At JillFit, we are deep in holiday-strategy mode, brainstorming some great tools and tactics to share with you over the next couple months, so that we all don't gain the traditional holiday l-bs.

 

My in-laws are a big Italian family. They (we) like to eat amazing Italian food--homemade sauce and wine, cheese, bread, antipasto, you name it. And let's not forget all the traditional Italian desserts--tiramisu, cannolis, biscotti. Yikes! I can feel my waistband getting tighter just writing about it...

 

So you can imagine that for me, I had to learn early on that if I wanted to maintain my dress size, I had to figure out a way to navigate the dinner table, especially through the holidays.

 

One tactic that I use is called "Dessert Defense." As many of you know, I hate cooking, but I do like to bake--and one of my favorite things is taking traditional dessert recipes and cleaning them up. 

 

With Dessert Defense, I make my own clean baked goods and BRING THEM wherever I am going :) So that I know that there is at least one dessert that I can eat--which keeps me out of trouble with the rest of them (lady fingers soaked in run & coffee, anyone?? Help me! Lol).