How to Maintain Your Fitness Goals During the Holidays
The holidays are right around the corner but that doesn’t mean your fitness goals have to suffer! It also doesn’t mean that you have to give up this special time with your loved ones in order to reach your goals.
The following tips have helped my clients and I for years with sticking to our fitness goals while also enjoying the holidays.
1. Drink your water.
I recommend consuming at least 2 L per day every day. But especially during the holidays you’re going to want to be militant about sticking to this. Water helps with proper digestion, which will be especially important after a hefty Thanksgiving meal, for example.
A lot of the weight gain you experience post eating out or holiday meal is from heavier sodium than normal. I talk more about that HERE. But to summarize, your body tries to maintain a balance between your water and sodium levels. This means that big holiday meal = big sodium = your body holding onto more water to maintain the balance.
Staying hydrated is going to help everything stay regular and mitigate bloating.
Not only that, but hydrating will also prevent you from overeating. Drink at least one glass of water right before your meal to help you feel full quicker.
2. Keep it light earlier in the day.
I am not the type of coach who tells their clients to calorie count on a holiday. That’s BS in my opinion. Life is meant to be lived and enjoyed! Having a day off with your loved ones is necessary for your long term happiness and quality of life while reaching your fitness goals.
What I WILL suggest in order to keep them as on track as possible, is keeping their calorie consumption earlier in the day as light as they can.
If you can fast for a bit in the morning, that’s one way to keep your calories lower pre-holiday meal.
If you’re like me and can’t fathom skipping a meal, stick to nutrient dense food options and try to keep portions smaller than usual. Typically, I will have my cup of coffee and some fruit with toast in the morning and maybe a light salad at lunch to save room for a big holiday dinner.
The point is, if you know dinner will be heavy on the calories, lighten up on breakfast and lunch to keep the balance and maintain those fitness goals.
3. Get moving.
Even if it’s just a walk around your neighborhood, a quick jog, or a 20 minute full body circuit, try and get at least a little activity in!
You can get a lot accomplished in just 20 minutes. You can get a lot accomplished even if you have no equipment available - try a plyometric workout.
Just take some time to get your heart rate up and get your sweat on. It will keep you in your routine of working out and get that metabolism revved up pre food fest.
4. Eat until you’re full, not until you’re sick.
It can be tempting to go for that second slice of pie after you’re already stuffed. Fight the urge! Enjoy your meal and then give yourself 5-10 minutes in between going back for more food. Once a little time has passed and your stomach has settled, you might realize you really don’t need seconds or thirds.
Remember: food will ALWAYS be there. This is not your last piece of pie ever. Enjoy your meal, savor your dessert, and then accept it when you feel full. Most of the time, that last serving you know you didn’t need just ends up making you feel awful, sluggish, and full of regret afterwards.
5. Afterwards, simply return to your normal routine.
Don’t suddenly add a bunch of extra cardio into your regimen or cut more calories to make up for a day off track. Your body thrives on structure and routine. Most of the weight gained from a single large meal comes from that water retention we talked about earlier in addition to slower digestion.
This means it will level out within 2-3 days just by returning to your normal exercise and diet routine.
So don’t freak out! Don’t suddenly change what you’re doing to compensate. If anything, that just leads to a cycle of yo-yoing and unsustainable and unnecessary expectations of yourself.
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