Avoiding Holiday Weight Gain

To avoid making poor food choices, write down everything you eat in a small notebook.
During the holidays, keep a small notebook with you at all times or use a notebook page in your smartphone and write down everything you eat. This will keep you from eating absentmindedly and from making poor food choices.

Keeping a food journal helps control caloric intake and prevents between-meal munching. It’s simply too much trouble to eat if you have to write it down every time! Not only will this trick prevent weight gain, it may even help you lose a few pounds.

During the weeks between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, the 25 percent of people who had lost weight during the rest of the year — those who most consistently recorded every bite of food — lost an average of seven pounds, whereas the other 75 percent regained an average of three pounds.