If you are anything like me, right now you are probably racing around like crazy trying to address all of your holiday cards, fighting the lines at American Girl and Toysrus for the gift that your children just have to have, desperately trying to find a gift for your hubbie on top of trying to balance the endless demands of school and work-related end of year school plays, singing recitals and cocktail parties!

For this reason, I am going to make this month’s column short and simple.Follow these guidelines and I promise you won’t gain a pound and will probably end up even losing a bit. Impossible? Read on!

1) Minimize holiday drinking to 1-2 drinks per night 2 days a week!
One glass of wine has about 100 calories, 1 beer about 100-125 calories and 1 glass of vodka has 170 calories. You don’t have to be some boring teetotaler and really no one even needs to know! Decide what nights you are going to have a drink and on those nights limit your drinking to 1-2 drinks.

So, what to do at a cocktail party? When you get to the party, have a glass of regular or sparkling water with lemon first, then have water again after your first glass of wine. You may even find you don’t want the second one!

What about a seated dinner? By all means, don’t call attention to yourself by refusing wine! Instead, have your glass filled and sip water all night every once in a while bringing your wine glass to your lips especially when speaking with the hostess! I promise you- no one will notice! I am probably ruining my hubby’s trick (sorry Oliver) but he could not believe this fact when he did it at several work dinners.

Cutting back on a few drinks a week can lead to saving 1200-1500 calories per month, which is the equivalent of 1 pound! Additionally, when we drink, our inhibitions are down and we end up consuming more food, which is a vicious cycle. More drinks, more food, more calories, more packing on the pounds!

2) Have a salad before you go out!
No, I am not talking about the crouton and cheese covered variety but have a plain old green salad dressed with a simple olive oil, lemon and sea salt or even a simple vinaigrette dressing. Doing this will mean that you will not arrive at the party famished and your first thought will not be to head straight to the food or devour the bread basket! Eating leafy greens will alsoalkalinize your body and give you necessary enzymes, which ultimately will help speed up your metabolism and lose weight!

3) Drink water with lemon when you arrive at the party.
I have alluded to this before but drinking the water with lemon will not only fill you up but the lemon is a detoxifier and will help balance out your blood sugar levels, particularly if you arrive at a party starving! It will also help with digestion. Also, having water with lemon will hydrate your body allowing a better recovery the next day!

4) Go for the crudite plate!
Fill up your plate with crudite and then move away from the buffet. Before you go back, make sure you eat all your veggies. Avoid cheese, fried foods, goopy salads and breads, which will make you look and feel bloated and will only increase your appetite.

5) Get to the gym and make time for yourself!
Make yourself and your health a priority! This may seem simple and it certainly sounds cliché but put your workouts in your schedule as you would taking your daughter to ballet or going to the dentist! If someone asks you to come to a meeting or to make a commitment during this time, just say no- you have an appointment. It is true- you have an appointment with yourself! This point might take some practice but it helps!

If you are tired, take a nap. Loss of sleep is linked to the body’s inability to regulate insulin and, ultimately, to weight gain. To read more about this, go to Sleep is Important. When you run yourself into the ground, your body goes into a “fight or flight” mode and secretes the hormone cortisol, which helps the body convert protein into glucose or sugar. When this glucose is not used it is turned into fat.

6) If you lose your sense of control, excuse yourself from the table or party.
This is one of the best strategies I talk about with my clients. If you are at a dinner and cannot stop devouring your entire meal or stop eating the bread, then excuse yourself from the table, go to the bathroom and take several deep breaths and calm yourself. If you are at a party, this system works the same way. Often when we are beginning to overeat or lose control around food, we are doing so out of anxiety. So, just take yourself out of the situation for a moment. Then, come back to the table and make better choices.

7) Decide when you are going to treat yourself and do away with the guilt!
What is it that you most like about the holiday season (apart, of course, from your family and the feeling of giving). Do you just love your mother’s pecan pie and cannot do without it? Does your sister make the most delicious pecan brittle? Depriving yourself of food that you love and then feeling guilty when you eat it, only sets yourself up for failure.

Adhere to the guidelines above, and then decide that you are going to have the pecan pie on Christmas Day. Then have it and enjoy it. Not only will you be less tempted during the holidays knowing that you will have something to look forward to, but you will not gorge on other foods trying to satisfy the cravings.

These simple tricks may seem easy but follow them and I promise they will make a big difference. Who knows these tricks may even serve you after the holidays!