Holiday parties offer so many tempting ways to sin when you're on a diet. From that rich glass of eggnog topped with whipped cream and spiked with rum to the thickly frosted holiday cookies and platters of chocolate croissants...it's a feast that is NOT on your food plan!

Registered dietician Susan Burke March, author of Making Weight Control Second Nature: Living Thin Naturally, offers these tips to avoid weight gain from holiday parties:

1. Avoid the waist-expanding fried hors d'oeuvre. Instead, go for "lower calorie foods such as shrimp and raw vegetables."
2. Eat a healthy snack before the party, such as nonfat yogurt and a banana. " That way, you won't be "excessively hungry."
3. DANCE! You can burn many excess calories and have a great time while you're doing it!
   

In addition, consider making a diet recipe and bringing it TO the party!  Your hostess will love you...and you'll love your slim figure.  Click here for some great holiday low-carb, low-calorie treats, such as diet spinach feta dip.