It’s Christmas, the time of giving and receiving, friends and family, and mounds of food. It would seem as if the holidays were bent on ruining your fitness goals. With going to holiday work parties, friends parties, family parties, and you get the point there is a lot of parties to go to, which means a lot of chances to slip up in a span of a week. The only chance that you have of surviving the holiday is hoping the Mayans were right about the 21st, and if that’s the case you might as well party.
All joking aside here are four ways to keep you on track with your fitness goals during the Christmas season.
Eat Light
The good thing about Christmas parties is that they are not last minute occurrences, there is a good chance you have known of the party for a week or have been told a few days before hand.
This is plenty of time to change your eating habits for the day of the party. What you need to do is eat light throughout the day. Have a light breakfast and lunch and save your calorie intake for the mounds of food, which is assuredly to be there.
You don’t want to miss out on all the eating and merriments that will ensue because you are worried about your caloric intake. Planning ahead of time will allow you to not be seen as the Christmas party food Nazi Grinch.
Eat Late
Similar to eat light to eat late, is the idea of just eating late.
What? Isn’t that the same thing as above?
Yes and no, with the above I suggested to snake lightly throughout the day so you can consume the majority of your calories in the PM.
This is more of an intermittent fasting approach. If you are not familiar with IF it’s a planed period of not eating for an extended period of time, usually more then 12 hours.
How this works is you just don’t eat until the time of the party. Sounds hard but its not. This will allow you to eat to your harts content. And maybe over the course of the 12+ hours of not eating you will have gained more control over your eating habits.
From my personal experience with this technique, I have found that after not eating for a long period of time it is hard to eat a lot. You my feel hungry after the IF but you will find that you will feel full very quickly. Allowing you to eat your foods but prevent you form over eating.
Plate Size
I got this idea from Greg Robins over at Cressey Performance.
When it comes to portion control there is no bigger factor then the size of plat you are eating on. You can only put as much food on the plate that is permitted by the circumference of the plate. Simple put larger circumference = more food, smaller circumference = less food.
If you have a choice of a dinner plate or a smaller dessert plate pick the dessert plate. This will limit the amount of food you can take at any one time.
Eat Meat
When you’re faced with the choice between succulent animal flesh and doughy goodness. Load up on the meat and go light on the pastas and breads.
People can eat around ten thousand plus calories in one meal, if it consists of carbohydrates and fats, but it has been shown that it is hard for the body to process more then two thousand calories in one meal if made up of high protein foods. This is because protein is able to make you feel fuller for a longer period of time, compared to carbohydrates and fats.
FYI desserts, breads, and alcohol are all high in either fats, carbohydrates, or both.
Summery
Save your food intake for the party or the big meal, whether that is by eating light early on or fasting before hand. Take a smaller plate to control your portions and stick to high protein foods over doughier fattier foods.
P.S.
If you have any other good tips for eating or staying health over the holidays, feel free to share them in the comment section.
Happy Holidays,
Josh Williams
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