Rescue Your Diet! 7 Ways to Overcome Any Crisis

Vacation Weight Loss and Pregnancy Fitness

The Action Plan: Manage your expectations. Aim simply to maintain your current weight, not gain or lose. "Develop a realistic mind-set to ensure that you get right back on the healthy-eating bandwagon once your friend and her husband are off on their honeymoon," says Fletcher. To control your eating at each event, Fletcher suggests inspecting all of your options before putting a fork in your mouth. "Decide ahead of time what's worth splurging on and what you can live without," she advises. For sit-down dinners, Linda Spangle, RN, author of 100 Days of Weight Loss (SunQuest Media, 2006), recommends simply eating half of everything. And don't forget that parties are not just about eating and drinking: Dance! Tickle the ivories! Mingle! It's much easier to talk when your mouth's not full. And never forget your ultimate wedding-weight-gain weapon: Shoes you can dance in.

The Action Plan: "Definitely consult with your obstetrician about your current diet and request a referral to a registered dietitian who specializes in pregnancy," advises Krieger. Your nutritional needs are most important in the early weeks of your pregnancy, when folic acid consumption is critical for preventing defects in a fetus's neural tubes, which eventually develop into the spinal cord and brain. In fact, getting pregnant presents the perfect opportunity to shift your food-choice focus from calories to overall nutrition. "Pregnancy teaches you to evaluate foods on their total nutritional benefit, not just on their fat-gram and calorie counts, which will eventually help you to make more healthful choices after you give birth," says Krieger.

Originally published in Fitness magazine, April 2006.