With a few simple precautions we can get through this and not feel like we are being left out on the traditional bingeing that goes on, most recipes can be made more diabetic friendly.

When celebrating with others, let family or friends know ahead of time that you are diabetic, so that the host or hostess can have something for you ahead of time, like sugar free drinks or desserts. Bring something with you that you know that you can eat without trouble.

Knowing your serving amounts will help you in avoiding to much of a good thing. Like with potatos most of us are use to it being half of the plate size for a serving, when in reality it is more like 1/2 of a baseball size, a meat serving is about the size of a deck of cards. Bring your own smaller dinner plate, it will help fool your brain into thinking that you have had more than what you really had, eat slowly to give your body a chance to realize it is full, the average body takes about 20 minutes for this to happen.

Your average pie slice is a 1/8 of the pie, just take half of that instead, will give you the taste of the pie without adding all those carbs. Or find someone that you can share that dessert with, my hubby and I when we are out to eat, get one dessert and two forks, I take a few bites, get my taste buds happy and he finishes it off.

Most of us when we were first introduced to diabetes, were told of weighing and measuring our foods, while that is a good thing, who wants to drag along their scales and measuring cups to a party? practice this at home, and get good at telling what the proper size looks like.

bring your own drink and sweetners with you, that way you don't have to drink what the hostess provides and she/he doesn't have to worry about it.

Fill up on salad prior to getting to the goodies, salads for the most part are free foods. lots of fiber and filling without all the guilt of everything else.

Biggest thing of all, is to remember to forgive yourself if you fall off the diabetic band wagon, we can't be perfect all the time, remember to take any medications that you have too, and make adjustments to your insulin to account for all the carbs. Most people associate diet with depriving, not a good thing to do...never deprive yourself of anything, it makes it a lot harder to stick to your plan.

Happy Holidays and feasting to all. Do you have any tips for surviving the holidays? please add them to the forum. If we all help each other, it will take the weight off of trying to do it on our own.

Carmen