It’s the time of year when the zipper on your dress and the springs in your bathroom scale start getting really nervous. That’s because, for a lot of dieters, packing on pounds can be a holiday tradition.

Statistics on rapid weight gain throughout the holiday party season assert that you might gain five pounds if you don’t keep your hands off the pumpkin pie and avoid protein rich foods.

Avoid Rapid Weight Gain This Holiday Season

I started thinking about this: A five-pound weight gain is a lot of food, if you consider that it takes 3,500 calories to gain a pound. This means you’d have to have major pig-outs on a daily basis or eat several reindeer at a buffet. You’d also have to spend the entire holiday season on the couch. Still, it’s easy to have rapid weight gain over the holidays, if you figure that the traditional holiday dinner with holiday party appetizers can weigh in at more than 3,000 calories!

With all the office parties, cocktail receptions, and dinner celebrations, can you eat, drink, be merry, stay fit and still follow the 17 Day Diet and avoid rapid weight gain? Absolutely—by adhering to my easy-to-follow holiday strategies. If you do, there will be no need to make a get-fit New Year’s resolution, ever again. You’ll start every year in super shape.

Prediet Before The Holidays Hit With Protein Rich Foods

To prevent packing on holiday pounds especially at a holiday party, go on the offense with predieting. It works like this: Use the Accelerate or Activate Cycles to start trimming off a few pounds of fat before the holidays get in full swing. You can do this easily with what you’ve already learned from the 17 Day Diet.

Don’t resort to any type of crash dieting, however, in which you fast or slash calories down to 700 or less a day. This can result in a loss of muscle, decreased strength and power, low energy, moodiness or irritability, and compromised immunity. Stick to the Accelerate or Activate Cycles and protein rich foods for best results.

Holiday Party Plans

The most difficult dieting challenge is all the parties and dinners that take place over the holidays. Around holiday time, fattening, high-calorie food is all over the place for rapid weight gain. Have you noticed? It’s at your office, your mother-in-law’s house, and your child’s classroom. We try to fight it off, but it still assaults us. Here are my 12 tips for enjoying yourself, without packing on any extra pounds or experiencing rapid weight gain while at a holiday party or dinner.

1. Continue the good habit of eating breakfast during the holidays to help control cravings  later on. (Sorry, eggnog isn’t considered a good egg substitute.)
2. Have healthy snacks on hand. Go for them before you treat yourself to the splurge stuff.
3. Eat a healthy dinner filled with protein rich foods before you go to a holiday party. (Also, try not to eat an unhealthy dinner when you’re at the party.)
4. Prepare and take your own safe, low-calorie and low-fat foods to holiday parties.
5. Choose two or three of the healthiest appetizers you can find (a little shrimp, some veggies or fruit, etc.) and put them on a small plate or napkin, then walk away from the table. (Keep in mind this should be two or three pieces of food, not two or three napkins or plates loaded with food.)
6. Be smart at the buffet table. Fill three-quarters of your plate with vegetables and fruits, the rest with protein rich foods. (Pumpkin pie and chocolate-covered strawberries don’t count as the veggies or fruit.
7. Stacking things as high as you can is not an acceptable method for filling your plate.) Do not circle the food table like a vulture. Serve yourself, and then have a seat and enjoy yourself.
8. Avoid temptation. Just say “no” to packaged holiday candies and cakes! Regift them to someone who’s not dieting.
9. Give yourself permission to enjoy a little of everything that is usually only available during the holidays, but do it in moderation. Indulging in small amounts of holiday party treats (fruitcake being the exception) might not help you lose 20 pounds over the holidays, but it might help you from raiding the Christmas tree for edible ornaments in the middle of the night.
10. Bank your calories. Accumulate a deposit of uneaten calories on the days when you know that you will be attending parties or enjoying holiday feasts. Eat a light breakfast filled with protein rich foods and lunch to save calories for later. If you’re careful, the large withdrawal of calories at a big dinner or event later on won’t break the bank.
11.  Be extra good on non- holiday party days.
12. Understand the reason for the season. Holidays are a chance to enjoy and celebrate with people you care about. Put your focus more on socializing at the holiday party, and less on eating and avoid rapid weight gain.

How to Avoid Weight Gain Over The Holidays

Prediet prior to the holidays. That way, you’ll come into season weighing less. Should you gain weight over the holidays, it won’t be such as big deal.

Commit to a holiday in which you manage not to gain any weight back, before it’s time to resolve to lose all that weight (and so much more) yet again. At your holiday party, eat strategically by opting for low calorie protein rich food and you will avoid rapid weight gain this holiday season.

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