Tygab, I share your sense of despair looking at the start of "Seasons Eatings", to quote my favorite cable channel's slogan. I'm a foodie (aka food snob), and I really enjoy eating good food as one of the great pleasures in life. Our friends also appreciate fine food, so going to parties is often a disaster for my thighs. Coupled with the lack of motivation to exercise when its 25 degrees and pitch dark outside when I leave work at 5, this usually leads to a few pounds gained. However, I have a few strategies that help minimize the damage. At parties, I will start out by filling up on vegetable crudites, easy on the dip. If I'm going to eat a lot because I'm hungry, I want to fill up on good stuff first, rather than heading straight for the artisinal cheese and fancy crackers. Once I have a good base of healthy foods in me, I'm less likely to over do it on the rich stuff. I know that self deprivation doesn't work for me. If I try to stay away from something that looks really good but I know is bad for me, I will obssess about it all evening which pretty much ruins the party for me. So I look at it as sampling. I've had my veggies, now I'm allowed to sample small bits of the good stuff. Now, I know that this goes against conventional weight control wisdom, but drinking helps me. This is probably due to my personality type, I'm inherently shy, particularly with strangers. However, after a glass of wine I'm much more comfortable engaging in conversation, which keeps me from shoving food in my mouth. I find that if I'm relaxed after a drink, I'm also less likely to obssess about the food and more likely to stop eating when I'm full. One last thing for parties, plate your food! If I put everything on a plate, I can see and better control how much I'm eating, rather than just standing next to the cheese board and eating piece after piece until I've lost count.

As for meals, like others said, eat the things that are special. I was also surprised in recent years to find that if I put very small portions of things on my plate, thinking "I can always have seconds if I really want them", I was pleasantly full after eating and didn't feel the need to go for another spoonful to stuff myself beyond belief.

As for exercise, I always take my running shoes with me when I travel. I absolutely love running on Thanksgiving morning, its always quiet out and I feel so much less guilty about the meal knowing I burned some calories that morning. If its really too cold to run, I try to get a good walk in, even if it means walking in a shopping mall.

Now if I can just keep myself motivated to keep exercising on a regular basis during the week. The cold and dark just makes me want to go home and curl up on the couch under a blanket. Yesterday morning I told DH I wanted to ride the trainer in the evening so a)I could reserve the trainer for myself, and b) I would be held accountable. On the way home I was dreading it, thinking I would just cop out, but I didn't want to disappoint DH (which would have really been just disappointing myself). So I trudged out into the freezing cold garage and hopped on. Once I got going I felt so good, and I actually wanted to stay on longer, but I had to get off because DH had dinner ready. I was so amazed that I actually wanted to keep exercising instead of going to eat. There is hope! Good luck!