It’s Thanksgiving week again. A chance to experience long lines and travel delays on your way to spend time with your family and friends.
It’s also a time where it’s easy to abandon any sense of discipline when it comes to eating. You’ve been working hard, staying on track, and seeing results. And now it’s travel, an abundance of rich food, plenty of drinks. This is the start of holiday party season. Temptation is everywhere you look.
How could anyone be stolid enough to not give in?
Set yourself up for success. Here are 7 little things you can do to stay on track over the holidays.
1. Remember the big picture. People don’t get fat between November and January. People put on weight between January and November. If you’ve been on point, and you want to loosen the reins without letting them go completely, go ahead. You won’t lose your progress.
2. Loosen the reins, don’t let them go. It makes sense to enjoy the holiday food. There’s no need to deprive yourself of the things you want to eat. You can be more lax without being totally lax. Decide you can try to have some of everything on the Thanksgiving menu, but give yourself a limit. For instance, eat all the different foods you want, with the rule that it has to all fit on one plate. You get a taste of everything and you have a natural limit. Have some dessert, just don’t go back for seconds.
3. Listen to your internal cues. There’s a ton of food available and it’s all delicious (well, maybe not that one dish, you know the one). That doesn’t mean you have to turn into a Hoover. Take your time. Savor the food. When you feel satisfied, put down your fork. There’s no law that you have to eat until you’re stuffed.
4. Stay active. The holidays have a way of blowing up our routine. That’s okay. A little bit of a break from your workout regimen isn’t going to hurt you. You won’t give up your progress. That said, there’s no reason to turn into a couch potato. You don’t have to go to the gym (though you can if you want to) in order to stay active. If your people have a turkey bowl, join in. Show off your stuff. If there are small kids around, toss them- I mean play with the kids. They have tons of energy and don’t mind being used as projectiles. Or you can do something as simple as go for walks. Spend some time catching up with someone. Maybe you need some time alone in order to fully enjoy all that being social. A walk is perfect for either.
5. Eat your protein and veggies. Make sure you get those in first and you’ll be ahead of the game when it comes to satiety and getting your healthy vitamins and minerals. Then enjoy the other stuff.
6. Hang onto the reins. The holiday season is really only a few days. Within those 5-6 weeks you have Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve/Day. Basically 4 days within about 40. You can have full license to enjoy those 4 if you’re mostly on point over the 40. Ask yourself if there’s any reason to go fully off the rails for 40 days? Do you even want to? Probably not. Eat essentially as you normally would. Then for the actual holidays, have at it.
7. Relax. There’s enough stress during this time of year. Over the course of the year, you don’t have to be perfect in order to keep progressing. The same is true over the holiday season. Don’t hold yourself to an impossible standard. Enjoy yourself, enjoy your family, enjoy your friends, enjoy the food.
Happy Thanksgiving!
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