4 Week Holiday Dash! How I lose 15 – 20 pounds before Thanksgiving.
Context
All right, I was talking to a client and we were discussing how people gain weight when they go on vacation. It’s fairly normal to gain weight when you go on vacation, you eat food you normally wouldn’t eat, plus it is probably laced with sugar. I know that doesn’t apply to everyone, but I’m pretty sure it applies to 99% of you reading this. Here’s the thing, I think it’s a good thing to relax and let loose and not worry too much about what you are consuming. Anyway, that conversation led to me sharing my strategy called, “The Four-Week Holiday Dash.”
The Four-Week Holiday Dash is how I lose 15 to 20 pounds 4 week out from Thanksgiving.
I know when I go visit my mom and my in-laws there is going to be amazing food. My mom is an amazing cook (my dad not so much), my in-laws are amazing cooks and I know they are going to have some awesome food prepared for me on Thanksgiving. I want to lose weight so that when Thanksgiving finally arrives I can enjoy this food without worry about getting to big and fat. So I plan and prepare ahead of time.
Basically, how it works is we have four weeks, give or take a couple days, until Thanksgiving is here. Which, on a side-note, Just You Fitness Winston-Salem will be closed Thursday and Friday of that week. Anyway, Thanksgiving is about 4 weeks away. My strategy when it comes to the holidays is to do a Four-Week Holiday Dash where I lose about 15 pounds. My strategy is really simple, I eat just protein and produce, just like what is in my fat loss guide (click here to download it from my website) faithfully for 4 weeks. Then, on Thanksgiving, I totally enjoy the day and it all honesty destroy quite a bit of food. Then I do another Four-Week Holiday Dash to Christmas break.
By using this strategy I know what I’m training for, I have a goal, and I have a deadline. When you combine those three things (Your why, goal, and deadline) it’s hard not to be successful. And if you really want some extra accountability, post on Facebook everything that you put in your mouth.
Seriously do it! I bet if you did only that you would lose 5 pounds in a month easy. Frist write a post that says, “Friends, I am doing a Four-Week Holiday Dash. I am going to lose 15 pounds by Thanksgiving day. For me to be successful I am going to be posting every meal I consume so you can help keep me accountable and offer support. With your help, I know I can do it.” Shoot, just copy mine and tailor it to your needs. Post that on Facebook and ask people to keep you accountable and tell them ahead of time that you were going to be posting what food you’re eating so that you meet your goals quickly and efficiently.
I am sure most of you just gasped and said, “I can never do that, that sounds terrible.” Well if you want crazy results, sometimes you gotta do some crazy things and step out of your comfort zone : ).
On that note, I will lead by example. I will keep you all posted via my emails, but I will post my meals via Facebook. I’ll tell you how much I weigh now (221) and I’ I’ll post pics of what I put in my mouth so that you can keep me accountable :-). Who wants to join me? Let me know, tag me in the post or email me.
Anyway, these are the three steps you need to take in setting a goal and obtaining it.
Step 1: The first question to ask yourself is what is your 4 week result goal?
What do you want to achieve in the next 4 weeks? You should also be able to identify why this is very important for you to achieve. In short, why is this result important to you?
Step 2: Identify Three Progress Goals.
Once you have identified what your result goal is and why it’s important to you, you then need to identifying three progress goals. A progress goal basically askes how or in what ways do you need to progress or advance your abilities or metrics to reach your goal. Think about three big habits that you need to change your develop to reach your result goal. Things like, I will start eating a healthy breakfast, I will start working out, I will plan my meals ahead of time, I will go shopping with the list plan, Etc..
Step 3: Write down 3 actions/tasks you will take daily.
The third part to the goal setting process is writing down 1 to 3 actions or tasks you will make for each progress goal. Regarding your progress goals what are three things you need to do on a day-to-day basis to ensure you are hitting the performance / progress goals?
I get it. This probably doesn’t make tons of sense so below I’m going to show you what I did and what I wrote down. You can use the same paradigm to create your own result goal, progress goals and action/tasks.
Kellen’s – 4 Week Holiday Dash Strategy
Step 1: What is my result goal? When is my deadline?
Result Goal: Lose 15 pounds by Thanksgiving. When I started this I was 228, my goal weight is 213 by Thanksgiving. As of today I am 221.
Why it is important me. It is important to me to achieve this goal because I love food. I’m unapologetic about this point. If I have trained you for any amount of time, you know that I love food. Cuz most of the time during our training sessions what do we end up talking about? Yep, food…kind of funny when I think about it :-). As a former fat kid and offensive lineman I can’t help it, it’s in my genetics LOL. That is an excuse, I recognize this, get off my back :-). That being said, on Thanksgiving Day I want to be able to enjoy what other people have painstakingly prepared and labored over. I would hate to insult them by only taking a mere morsel. I want them to know just how much I appreciate all their hard work and dedication to such a wonderful holiday by consuming the deliciousness they have created. That’s my why :-). Plus, I want to stay “lean” and trim and not blow up every Holiday season.
Step 2: What are your three progress goals?
My three progress goals are:
- I will lose 2 pounds a week.
- I will plan my meals ahead of time on the Weekend
- I will only have three cheat meals a week.
Step 3: What do you need to do on day-to-day basis to ensure you are hitting the performance goals you’ve set?
The 3 actions and tasks I will take for each progress goal.
- I will lose 2 pounds a week
- I will weigh myself daily first thing in the morning.
- I will only eat what I planned and prepared for.
- I will use myfitnesspal to track my macros incase a need to adjust.
- I will plan my meals ahead of time on the Weekend.
- I will plan 7 breakfasts on Monday night
- I will plan 7 lunches on Tuesday night
- I will plan 7 dinners on Wednesday night
- I will plan 7 snacks on Thursday night
- I will create a shopping list on Friday
- I will go grocery shopping on Saturday
- I will prep my meals on Sunday
- I will only have three cheat meals a week.
- I will post every meal I consume on Facebook for accountability and support.
- I will plan my cheat meals ahead of time for the weekends.
- I will eat to 80% of “fullness.”
Well, I won’t lie I thought this was going to be a pretty short when I started. I guess I was wrong. regardless whether you choose to participate in the Four-Week Holiday Dash I strongly encourage you to set some goals with deadlines. It will empower you to obtain the body you’ve always sought.
Now go be awesome!
KELLEN LAKE – Seems like I’m always too wordy :-).
PS – If you want help and want to drop 10 – 15 pounds by Thanksgiving reply or apply for a free session
TASKS:
- Plan 7 Lunches for next week.
- Join me on The Four Week Holiday Dash 🙂
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