This time of year there is no shortage of delicious treats at the ready, begging us as if by name to come and indulge. I’m fairly certain there’s a stilton cheese called “Lizzy.” We’ve worked so hard this year, especially those of us who have been watching the slow progression as those last pregnancy lbs either melt away or spread out and find a permanent home around our hips, ankles and thighs.
 

For all of the fabulous cheese trays, cashews, candies and chocolates there are an equal amount of diet advertisements and programs dedicated to helping us keep the weight off.

Here are a few of the things I’ve been able to retain, not including water, that I think might actually work this year. I should note, we are planning to take the kids to Florida for a few days so being in a bathing suit on a public beach is weighing heavily (literally) on my mind.

1. Shaving my legs before aqua-fit class has cut minutes off of my flipper-length swim. I should have thought of it nine weeks ago.

2. Don’t eat off of your kid’s plates. Dr. Oz dedicated a segment of his program where he showed a huge, disgusting heap of scraps of food that we (mothers) typically consume in a day from nibbling or gorfing down the leftovers our kids don’t finish before pitching them. I recommend saving them up and at least arranging them in a more appetizing way. Use a pretty service tray and a linen napkin, you’ll feel better about yourself.
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3. Make foods you know are bad for you like hot-dogs and Kraft dinner. It’s mind over matter. Look at the big, steamy bowl of orange, powdered noodles and think about how much sodium is staring back at you, how your arteries will likely clog and really give it a stern tongue lashing, before loading up with ketchup and digging in.

4. Choose healthy snacks like mini-carrots, although, I did hear they spike your blood sugar so maybe some of the leftover Kraft dinner and hot dogs are a better alternative.

5. When baking your Christmas cookies, eat only the batter, not the finished product, for two reasons. Technically, you haven’t eaten any “cookies” even if you have eaten the equivalent in dough so you should feel no guilt. Secondly, there’s a very real possibility you will develop a stomach ache from eating raw eggs in the batter which should turn you off of food for the next couple of hours.

So when you’re lying on the beach, wrapped in two towels and a skort because the temperature never climbed above 16 degrees Celsius, your tummy growling from food deprivation, your hair thinner due to a lack of essential vitamins and minerals found only in the foods you’ve been avoiding, surrounded by seniors and early bird buffets, maybe you’ll take a moment (like me) and think about what’s really important this holiday season, whitening our teeth.