How to Lose Weight During the Holidays Without Losing Friends

It happens at every party: You swear that you’ll stick to your
diet and you’re really sticking to your guns, popping crunchy
baby carrots into your mouth like chocolate bon bons while
everyone else is loading up on nachos and guacamole dip. Then
someone – your mother who has been slaving over the hot stove
all day, your Uncle Mike who has polished off three martinis,
your best friend Mary who has been trying to lose 25 pounds for
the last 25 years – steps up to your plate and fills it with an
extra-large helping of guilt. “Come on, live a little. Just eat
one piece,” your sister says as she tries to stuff the stuffing
in your face. “It’s your favorite, and I made it just for you.
I’ll be hurt if you don’t at least try it.” And before you know
it, you’re having your and everyone else’s cake and eating it,
too. Family and friends, the people you expect to support you,
are the very ones who are most likely to sabotage your diet,
either consciously or subconsciously, and that’s why you need a
neutral buddy to get you through not every wedding, birthday,
bar mitzvah and holiday party, experts say. “When we sit down at
the table, we’re all sort of comparing how we shape up with the
other people there,” says Henrietta Harrison, a psychotherapist
and life coach in Westport, Conn. “We’re all looking around the
table to see who looks older than last year, who looks thinner,
who looks heavier.” And when people indulge, adds Laura Cipullo,
a registered dietitian and certified diabetes educator with
offices in Manhattan, New Jersey and upstate New York,
“typically they want others to be ‘bad’ with them and indulge,
too.” But as Cipullo and Harrison point out, just because you
are offered the piece of homemade pumpkin pie doesn’t mean that
you have to eat the whole thing. But it does mean that you can
understand why you are being asked to eat it and then enlist
your family and friends to help everyone beat their bad eating
habits. “It can be threatening to a partner when the other loses
weight because the thinner person will become more attractive to
other people,” Harrison says. “When you lose weight,
particularly if you are a woman, your confidence increases and
it’s empowering. This can upset the balance of power because as
she gets more assertive, she becomes confident enough to change
jobs, run for the PTA or even go back to work.” By making your
family and friends your buddies, everybody wins the weight-loss
game, Harrison and Cipullo say. “The buddy system is a good
idea,” Cipullo says, “because the entire family can be on the
same page. If mom and dad are eating a certain way or one child
is eating a certain way, the whole family should be eating that
way – healthy.” Outside buddies, who provide encouragement and
help 24/7, also can be part of your weight-loss network. “I
recommend having someone to talk to before, during and after you
go to these events,” Harrison says. “Buddying up during the
holidays is crucial for people who are alone because you get
companionship. You get someone on your team. WeightLossBuddy.com
is one way to do this. It is ideal for a lot of people because
it’s like one-stop shopping.” Once you have a buddy, you can
work together to change the menu for future parties. “Make the
holidays less about food,” Cipullo says. “Meet for appetizers
and drinks, not for formal sit-down dinners. Go ice skating or
go for coffee or go out to a restaurant and choose your own
food. Go out and look at holiday lights. Go for a manicure or a
pedicure with your friends so you can sit around and chat and
catch up.” And if your willpower does buckle under the
mistletoe, remind yourself that it doesn’t have to be feast or
famine. “When you learn to ride a bike, you sometimes fall off,”
Harrison says. “And when you learn, you don’t learn to ride in a
straight line; you weave back and forth and that’s how diets
should be.”

WeightLossBuddy.com’s Top 10 Tips for the Holidays

1.Find a buddy to help you get through the event and call or
e-mail the buddy before, during and after the party. For more
information on the buddy system, go to www.WeightLossBuddy.com.
2.If you are a guest, eat a small low-calorie snack before you
go to the party at the time you usually eat dinner. If you are
the cook, eat a small low-calorie snack before you prepare the
meal. 3.Eat smaller portions of everything on the table.
4.Nibble your way through the party. 5.Use the three-bite rule:
If someone insists you eat a food that’s not on your diet, only
eat three bites of it. That way, you can tell the cook how much
you have enjoyed it, and everyone is satisfied. 6.Ask whether
you can take a piece of pie or cake home to eat later. Savor
every bite by pacing yourself, only eating a little bit every
day. 7.When you turn down a fattening food, substitute a
lower-cal food in its place. For instance, instead of the
pumpkin pie with whipped cream, eat an apple. 8.Just say no to
that extra helping of stuffing. But do it politely. 9.Change
your holiday traditions so that activities, not food are the
center of attention. 10.If you do blow your diet, don’t punish
yourself and don’t end your diet. Every day is a new day.

Copy-right Weight Loss Buddy Press 2004

We at www.WeightLossBuddy.com are devoted to helping you find a
24/7 buddy who will not only help you lose weight but who also
will get you to change to a healthy lifestyle. You choose your
own diet and your own exercise regime, and we find you a buddy
who will literally stick with you through thick and thin.
Signing up for a buddy is free. Simply call up
www.weightlossbuddy.com or call 1-877-BUDDY-UP.

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