This month, my plan was to give you a series of healthy, yet tasty recipes for some Christmas holiday treats. I was half way through the next column when my editor mentioned that perhaps this week, instead of more recipes for food, we actually need tips for helping people to manage their weight during the festive season. Good idea! And if you have already been to your fifth cocktail party this month, then these words may find you just in time.

If you are on a diet, Christmas is often the hardest time to stick to your programme. Resisting temptation is tricky anyway, but at this time of year it can seem as if the whole world is out to trip you up. Your mother may have been pointing out all year that you are looking a little ?chubby? but God forbid you should turn down one of her special mince pies! You have a whole pile of party invitations for drinks and calories ? sorry, canap?s, your office is over-run with chocolates from well meaning clients and even your gym is having a party! You can barely walk into the grocery store without someone shoving a glass of wine and a mini-fish-cake-and-banana into your hand, so how in the face of all this adversity, are you supposed not to put on weight?

You could of course hibernate, but this would be socially crippling and no fun at all. The answers instead lie in these simple steps ? designed to help you enjoy your Christmas without paying a hefty price for it in January!

A drinks party isn?t a drinks party without canap?s. But whilst canap?s can be delicious they can also be laden with calories ... deep fried shrimp, mini pizzas and filo pastry cups are all hard to resist, especially if you?re hungry! However you can be guaranteed that there will be more calories in the amount of canap?s it takes to fill you up, than in a healthy home cooked meal. So if possible, eat before the party and only have two or three canap?s with your drinks. If it?s not possible to have a full meal before you go, have a healthy snack (e.g. an apple and some unsalted nuts) before, two or three canap?s there and then a light supper (e.g. chicken salad) when you get home. As a last resort, if canap?s are going to take the place of your evening meal, then just try to make healthy choices. Many venues serve crudit?s and dip, fruit kebabs and chicken skewers, so look for these healthy options.

Alcohol provides you with ?empty calories? i.e. lots of calories, without making you feel full. If you over-indulge you are also more likely to get an attack of the munchies later on, stopping off for some fries or a burger on the way home. So, limit yourself to one or two drinks, and avoid all sugary mixers. Champagne, red wine and vodka with soda are some of the better options.

It?s hard to limit yourself to one plateful at a buffet as there are usually so many great options. However, don?t kid yourself by thinking that you?ll simply skip a meal later because you probably won?t! Even if you do, remember your body can only handle so much food at once. What it doesn?t need immediately can get stored as fat. Instead, eating little and often actually helps to boost your metabolism.

I always remember our kitchen being stuffed full of Christmas treats when I was little ? and because it was there, we ate it. Often more than we needed or even we wanted, because it seemed such a shame to waste such delicious things! For this reason, buy and make treats in moderation. If you enjoy baking at Christmas, give plenty away too ? a thoughtful but low budget gift if you?re broke this year!

Baking doesn?t always require such a high sugar content. Try using one third less sugar or replacing the sugar altogether with unsweetened apple sauce. This can take some patience and experimentation, but it?s worth the effort. It?s also important to limit saturated or hydrogenated fats, as these are the fats that cause weight gain and clog up your arteries. Margarine is often less healthy than butter because it contains these hydrogenated fats. However, important exceptions are some of the healthy vegan margarines. My favourite is the Earth Balance margarine from Down to Earth. It has no cholesterol, no hydrogenated fat and lower saturated fat than many of the others. It?s particularly good in baking.

If you ban your favourite unhealthy treats entirely from your diet for months on end, you are much less likely to sustain your regime. Not only are you more likely to give up, but when you do cave in, you are more likely to do so in a spectacular fashion. If you are generally following a healthy eating plan, there is no reason why you shouldn?t have the odd treat. If you are healthy in all other respects, a good way to do this is by planning a free day each week. For six days of the week be super-good with your diet, and on the seventh day, just enjoy some treats without feeling guilty. The great thing about this is that if you are craving something naughty early in the week, you only have a maximum of six days to wait until you can have it, a much more realistic period of time.

Ever notice how most of our Christmas traditions revolve around food? Try and shift the focus away from the table by starting some new exercise orientated traditions such as a Boxing Day walk along Horseshoe Bay or a treasure hunt in the botanical gardens. Exercise is a crucial component of weight management and is especially important when preventing weight gain over the holidays. Healthy adults should aim to do 30 minutes of appropriate exercise for six days a week ? more if you?ve eaten too many of those canap?s!