Shape Up For Summer - Tip 5 - Surviving Christmas Parties

9 December 2009

I enjoyed my first Christmas party of the season last night - and it was delicious! Roast chicken, potatoes, kumara, pumpkin and some tasty salads.

But, I'm left with a lingering feeling of regret, because I over-indulged at the snack table. And as a nutritionist I feel I should have done better. So I thought now was a great time to refresh our knowledge about how to tackle those Christmas parties without over-indulging. But firstly, let's consider a little about why we over-indulge at parties.

Eating With Your Friends And Family Encourages Over-Eating

In what I can only describe as horribly disappointing research, scientists discovered some years ago that the more people we dine with the more we eat. If you eat alone you'll probably eat a moderate sized meal, but eat with a friend and your energy intake can increase by up to 40%, and share your meal-time with several of your friends or family and your energy intake can increase by a whopping 40-70%.

When we dine with other people, especially people whose company we enjoy, we tend to linger longer over the meal and consequently eat more. And to some degree we're also influenced by their eating habits, so if you're watching people munch away on the nibbles you're more likely to dive in too. A fact one of my girlfriends pointed out last night! She turned to me and said "notice how whenever I help myself to a corn chip and guacamole everyone else starts digging in at the same time?" and to prove her point she dug into the corn chips, and sure enough it was like watching sheep grazing in paddocks, only it was our friends grazing in the guacamole! Which brings me to my second point...

The Handier The Snacks The More You'll Eat

My big mistake was basing myself at a table topped with bowls of potato chips - my greatest weakness! It was an accident waiting to happen. And as my friend dove into the potato chips with reckless abandon a little voice inside my head said "go ahead and have some potato chips." And so I did. Only I didn't have a couple, I had many. Many. MANY.

Research clearly shows that the more accessible food is, the more we'll eat. So sitting at a table with the potato chips within arms reach and clearly in my line of sight was a big mistake, made worse by the fact that potato chips are one of my great loves (second only to my husband).

But let's get one thing straight, I didn't go to the party intending to AVOID potato chips altogether. I'm not one for total deprivation, I was quite happy to have a few as a treat, because I very rarely have them at home or anywhere else nowadays. The only issue was in the quantities that I ate at the party, I wish I'd just eaten less. And for me the issue was accessibility - they were too handy for me.

Practical Tips For Surviving Christmas Parties

But the great news is with a little revision of some Christmas party survival tips both you and I can do a stirling job at our next dinner party. Follow the links below to some great practical tips:

How To Avoid Overeating At Parties - an easy five step nutritional plan to get you started.

7 Tips To Beat Bad Buffet Behaviour - many Christmas parties include a buffet, use these tips for surviving buffets

And as I've recently discovered, the most important rule of all is to actually put these guidelines into action! And most, most importantly do remember to enjoy your Christmas party season too!

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About The Author

Jennifer Bowden Nutritionist, MSc (Dist), BSc (Hons) - Human Nutrition

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