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How to Get Through the Holidays & Still Enjoy the Foods You Like

Dieting: The Dog Ate It:  Yes you can still lose weight without blaming the dog....

Jackie loved pumpkin. She loved pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin cake and pumpkin roll. If it had pumpkin in it, Jackie was happy.

Resisting all the goodies that were loaded with pumpkin was especially difficult during the holiday season. Aunt Martha made the best pumpkin pie on the planet as it was mined with fresh pumpkin from the garden.

Uncle Rob baked the tastiest pumpkin bread and pumpkin rolls in the universe.  And her sister Sylvia baked the most luscious pumpkin cake and cookies in the entire world.

Yes, Jackie was definitely in Pumpkin Heaven during the holidays.

And it was on a certain Thanksgiving day that Jackie found herself planted at her sister's house for the holiday. The table was loaded with the traditional feast, but Jackie wasn't interested. She was thinking about dessert - and all her favorites were there, just waiting for her to partake of their bounty.

The family ate so much for dinner than no one wanted dessert. And her aunt had these crushing words to say, "I don't see how anyone could eat desserts after the feast we just had. It would be short of gluttony."

Jackie's spirits fell. Didn't her family notice that she had barely touched her plate? That she had been saving herself for all that wonderful pumpkin? And, she had only wanted to sample each dessert.

Shortly afterwards, all of the family except Jackie fell in a deep sleep due to all their feasting. Jackie tripped over to the dessert table, anxious to sample all the pumpkin goodies. Hum, perhaps she should and just blame the dog?

Nah. That wouldn't be fair to Rover. After great thought, she decided to dig in and get her fill of the pumpkin filled goodies.

Was Jackie being Diet Bad? Absolutely not. She had carefully planned her diet around enjoying a sampling of the foods that she loved best during the holiday season.

Planning is everything when it comes to the holiday season - particularly planning out your diet. You'll be less apt to gain weight, and by enjoying what you like within reason, exercises a bit of Diet Control.

Let's see what Jackie enjoyed for dessert, shall we?

Aunt Martha's delicious homemade pumpkin pie prepared with fresh pumpkin contains 300 calories per slice and there are eight slices in the pie. Jackie enjoyed 1/16th of the pie - or one-half of a normal slice of pie for 150 calories. And this year, her aunt had outdone herself as the pie was the tastiest thus far.

Next Jackie sampled her uncle's pumpkin bread - just a small slice. This too was prepared with fresh pumpkin from the garden. This equaled an additional 100 calories.

Next she tried her sister Sylvia's pumpkin cookies - but just one. These were topped with icing and contained 200 calories each. Finally, she tried the pumpkin cake that her sister made and because the frosting contained cream cheese and the cake contained a lot of nuts, Jackie limited herself to a sliver of the cake. Even so, this was an additional 200 calories.

In all, Jackie consumed about 650 calories in desserts containing pumpkin. She didn't even take a glance at her aunt's chocolate pie or her uncle's mincemeat version or her sister's maple fudge.

At meal time Jackie enjoyed a tiny bit of roasted turkey and a small serving of mashed potatoes. She chose unsweetened tea to enjoy with her meal and when she added a hot roll to her plate, she opted to skip the butter which her aunt had placed onto the holiday table. In all - Jackie has consumed close to 1,000 calories.

For dinner she intends to enjoy another roll with a serving of lean turkey breast. And she still just might have room for a small sampling of her uncle's locally famous pumpkin roll.....