My goose is cooked. Or it will be in ten days, anyway. The writing was on the wall, right there on the chalkboard: “Order Goose.”

And Matt did. Last Saturday, he placed his order with the fine folks at Quattro’s Game Farm [1] for a fifteen pound goose. This high fat fowl forms the foundation for Matt’s very Victorian Christmas Eve feast, otherwise known as the War on Waistlines.

Can I enjoy the goose without ending up equally stuffed myself? ‘Tis the season of bad-for-you goodies and timeless temptations, when we’re all awash in excess empty calories. How can we have our share of all the seasonal sweets and savories without turning into a dough ball ourselves?

According to Web MD [2], the trick is to take  “the 80-20 approach:”

"Eighty percent of the time, you follow your healthy lifestyle, exercising and eating properly. But 20% of the time, most often the weekends and holidays, you can lighten up, not be so tough on yourself. As long as you have an 80-20 balance, you won’t gain weight-and you will have more fun."

This excellent advice echoes my fellow Lime blogger Marissa’s recent post “Dieting? Have Some Ice Cream [3],” which talks about “intuitive eating.” The message? Have your cake and eat it, too. But skip the seconds. And that goes for the goose, as well.