Here are some tips to help you:

Create a Plan Ahead of Time: Before the festival and marriage ceremonies sneak up on you, create a plan for incorporating fitness and good nutrition into your daily routine. Evaluate your party schedule and then determine how much time you will realistically have available to devote to working out and/or eating healthy meals.

Don't Put Your Fitness Goals on Hold Until the Season Come: If you can't exercise as often during this time period as you normally do, adjust appropriately. Don't use the excuse that since you don't have time for your full workout you just won't workout at all. Instead accept your limited availability and simply reduce the frequency and/or duration of your exercise. It's much better to cut your fitness time in half than to completely eliminate it.

On the Day of a Party, be Sure to Eat Regularly all Day Long: If the party is in the evening, eat breakfast, lunch and a snack before hand (just as you would on any other day). Once you are at the party, go ahead and indulge in some of the fun, delicious foods. Since you have eaten meals earlier in the day, you probably will find that you aren't tempted to go overboard and eat everything in sight. However, if you starve all day long attempting to save up all your calories for the party, you will be so famished by the time it begins that it will be difficult not to overeat.

Schedule your Work-outs: Mark them on the calendar and set-aside time to complete them. Consider them as important as any other appointment or event you have marked on your calendar.

When at a Party, Start by Eating Some of the Healthy Offerings: For example, vegetable sticks (without dip), fruit pieces, plain, chicken pieces, etc. Then move on to some of the less healthy (but yummy) offerings.

You will be less likely to overindulge on these foods if you have already filled-up on some of the healthier items. Yet, you will not feel deprived or unsatisfied.

On Fays that You Really Lack Motivation or Simply do not have Time for your Complete Exercise Routine, Commit to do Just 10 Minutes of Exercise: You'll probably end up doing more than that once you get started. Even if you only end up completing 10 minutes, that is still a lot better than zero minutes.

When presented with a large variety of food options, it's tempting to want to eat everything. Rather than eating one large slice of chocolate cake or a huge plate of meatballs, select a sampling of bite size pieces of several of the desert or appetizer offerings. This way you get the enjoyment of trying many different foods without overeating.

Exercise at Home: You'll be more inclined to follow-through on your exercise commitment if you don't have to drive somewhere to do your workout. Plus, you won't waste any time on driving, parking, the locker room or waiting to use equipment.
Working out at home requires very little equipment (even can be equipment-free) and is quite inexpensive.

Avoid Wasting Calories on Alcoholic Beverages: The average alcoholic drink contains 150-200 calories per glass.

Indulge in just 2-3 drinks and you've drunk the equivalent calories of an entire meal. If you partake in these beverages, choose wisely.

For example, instead of having a full glass of wine, try mixing half a glass of wine with sparkling water or with a diet cola. This will help cut your calories in half.

When Running Errands or Shopping, be Sure to Pack some Healthy Snacks to have On-hand: Then after you work-up a big appetite, you won't be tempted to grab something at the mall food court or the fast food restaurant on the way home.

Hopefully these tips will help you find a balance between staying fit and also enjoying the fun of the season. Remember, moderation is the key.

Healthy Eating

For many people, holidays, festivals and family get togethers are a time for celebration. These celebrations often involve foods that are high in fat, sugar and calories and short on nutrition. With a few minor changes, however, special occasion foods can be both delicious and nutritious.

Dairy Products...
Many holiday foods include dairy products. Enjoy these foods during your celebrations, but use skimmed milk and other 'low' or `no' fat dairy products in your recipes whenever possible. Look for the growing assortment of low fat cheeses, cheese slices and cheese spreads that are now available in your grocery store.

For example, use light or ultra-light cream cheese or cheddar cheese with only 7 per cent fat. If you use spreads or other products that are high in fat, such as butter, mayonnaise, sour cream, spread them very thinly or use only a small amount.
Here are some tips to help you:

The Meat Dish...
Choose leaner cuts of meat for your holiday gatherings whenever possible. Turkey is one of the leanest types of meat. As a general rule, white meat is leaner than dark meat—so choose the breast meat of a chicken or turkey rather than the drumstick.

Trim the visible fat off of meats. Remove skin from poultry. Choose fish more often. Cold-water fatty fish such as tuna and salmon have 'heart healthy' types of fat in them. Prepare meats in ways that reduce the fat content, like broiling, stewing, or baking. Drain the excess fat off of meats after cooking. Cook meats on a rack so fat can drip away. Cool soups, gravies, stews, etc. before serving and then remove the hardened fat that has collected at the top. Use vegetable cooking sprays to prevent foods from sticking. When preparing a roast, baste with low fat broth instead of the drippings from the pan.

Vegetables...
Fortunately, most vegetables contain little or no fat. It is what we add to the vegetables that increase their fat content.
Avoid smothering your vegetables with thick creamy sauces or butter. Potatoes, for example, contain no fat. They also contain very little salt and are good sources of Vitamins B and C and potassium. Potato skins are a good source of fibre (fibre may help lower cholesterol levels, and reduce the risk of colon cancer). Try leaving the skins on the potatoes when you mash them. When mashing potatoes, rather than adding butter or sour cream, try whipping the potatoes with skim or 1 per cent milk or low /no fat sour cream or yogurt.

Feel free to include two or three vegetables with your meal as long as they have been prepared with little or no fat. This can often be done by steaming, baking or cooking them in the microwave. Flavour can be added by using seasonings such as spices and herbs. Dark green vegetables (such as broccoli) and bright orange vegetables (such as carrots and sweet potatoes) are high in the antioxidant vitamins, folic acid and fibre. Antioxidants (as Vitamins A, C, and E) can be protective agents against heart disease and cancer. Folic acid may play a role in helping to reduce the risk of heart attacks and stroke. When choosing vegetables, pick the ones that are the darkest in colour to ensure maximum nutrition.

Salads are a great addition to any meal. Be sure to choose a low fat dressing or ask your host to let you add your own so that you can control the amount.

Cooking Tip: To prevent loss of flavour and vitamins when cooking vegetables, try steaming vegetables in less water or using a steaming rack. If you do boil vegetables in water, save the water to make gravy.

Stuffing...
If you have stuffing with your meat dish and the recipe calls for meat or giblets, replace half of the meat with dried fruits such as cranberries, raisins or apricots. This turns an everyday recipe into a colourful and seasonal dish.

Cooking Tip: Rather than cooking stuffing inside of poultry or a roast, cook the stuffing in a casserole dish or aluminium foil in the oven. This will reduce the amount of fat in the stuffing considerably.

Gravy...
Making gravy from a low fat broth rather than the drippings from poultry or a roast is a good way to reduce fat. If your gravy recipe calls for milk, make sure to use skim milk.

Cooking Tip: If you choose to use drippings for your gravy, pour or skim the fat off the top of the drippings before using. This can be done easily by letting the drippings get cold and,

when the fat has become hard, take it off with a spoon. Or, when the drippings are cool, you can also add ice cubes, to which the fat will stick. Remove the ice cubes before making the gravy.

Cranberry Sauce...
Cranberries are an excellent source of Vitamin C. Unfortunately much of the Vitamin C content is lost in the canning process. Luckily home-made cranberry sauce is easy to prepare and the nutrients are retained. Try using cranberry sauce on your turkey instead of gravy.

Cooking Tip: When making cranberry sauce, add sugar after cooking the cranberries to maintain the tenderness of the skin. You may also want to substitute some artificial sweetener for some of the sugar in your cranberry sauce recipe.

Beverages...
Mulled cider or our lowfat eggnog are a good alternative to high fat eggnog. If you choose to have eggnog, have a smaller amount and dilute it with skim milk or use low fat or fat free eggnog.

Diet carbonated sodas can make a very festive drink when added to your favourite fruit juice—try cranberry or grape juice with soda. Nonalcoholic or de-alcoholised wines are improving all the time and make a great alternative for the holidays.