How To Avoid Holiday Weight Gain This Year

What’s the best gift you ever got in holiday’s past?

I remember being pretty stinkin’ ecstatic waking up Christmas morning when I was 8 to find that Santa Clause had gotten me the scooter of my dreams. #blessed

As adults I think we get more of a rush from GIVING gifts to our friends and family than we do in getting them. Don’t get me wrong. If you were planning on getting me something, please proceed.

I know one gift that NONE of us look forward to getting every year between November and January:

Holiday Weight Gain

Womp womp.

The whole thing is a trap!

Not a single Autumn leaf has fallen before every store has unveiled the limited-edition cookies, candies and sugary pumpkin spice calorie bombs to tempt our resolve.

And that’s not even the real beginning.

For starters, we’ve got a Thanksgiving in November. What started out as a celebration of the Pilgrims victory in the historic battle at Plymouth Rock (that sounds right no?) is now the official kick-off of the binge eating season.

That one day of gluttony and couch comas invariable keeps on truckin’ for about 4 days until every last slice of stale pie has been eaten, and every last piece of dry white meat turkey has made its way onto a sandwich.

Not 3 weeks later, in comes the holiday parties.

Office parties.

Neighborhood parties.

Family parties.

Exclusive Tuesday night parties with just you and a box of peppermint bark on the couch.

And it’s not that there’s just one of these occasions… There’s more like 3,4 or 10 of them within a 2-week span.

Even after Santa Clause is gone the party doesn’t stop.

That’s right, I’m talking about New Year’s Eve and all of its boozy shenanigans. Yes those calories in your Zima and champagne count too.

It’s no freakin’ wonder that the holiday eating season from November to January results in weight gain.

It’s not like many of us are getting in EXTRA workouts during these extra-busy times to help counteract all of these indulgences.

So what kind of damage are we talking about here?

A study done in 2016 tapped into almost 3000 people’s wireless scales (don’t worry, they knew they were in the study) over the holidays.

Between Thanksgiving, Christmas and the time between Christmas and New Years the average American gained a little over a half of 1 percent of their body weight.

So a 200lb fella would put on about a pound and a quarter and a 150lb woman would be up to about 151 pounds.

I bet you’re thinking: “SWEET! That doesn’t sound too bad. Wheel out the cheese log!”

Slow down Pepperidge Farms lovers!

Here’s the deal. Ain’t nobody losing that weight they gained from all of those holiday splurges.

It just keeps compounding year after year.

And it would be pretty naive to think that this is the ONLY weight you’re going to gain during the year. The average person puts on another 1-2lbs of fat every year outside of the holidays.

Grab your lens, and zoom waaaaaay out.

What does that extra 2-4 pounds of fat on your stomach and thighs PER YEAR look like in 8-10 years.

Yeah, not a pretty thought.

And I have news for you. Losing fat isn’t all that easy if you don’t already have some good habits and the right knowledge and accountability in place.

Add that to the fact that losing fat as you get older gets tougher and tougher and you’ve got the Betty Crocker recipe for long term obesity and chronic disease.

I don’t mean to sound like a doomsdayer or a Debbie Downer, but this is the reality of the situation.

No one gets obese overnight.

It’s a slow burn and it sneaks up on you until one day your doctor puts you on a medication for whatever health condition pops up first.

So what’s the answer?

How to not gain weight over the holidays (or any other time)

Are you ready for the hack? The secret? The “One Weird Trick” to make those calories in that pumpkin spice latte disappear?

Here it is:

Don’t treat the months of November and December any different than the other 10 months of the year.

I can hear you thinking: “Gee thanks. What the heck am I supposed to do about all of those parties and stuff?”

If you really think about it, there’s opportunities alllllllll the time to splurge and get after it.

Weekends, birthdays, anniversaries, football watching parties. And don’t even get me started on all of the international pizza, donut and cookie “days”.

The key to staying on track with your health and fitness is to understand that you can’t go bonkers on ALL of these occasions.

Results come in two flavors. The positive ones that we want, and the negative ones we’d rather not get.

They both come from what we do MOST of the time, not what we ONE time.

Did you eat a salad and then go check the mirror to see how your abs are coming in? Yeah it doesn’t work like that.

You get those abs by choosing the salad MOST of the time. And keeping the junk to a minimum MOST of the time.

Did you black out and wake up to an empty pizza pox and a half eaten tube of raw cookie dough? That one splurge doesn’t have the power to make you gain pounds of fat.

So we need to use this principle to our advantage over the holidays to keep from packing on fat that we’ll probably never lose.

Because if you splurge at 10 different parties between “gobble gobble” and “Happy New Year” that is what you did MOST of the time for those months.

So, tip #1

Choose Your Splurges

Do you need to go overboard on food and drinks to enjoy your neighborhood party? I doubt it.

Did you have to have 3 desserts because it was a night for celebration? No, not really.

Instead of regretting what you ate and drank the next morning, for all 10 of your holiday get-togethers, reel it in for 75% of these bad boys.

I’m not talking about being a saint and only eating lettuce and carrots. I’m talking about eating in moderation like it was a normal day.

You can either think of this as restriction, or you can think of it as an opportunity to stay on track for 75% of the time and enjoy the other 25% with even more freedom and no guilt.

Decide which few occasions are the most “worth it” to you and act accordingly.

The bottom line is that you won’t be sabotaging yourself over and over and over again.

Tip #2 to keep from gaining that holiday weight that’s so hard to lose

Eat First

If you show up to a party with some quality, nutritious food in your stomach you are way less likely to be staring at the bottom of an empty bowl of chips as soon as you walk in the door.

Use this tip throughout the year to keep from over-indulging at parties and the like.

If it’s a evening get together, have a healthy breakfast and lunch with a focus on getting enough protein for the day in those meals.

Typically there aren’t plates of grilled chicken at a NYE party, so just plan on there not being many available protein options.

If you want to take it to the next level, drink a protein shake in the car on the way.

These tips will help you eat more like a human than a ravenous dinosaur when you see the spread of tempting foods.

Ok, tip #3

Clean House

I don’t know about you, but I’m about 10 Million times more likely to have pie for dessert every single day until the pie is gone if it’s in the house.

Same goes for cookies and casseroles.

If it’s in the house, I’m going to eat it all.

I mean you have to hurry up and eat it all so you won’t be tempted to eat it anymore right?

Brace yourself for what I’m about to suggest.

THROW AWAY THE TEMPTING LEFTOVERS

The cookies, the fudge, the leftover cupcakes.

FOOD IS NO LESS WASTED BY THROWING IT IN THE TRASH THAN THROWING IT IN YOUR MOUTH.

If you treat your body like a trash can don’t be surprised if you look and feel like garbage.

No one expects you to have super-human will-power, so do yourself a favor and get it out of the house.

Moving on to tip #4 to not gain weight over the holidays!

Avoid Snowballs

Even if you live in hot-ass Lousiana it’s easy to get sidetracked by snowballs during the holidays.

I’m not talking about real snow here, I’m talking about bad decision snowballing.

Stay with me.

You’ve decided that you’re going to stick with your plan tonight.

You eat before the party and you even chug a protein shake on the way.

You finish going around the room giving everyone a hug and then you see that someone made creamy spinach artichoke dip. Your favorite.

For 15 minutes you keep exchanging glances with the tempting appetizer, watching others take dips, hearing them say things like “O M G, I NEED THIS RECIPE”.

You can’t take it anymore.

You hit the dip hard like Tyson in his prime with some salty Fritos. We’re talking like 4 servings worth.

At first it’s amazing. And then you feel guilty.

You failed. You broke your promise to yourself to eat in moderation.

Then the self-talk starts.

“I can’t do this. I’ve never been able to this. Why even try?”

And then the floodgates open and everything is fair game.

Extra drinks. 6 cookies and a piece of both cake options.

That one choice you made (the dip) snowballed into several more bad choices.

Killing this “all or nothing mentality” is so freakin’ important to your progress no matter what time of year we’re talking about.

We think it’s so important, we dedicated an entire podcast episode to it.

Here’s the deal.

You’ve got to realize that no one is perfect. We all screw up.

What separates the people who make progress from the ones who don’t is that they quickly move past their mistakes and make the next right decision vs. using a moment of weakness to start a weekend of debauchery.

Am I clear?

Ok, last tip. Tip #5

Keep Exercising

A sure fire way to end up waaaaay off the reservation over the holidays is to ditch your exercise routine completely and turn into a sloth.

Research shows that we are allllllll much more likely to throw in the towel on our nutrition if we stop exercising.

This kinda falls under that “all or nothing” mentality. Who cares if you miss a workout or 3 over the holidays. Don’t let that lack of 100% perfection keep you from even trying.

Keep the habit alive!

Beyond the habit, you’ll actually FEEL better if you keep working out.

Extra stressed during the holidays? Join the club. Exercise reduces stress. Plain and simple.

Oh yeah, it burns calories too which is pretty darned helpful when it comes to not gaining weight between Thanksgiving and New Years.

Nuff said.

Oh yeah, we have a FREE 2 week exercise and nutrition program you can download and follow HERE. How about that for no excuses to stay on track?

Let’s Wrap Up

Let me reiterated. I get it. It’s hard to stay on track during the holidays. We like to get jiggy just like everyone else.

But we understand that we can’t just let loose all of the time if we don’t want to dig ourselves into a hole with our health and fitness.

We’re not trying to look like bodybuilders or go to the CrossFit games.

We’re trying to be strong, independent people.

We’re trying to age gracefully.

To be capable.

To stay off of medication and set a good example for others.

That’s what this is all about.

If you want to be a part of a team with goals like us, let’s talk about working together. Reach out here.