How to say "No" to holiday weight gain

Here are some examples of questions you may want to answer when you eat for emotional reasons:

* How were you feeling before you ate?
* Did you feel gut hunger?
* Who were you with?
* Did you eat hurriedly or calmly?
* Can you recall everything you ate?
* Did you eat normal portions?
* Were you doing another activity (like watching television) while you were eating?
* How do you feel now (e.g. satisfied, healthy, guilty)?
* Overall, was this a positive or negative eating experience?

You will find writing down and acknowledging these questions and answers will go a long way in helping you understand and prevent emotional eating.

When you see everything you can do with a food diary, there's no reason not to do one! You don't have to wait for a special day or a special meal. Just do it.

Get to the Heart of It
If you tend to binge due to stress, or you regularly give in to emotional eating, your food diary can help you cope.

When you catch yourself eating when you're not hungry or giving into a binge, spend some time in reflection so you can figure out why it happened. Then -- as tough as this may be to admit -- write down why you ate (hunger, boredom, etc.) and how you felt afterward (guilty, deserving, etc.). You may find it helpful to record when you tend to overeat so you can plan to arrange other activities in the future that will take your mind off of food.

If you're not ready to keep tally of your fat and calories yet, try just writing down how much you eat over the course of the day. (If you can't figure out where your extra weight is coming from, it may be that you are overeating and don't know it.)

You don't need to buy a scale or pull out measuring cups. Why overcomplicate it when you're just starting out? Use your own measurements (e.g. a salad bowl of popcorn, a fistful of M&Ms, a mug of hot chocolate) for now.

Simply pick up a spiral notebook that's lying around the house and record everything you eat and drink for at least one week. The most important factor in keeping an effective food diary is to keep it honest. That includes recording "tastes" and samples as well as unexpected treats (like a "free" donut from the break room!). Many of us eat and drink without being truly conscious of it. Keeping a food diary is the only way to get an accurate idea of what you take in to your body.

A food diary is an excellent first step to losing weight. Not only does it show you what you eat, it can also help you understand why you eat the way you do, which is often just as important when it comes to long-term weight management. (For example, if you find that you always hit the vending machine after your afternoon meeting, you may eat in response to stress.)

This is a great advice. The holidays are so busy that we tend to forget about eating properly. I try to eat a small meal at home before I head out to visit the relatives... this way I'm full and not tempted to eat all the goodies that are on the table.

Too true.. I have a bad habit of skipping meals, usually because I'm busy but sometimes there is more of a weight-lossy motive... But, like you said, I usually end up making up for it (and more) later at night. Good tips!

Great tips! One of my tips is always have some peeled baby carrots available in the fridge. If I am really hungry before a meal, I would eat some carrots first. It fills the empty stomach and makes me less hungry. Also, everything in a carrot is good. It is loaded with fibers and low in calories.