How to Handle the Holiday Season
- You’re gonna eat more candy than you want to on Halloween.
- You’re gonna overeat on Thanksgiving.
- You are probably going to drink too much on New Year’s Eve.
AND guess what? That is alright!
Most of the people I know accept the fact that the holiday season from Halloween to New Year’s Day will be a loss with regards to their fitness goals, but there is no reason to accept an “L” in these months. In fact, these months should be anything but a loss. Think of this time as a special team’s play in an NFL game; rather than signaling for a fair catch on the ten yard line or taking a knee in the end-zone, this is your opportunity to fight for great starting field position!
Enjoy The Holidays And Use Them To Your Advantage
Before we get deeper into the strategy here, let’s remind ourselves of an important piece of advice to live by, do not miss out on the good stuff in life! Basically, go ahead, have fun, and indulge on the holidays. Just realize that you are only going to take your eye off the prize on the actual holidays versus the entire two months from Halloween to New Year’s Day. Remember, almost everyone who has ever dieted knows that scheduled “cheat days” are part of dieting, so why not just make those “cheat days” the holidays?
Get In The Right Mindset
Now that your mind-set is falling into the right place, let’s get started. These holidays start off with Halloween, when the candy is flowing. Then comes Thanksgiving Day, when you catch yourself eating too much stuffing, potatoes, gravy, and dessert. With a little over a month left until January 1st and New Year’s Resolution season quickly approaching, it is time for a decision be made…
Option 1: Say “forget it” (or another F-Word) and just keep eating.
Option 2: Take advantage of the Holidays to have a few strategic “cheat days”, and then solid weeks of structured eating and training leading up to New Year’s Day.
The strategy here is to really to get a running start leading into your New Year’s Resolution. If you truly do indulge on the holidays, you will not even feel like you are sacrificing anything when you begin to diet and train again.
Plan Out Your Workouts And Hold Yourself Accountable
Here are a few ideas and suggestions to put your plan in action. First off, have a strategy and schedule planned for working out and training. Never let a day go by without at least ½ hour of some sort of exercise. Even if you just do some at-home workouts or jog around your neighborhood for exercise and cardio; guess what, there is nothing wrong with that! No matter what your exercise and training program looks like, make sure to plan and get the time to complete all of your workouts.
Meal Prepping Is Key
Secondly, put the same strategy you have for your training into your diet and supplementation. The Holiday season can be busy so you should prepare some pre-cooked meals to take with you, whether you are heading to work or heading out gift shopping. For example, hardboiled eggs and Greek yogurt are two items that are super convenient, protein-packed foods that you can throw in a lunch-bag or meal-prep bag to take with you wherever you go. And never underestimate the value of having a good Protein Powder on hand. Protein powders are an excellent and convention way to maintain a clean and healthy diet while on the run, without causing any major inconvenience in your daily life.
Use Supplements To Help Boost Your Energy & Performance
Finally, you may be able to enhance your training results with a well-built supplement plan. If you need some extra energy and want to maximize each of your training sessions, you may want to try a pre-workout powder or drink like BPIs 1MR... If you want some help attacking extra stored body fat, you may want to add CLA and/or Carnitine to your daily supplement stack. Finally, you can take amino acids, like Essential Amino Acids (EAAs) to help speed recovery, preserve lean muscle mass, and boost the immune system while following a calorie-restricting diet and nutrition plan.
To wrap it all up, with a little bit of planning, dedication, and motivation, you’ll be able to get a jumpstart on your resolution during the holidays versus having to play catch-up on January 1st. Now you can see that there really is no reason to gain weight over the holidays and then feel down about your physique heading into the new year. While the rest of the world is fighting to get on track in the new year, you’ll be ahead of the game and your ultimate reward will be achieving you target weight, physique, and fitness goals!
Written by CEO Chris Mackenzie
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