How to Stay on Your Diet and Stay in Shape Over
the Holidays
by Tom Venuto,
NSCA-CPT, CSCS
www.BurnTheFat.com
My mom makes the most amazing Christmas cake
in the world; it’s been a tradition in
our family for as long as I can remember. First,
she mixes up a light, fluffy, vanilla cake mix,
pours it into the pans and then pops it in the
oven. After it’s been baked, she stacks
the cake in two layers with whipped cream spread
generously between each layer. She then pours
on red and green Jell-O, which gets soaked up
inside the cake. Next, whipped cream is smothered
all the way around for frosting. And finally,
she garnishes it with red and green sprinkles.
A few red and green-striped candy canes are
stuck in the top as the finishing touch, and
off it goes to the refrigerator so it can be
served chilled later.
Now let me tell you, as a bodybuilder, I have
a lot of discipline. But when that moist, delicious,
red and green, Jell-O-filled, whipped-cream
covered cake is sitting on the table in front
of me on December 25th, it takes every ounce
of my willpower to keep from calling it a “VERY
high carb day” and devouring numerous
very large slices.
Despite the temptation, I don’t “pig
out” nor do I deprive myself. Instead,
I’m content with eating my single piece,
savoring every mouthwatering bite, all the while
repeating my mantra, “Nothing tastes as
good as being lean feels.”
The next day, on December 26th, I’m on
the bike or Stairmaster at the crack of dawn,
followed by six perfect meals of lean protein
and complex carbohydrate - just like every other
day of the year.
A week later, on December 31st, I usually go
out for a nice dinner (very naughty food, I
must admit), and then we toast champagne to
the New Year at midnight. I’m in bed at
a reasonable hour shortly thereafter.
Unless it’s a scheduled day of rest on
New Years day, I’m not groggy and hung
over like many of my friends are. I’m
in the gym squatting, bench pressing, curling,
or “stairmastering” just like I
usually am.
And here’s the point: You can and should
enjoy the holidays. You can enjoy being with
family and going out with friends. You can go
to holiday parties and have fun. You can enjoy
a few “naughty” meals. You can have
a piece of cake and a glass or two of champagne.
There’s no reason why you can’t
enjoy yourself AND stay healthy, lean and fit
through the holidays. All it takes is some planning,
some goal-setting and little dose of old-fashioned
discipline.
I’d like to share with you 10 ways that
you can follow your diet and stay in great shape
over the holidays without turning into a “miserable
Scrooge.” If you follow this advice, then
you’ll be one of the proud few with a
New Year’s resolution to be the best you’ve
ever been in the new year to come - instead
of one of the guilt-ridden many who must resolve
to reclaim what they lost over the year that’s
just passed them by.
1. Expect to stay on your program over the
holidays
“Fail to plan and you plan to fail”
is a time worn and cliché statement,
but it’s still some of the best success
advice you will ever hear.
Not only do most people fail to plan, they
consciously plan to fail over the holidays.
Most people expect to “blow” their
diet and skip workouts over the holidays. They
expect to eat more, to exercise less and to
gain weight. As a result, they don’t even
make the effort.
Instead of taking control, they resign themselves
to maintenance at best, or back-sliding at worst.
This negative expectancy leads to a self-fulfilling
prophecy. By the first week of January, they’re
in the worst shape they’ve been in for
a year and they frantically make New Year’s
resolutions to shed the excess fat they’ve
gained.
You can avoid this trap by planning to succeed
during the holidays. Set up a positive expectation.
Resolve now that you will not tolerate slipping
backwards. Keep your standards up and don’t
settle! Not only can you plan to “stay
in shape” over the holidays, you can plan
to improve! All you have to do is make the decision
and expect success.
2. Plan all your workouts in advance
You know your schedule is going to get hectic
over the holidays. You’ll be cooking,
shopping, wrapping gifts, sending cards, going
to parties, traveling, visiting family, and
so on. To stay on your training and nutrition
regimen is definitely going to take some sound
time management skills.
Plan your schedule in advance. Anticipate what’s
coming up. Write it down. Put it on your calendar.
By doing so, you won’t be caught unprepared.
Use a schedule book or monthly calendar and
“make appointments” for ALL your
workouts for the entire holiday season. Then,
post a copy where you will be forced to look
at it every day. This is a powerful exercise
that will keep you focused and force you to
think about and prepare for each upcoming workout.
If you try to “wing it” and squeeze
in your workouts and meals whenever you have
time left over, you’ll find that there
never is any time left over! Somehow your daily
activities always seem to “expand”
to fill the hours in every day. So schedule
your workouts and meal times in your calendar
just like you would any other appointment or
event. Once you’ve done that, stick to
your schedule religiously.
3. Set some compelling training and fitness
goals over the holiday period
Don’t wait until January 1st to set your
goals just because you think it will be harder
to achieve them over the holidays. On the contrary,
studies on personal achievement have shown that
you’ll usually reach 80% of the goals
you put onto paper. The problem is that few
people set any goals at all, and fewer still
set them during the holidays.
Why wait? Why not do it now? Set some big goals
that you can start working on during the holidays:
Set a goal to lose the 25 lbs you’ve
always wanted to lose NOW Set the goal to gain
10 lbs of solid muscle NOW Been contemplating
a competition in bodybuilding, fitness or the
new ladies figure division? Pick an early spring
show and GO FOR IT - START TRAINING NOW!
Goal setting should not be a once a year affair,
it should be a continuous process. You should
always have your goals in writing and your list
should be regularly updated and rewritten. If
you only set goals once a year, you’re
not going to accomplish much in your life.
4. Give yourself permission to have “free
meals” - and schedule them in
A planned “free meal” or “re-feeding
day” helps you to stay on your program
better in the long run. If you’re too
strict all the time, you’re setting yourself
up for cravings and binge eating.
A few free meals per week will have very little
effect on your physique. Also, if you’ve
been on a strict, low carb and/or low calorie
regimen for a long time, a full day of maintenance
level calories might actually be good for you!
It will boost your metabolic rate and give your
body the signal that you’re not starving
and that it’s ok to keep burning a lot
of calories.
Over the holidays, schedule your dinners and
parties so they become your “free meals.”
Then, for the rest of your meals, be steadfast!
Just the fact that you know you have free meals
coming up will relieve the pressure of staying
on a strict diet for a long time.
Also, when you do have your free meal –
ENJOY IT! If you’re going to eat it and
feel guilty, then don’t have it at all.
If you’ve stayed with the program all
week long, then when your free meal rolls around,
you deserve it!
5. If you fall off the wagon, get right back
on it
So you had about a dozen too many of those
Christmas cookies did you? Don’t worry;
because you have free meals built into your
plan, you shouldn’t let guilt immobilize
you. Even if you fall completely off the wagon,
don’t beat yourself up. All you have to
do is get right back on your program without
missing another beat.
Too many people mess up once and then think
their entire diet is ruined. They feel as if
everything they’ve done prior to that
day was wasted and there’s no sense going
on. Or even worse, they rationalize to themselves,
“Well, I already cheated, so it doesn’t
matter now, I might as well keep pigging out.”
That’s nonsense. If you threw in the
towel every time you didn’t score 100%
on your diet, most people would never get through
more than a few days on any structured program.
Just because you slip up once doesn’t
mean you should quit! You’re only human.
Don’t let one small slip keep you derailed.
Firmly plant your wheels back on the tracks
and start rolling again.
6. Maintain your consistent eating schedule
If there’s one thing that all people
who successfully get lean and stay lean have
in common, it’s consistency. Without it,
you never get any momentum going. It’s
like taking two steps forward, only to take
three steps back.
Many people allow the busy holidays to throw
them off their regular eating schedule. They
completely veer off their usual meal frequency,
or they start eating foods they would normally
never eat (because “it’s there”).
Once you have a habit or pattern going, it’s
fairly easy to keep it going. But once you lose
momentum, it’s very difficult to get it
going again because you must overcome inertia
all over again. (An object at rest tends to
stay at rest!)
On the major holidays, when there’s a
big dinner scheduled, many people think that
skipping their morning and afternoon meals to
“save room” for the big one later
is a good idea. It’s not. This is actually
a good way to invite a binge that could set
your back for days.
Don’t lose your consistency or your momentum.
Continue with your pattern of eating small,
frequent meals all year round. All you have
to do is count your holiday dinners as one of
your regular meals and keep them small.
7. Control your portion sizes
You can have your cake and eat it too –
you just can’t eat the whole thing! One
of the most important rules to remember this
holiday season is the law of energy balance,
which states: To lose body fat, you must consume
fewer calories than you burn up each day.
There are two corollaries to the law of energy
balance:
1. A caloric surplus gets stored as fat –
even healthy food.
2. Small amounts of anything – even junk
food – will NOT get stored as fat if you
stay in a calorie deficit.
There’s no reason to deprive yourself
of things you enjoy. Just make sure you don’t
overindulge. As long as you enjoy your favorite
foods in moderation, and you keep working out,
it won’t end up around your waistline.
8. Don’t buy into the low standards and
expectations of others
Keep your standards high, but don’t expect
other people’s standards to be as high
as yours. Remember that most people have already
planned in advance to fail at fitness over the
holidays. You’ve decided to stay strong
(haven’t you?) Don’t let their negative
influence drag you down.
When you’ve reached your pre-ordained
drink limit, say “When” and switch
to water or a non alcoholic, non caloric beverage.
When they offer you seconds on dessert, politely
say, “No thank you, it was absolutely
delicious, but I’m full, I can’t
eat another bite.” And when the wee hours
of the morning start to roll around, and your
friends are egging you on to keep partying,
politely tell them you need your sleep. Tomorrow
is a work out day. If they’re really your
friends, they’ll understand.
9. Make the best choices possible in every
situation.
You know those tables you see at holiday parties
that are covered with yards of chips, dips,
pretzels, cookies, salami, candies, punch, liquor,
and a seemingly endless assortment of other
goodies? Well, did you also notice that there
is usually a tray full of carrot sticks, cauliflower,
celery and other healthy snacks too?
No matter where you are, you always have choices.
Sometimes you have to choose between bad and
worse. Other times you can choose between good
and better. But always make the best choice
possible based on whatever your options are.
If nothing else, you can choose to eat a small
portion of something “bad” rather
than a huge portion, thereby obeying the law
of calorie balance.
Chances are good that there’s probably
something healthy on the menu at every holiday
gathering. As you know, lean proteins and fibrous
carbs are a great for getting lean, so fill
up on the turkey breast, try to get a vegetable
in there, and go easy on the desserts.
10. If you drink, enjoy alcohol in moderation
If you enjoy having a few drinks on special
occasions, then go ahead and have a drink or
two. But if you’re serious about your
fitness goals, then drink infrequently and in
moderation. Alcohol puts fat oxidation on hold
while providing a large amount of calories.
When there’s alcohol in your bloodstream,
you’re not in fat burning mode.
I’ve never met anyone who was truly serious
about fat loss or bodybuilding who was a heavy
drinker. Alcohol and muscles just don’t
mix. The impact goes beyond added body fat;
your energy levels and workouts can be affected
for days after a night of heavy drinking. A
glass of wine may have health benefits, but
there’s never any reason or excuse for
binge drinking or getting drunk.
So go ahead and toast to the New Year, but
know when to say when.
In conclusion, there’s no reason to let
your exercise and nutrition program spoil your
holidays, but there’s also no reason to
let your holidays spoil your exercise and nutrition
program! Put these 10 holiday tips into practice
and you can start losing fat today, not next
year.
Tom Venuto
Fat Loss Coach
www.BurnTheFat.com
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About the Author:
Tom Venuto
is a natural bodybuilder, certified personal
trainer and freelance fitness writer. Tom is
the author of "Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle,”
which teaches you how to get lean without drugs
or supplements using secrets of the world's
best bodybuilders and fitness models. Learn
how to get rid of stubborn fat and increase
your metabolism by visiting: www.burnthefat.com
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