After my last post on living on 1,500 calories a day, a lot of people asked, “But how do you do that during the holidays?”
The truth is, you don’t. At least, not if you like food and don’t want to ruin your holiday altogether. The trick to enjoying the festive food while dieting is to shift your focus: Try to maintain rather than lose.
Generally, we try to lose weight because we’re unhappy with something, whether it be our appearance, our health or our energy level. We diet so that we can get more out of life.
The irony is that most of us who diet also love food. Dieting is an attempt to maintain a balance between that love of food and a love of (quality) life. We decided to give up that bag of Cheetos so that we can spend more time running around with children or friends.
But the holidays mix together family and food in an inextricable way. How can you enjoy Christmas dinner if you can’t enjoy Aunt Mary’s famous candied yams? The holidays are a time when we look to reconnect with the people we care about and big part of that is bonding over food.
To not only survive but enjoy the holidays, try a few of these tactics:
• Plan your indulgences: You don’t need a glass of eggnog every night before bed, but feel free to have some at the company party. And when you know you have an event coming up, plan out your meals so that you’re not starving yourself, but are saving some calories for the party. (And that advice to have a snack before you go so that you don’t gorge yourself at the event — I find it never works. Even if I have a healthy bowl of chicken soup before the party, I still want to eat the cheese bread and cookies and I end up even more out of whack. Don’t go starving, but don’t fool yourself into thinking you won’t eat anything).
• Give cookies as gifts: I love to bake. Christmas, to me, is about Christmas cookies. But I certainly don’t need dozens of temptations around. My solution is to bake constantly throughout December, but to freeze most of what I make and put together plates of cookies to give as gifts.
• Take small portions: If you’re still hungry after your first platefull, take seconds of the lower calories dishes rather than stocking up on potatos and dressing.
• Be aware of your alcohol intake: Inhibitions diminish as you imbibe. A cream puff you would normally never touch seems like a good idea after a couple of glasses of wine. Also, remember that alcohol is high in calories and consider skipping a piece of pie if you want another drink.
• Don’t beat yourself up: It’s only a few weeks; chances are you won’t undo all your hard work in that short time. If you do gain a couple of pounds, remember that you know how to get it off again. It’s not the end of the world. And think of how much fun you had gaining it.

About six weeks ago, my cousin, a registered dietician, suggested that I try to boost my weight-loss efforts, which have been a struggle, by sticking to a 1,500-calorie-a-day diet. I won’t pretend I wasn’t dismayed to hear this. I’ve always been able to maintain my weight by exercising and eating a reasonable diet. I’ve never had to count calories.

But, determined to make progress, I decided to give it a try. I found two Web sites, Nutrition Data and Calorie King, to be helpful in determining the calorie counts for various foods.

The first week was difficult, but my stomach soon adjusted to smaller portions and my brain began to recognize portion sizes. An easy 300 calorie breakfast is a multigrain English muffin (150) with one egg (90), onions and peppers (12-15) and half a cup of milk (45). I gave up the butter (100 per tablespoon) and cheese (110 an ounce), and found I didn’t miss them. Occasionally I’ll mix it up by adding a tablespoon of Brummel & Brown spread (35) or a couple of tablespoons of salsa (10).

Lunch has stayed pretty steady with a can of Progresso soup (200-240, depending on the variety) and a piece of toast (110-130) or flat bread (110). It’s quick, it’s easy, and I don’t have to think about it. And if the soup has lots of beans in it, I’m full for the afternoon.

Dinner is where I allow some freedom. I make whatever moves me — pasta and meatballs, taco salad, meatloaf, roast chicken, even Hamburger Helper — and just measure out my portions to make sure I don’t go over my allowance.

Once I got down this routine, throwing in the occasional snack (a clementine is 35 calories; a bite-sized Peppermint Patty is 80), I began to figure out where I could splurge.

A glass of pinot grigio, for example, is 150 calories, while rum with Diet Coke is 116. Two homemade oatmeal raisin cookies comes to about 200. Even better, Jell-O instant pudding (fat free) is only 90 calories for half a package. That leaves room for whipped cream.

Counting calories is not a death sentence for indulgence. It just means a little extra planning and setting some priorities: dessert or a drink. Do you really need both?

When you talk about turkey, you have to talk about how to use the leftovers. Of course there are the classics, the bacon and turkey and avocado sandwiches, the turkey tetrazini casseroles, the open-face sandwiches with gravy.

For an exotic variation, try turkey tamales. They’re easy and they taste great.

At most local groceries these days, there is a Latin foods aisle and in that aisle you’ll find a bag of something called Masa. Most brands will say right on the bag that they can be used to make tamales. You may also be able to find corn husks in the Latin aisle; if not, try the Latin products store in Amenia that is next to the Freshtown shopping plaza. You should also pick up a jar of Dona Maria instant mole sauce.

Follow the instructions on the bag (usually they tell you to mix a cup-and-a-half of broth or water with a cup of masa; then knead the mixture and let it sit for a few minutes).

Soak 10 corn husks in warm water until they’re soft and pliant.

If you can find it, get some undyed raffia (it looks like straw but you can tie it like ribbon), which is sold at most craft stores. Otherwise, you should be fine with some twine or kitchen string.

Have on hand about 2 cups of turkey chopped into small bits; a can of refried beans; hot sauce.

With wet hands, scoop up about 1/4 cup of masa and flatten it out into a rectangle in the center of a corn husk. Spread some beans down the center of the masa, leaving 1/4 inch at the top and bottom of the dough. Sprinkle a few drops of hot sauce on the beans. Sprinkle turkey bits all along the beans. Fold the masa up and over the filling and press the masa together so that all the filling is encased in dough. Then roll the corn husk tightly around the dough. Tie it at the top and bottom.

As long as you don’t make more than 10 of these at a time, it’s kind of fun. If you try to make more, be sure you’re seated comfortably, and maybe have an engrossing movie on a nearby television.

Once the tamales are done, you can refrigerate or freeze them. Or you can cook them right away. I like to put them in a steamer basket on top of a substantial amount of water. It takes 30 to 40 minutes for them to steam through. If you freeze them, don’t defrost them before you cook them. Put them right into the steamer.

Once you take them out of the steamer, let them sit for a couple minutes to give the masa time to solidify, so it unwraps easily from the husks.

Serve with mole sauce (or a fresh salsa) and a green salad.

The only reason to talk about turkey after Thanksgiving is that there’s probably a good chance you’ll make one again at Christmas. If that’s your plan I have the secret to turkey success: plastics.

Yes, those plastic oven bags really work. I tried one last weekend after two people recommended them to me. The results were amazing and I can only scratch my head and wonder why everyone in the world doesn’t use them.

The first question you’ll ask is: Does the skin get brown? The answer is Perfectly. I used a Butterball turkey from Freshtown in Amenia, just a standard supermarket model and I have never had such a gorgeously lacquered holiday bird in my life. It looked like it belonged on the cover of a magazine.

The other questions I’ll answer by telling you what I did and how it worked.

I used a Reynolds oven bag, turkey size, and added a teaspoon of flour to the bag before putting in the bird, just like the box said to do.

I made all my stuffing and then cleaned and stuffed the bird. I shoved a ton of fresh herbs under the turkey’s skin, and thought about adding some bacon to the skin but got lazy and decided not to at the last minute.

I preheated the oven to 350 degrees (the instructions specify that you must not use the bags in an oven that’s any hotter than 350) and then put the turkey in the bag (which was easy; the bags are huge). I did not use any metal rods to truss my bird or close up the cavities; I actually used white thread and just sewed it up, but you don’t have to do the same thing. I closed the bag with the little plastic tab that comes in the box. I didn’t put any carrots, onions, celery or anything else in the bag.

I put the turkey in a roasting pan in the oven at 10:30 a.m. and by 3 (or was it 3:30?) my 15 pound bird was fragrant and gorgeous. I did not baste. I did not add broth. I think I turned the roasting pan once. And when I took it out of the oven I found that the bag was about two inches deep in rich, golden turkey juices that wouuld have roasted away had the bag not been there to capture them.

The only slight difficulty that I had was that the bag (which had the texture of Japanese rice paper after all that roasting) stuck to the bottom of the turkey a little. It was not especially hard to get it off, however. It took minimal effort.

I removed the turkey to a platter and removed the stuffing, as instructed by the health department. I poured the juices into a jar and popped them in the fridge. I didn’t have to use them to deglaze the pan and make gravy because… there were no little bits of skin or stuffing baked onto the pan.

Yes, that’s right: All I had to do to clean my turkey roasting pan was rinse it with a little water.

Then I let the turkey sit for three hours until we were ready to eat. And even after all that time, it was STILL the moistest, tenderest turkey I have EVER eaten. We’re still eating leftovers five days later and even the leftovers are moist and succulent.

So, if you’re thinking turkey for Christmas, think Reynolds Oven Bags. We’re thinking about ham for New Years, and I’m thinking: Reynolds Oven Bags. Think how nice it will be for the ham glaze to bake itself onto the oven bag instead of the sides of the oven. That would be a great way to start the new year.