Today, I’m going to help you maintain your weight through the holidays.
You might have a goal to LOSE weight…
But this is the holidays. The time of candies and cakes and drinks and parties and turkeys (oh my).
So during the next month, trying to LOSE weight might be stretching it a little. That might be a little unrealistic.
But what you certainly CAN do…is maintain your weight. Don’t GAIN any, just stay where you are.
I know you want to LOSE weight, but during this time of year, just MAINTAINING your weight…is a win.
And the big benefit is this: If you can get through Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s…with your weight intact…that puts you in a GREAT position to start losing some serious weight in the new year.
So: how do you MAINTAIN your weight through the holidays?
And more importantly, how do you do it while still ENJOYING your holidays?
The 2 Most Important Holiday Weight-Loss Factors
Ok, now here are the 2 most important factors when it comes to NOT GAINING weight.
#1: indulge…but don’t overdo it. Limit the amount of extra calories you consume.
And #2, practice strategic fasting and exercise to burn those extra calories.
Sounds simple enough, right?
Here’s where most people go wrong.
The try to use just ONE of these strategies. Either they try to completely avoid ALL treats and temptations…which makes you feel deprived, like you’re not enjoying the holiday season…
Or they over-indulge, and rely on exercise to burn all those extra calories. The problem with that approach is…it just doesn’t work.
Remember, you can’t out-train a bad diet.
Maintain Your Holiday Weight, Part 1
So part #1: indulge, but don’t overdo it. This is called DAMAGE CONTROL. It’s also called, don’t be a complete pig.
The trick is to pick and choose where and when you indulge.
If you’re going to a holiday party, or having Christmas or Thanksgiving dinner, that is NOT the time to deny yourself of a little extra food–some stuffing, a drink, a piece of pie.
It’s a holiday. Enjoy yourself.
And really, overindulging a couple of times like this is not going to break your diet. What WILL break your diet is eating gingerbread cookies and drinking peppermint martinis every other night from Thanksgiving through New Year’s.
So my recommendation is to enjoy a few holiday treats while you’re out, but do NOT keep them in YOUR kitchen.
This is the best form of damage control.
Maintain Your Holiday Weight, Part 2
Now, if you follow step 1, you’ll be limiting how many extra calories you consume.
If that’s ALL you do, you should gain minimal weight. But we don’t want to gain minimal weight. We want to AVOID weight gain; we want to MAINTAIN your weight through the holidays.
So you’re going to need to lose extra calories somewhere…through either dieting or fasting, and exercise.
Personally what I like to do is fast during a regular, normal workday. I go about 36 hours total, once a week, some day during the week. And that should be enough to counterbalance any extra calories you consume.
If you want to learn more about fasting, check out these 3 videos. If you’re on your phone, you can find those links beneath this video.
If you don’t want to fast, then your best bet is to increase your exercise just a bit…and I recommend interval training for maximum weight loss.
Do NOT try to go crazy burning 10,000 calories a day. That’s just going to leave you burnt out and overtrained.
Just try to increase your exercise a LITTLE. If you can do some high-intensity intervals 3 times a week for 20-30 minutes, that should do it.
Now Go Do It!
So there you have it. The 2 things you need to do to maintain your weight during the holidays:
Don’t be a pig, practice damage control, and fast or increase your exercise slightly to burn the extra calories you do eat.
Simple, not overly complicated, effective.