Now is the time of year when many of us decide to say "heck with it"!  regarding our eating and just wait till the 1^st of the year to start a new diet/exercise program.   There's so many tempting foods out there and 'hey- why resist when you're going to start your new regime soon?      Here's a way to get through the holidays without ADDING any weight and still enjoying some yummy treats.    Then when you DO start your new exercise program after the 1^st you aren't starting with an even bigger (ha,ha) deficit – which will only make it harder/take longer to lose.

I call them cheat days!   It’s kind of a mental trick…allowing yourself to eat what you want without feeling like ‘you’ve blown it’ (which for many of us just puts us on binge track!).

Here’s how it works:

If you are craving let’s say a piece of cake, or a cookie OR something very tempting is put in front of you then tell yourself TODAY will be my cheat day and go ahead and eat what you want (within reason!).

You can do so guilt-free knowing that you’ve chosen to ‘take the day off’ from eating ‘good’ but that you will get back on track.  You may even find that it’s a Tuesday…and you know you have your ‘cheat day’ coming whenever you want…and decide to wait…and wait…. And before you know it, it’s Friday, and you haven't even used your ‘cheat day’ yet!    Again, it’s kind of a mental trick of diet forgiveness knowing that you can have that one day (or one meal per week) guilt free!    As I always say – if you eat well/exercise the majority of the time  (i.e. the 'ole 80/20 rule), then bring on the holiday treats and it won’t have any impact on your diet!