How to beat holiday weight gain

So it’s that time of year where there’s multiple holidays, festivities, parties, ect, which means there’s plenty of delicious food you can’t help but to have and possibly over indulge in. Ultimately that’s not a bad thing right? Friends, family, food, drinks and plenty of fun but what happens when 1 fun evening turns into a few days, weeks or months of fun? The possibility of finding yourself 10lbs heavier and you can’t figure out how or why that happened or maybe you find yourself in this vicious cycle every year where you restrict yourself for the spring and summer trying to lose weight but when fall and winter come around you end up over doing it and putting on a lot of weight. Well if you’re unsure how to handle the holidays but don’t want to just restrict or avoid foods/social events, I have some great news for you! I’m going to teach you how to have your cake and eat it too….literally.

Enjoy the holiday then back to routine

Remember while it might be holiday season it doesn’t mean every day is a holiday. So you can go enjoy yourself on the day, without overdoing it, but when the holiday is over it doesn’t mean to continue to go off plan and eat all the left overs. We tend to see people binge out on the extra food laying around from after the holidays with friends and family, which usually ends up with you casually eating the food everyday because simply you know it’s available to you.

Especially if you were in a calorie deficit or restricting yourself quite a bit leading up to this, you probably had a few things you’ve been missing out on and rather than leaving it to just being that 1 day eating a little off plan it turns into days, weeks, or months since there’s usually back to back events.

That being said, have your one day of fun because no one ever got fat from one single day of eating off plan but that does mean go right back into protocol the following day.

You track your macros but unsure what to do for the holidays

Track your calories leading up to the holiday and follow your plan but on the day of the holiday just relax with no pressure or anxiety. Just enjoy the day and don’t track. As mentioned before one day of being off plan isn’t going to kill you or having one meal of “unhealthy” food isn’t going to ruin months of progress. Everything is about consistency over time and long as we go back to protocol you can still live your life and get the results your desire. Events are going to come up in your life whether it be weddings, work events, holidays, ect and on those days it won’t kill you to not track and just enjoy yourself. The vast majority of the time you should be able to track and follow a plan that will lead you towards your goals.

Protocol

Now when I say enjoy yourself that also doesn’t mean take things to the extreme either. You don’t want to over indulge to the point where you’re full but you keep eating anyways. But on the flip side I’m not telling you to show up with your tupperware filled with chicken and rice either. You can see where this is leading and what we want is moderation. Go enjoy a few drinks with your friends and family, go have mom’s homemade dish that might not be super healthy, go have some cookies or a piece of pie but just be smart about how you’re approaching things. I don’t want you to live in fear around food or feel guilty to partake with your friends and family because you should be absolutely enjoying that time with your loved ones.

However if you’re counting calories and you’re trying to figure out how to approach things at these events but it gives you anxiety, just don’t count. Go enjoy the food and just make an educated guess because it’s not going to be perfect and you’re never going to know exactly how that person made that food or where they got it from. The one day isn’t going to ruin your progress but having a plan in place is a good way to not over due it. Example being at the holidays typically there is a buffet style of food and we tend to make multiple plates and over do it whether we intended to or not. So having a plan to just eat one plate of food will help you limit yourself but still enjoy things you might not typically eat.

What about that allllllllllll the treats?

Don’t avoid things you’d like to have such as desserts or sweet treats. When you tend to demonize these foods and not allow yourself to enjoy them, you’ll end up placing a negative outlook on the experience. So rather than just having a cookie and enjoying it, you might find yourself thinking that you f*cked up and that you ruined your progress, so you just end up binging. For example, rather than just having one cookie and enjoying it, you’ll think your progress is ruined and you end up going savage and eating the whole plate. Give yourself permission to have things, you’re going to have more self-control.

 Moderation is going to be key so that you don’t have to restrict nor overdue it. So, as we tend to see around the holidays there is usually a buffet style of desserts and rather than having a bit of everything, try just choosing one thing but you can have as much of that one thing as you want. We tend to eat a lot more when we have so many options, having a little bit of each thing which adds up quickly but sticking to one thing and not feeling guilty about it, you’ll end up eating a lot less.  If you’re not a fan of that option, the other option is to get whatever you want but you can only go up once and fill your plate. Typically, people will keep going up throughout the course of the event, so limiting ourselves to just the one plate and enjoying what we picked will also help reduce over consumption.

At the end of the day the goal is to be able to find the balance of obtaining the goals you’ve been working hard for but also being about to have an occasional drink or meal off plan without completely losing your mind over it or reversing your hard work. Give yourself a break and learn to find the sweet spot between following you plan and still living your life. Remember at the end of the day you are in control and you have the power to make whatever decision you feel is right.

Enjoy the holidays and hopefully this gives you the tools to keep your hard earned progress but giving you some mental relief about eating during that time.