Surviving The Holidays! 6 Points To Help You Get Through The Holidays Leaner Than Ever!

Here we are again in the midst of the holiday season! Making it through the holidays while maintaining a regular workout regimen and healthy eating habits can be a daunting task if you do not have a plan in place. With the endless shopping, the holiday parties, the alcohol, and the frivolous eating, this season can potentially put the brakes on your progress towards achieving your fitness goals.

The holidays should be a time to celebrate and the occasional "treats" can be enjoyed, but if you are serious about achieving your fitness goals you must be reasonable as to "how much and how often." The following "Holiday Survival Guide" will help you make it through the holidays while simultaneously making progress towards the goal of achieving your best body!

1. Plan on Succeeding Through The Holiday Season!

Most people approach the holiday season expecting to stop exercising, gain weight, eat uncontrollably and wreak havoc with their bodies. Rather than taking control of themselves and developing a plan to make it through the holidays people tend to "throw it all out the window" and attempt to pick up the pieces as part of their New Years Resolution. By that first week in January these people are in the worst shape of their lives and they then attempt to rededicate themselves to regaining control and regaining their bodies.

Instead of "planning to fail" as most people do, make a commitment to prevent the holiday backslide in your health and actually improve your body despite the holiday madness. By planning to succeed you will be able to maintain your high standards of exercising regularly and eating well. Make a plan to improve your fitness through the holidays and you will achieve the success that you seek!

2. Set Goals and Take Daily Actions To Achieve Them!

Commitment is the first step towards achieving progress! The second step is setting short and long-term goals. Goals help you crystallize the vision of where you want to go with your workout and nutrition plans. Setting a goal of sticking with your usual three workout sessions/week despite the craziness of the holidays might be a great place to start.

If it is important to you then fit it in. I can't tell you how, but where there is a will there is a way. Allocating some time to make some healthy snacks for the holiday party would be an action that you could take that would help you achieve a goal of eating healthy through the holidays! Set a few goals for yourself and for each of those goals develop three daily actions that you could implement to help you achieve those goals!

3. Plan Your Workouts and Healthy Meals In Advance!

You have advance warning that your schedule will become hectic but if you are able to plan to work around the holiday interruptions you can still maintain a reasonable eating and workout regimen. It may take some creative thinking, but you can fit in healthy meals and regular workouts if you schedule them along with the parties, special days, and shopping trips. If you know that you will be going to a party, plan on that being your "cheat day." By scheduling in your workouts and supportive meals with your holiday appointments you will stay on track and maintain progress through the holiday rush!

4. Maintain Your Sensibility At The Holiday Parties!

Chips, dips, pies, cakes, rich sauces, spiked eggnog, and all of the other "goodies" typically associated with the holidays are usually devoured in gluttonous excess! Think back to how you have conducted yourself with all of these culinary delights of years past.

If you are like most people, you can remember occasions where you turned into the gluttonous monster at the holiday party and indulged in excessive amounts of high-calorie foods and possibly multiple alcoholic beverages. The foods and alcohol available at typical holiday parties can dramatically increase your regular caloric intake and cause you to erase the beneficial effects of all that exercise that you have been putting in at the gym!

Give yourself permission to enjoy the holidays but maintain focus! Maintain your sensibility and allow yourself the pleasure of the occasional holiday treats and you will make it through without overindulging. Allow yourself a slice of cake but remember your goals and have just one piece! The problems arise when you have the spicy meatballs, the chips, the crackers, the cheese, the nuts, a handful of M & M's, and THEN you have that piece of cake! Keep your fitness goals in your mind!

5. Minimizing The Damage!

John Berardi is a PHD in Exercise Science and advanced nutrition, a recognized author, and a lifetime body builder. John wrote a great article entitled “Damage Control” and in it he provides some strategies for physique-minded individuals on how to minimize the damage of a gluttonous meal during the holiday season.

John mentioned that the "leaner an individual is, the more that individual can cheat and get away with it." However, John recommends that people carrying 15-20% bodyfat or more need to minimize their cheat meals to a greater extent because they tend to get away with a lot less (i.e. you will store more fat from a large cheat meal!). Here are a couple of John's recommendations on minimizing the damage of a large holiday meal:

A. "Eat as you normally would (every few hours) before your cheat meal.

B. Ideally perform a glycogen-depleting workout (either 15-30 minutes of High Intensity Interval Training or 30-60 minutes of moderate intensity cardio) a few hours before the meal. Then, a few hours later I would eat the big meal. Then, as soon as I can button up my pants again, I would hit another workout. This one could be another cardio workout (if it's an "off" day) or a weight-training bout if it's your lifting day. If you can only fit in one of these workout sessions it will still be better than nothing at all!

C. Once you have done the damage, don't eat again the same day until you start to feel hungry or at least wait until you don't feel painfully full any longer. If you're not used to huge calorie loads, you'll undoubtedly remain full for hours and hours afterward. This is due to the super-slow digestion that's taking place as a result of all that food volume and all that saturated fat.

D. On the following day after a ridiculous binge, get right back on your regular eating plan. Don't try to eat less or "diet" the binge off. It doesn't work and just screws you up even more for days to come. You may not feel much like eating the next day but eat anyway."

You can check out John's article in its entirety (and many other great ones!) by Clicking Here!

6. Remember The Big Picture!

In all honesty, the holiday craze will most likely get in the way to some degree. Just how much it affects your routine is up to you. Remember that some exercise is better than none, so try to fit in some form of physical activity (even if it is just for 10 minutes a day). If you can eat healthy most of the time and allow yourself to partake in some of the holiday pleasures you will continue to move towards your goal of achieving your best body.

Americans have a bad habit of being polarized thinkers. Many people either commit 100% or not at all, completely on or off, rarely in between the two extremes. If more people took a realistic view of the process of achieving a better body they would live happier lives and would realize that they can enjoy the holidays and still make progress towards their fitness goals. If you fall off track and indulge a little too much, do not give up all hope. Just get back on track as soon as possible and you will be just fine. Keep the big picture in mind while you enjoy the holiday season and you will have healthy and happier holidays.


Happy Holidays,

--Kyle Battis CSCS, NSCA-CPT

PS-Surrounding yourself with like-minded people and motivating ideas during this time of the year can be critical to your overall success! Click Here to learn how to do this!