The plain and simple way to survive the holidays with not as much guilt :-)
The TRUTH of the matter!
I’ll be real with you. During the holidays it is just flat-out near impossible to stick to eating a healthy diet as well as an exercise plan. I completely get it and I’m right there with you. As such, I’m going to be frank and honest with you. I love food! Most of you reading this know that already. One of the primary reasons I train so hard, is so that I can enjoy the food. That being said, that’s why I go on these Four-Week Holiday Dashes. I go on them so that when the holidays come, I can honestly eat a ton of food and not feel super bad about it. Mainly because I planned ahead.
90% of the trainers out there will think this is terrible advice and that I’m a terrible person for even suggesting it. Here’s the thing 99.9% of the people that they train will eat all that junk anyway, so why not give them a paradigm that they can actually use to do what they’re going to do anyway? That’s kind of my opinion on the matter :-).
As you know, there’s going to be office parties with lots of food and drinks, not to mention the party’s at our families. Plus, you likely have to deal with a crazy busy schedule, filled with shopping, hanging out with friends, and trying to squeeze in exercise.
Let’s be honest, you hate it when after the Holidays are over and you get onto the scale or try to button up your pants and, “It doesn’t look good,” and you hate what you see and/or feel.
Where’s the good news.
I am going to give you a strategy to get through the holidays without gaining weight. Yes, it’s going to take some effort on your part, but trust me, you’ll be super happy with yourself come January 1st and the scale hasn’t moved and instead of feeling guilt and regret, you feel proud and confident.
Your Mission Over The Holidays = Maintenance
Yes, you read that right. It’s not super sexy, but your mission over the holidays is to maintain your current weight. And before you get like all depressed and say, “But I want to lose weight.” Ask yourself this question. When was the last time you maintained weight over the holidays? Probably next to never. So if you maintain your weight through the holidays you should feel that you actually last 5 maybe 10 pounds :-). It’s all how you kind of think about, and how you reference it.
Remember our goal is for you to enjoy the holidays, or at least that is my goal for you. I don’t want you to be miserable and feel like you’re depriving yourself. But what this means is you can allow yourself some occasional treats and even splurges.
The Nuts And Bolts On How To Do Just That.
- Don’t miss workouts. This is the easiest way to maintain your current weight. I don’t care what anybody else says. If you’re consistently showing up and working hard you’ll burn an extra for 300 to 400 calories per hour, if not more, I’m being conservative. Because as you know, at the studio apparently I have a reputation for being Satan :-), (Yes, Casey I hear everything : )! That’s right I heard about it :-). Plus, the chances are you’re going to overeat, what better way to burn off some of those extra calories by performing a hard workout.
- Keep a food log. Yes, I hate keeping a food log too. However, they’re extremely beneficial when it comes to maintaining or even losing your weight. There have been numerous studies, no, I’m not going to list them, but trust me. there are numerous studies that say when people write down what they consume it prevents them from gaining weight and actually helps them lose weight. So, even if you’re going to splurge a little bit, ok fine, just write it down. . I highly suggest you use the app MyFitnessPal extremely useful and easy to use.
- Eat breakfast. Once again, not going to list the studies, because no one will read them anyway :-), but people who consume breakfast on a regular basis consume fewer calories throughout the day. And those who skip breakfast end up eating more. Be an adult, do what your mommy always said and eat your stinking breakfast.
- Keep your hunger in check. This is probably one of my most favorite strategies for the holidays. It’s simple and it’s highly effective, while at the same time being slightly frustrating. If you know you’re going to have a party or attend a big event never show up hungry. Yes, I know most of you just moaned and complained because your strategy has been to starve yourself so you could stuff yourself silly. Don’t do that. You’re going to consume way too many calories. Remember our goal is to maintain, so to maintain your weight over the holidays you need to do stuff differently. One way to do this is to eat some nuts or cheese or vegetables before you go. The idea is to consume protein before you leave with some food that is high in fiber, like produce. That way, when you show up, you feel you satisfied. That way you’re not going to overeat because you’re already full. And this prevents you from eating random things, just for the sake of eating then. Instead you’re going to choose things that you enjoy the most. Which means you will eat less food and consume less calories.
- Weigh yourself twice a week. Normally I don’t like people to weigh themselves daily, confession I weigh myself daily, but during the holidays you need to know how much you’re going up and down because that’s the metric were using to see if you’re going to maintain your weight. You need to check it at least twice a week because if your weight goes up 2 pounds, you need to readjust what you’re doing. After a big party, when you step on the scale, it’s going to be 2 – 3 pounds more than it was in the morning. You need to tailor your workout and what you eat the following day so you can lose those 2 to 3 pounds, which are largely water weight because of all the extra sugar and carbs you consumed.
- Eliminate the leftovers. This is going to kill a lot of the people who like to save everything. But I am giving you permission. No, better, I’m mandating that if you get rid of your delicious leftovers. Don’t just leave them sitting around so that you can eat them mindlessly. Freeze them, give them away, or God forbid just toss them away. It simply isn’t worth the temptation of it’s staring you in the face the entire time. Everybody probably knows a 14 to 16 year old boy somewhere and you can just give him the whole cake and I’ll just eat it or whatever it is. Plain and simple, eliminate the leftovers.
- Remember what your goal is. Everyday remind yourself what your goal is and what your mission is. Your goal and your mission is to maintain your weight. Why? So that you have less guilt and less regrets when January 1st comes around. Remind yourself what feels like every time after the holidays when you looked at the scale and you tried to put on a dress or pants and they don’t fit or the number on the scale was stupid high. You felt like crap. Why would you want to put yourself through that experience again and again every year? I don’t think you want to. I know I don’t want to. You just need a simple strategy to enjoy your holiday as well as to enjoy your after holiday season 🙂
- Go public on social media. I’ve been doing this for 3 days now, posting everything I consume of Facebook. I estimate I have saved around 800 calories over the course of 3 days. Most of the time I want to eat peanuts. But I don’t want to take the time to pull out my phone, take a picture of the peanuts and post it on social media. It is scary? Yes, it is. But, just think of how many fewer things you would avoid or how much smaller the portions would be if you actually did it! Shoot, just implementing this strategy would probably help you lose 2 to 3 pounds over the holiday LOL.
Now go be awesome. Stay true to your goal, try to maintain your weight to have a regret and guilt-free January. Maybe even print off these tips and post them somewhere so you remember and don’t push it to the back of your head.
Regardless, it’s going to be a great holiday season and remember the reason for the season. It’s all about what Christ has done for us through his life, burial, and Resurrection.
Go be awesome!
KELLEN LAKE – Mission Maintain the Weight : )
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