It is the season for party time. Meals and snacks can ruin the pounds and inches one may have taken off during the year. Most people add, “It is the holidays and I can start watching my diet after the New Year.”

No one wants to restrict what and when you eat during this “special two weeks.” The key to this season of eating is to limit what you select to eat.

The following tips are some that people may say, “I know that, where’s the new stuff?” The “magic” is up to the individual people.

In other words, these are the true plans that have worked over the years without doing strange things to your food or to your body.

*Eat something before you go to a party. By the time, people arrive at a party they will want to eat everything in sight. If they’ve eaten at home, at least they will not be so hungry that the snack food can satisfy them.

Remember that it takes at least 20 minutes for the stomach to tell the brain that you are not hungry and that you are full. So, the moral of this story is to eat slowly. Talk to friends between bites. Chew the food so that it will be easily digested. Do not put much food on the plate at one time.

Try all the food offered, but concentrate on fresh fruit and veggies. Watch the dips! Most of the time, dips and sauces are loaded with calories.

Thank the host and hostess for the wonderful food, but do not be intimated by other people thinking that one has to clean his or her plate or eat more food than would make you feel comfortable. Most of the time, the host and hostess of the party really do not want to make you eat items that would make you feel uncomfortable.

Alcoholic drinks can add extra calories very fast. Just beware. Again, limit is the key.

There are other tips, but the main activity one can do is to remember that 3,500 extra calories can lead to one pound of weight gain. It is easier to watch the caloric intake than to take of the extra pounds that you could gain.

Eat, but limiting food is a great rule.