Oh, I just came across these glasses and cannot stop admiring the creativity of the person who came up with them. We often repeat the same thing about serving sizes, but who in their right mind is going to take out a measuring cup in the middle of a dinner party? Now, you don’t have to!

The frosted rings on these glasses mark off four, six, and eight ounces. BRILLIANT! These can be used for wine, but also for juice or even serving ice-cream or parfaits.

Now, that’s a perfect reward for your weight-loss efforts! I can also envision this being a great holiday gift.

You can find these at www.wine-trax.com

The holiday season is around the corner. An average person only gains 1-3 pounds around the holidays. The unfortunate part is that those pounds are generally never taken off and end up adding up over the years.

This year, make a resolution to take a balanced approach and enjoy yourself while still sticking to your goals.

1. Do not skip on exercise. Make it a family affair – go ice skating together, plan a skiing trip, throw a Frisbee outside, build a snowman, try snowshoeing, or just take a stroll outside.

2. Use the opportunity while you have everybody together to do taste tests. A perfect “game” is to prepare a healthy version of the eggnog and the regular and see if anybody can tell the difference. Or have the kids taste the 1%, 2%, and skim milk and see if they can identify the correct one. Make sure to have the recipes ready for your guests to take home.

3. Get plenty of sleep. Lack of sleep has been shown to be correlated with weight gain. Enough said.

4. If you travel, plan ahead. Always bring healthy snacks with you. Bringing your own food will save you money, but it will also save you tons of calories. Perfect choices are nuts, apples, baby carrots, Gnu Food bars, and home-made sandwiches. Same goes for holiday shopping.

5. Do not be afraid to state your needs. When eating out, ask how the food is prepared and request substitutions. If your friend is hosting a party, do not be afraid to state your needs as well. The main goal of the hosts is to have their guests happy and comfortable and they would rather know ahead of time how to make that happen. Alternatively, bring your own dish and a bottle of dry prosecco/dry wine with you.

6. Drink plenty of water. If you don’t like plain water, squeeze some orange or lemon into your glass. Add some mint to it. Brew some herbal tea.

7. Get the real facts and educate yourself. You may hear many myths from your family and friends. Fruit is NOT bad for you, eating after six pm will NOT make you gain weight, lifting heavy weights will NOT make you bulk up, etc. Read, double-check the sources and stick to your healthy plan.

Finally, cheating on your plan is not always a bad thing. Just don’t use food items as your reward for dieting. And if you do splurge, select something that you REALLY want, slow down, and truly enjoy it.

E-mail me with your feedback, questions or concerns at maria@topbalancenutrition.com!

TWENTY THREE – the number of states that experienced an increase in their adult obesity rate in 2009. No states saw a decrease. This year, lets make a joint resolution to reverse the statistics. Lets educate ourselves, vote with our dollars, and get invested in our own health. This will be a long journey, but one success story at a time, we CAN make it happen.