Are you a food addict? Worried about your will power with food? Take heed – Christmas is coming!

Christmas season is a difficult season for people who struggle with addiction – any addiction. For the alcoholic, there is the spiked eggnog, rum balls, and expensive wines; for the shopper, there are the stores that beckon people with sales and gift cards, and for the food addict, there is food. Too much food: office buffets, Christmas cake and Santa chocolate and marzipan candies.  Endless amounts of food filled with deadly combinations of sugar, fat and salt.

For a food addict, no amount of sugar, especially combined with fat, is safe. Even if you are not a food addict, the amount of sugar contained in Christmas delectables can challenge your will power as well as overpower your body’s ability to safely metabolize these foods. Remember when tangerines were a treat to eat at Christmas time? A few figs or the string of popcorn hung on the tree? That is the extent of sugar we can safely process. Did you know that the weight gained during the Christmas season is the hardest to loose over the course of the year?

There are ways to avoid these temptations. “Out of sight, out of mind” is one of the best relapse prevention tools for addicts…. Practically speaking, that means – don’t have it in the house. Ask your friends not to ‘tempt’ you with their special Christmas treat recipe. Avoid the buffet table and order off the menu. When offered a plate at a cocktail party, thank the host and carry the plate around, with a napkin over the alluring tidbits. Then put it down as soon as is possible. Have friend help. These tricks work. These strategies may save you from the New Year’s resolution blues!