Christmas indulgence survival tips

Apparently, writing down what you eat, can help you become more mindful of what you eat.  It turns out taking photographs of what you eat for your blog makes you a saint.  Hence today's offerings: muesli and apple, a smoothie, veggie lentil bolognaise with pasta, an apple, vegetable soup with cheese on toast and carrot and pepper crudités, some cashews.  OK, I confess, I forgot to photograph the gin and tonics and the mince pie.

Some days I am this virtuous.  But others I am rubbish. But a healthy diet really matters to me.  I tried to think what my rules of thumb are, what tricks I have up my sleeve.  I came up with: 5 a day; being vegetarian; different colour foods; breakfast like a king, lunch like a queen, tea like a pauper; a balance of food groups on each plate; slim line tonic in my gin; oatcakes in my handbag, lots of water and not allowing certain foodgroups in the house.

With the season of indulgence upon us and the festivities becoming more elaborate each year, it's easy to let everything snowball.  I'm determined that's not happening this year.  So, just to be sure,  I asked some other people for their rules and short cuts too. 

Vicki from HonestMum doesn't believe in diets, 'Eat healthily and do exercise you enjoy, be it swimming, running or sex.' But she does 'try and live by the 80/20 % rule.'  Eat well 80% of the time.  Sounds sensible to me.

Ruth of Minibreakmummy swears by having a bar of dark chocolate in her handbag, because it is difficult to overindulge on dark chocolate so it's a way to see off milk chocolate temptation.  Becky from Baby Budgeting also told me she read some research that suggests dark chocolate could help to see off the winter blues.  So perhaps it's a way to help reduce winter comfort eating too?

 @The_Last_Slayer from A Hell of a Woman knows someone who claims green tea accelerated weight loss. My friend A always has green tea about his person too.

My friend L lost a pound to prepare for the Christmas party we were both attending, great forward planning. I called it carb loading and went for a jog the next day. I will attempt to force myself to do the same on Boxing Day.

My friend E doesn’t have treats in the house, instead going out to buy them is part of the treat.

Do you have any Christmas diet plans?  What are your rules of thumb and shortcuts?  Are you being virtuous in the run up to Christmas, or do you indulge from here to the New Year?