3. Eat What You Love
If you're too rigid during the holiday season, it normally backfires on you. Instead, she says, focus on having a small amount sometimes just a bite of what you really love several days a week, or even every day. If you have a little bit of your favorite food every day, it takes away your anxiety and the feeling of eating something forbidden.

The exception: If you know that one bite will lead to another (and another), you'll probably need to keep the verboten foods out of the house altogether. Avoid the panic of missing out on foods you only get to enjoy once a year by putting a few goodies in a Ziploc bag and freezing them. Knowing that you can have a bite of Christmas fudge in February may take the edge off and keep you from overindulging now.

4. Reframe The Holidays
Heard a news report warning that you'll put on 5 or 10 pounds from Halloween to New Years? Not true. A study in the New England Journal of Medicine found that the average person gains just over a pound during the holidays. So don't dust off the elastic-waist pants just yet: Instead, take a hard look at what really pushes your buttons to overeat now is it parties, difficult relatives or the endless bowls of candy at work? Look at each party as a separate event; tell yourself, I'm going to enjoy myself tonight, but when the party's over, I go back to healthy eating and exercise.