Beware Of The Holiday Season and the Potential for Weight Gain

During the holiday season, it is almost impossible not to gain weight, let alone keep your current weight. Food is a hard obstacle to overcome during the winter, especially during the holidays. The feeding frenzy starts around Halloween, eating candy, and only ends around the time of the Super Bowl. Our “winter coat” often means a 5-10 pound weight gain.

It may seem that the holidays are the worst possible time to start dieting, but actually, it is the best time. If you can diet during the hardest season then you can diet anytime. The winter holidays can be a great time for a motivated dieter.

It all starts with Halloween when a lot of people buy candies for Trick or Treaters. Usually, you buy the candy that you like yourself so that you can dig into the leftovers. To keep yourself from that pitfall, I suggest you buy a type of treatment that you don’t like or only give fruit and some other non-addicting and healthy goodies for your visiting goblins.

Don’t forget there is also Thanksgiving, Christmas, and, New Years that all contribute to weight gain so to succeed, you should start off with a good strategic plan that stresses avoidance of problems and temptations. Don’t “shoot yourself in the foot” by seeking out food pushers or abusive food bullies who do their best to destroy your diet. Keep problem foods away from your home and keep away from them when you are at the other locations. If somebody brings you chocolates such as Lindt truffles, Ghirardelli, or Godiva or any other treats that are tempting it is best to hide it, donate it or throw it away and substitute for healthier options such as dried fruit, sugar-free candy, nuts, or fresh fruits.

There is no reason why you can’t continue to do well during this difficult time if you take a few precautions and don’t give in to the despair of self-defeating behavior. Dieters who stop dieting during the period from Halloween to Super Bowl Sunday will gain an average of 5 to 10 pounds before recovering from their lapses of effort. These pounds were lost previously at great expense, time, money, and hard work and will not be regained so easily.

Author

Dr. Eddie Fatakhov, M.D. Eddie Fatakhov, M.D. is a board-certified physician, nutritionist, and author of “Dr. Fat Off: Simple Life-Long Weight-Loss Solutions.”