Leave Your Stretchy Pants at Home— Here Are 6 Healthy Tips for the Holidays.
The holidays are here, people! That means spending time with friends and family, attending countless parties, and eating lots of unhealthy, high-calorie holiday recipes.
Before focusing on your health and fitness, you would probably be pulling out your stretchy pants right about now, getting ready to continuously indulge throughout the next couple of months.
But now that you’ve been putting in the hard work with exercise and counting calories, you don’t want to throw all of your progress out the window.
Here are a few tips to help you get through the holidays without forgetting those healthy habits you’ve worked so hard to develop!
- Don’t Skip Meals
It’s tempting to want to fast or skip breakfast when you know you’ve got a lot of delicious food coming at lunch or dinner. However, we’ve talked about this before. Remember my analogy about the logs?
You can’t dump 20 logs onto a fire at once and expect them all to burn off. Just like this fire, you can’t expect to eat more calories in one sitting and burn fat.
However, if you put just a few logs onto the fire at a time, they will continue to burn throughout the day. So, by eating fewer calories in more increments during the day, you will eat fewer calories and burn more fat.
Don’t let healthy habits like this slip away during the holiday season! You’ll end up over-eating if you starve yourself before a big meal.
- Bring a Healthy Food to the Party
When we get invited to holiday parties and potlucks, a lot of times, we’re tempted to ask the host, “What can I bring?” Instead of asking what to bring, tell them what you’re going to bring and make it a healthy dish that won’t wreck your progress from your diet!
- Only Splurge on Your Holiday Favorites.
Don’t waste calories on everyday foods. If you go to Granny’s house often for her yeast rolls and mashed potatoes, don’t splurge on them! Instead, save your calories for those special, once-a-year treats like pumpkin pie, pecan pie, etc.
- Watch Your Portion Sizes
Portion control is a big deal every day, but especially during the holiday season! You can’t track how many calories you’re eating, so just make yourself a small plate of your favorite foods. In addition, only eat at the dinner table. Don’t start grazing around the buffet table; it will make it harder to resist overeating!
- Stick to Eating Healthy Things First.
It takes 20 minutes for your stomach to send a signal to your brain that says it’s full and to stop eating. This means that you should a) eat slowly and b) start with healthy food choices like fruits and vegetables. Save the heavier sides like mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, rolls, etc., for after. Also, remember that turkey is healthy, so you don’t have to feel guilty about eating it!
- Ask Yourself – “Is It Worth It?”
Before you go for that roll or that extra slice of pie, think about how much exercise it will take to burn off what you’re eating, and ask yourself, “Is it worth it?”
For example, a slice of pumpkin pie is approximately 323 calories. This may not seem too bad until you think about how many burpees it will take to burn it off, which is 603. 603 BURPEES! That’s about 30 minutes of non-stop burpees.
So, before you splurge on that pie, just think to yourself, “Is this worth doing 603 burpees with Marietta?”
Just Remember – Everything in Moderation
I’m not telling you to completely refrain from eating all the good food during the holiday season. I’m just saying that calories don’t disappear without putting in hard work.
It’s okay to treat yourself a little and indulge in the special holiday recipes you only get to have once a year.
So, keep these tips in mind, and don’t let holiday weight wreck all of the progress you’ve made from dieting and exercising!
What Should I Do if I Splurge Too Much Over the Holiday Season?
The first thing you should do is forgive yourself. Don’t beat yourself up or start thinking that you’ll never achieve your weight loss goal.
The next thing you should do is put on those stretchy pants and join our next McClure Fitness Challenge!
The Challenge is truly more than a weight loss program. It’s a way to redefine yourself. We give you the workouts you need, the healthy eating habits you have to form, and the accountability to keep you on track.
So, if you’re ready to take back your health in 2023, you can visit this page and give us your email so you can sign up for the next Challenge, which starts January 9th, 2023!
