I look forward to the holidays — the excitement, the presents, the good cheer and, of course, the food. Oh, the calories are everywhere: the parties, the dinners, the gift baskets, the drinks — and then come the pounds.

Don't get me wrong; I'm not telling anyone not to eat and enjoy, but keep in mind that there is a cost — a calorie cost. The truth is that most of us have no idea what a calorie is worth.

One way to determine that is to translate calories into exercise. Knowing the amount of time you need to engage in physical activity to burn off the calories you consume is a way to help you make conscious, clear food choices. The point is not to tell you which foods you shouldn't eat or the punishment you'll receive for eating a particular food. Rather, it's a tool for deciding what a calorie means and which calories are worth it.

I've written an entire book devoted to translating calories into exercise: "The Diet Detective's Count Down" (Simon & Schuster, 2007), which lists more than 7,500 foods and the amount of activity it would take to burn off their calories.

So, to make you more aware about your holiday eating, I've taken an excerpt from my forthcoming book and added key holiday choices to create a "calorie/activity" cheat sheet.

The chart shows typical holiday foods and the number of minutes required to burn them off after you've exhausted your daily caloric budget. Make a rough estimate of your own caloric budget by assigning 10 calories per pound for a female and 11 calories per pound for a male, multiplied by your activity level: 1.2 if you're sedentary up to 1.8 if you are very active.

For example, a 130-pound female who is somewhat active would have a budget of 1,300 calories multiplied by 1.5, or 1,950 calories per day. To lose weight, you'll need to eat fewer calories than you have in your budget. If you eat more than your budget, you'll gain. For a more exact calculation, go to www.dietdetective.com.