Christmas and Weight

With the Christmas holiday fast approaching, I'm sure a lot of people are worrying about the 'inevitable weight gain'. Can be it avoided? helped? yes.
A common 'strategy' that people use is to have a 'health drive' leading up to xmas, which can get rid of a few pounds/gain a bit of muscle/ or whatever your goal is. This way, your going to be in a bit better shape going into xmas, so after the Christmas festivities have passed, your weight will 'equal out', or at least that is the aim. I myself have been injured for the passed 5-6 weeks, but I am back working out, and I'm going to get a good 3 weeks of workouts and strict eating in before xmas. That's simply because I have hated being injured, and want to get back in shape real bad, but also so I can enjoy xmas without feeling too guilty afterwards. Just because I'm a nutritionist and love working out, that doesn't mean I don't enjoy an alcoholic beverage or christmas food, because I do, I just do things in moderation.
There are a few things you can do to help during the Christmas holiday though. Its quite obvious that there are two 'bad things' that are consumed over the holiday - chocolate and alcohol. If you are someone that enjoys those things (which I'm sure that is a lot of people) then you want to make sure you are eating 3 healthy complete meals each day. Try and get good, lean protein, vegetables, fruit and water. You might be thinking 'yeah right, its xmas!'. Well, if you do that, then you are still getting goodness into your body, which will help balance out the chocolate and booze. If you simply eat nothing but fatty foods and drink alcohol, you will gain more weight and end up feeling lethargic after.
I read the other day that the average weight gain over Christmas is between 5 and 7 pounds. Some peoples Christmas holiday's are 1 week, some are 3 weeks. But gaining 5-7lbs in a week is quite a lot - and that's just the average weight gain, meaning some people gain more.
Obviously, if you're not too fussed about your weight (well, firstly you wouldn't be reading this) secondly, you're not going to worry about what you're eating and drinking over xmas - but I'm sure most people are worried about gaining weight. I admit, it is hard, because you want to enjoy Christmas - the food, the drinks, parties, meals etc etc, but you don't want to gain weight. My advice is to just be sensible. Try and eat healthy foods during the day, drink plenty of water, and just don't go overboard with the chocolate and booze. That way the weight gain will be kept to a minimum rather than exploding out of control. Another thing that you could do is workout a few times over the holiday. By getting a good few workouts in, that can burn off some of those pesky calories!