It’s the holidays. Overbuying, overspending, overeating. We are all “over” doing it.

So at a time when we are attending party after party, how can we keep from putting on the pounds? It all seems like just part of the season. Hmmm. Here are some possible solutions.

My wise friend Violet clued me in one day recently at a gift-exchange luncheon. She took one look at the plate set before her and said, “I wonder which of these foods is ‘calorie-worthy.'”

I realized quickly that “calorie-worthy” meant a food had to earn it’s mouthful. Either it had to be something that tasted like it had just come off Bobby Flay’s grill or some fabulous seasonal food you only find once a year.

You don’t want to waste your calories on things like stale rolls and salty potatoes (unless you adore stale rolls). I’m talking pork-skewered brussel sprouts drizzled with bourbon sauce, or gingerbread men with white chocolate icing…definitely calorie-worthy.

Being selective about our food is one thing, but plate size is another. A long-time friend of mine who happens to be a nurse pointed out the direction the average dinner plate has taken in the last 20 years. Here’s the graphic. It speaks for itself:

Maybe plate size isn’t the only thing we can change to help us reduce how much we eat.

Recently a girlfriend brought appetizers to a gathering and they were accompanied by “tiny forks.” You can barely get a morsel on the fork, so it slows you down quite a lot.

I did some research on this and found that there is actually something called “The Little Fork Diet.”

Check it out:

My future son-in-law decided to help me out with a “little fork” experiment.

Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha…it was rather hilarious.

Whether you rate your food, serve your meal on a saucer, or try a baby’s fork, all of this is mentioned merely to get us to think more carefully about what and how we eat.

Oh, if you don’t happen to have a little fork…just take a plastic fork, pull off the end tines and try eating with that!

And, remember, even if you can’t get a morsel on your fork, there’s no swearing at the dinner table.

Bon Appetit.