Tips to Not Overeating During the Holidays

Hi everybody!
Sorry again, no recipe tonight!  I ran out from my weekend baking spree (I didn't have a chance to make much), so here's another little, fun post.  This time, all about tips to not overeating during the holiday season.
I know the holidays are a time of great family time, great warmth, fun and enjoyment--especially when considering the delicious, special foods that come around.  Here are some tips to not over-indulging:
1.  The morning of the day of the meal (ex: Thanksgiving, Christmas Day), eat regularly.  Treat this day as any other day, and you will not feel an overwhelming and delusional hunger when you're piling food on your plate, which will make you take more food than you need.
2.  Drink lots of water!  I mean A TON of water, and that does not include any chemical-ridden soda!  Filling your stomach with liquid will make you automatically feel less hungry because, well, your stomach is now fuller. :)
3.  Make the holidays a time to reconnect, enjoy, and cherish your family.  If your holiday dinners are anything like mine, you don't really see some of the people present much.  So, make the best of it.  Take the focus off of the food, and to something more meaningful: your family.
4.  When the dishes are being passed around, do not shovel on 5 truckloads of the same old boring stuff you eat everyday.  Go in the spirit of the holiday: for Thanksgiving, get some of that lean white turkey meat, and for Christmas, same goes: get some lean meat!  If you see veggies, get down and praise God; take them!  ALL OF THEM!  If you come across a food that you do not get a chance to eat often, take a spoonful or two (aka: Macaroni and Cheese <3).  Believe it or not, but the My Plate rule of 1/2 your plate being veggies, 1/4 being lean meat, and 1/4 being starch, is a great way to check yourself when eating a holiday meal.
5.  Eat slowly... Very slowly.  Enjoy every bite of your food, of course, in between the wonderful conversation with your lovely family. :)
6.  When the food is staring at you, do NOT go for seconds.  Enjoy the food that you ate originally, and wait off until dessert: when it all usually goes downhill...
7.  ...but it doesn't have to!  When faced with the prospect of dessert, do what I do and close your eyes.  Really...  Ask the most truthful part of myself, "How hungry am I REALLY feeling right now?"  If the answer is, "Starving!", go ahead and eat a nice piece of pie.  If the answer if "Not really, maybe...", then take a small piece of pie (a SLIVER), and if the answer is, "No, I'm not really hungry after that big dinner.", enjoy (maybe) one cookie, then go back to enjoying the people you're with.  Dessert can be hard to resist, but once you realize that if your body is truly hungry, it can't really tell what you're eating (if you're not taking into consideration calories or nutritional content), and once food passes you mouth and (the tricky one!) your taste buds, your stomach can't tell the difference, you will realize what eating really should be about:  sustaining your body to do the daily actions it needs to do.  Though we humans take food as an indulgence, it really is just fuel for the machine that is the body.  Remember that.
8.  Enjoy the people your with.  Oh, I already said that?  Well, I meant it.  Even if the family around you aren't necessarily your best friends, or even your friends for that matter, we can all learn a bit from each other:  old or young, big or small.  Take a chance and talk to them!  You may be surprised!

I wish everyone a happy holiday, whichever one(s) you may celebrate!  Remember the good times with the good people!  Remember that food is not the most important thing and that the holidays are a time to reconnect and cherish the ones you love.

Happy Holidays; more to come. :)