Holiday Bonus Episode "How to diet and maintain weight through the holidays"

Today’s episode is a quick bonus on serving the holidays and all the impacts it can have on your diet. I share 9 points from an excellent article published on the myfitnesspal blog titled “Your 9-Step Strategy to Maintain Your Weight During the Holidays” The article offers great tips on how to diet and maintain your weight through the holidays! 

https://blog.myfitnesspal.com/your-9-step-strategy-to-maintain-your-weight-during-the-holidays

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Transcript

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Hi I'm Thomas welcome to the parachute advice. My life has taken a lot of twists and turns and on this podcast I will dive into those. The goal is to help everyone listening learn from my experiences and hopefully avoid some of the mistakes I've made hi welcome to today's episode of the parachute advice podcast, I'm your host Thomas hi and happy holidays everyone who's listening I thought I'd record this quick bonus episode and just stare a great article that I got in my email the other day that I think what really be helpful for everyone who listens to my podcast through this hectic holiday season, the article comes from My Fitness Pal. Your nine steps strategy to maintain your weight during the holidays I think for all of us this is a struggle I know for me even on maintenance it's a struggle because the holidays are built around eating you have Christmas Eve Christmas Day. Parties Galore in between and even leading up to those days and then you have New Year's Eve and New Year's Day and then the holidays are over. So first off and their number one suggestion is don't panic, the holidays are a challenge for everyone we have 365 days a year so a few days missed as long as you don't use it as an excuse to completely abandon everything you've worked on is not a big deal even if you break from your plan or the plan that was a deviation from your plan. The end just don't panic second remember to pick your battles I think this is a great one you know what. If you're going to a great holiday dinner with family and friends is that really the time to be counting your calories and managing your carbs. You have 360 other days of the year. I say 360 because frankly if you look at it there's about five holidays a year where it's okay to be off plan if you're on Planner on point the rest of the year these few days will not matter, that said it's not an excuse to abandon things like I said pick your battles if you're going to your grandparents house they make amazing food enjoy it you're going out to a great restaurant enjoy it, next is point number 3 plan your attack. I know what you're going to splurge on and what you're not going to splurge on for me for example when I'm out for a nice dinner, I know that alcohol has a lot of calories in it but I also want to eat dessert and be healthy at the same time so I might skip the alcoholic beverages and save those calories for the pie and cake. Or there are also times where I want to go out and I haven't want to have cocktails with friends maybe we're going to a nice cocktail place. Well then I might eat extra like that day and save my calories for the alcohol going to consume, either way I have a plan in place and I use that plan to dictate my choices when I'm out enjoying the holidays remember there's also going to be obstacles it's their point number four don't skimp too much on your meals, that leads to binging Behavior I've done this where I don't eat all day because I want to save calories and then I go crazy at dinner, but I might not have if I had to just eating a light lunch that said you know if you know you're gonna have a big meal for dinner. Eat a lighter lunch maybe skip breakfast maybe do intermittent fasting and and have your eating window over that holiday meal. But know that obstacles are going to come up just the other day at work I came in with no intention of deviating from my plan and one of our suppliers had sent my favorite chocolate almond and cashew nut clusters. I'll be honest I had a lot of them and you know what I logged it, and I adjusted my plan for the day frankly I ate so many that I felt physically ill going to dinner that night and I ended up eating a light dinner because I just didn't feel good, but at the end of the day I didn't get myself I didn't feel bad about it I just said it is what it is and I moved on and I didn't use it as an excuse to abandon my plan either the next day it was right back on plan, alright let's talk about .5 from their article being realistic like I said don't overthink it. But be realistic at the same time be smart about your strategy. Think about how you're going to approach the Hearty dinner for example yes you're probably gonna have an opportunity dessert, do you need a huge piece of dessert maybe you have half a piece of dessert or you know what maybe you have three pieces of dessert, but be realistic with yourself like I've said from the beginning of this podcast be honest with yourself and own your choices it's not a big deal it's one day or it's one meal. Get back on plan the next day to that point their number six and one that I keep harping on. They call it tighten up home court what does that mean when you're at home and you're not out partying you have to be absolutely on point. I'm doing it right now between the period from Thanksgiving to New Year's Eve I make sure that when I'm cooking meals at home they are spot-on to my plan. In some cases I even tight down my calories a little bit on those days to account for the fact that I probably going to have a holiday meal that pops up on a weekend or. For example I might walk into work and find my favorite chocolate sitting on the table from A supplier but because I'm being tight at my home court I can get away with these deviations. Number 7 celebrate your victories for me I'm on maintenance so my goal is to not gain or lose weight. So every week that I've stay consistent on my weight I'm celebrating that Victory I did it. I'm recording this about a week before Christmas and I have held my weight stable since Thanksgiving even with indulging holiday parties the random snacks at the office the nights out with friends the great desserts the great food. The college basketball season I still have been maintaining my weight and I've been holding steady so I'm celebrating that Victory so far I've been successful if you do slip up. Like they said from the beginning Don't Panic assess and learn from it. For example maybe you have to be honest with yourself about how much you love dessert maybe you need to be less strict in general about desserts if that's your thing that when you get exposed to it you binge it maybe have some sweets around the house or maybe vice versa maybe you know. Unfortunately like an alcoholic you can't it's a all or nothing for you either way assess when you make a slip up and learn from that. You can't be better unless you go back and look at mistakes you've made and learn from them but that said Don't hold it over yourself, don't stress about it yesterday was yesterday you can't undo it all you can do is be the best you for the next day and the day after that. Finally their point number 9 adapt and adjust every circumstance in every situation is going to be a little different. Wake up like I've said have a set routine or a set series of rules in place and know that that's what you're going to use when you go out maybe you don't know what the food situation is going to be at the event, so you get there and you have to make a choice am I going to eat the sweet or minor drink the alcohol. Have a rule may be your default is always I'm not going to drink and I'm going to enjoy the food or maybe it's vice versa I'll say if you're driving a probably should be the food and not the alcohol if you're not driving, or you have a designated driver maybe it's the alcohol and not the food maybe it's a mix of both find the balance, but either way have a plan have a set of rules and adapted adjust as a situations change in the end, it's the holidays don't let your diet maintenance or whatever you're doing for your health ruin your fun it's only a few days of the year, you've always got January 1st to get back on plan but that said and I think I've mentioned in a few episodes now just because you go overboard Thanksgiving doesn't mean that you should just throw out your plan for the entire month of December, I've been more than ever focused on my plan during this period have I had some days where I'm out celebrating with friends and enjoying myself absolutely. But when I'm at home like the article said I tighten up home court I'm on top of things I'm focused on what I can do on those days that I don't have an. I never have and I will not use this as an excuse to just abandon my plan for the whole month. My plan is I enjoy Thursday of Thanksgiving sometimes the Friday but rarely even that I'm back on plan and then it will be Christmas Eve and Christmas day both days, it's just those are lost days for me calorie wise, but then December 26 which is not a holiday for us in the u.s. its back on plan straight through December 31st and then if I have plans for New Year's Eve I'll probably be off plan I'll enjoy myself I won't feel guilty about it and then January first rolls around if I have an event that day I may enjoy myself but in all likelihood I won't have an event that day and January first it's back to plan. And then you've got the whole month of January to kind of fix things and get a good routine and set a solid plan for the rest of the year. I think this is one of the rare situations where I would highly say it a New Year's resolution can be a good thing I don't think it should be your sole motivator, but it's definitely an opportunity to come in and say you know what January I'm going to get back on planet every day in January I'm gonna be focused on diet or exercise, or you know some people do sober January maybe that's it you're not going to have alcohol the whole month of January because you can save the calories and you can focus on other aspects of your life whatever it is just remember after the holidays it's not an excuse to give up back on plan and you will be successful you have 360 days of the year basically to be on plan and five days out of the year to enjoy yourself enjoy yourself in those days enjoy your time with your friends and family. Thank you for listening and have a great holiday season thank you for listening please join me again for future episodes. You can contact me at parachute advice podcast at gmail.com again that's all one word parachute advice podcast at gmail.com. You can also follow me on Instagram at parachute advice again thank you for listening and please like And subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Music.