We are a food-obsessed nation, and every holiday from Halloween through New Year's Day is another chorus in America's anthem to it. Little else in the rest of the calendar compares with the bounty of the end-of-the-year, two-month blowout season of feasting.

What makes these events especially hard is that, during an already stressful time, we are confronted with what seems like a quick-and-easy, though short-term, stress reliever: food. Some of us can eat our way through the long, glittering string of holidays from late fall into mid-winter. And food can lose its meaning as sustenance, pleasure or nutrition. Instead it can become a substitute for not dealing with the anxiety-causers in our life. A substitute not unlike alcohol or drugs.

Experts suggest that holiday overeating comes from high expectations -- perhaps too high -- everything from the stresses of family relationships to work to wrapping all the presents on time. Experts suggest that people especially hard hit by out-of-control holiday-related eating try to make a plan for themselves during the season which includes bubble baths and long walks.

And that to-do list? Make one, say experts, but promptly cut it in half.

Is there a way to enjoy the bounty of the season without unhealthy preoccupation over food? You can join that small, but satisfied group of obsession-free holiday eaters, say psychologists, social workers and researchers who specialize in eating disorders, by making a plan.

Get a jump on the season by considering these approaches, early on:

Eat before you go out to that 8 p.m. holiday party. Don't say, "I'll save myself until tonight so I won't eat all day," because by the time you arrive you will be famished and you may not be able to make authentic food decisions.

Consider the act of eating as a neutral activity. Food is not "good" or "bad". Going hungry or overeating has nothing to do with virtue. It is about consuming more or less food than your body needs.

Eat a mix of foods. Keep in mind that eating different foods over the course of a week will probably occur naturally if you are listening to your own body's needs, but don't yell at yourself if you go through short periods eating the same kinds of foods.

Think ahead about what you might have a taste for. Let it be your "carrot" (or your cookie) when you arrive.

Accept your body size. Remember that body weights can shift due to normal healthy cycles including water retention, hormonal shifts, stress or some environmental changes.

Promise yourself that you won't deny yourself your favorite foods during the holidays. Denying your body of what it craves can boomerang on you and you may end up eating everything but what you want and then wanting it even more.

Focus on what's being celebrated and the meaning behind the holiday. Keep the feeling of the holiday at the forefront and use this time to reconnect with family or meet new people, rather than strategizing over the desert table.

Can we simplify our complicated relationship with food? Probably not in one holiday, but to borrow from a popular substance abuse program maxim, check in with yourself, one party at a time.