Male Detail

Christmas is a difficult time for losing weight even if it's just because of the sheer amount of extra snacks that are around the house.

There can't be a single person who escapes the gift of chocolates and if everyone in your family receives some then that's an awful lot of chocolate to munch through. Then there are all the other snacks - the nuts, the crisps, the crackers and cheese, the leftovers of delicious desserts.

The best way to stop snacking is to get rid of it all, straight in the trash and no regrets. But you won't do that will you? (I can't bring myself to do that either)

The next best is to share it out - invite a crowd round and let them polish it off. My son's friends are great for this!

Failing that, put it all away in a high cupboard (out of sight, out of mind) and/or ration it - one small treat a day.

After the Christmas goodies finally disappear you may find you have a new unwanted snacking habit (or just a continuation of an old one). That habit needs to go, if you want to lose weight. Unfortunately it doesn't take more than a few days regular snacking before we are used to eating something at particular times of the day and miss it when we don't.

Like Annie (whose issues we have been looking at this week), you might find you can eat well during the day but once evening comes you just want to snack in front of the TV especially if your family are eating something.

With any habit, it can be difficult if you just try and stop doing something. It is easier if you change something else associated with your habit. For example if you always have a cookie with your after dinner coffee, it can be hard to have the coffee without the cookie, so instead drink tea!

If you always just sit and watch TV in the evening, do something else while you view - knit, take up needlepoint, do the ironing, paste your photos in an album, lift a few hand weights - anything to keep your hands busy and break the pattern of viewing and snacking.

Annie found that her husband made it difficult for her to stop snacking because he was always eating in the evening. Her partner could eat the food and not gain weight. Here, it's important to remember that men use up around 500 calories more a day than women just because of their body composition. If you have a similar problem, try a combination of the following strategies

• ask your partner to support you by not eating snacks in front of you
• prepare your own special low calorie snacks in advance to have while they are eating their higher calorie snacks
• leave the room when they are eating
• practice saying "No thank you" whenever they ask you if you want some. You won't succeed every time but 80% will make a difference
• Every 5 times you succeed in saying "No" to snacking, reward yourself with a (non-food) treat
• don't buy fattening snacks or buy snacks which they like but you don't (I buy Jaffa cakes - can't stand them myself but my family like them)