Avoiding Weight Gain During the Holiday Season
Dec 16, 2022 mindpumpThe holiday season is coming up and I’m sure we are all getting worried we are going to put on too much fat. Have no fear! There are ways to eat this holiday season that will help you avoid excessive weight gain. I’d also like to say lets have a little more compassion for ourselves overall regardless of what happens as the holidays are a time for enjoyment.
Enjoy Your Meals! Be With Family!
It’s the holidays! It’s meant to be spent with family enjoying good food. If there is ONE time to be lenient on yourself and indulge it is now. That doesn’t mean going crazy, but there is nothing wrong with spending one or two days out of the year not focusing on the scale, and instead focusing on being with your family enjoying tasty food. You will have the rest of the year to worry about your body. Use this time to release stress, and enjoy all the comforts of home. The holidays are a time of connection, and being present with your loved ones.
Having a Better Relationship with Food
Not everything has to be about our physique goals. I feel like a hypocrite even as I write this because I am VERY guilty of making EVERYTHING about calories in vs calories out. I’ve avoided eating super tasty foods at holidays in the past because I was so worried about getting fat.
I think we need to take a step back and use this time to reflect. Regardless of your current fitness goals, let’s remember why we are here on this Earth. A life worth living is based on connection with friends and family. One bad eating at Thanksgiving or Christmas shouldn’t and won’t have the ability to undo your other 10-11 months of being on point. Use this time as a reward for all the hard work you’ve done the past year. Sit down with your family members, and partake in really tasty food as you have some great conversations with those you love. It can’t be all about nutrition.
Use Extra Calories to Build Muscle
One hack you can use to take advantage of the extra calories is building it into your nutrition program! For the 2-3 months leading up to the holidays follow a fat loss diet, and let the holidays be your transition into a bulk cycle where you will need the extra calories to feed your progress in the gym. Or save your bulking seasons in general for during the holiday time where you don’t have to worry as much about how many calories you are taking in.
Another thing you can do is prioritize the order of what calories you take in. Start with the stuff you know your body needs. Get your protein in, drink lots of water, and get lots of veggies. After getting all of that, then indulge in the higher carb, higher fat treats. By the time you get to those savory foods, you will hopefully consume less due to prioritizing eating the proteins and veggies.
Go For Walks After
Start a new family tradition. Let everyone know you are going for a walk after your meal. Take the kids over to the park to run around with and play. This will allow for better digestion of the food you are eating while also keeping your movement up! Let’s be real. Most of us spend all our holiday time becoming a vegetable on the couch snoozing from a food coma. Lean into your health! If you can get some other family members involved this will only further deepen your connections with them as you are now turning a snoozefest into more time conversing with loved ones.
Use Fasting
Another hack you can use leading up the week of the holiday, is some fasting. You can go two ways with this. Either fast the day before the big meal, so that leading into it you are already in a slight deficit of calories. This will help soften the blow so that even if you DO overeat, the damage is minimal as you had not eaten much the day prior. The other option is to just stick to lean proteins, and just keep it light the days leading up to it. Think of it as a watered down version of a cut for those who don’t want to completely fast, to help boost your caloric needs as you enter the bigger meals.
