the special sit-down dinner?

Proactive Not Reactive

Be proactive.  Figure out your plan in advance — earlier in the day or the night before. Visualize the situation and if there’s temptation or anxiety, close your eyes and picture it. Imagine what people will say and how you will respond in a way that will make you proud of yourself without giving in to external pressures and food pushers.

Armed with your rehearsed plan, go out, use it, and stick to it as best you can. You assume control, not the circumstances and not the food.  You are firmly in charge of what happens and what food and how much of it will go into your mouth.

The post Take A Cue From Athletes: Rehearse Your Party Eating Behavior appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

1. Make simple swaps in the food you prepare and the food you choose at parties and in restaurants. Reduce the amount of fat and calories in holiday food where you can by doing things like using skim milk instead of whole milk, applesauce in place of oil, or two-thirds or one-half of the sugar called for in a recipe. Make a horse trade or a deal with yourself that might have you avoiding the breadbasket or a pre-dinner drink if you are going to have dessert.

2. Beware of food landmines.  It’s so easy to be fooled by fatty sauces and dressings on innocent looking vegetables. Vegetables are great.  Veggies smothered with butter, cheese, croutons, and/or bacon are loaded with calories.

3. Let this be your mantra:  no seconds. Choose your food, fill your plate, and that’s it.  Keep a running account in your head of how many hors d’ oeuvre you’ve eaten or how many cookies.  Those calories are loaded in fat and add up very quickly. Keep away from spreads of food at home, at the office, or at your Mom’s house to help limit nibbling and noshing.

4. Stop eating before you’re full.  If you keep eating until your stomach finally feels full you’ll likely end up feeling stuffed when you do stop eating.  It takes a little time for your brain to catch up and realize your stomach is full. A lot of eating is done with your eyes and your eyes love to tell you to try this and to try that. Work on eating a larger portion of fruit and veggies and less of the densely caloric foods like pastas swimming in oil and cheese.

5. Use a fork and knife, a teaspoon rather that a tablespoon. Chew your food instead of wolfing it down.  If you have to work at eating your food – cutting with a knife for instance – you’ll eat more mindfully than if you pick food up with your fingers and pop it into your mouth. Before you eat drink some water, a no- or low-calorie beverage, or some clear soup. The liquids fill up your stomach and leave less room for the high calorie stuff. If you know you’re going to eat treats, pick one – and only one – portion controlled treat to eat each day.  Pick it ahead of time and commit to your choice so you don’t find yourself wavering in the face of temptation.

6. Plan ahead, commit to your plan, and don’t go to a party or dinner feeling ravenous. Before you go eat a small healthy snack that‘s around 150 calories with some protein and fiber like some fat free yogurt and fruit, a portion controlled serving of nuts, a small piece of cheese and fruit, or a spoonful of peanut butter with a couple of whole grain crackers. Have a no-cal or low-cal drink like water, tea, or coffee with it, too.  When you get to the party or dinner you won’t be starving and less likely to attack the hors d’oeuvres or the breadbasket.

7. Choose your food wisely.  If you can, pick lean proteins like fish, poultry, and the least fatty cuts of pork, beef, and lamb that are grilled or broiled, not fried or sautéed. Load up on vegetables – preferably ones that are not smothered in cheese or dripping with oil. Eat your turkey without the skin. You can save around 200 calories at dessert by leaving the piecrust sitting on the plate.

8. Leave the breadbasket at the other end of the table.  If you absolutely must have bread, go easy or without butter or oil.  One teeny pat of butter has 36 calories, a tablespoon has 102 and 99% of them is from fat.  A tablespoon of oil has about 120 calories.  Would you rather have the oil or butter or a cookie for dessert or another glass of wine? Which calories will be more satisfying?

9. Keep the number of drinks under control and watch the mixers.  Certain drinks are much higher in calories than others.  There are a couple of hundred calories difference between a glass of wine or beer and eggnog. Calorie free drinks would be better yet – even if you alternate them with your alcoholic beverages you still cut your alcohol calories in half.  Liquid calories really add up and they don’t fill you up.  Try planning ahead of time how many drinks you’ll have – and then adjusting your menu choices accordingly.

The post Nine Food Tips For Excellent Holiday Eating Without The Pudge appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

No worries if you miss the morning carb fest – if all the platters aren’t picked clean the remnants will surely end up in the snack room next to the birthday cake (it’s always somebody’s birthday) or the leftover cookies from someone’s party the night before.

Costco on the weekend.  There are at least three tables manned by people offering you samples of hot pizza, luscious cheesecake, or tooth-picked pigs ‘n blankets.   Just the right size to quickly and neatly pop into your mouth – especially when you circle back for seconds.

Errands. Stops at the cleaners, the tailors, the veterinarian, the hair salon.  On the desk or counter:  giant bowls piled high with freebie candy.  You can dig deep for the kind you like – Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, mini Snickers, Tootsie Roll pops.  You name it — it’s usually there for the taking.

Party or wedding.  How do you escape the platters of salami, cheese, mini quiches, and then the desserts covered with icing, whipped cream, and powdered sugar?

What’s The Problem With Free Food?

Not a thing if you don’t care about calories, nutrition, and how you’ll feel after an overload of sugar, fat, and salt.  Tons of “starving” students and young (and not so young) adults have chowed down on ample quantities of free food.  Here’s the question:  are full bellies with no impact on the wallet ultimately the best choice?

Occasional dips into free food are probably not going to hurt anyone in reasonable health.  But, on a consistent basis, there is certainly a downside to your health.  There could me a more immediate concern, too.  A whole bunch of non-nutritious (junk, processed, and high calorie) food eaten right before a time when intense concentration and focus is necessary (translation:  exams and presentations) could certainly have a negative impact.

Why Do We Find Free Food So Attractive?

Most of us find it pretty darn hard to ignore “free food,” the food that’s just there for the taking. It’s everywhere – and we’ve become accustomed to valuing cheap calories.  Think about it:  when was the last time you resisted the peanuts, pretzels, or popcorn sitting on the bar counter?  What about the breadbasket – that’s usually free, too.

We don’t have to eat any of this stuff.  But we do.  Why?  Some of us have trouble passing up a giveaway regardless of what it is.  Some see it as a way to save money – despite possible negative health consequences.  And a lot of us use “free” as an excuse or sanction to eat or overeat sweet, salty, fatty junk food.

And the calories?  Free doesn’t mean calorie free.  But it’s all too easy to forget about those calories you popped in your mouth as you snagged candy here and tasted a cookie there.  Yikes.  You could eat a day’s worth of calories cruising through a couple of markets and food stores.

Before The Freebies Land In Your Mouth

How about creating your own mental checklist that, with practice, can help you figure out whether or not it’s worth it to indulge.  Even f you decide to go for it and taste the salami, butter cookies, and cheese cake, at least you’ll have made a mindful decision rather than mindlessly shoving food in your mouth.

Ask yourself:  Is the food you’re so willing to pop in your mouth . . .

• fresh and tasty, with some nutrition?  It might be if you’re at a wedding or an event, but the odds go down if it’s food handed out at the supermarket or grabbed out of a large bowl at the cleaners.
• clean?  How many fingers have been in the bowl of peanuts or have grabbed pieces of cheese or cookies off of an open platter?
• something you really want – or are you eating it just because it’s there?
• loaded with fat, sugar, and salt that adds up to mega calories?  Every calorie counts whether it’s popped in your mouth and gone in the blink of an eye or savored more slowly and eaten with utensils off of a plate.

Choices, Choices

Just because food is free doesn’t mean you have to eat it. No one is forcing you.  Beware of the cascading effect:  if you let yourself sample the candy, pizza, cheesecake, popcorn, or cookies, perhaps you’re giving yourself permission to continue to overindulge in food you probably don’t want to/shouldn’t be eating.

Highly caloric, sugary, and fatty foods can act as the key to opening the flood gates that cause you to continue to indulge for the rest of the day (weekend/week). Loading up on simple sugars – the kind found in candy, cookies, cake, and many processed foods – causes your blood sugar level to spike and then to drop –leaving you hungry very quickly and pretty darn cranky — and isn’t great for your waistline, either.

The post Free Food Is Hard To Resist (And A Caloric Nightmare) appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

Choices

You can choose to eat out and eat well. You are responsible for making good choices for yourself.

Your first choice is when you select which restaurant to go to (do you want grilled fish or a huge plate of pasta).  The second round of choices come when you’re inside the door and confronted with the menu, the breadbasket, and the portions.

Restaurant Meals

I eat out a lot.  After years of cooking for a very active family of five, I’m quite happy not to cook every night.  I actually find it easier to control my portions and calorie consumption when I eat out in restaurants.

I follow a number of unwritten guidelines that, over time,  have become habits.

I eat in the restaurant rather than ordering in or bringing prepared food home.  It is too difficult to eyeball portions when they arrive as full containers and it is far too easy to eat too much by finishing off the last bits rather than saving or tossing the leftovers.

Select Wisely

I pick my everyday restaurants carefully and I’ve developed relationships with the wait staff.   I certainly go to special restaurants on occasion and really enjoy the fantastic food – but that’s not my everyday fare. My “everyday” restaurants serve food that is friendly to my eating patterns.

They offer a range of lean proteins and vegetables and are amenable to swaps.  My local diner is so used to me ordering a side of spinach instead of home fries with my eggs that they bring it without my asking.  They make food swaps with pleasure – not with grumpiness.  I’m a good customer and ask very politely.

I don’t let the breadbasket even land on the table (if I’m eating with others it goes near them — my husband agrees with the breadbasket taboo).  Bread is way too difficult to resist when it’s staring you in the face and can add hundreds of calories before you get to the main course.

I usually drink iced tea, water, diet coke (yep, I like it), or a glass of wine.  These choices account for zero to around 120 calories for the wine (one restaurant sized glass).

If I do have dessert at an “everyday” restaurant, it’s berries in season.  If they’re not sweet enough I sprinkle a little Splenda on them – which makes my husband wince, but I find quite satisfying.

By no stretch of the imagination am I so controlled that I eat plain lean proteins and steamed vegetables all of the time.  Far from it – but for routine meals, I try to stay away from sauces, dressings, and sides of pasta, rice, or potatoes.  When I really “dine” at the finer restaurants, I deliberately choose  (not always successfully)  to limit either the number of courses or the portion size.  I attempt – again, not always successfully – to lay off the bread and control the liquid and dessert calories — often choosing either an appetizer or a dessert.

When I’m with other people who are ordering an appetizer and an entrée I often will order two appetizers instead — a practice that is so common that most waiters  don’t even blink an eye.  I find that if food is in front of me I’ll eat it – especially if it’s a lengthy meal.  The smaller the portion in front of me (appetizer size) the less I eat.  Still tastes darn good.

No Trauma

Don’t let the thought of eating out be traumatic.  Restaurants exist to serve you meals and it is up to you to choose which one to go to and what you will eat when you get there.

If you know you’re going to go for broke because you’re eating at a special place – or just because you want to – don’t freak out.  Eat and enjoy — you can always compensate by controlling what you eat earlier in the day or the next day.    Be careful about depriving yourself — you don’t want to feel so “cheated” that you end up raiding the fridge when you get home and chowing down on more calories than if you had eaten a full meal in the restaurant.

The post Do Restaurant Meals Sabotage Your Diet? appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

As a nurse I began to think about how nurses use the power of touch – the “laying on of the hands” – to help their patients.  I believe that this is also true for any parent who uses a gentle touch or a hug to convey energy and healing to a child – or for other healers who appropriately and with discipline use the power of touch and energy transfer for healing purposes.

As a nutritional counselor I started to think about the energy we gain from both food and the act of eating.

We Get Energy From Food And From Eating, Cooking, And Sharing

Food supplies calories and a calorie is a quantifiable, measurable unit of energy.

But food – and the act of eating and sharing – supplies energy in another unquantifiable way, too. Think about the energy you can get from sitting around the kitchen table hashing out issues – over food —  or the great feeling to be had after sharing a phenomenal meal with someone special. What about that very special jolt of love and energy you get when you cook or share something as special as a homemade cookie with your child?

As Craig Claiborne, restaurant critic,  food writer, and former New York Times food editor said in Craig Claiborne’s Kitchen Primer: “Cooking is at once child’s play and adult joy. And cooking done with care is an act of love.”

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Don’t you hate it: you’ve been so much attention to what you eat and your healthy eating habits are really getting grooved.  You’re starting to feel and look great, but, oh boy, you have to go to something big.  It could be a wedding, a dinner party, or dinner at a fabulous restaurant.

First thought: I’m going shopping for something great to wear.

Second thought: The food is going to be awesome.  Is this going to make me blow my careful eating and, then, forget it — it’s all down hill from there.

The Dilemma

You want to enjoy yourself and be able to have some of the restaurant’s “specialty of the house” or a bunch of hors d’ oeuvres followed by a delicious piece of cake at your friend’s wedding.

What To Do?

Prep like your final exam is tomorrow.

Remember cramming for finals?  Hit the books and collect some information.  Research the menu of the restaurant you will be going to or call your host or event planner to find out what will be served at your event.

Many restaurants have their menus online – or you can stop in for a preview.  If you nicely give your host, the caterer, or the event planner a solid reason for wanting to know the menu, you’ll be surprised at how accommodating most can be.

After you’ve researched what can be ordered and/or what will be served, you can then come up with your plan.   If you want that fantastic dessert perhaps you decide to keep your hand out of the breadbasket.  Do you want to have wine with dinner?  Maybe forego a cocktail (or two) – and its calories – before dinner.  Want the very special hors d’oeuvre?   Maybe dessert gets jettisoned.

The point is:  You are in control and can choose what you want to do.  But planning is important.  Make up your mind what you’re going to do ahead of time and commit to it.

A game time decision means that you’re making decisions when too many enticements are already in front of you.  That’s not easy to do.  So, do your research, come up with a plan, and stick to it.  Allow yourself something special – don’t take that away.  But, maybe stick to one or two special treats, not an ongoing feast.  You’ll feel fantastic, in control, and tremendously proud of yourself.  You’ll have had something delicious -– and your new clothes will still look just as great.  Most importantly, those new healthy eating habits are still intact and have and will continue to serve you well.

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