Navigating the Holidays!
Holidays can be a very tricky time when it comes to following a strict nutrition and diet plan. This frequently leads to anxiety around how best to address so as to not jeopardize our fitness goals. So today I am going to offer you two (2) different approaches to consider in navigating these treacherous waters.
#1 INITIATE OPERATION “DAMAGE CONTROL”
- Fasting/Backloading – Ok hang tight, before you jump on the ‘’this can promote binging behavior’ bandwagon, just hear me out. This is best deployed for that big dinner or holiday party. Kind of ‘the best defense is a good offense’ strategy – build up a little calorie deficit and go for it! Just be both honest and realistic with yourself and don’t forget basic arithmetic.
- Sticking with mainly protein and veggies up until the meal/outing. Essentially banking all your carbs and fats for that meal.
- Lowering calories throughout the week to bank more calories for the weekend or whatever holiday or day you will be celebrating. Kinda like ‘Fasting’ above, but spread out over a longer period of time. Remember math is math!
- Increasing activity/caloric output throughout the day/week etc. Essentially just burning more calories to set your maintenance calories a bit higher acutely. More steps, getting in a workout – whether it be for that day or for that week. Everything adds up!
#2 JUST ENJOY YOURSELF!
Drop the plan for the day to enjoy yourself. But you need to have the self control to jump back on the plan the following day as well as realistically manage your expectations. If you are going to completely blow out the guardrails, then do not be surprised, or shame yourself, if your weight jumps up several pounds from just this one day. Relax, this is NOT all body fat. The overwhelming majority of this weight will be water and glycogen. Keeping this in mind, there is still a chance you gain a bit of body fat depending on how many calories you consume (revisit math references above if needed). Look, at the end of the day if you are adhering to your plan all of the other days of the year, the few holidays a year will NOT make a giant difference. I personally take a bit of this approach and just go hard the other approximately 358 days of the year. In math terms, that means you are a ROCK STAR 98% of the time. I can live with that, and so should you!