Christmas is a time to relax and enjoy without beating yourself up for straying from the healthy eating programme, here are some of the things my clients have found very useful:
Plan ahead: At the start of each week during December, look at the different events you have in the diary and decide how you will manage them healthily. Choose your one meal per week where you can eat anything you like and for the other events decide to make healthy choices. If it is a restaurant then look ahead at the menu and see what fits in best with your food plan and set yourself an alcohol limit. A Christmas lunch can be very healthy and delicious if you base it on roast turkey and tasty vegetables.
Stay calm: Many of my clients find it easier not to advertise to their friends the fact that they are staying healthy as this can sometimes attract unwanted attention. It can be easy to slip to the bar and get a sparkling water which looks fairly like a gin and tonic and to make healthy food choices without a fuss being made or attracting attention.
Have a rule for chocolates and mince pies! Think about how you want to negotiate the sugary onslaught over Christmas. Do you really like mince pies or do you eat them as everyone else is? Each person likes to tackle this differently but I find the most effective way is to say no to all sugary treats apart from on Christmas day itself. Remember that you do have a choice to say 'no' and once you are in the 'no zone' it is easier to stay in there than come off the sugar again in January.