Oh Christmas! The tree! The presents! The tinsel!  We love it! Here are a few simple tips to get you through Christmas and New Year without having to deal with weight gain in January or anxiety through the Christmas season. It’s supposed to be fun, people!

1. Be choosy – Pick the foods you love and savour them. Leave the ones you don’t particularly love (crisps, peanuts etc).  Avoid foods you don’t particular enjoy but eat because they’re sat on the coffee table looking at you. You can get up and go somewhere else – a bowl of peanuts can’t.

2. Portions – You can eat what you want. Just don’t eat too much of it. If the food falls off the side of your plate when you try to cut your meat, there’s too much on your plate.

3. Alcohol – alcoholic drinks contain calories. Lots of calories. You should factor your drinks into your awareness of your intake. If you are going to be drinking a lot (naughty!), eat less. Spirits have fewer calories than beers and mixed drinks. People also tend to drink less wine than beer / cider. A pint of beer has around 300 – 400 calories. 6-7 pints and you’re done for a day’s recommended calorie intake!

4. Keep healthy food available – it’s very difficult to eat well if no healthy food is around. Make sure you have a choice and that it’s easily accessible. You can eat 100 veggie sticks and walk away feeling fine and full of lovely vitamins. 100 pretzels/Quality Streets/nachos- not so much.

5. Don’t go hungry – if you starve yourself or avoid food while everyone else is enjoying their meals, you are setting yourself up for a binge, and probably of food you won’t particularly enjoy. Eat smaller amounts and regularly. Avoid hunger – the hungrier you allow yourself to be, the more you’ll eat, the less you’ll have a choice of what you eat and the less you’ll enjoy your food.

6.  Don’t fret – try to just enjoy and go with the flow. Stop eating when you are no longer hungry, enjoy what you do eat and don’t worry about it. Worrying = disordered eating and misery. Not. Worth. It.

7. Keep moving – dancing, morning walks, physical video games, playing with the kids outdoors…whatever. Keep moving. Nothing like shaking your booty with a Christmas jumper on!