Yes, it’s true! October is National Cookie Month. All month long you can celebrate this national holiday and satisfy your sweet tooth at the same time! But before you give into a chocolate chunk peanut butter cookie craving, you might consider trying a healthy alternative.

Recipes for sweets such as: Molasses Cookies, 20-Minute Applesauce Cookies, No-Bake Cocoa Cookies and more can be found in Shape Magazine’s 10 Healthy Cookie Recipes for Fall feature. Just click here and let the baking begin and keep the waistlines thin.  As the holidays approach, sweet temptations will surround you; from left over Trick-or-Treat candy to Thanksgiving’s candied yams and marshmallows to gingerbread houses we can’t walk by without a taste. Before you know it, you’ve added a pound or two.  While this doesn’t sound too bad, the problem is we don’t take off that pound, ever.  So over the course of 10 years…yep, you’re carrying 10 extra pounds. 

 Here are 5 tips on how to manage your health and weight during the holiday season:

1. Eat a healthy snack before you go to the buffet party.  If you are famished, you won’t eat as much.
2. Don’t push to the front of the line.  Wait until other party goers have gotten their food before getting yours.  The lure of untouched food will be gone and you’ll eat less.
3. Watch the eggnog; it’s laden with calories.  Instead, consider a wine spritzer!
4. Enjoy the people over the food. The more you talk and socialize, the less time to eat.
5. Pack the Trident.  After you eat, chew a piece of gum so you won’t be tempted to return to the food table.

So eat your healthy holiday cookies, drink your lo-cal spritzers and be merry when your scale doesn’t move one pound!