By Briana Hayes
Staff Writer

Your shopping expenses aren’t the only budget that is usually exceeded throughout the holiday season.

’Tis the season to stuff your stomach until you can’t even look at food anymore. With holiday parties, a new pie delivered to your house every day from a long-lost relative, and candies spread all over the house celebrating the holidays makes it pretty easy to exceed your calorie budget.

From Thanksgiving until New Year’s, food is pretty much omnipresent. The important thing to realize is that one meal or indulgence probably will not affect you that greatly.

One pound is equivalent to 3,500 calories. So no, one meal will not show up on the scale.

The danger of the holiday season comes with the constant threat of overeating at every meal and of course the sudden desire for every kind of cheesecake ever made.

However, if you are trying to eat healthily and you do find yourself splurging, do not beat yourself up about it. One dessert will not ruin your diet, just like one healthy meal won’t make you automatically healthy.

Life is about balance; the balance just becomes a little bit tougher with all the temptations floating around during this time of year.

In order to control your diet, begin to think of your dietary patterns on a weekly basis. This will allow for more of that balance. It is easier to balance your diet within a week, rather than 24 hours. That way if you splurge a little at a holiday party during the weekend, your eating pattern will not be that disturbed.

Now when you do take in those extra calories, remember not to skip meals the day to “compensate.”

Skipping breakfast or lunch will only leave you hungry and at risk for pigging out later.

After a splurge, wake up and do not eat until you are hungry. For breakfast try to eat something light that will help rid your body of the food you consumed. This means fiber.

Oatmeal is a good option to help clean your system out. In addition, yogurt with berries is a good option because yogurt has probiotics, which help regulate your digestive system.

For lunch, stick with vegetables in a salad with a lean protein. For dinner it is important to have a protein, such as fish or chicken to help keep you full for longer and avoid dessert for that night.

After a feast, your weight is inflated. That’s not because of an increase in body fat, but because of water retention brought on by the excess salt you probably ate. Weighing yourself will only make you feel defeated, so just don’t do it.

Throughout the week, keep track of what you eat and remember small indulgences won’t kill you during the month. Just don’t push it.