Beautiful Christmas music is playing and the lights on the tree are twinkling.  Everything is festive and the holiday mood is high.

That’s the best case scenario.  In reality, the holidays can be a time of stress and exhaustion.  That, in turn, leads to emotional eating and snacking when you are too tired to be in control.  And the goodies are there, everywhere we turn.  No wonder we gain weight during this season.

How much weight?  According to many surveys, people report gaining an average of five pounds during the holidays.  Actual studies show that number to actually be closer to one pound.  That’s the average.  Thin people gain none to 1/2 pound.  People who are already overweight bring up the average.

Even if it is just a pound, other studies show that people tend not to lose holiday weight.  Since people tend to gain about two to three pounds per year, that means a lot of the cumulative damage comes from holiday weight gain.

How can you avoid the Christmas weight gain traps?  We’ll be talking about strategies in the next few posts.  In the meantime, being forewarned of the danger is a good start.  Proverbs 1:17  says “Surely in vain is the net spread in sight of any bird.”  If you see the net, you can avoid it — so keep your eyes open!