How To Survive The Holidays (and Not Blow Your Gains)
Written By Emma WilliamsThe Holidays are certainly not the best time of year to attempt to be perfect with regard to diet. They should not, however, become a free-for-all, during which you spend the time between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day eating all of the pie, cookies, and cakes that you can fit into your mouth. This should be obvious advice, but if it is not, know that it is not just fat gain that you will experience if you go completely off the rails, but you will also notice that your performance in the gym will probably suffer. There are, however, ways to enjoy the holidays in all their glory without completely blowing it.Most people have a favorite Thanksgiving/Christmas/Hanukah/Kwanza food. I’m not telling you that you can’t have it, but it is important to pick your food battles during the holidays. If you know that you can’t live without pumpkin pie, then let yourself have the pumpkin pie. Better yet, make a healthier version of your favorite pie. Pumpkin pie is just as delicious without a ton of added sugar. And the best part about pie is the filling, so make a bit of a compromise and opt for a grain-free, or at east gluten-free, crust. There are tons of Paleo/Primal blogs out there with thousands of great recipes for your favorite holiday treats. Your friends and family will certainly appreciate it if you bring something you’ve made yourself to dinner, and you don’t even need to tell them it’s a “healthy version”.Most holiday tables are full of some pretty good stuff along with the stuffing and pie. Fill your plate with Brussels sprouts, green beans, and sweet potatoes, turkey, and keep the stuffing to a minimum. Make a homemade cranberry sauce. It will have less sugar than the canned stuff, and I guarantee that it will taste better. You can still enjoy all of the flavors of the holidays without doing too much damage to your body, it just takes a little time and a little elbow grease in the kitchen.If you are going to ignore my advice and eat everything on the Thanksgiving dinner table, including a slice of each type of cake and pie, there are ways to (kind of) minimize the damage. Supplement with digestive enzymes. Digestive enzymes will help your body break down the food you eat into nutrients, and they can help with the uncomfortable feelings of fullness, gas, and bloating that you will probably experience after your holiday binge. Also, don’t take time off from the gym. Though you’ll probably feel so crappy that you don’t want to get off of the couch, you will definitely feel much better if you get a workout in. Not to punish yourself for ingesting junk food, or to purge yourself of the overconsumption (these are unhealthy behaviors that I certainly do not endorse), but because physical activity is the best way to get things moving again and to stimulate cell turnover.Enjoy the holidays, and everything that comes with them: food, family, friends, and football, but don’t let a couple days undo the months of effort you’ve made in the kitchen and in the gym. Come New Year’s Day, you won’t have to make any impossible-to-keep resolutions if you’ve practiced Moderation and smart decision-making in the months leading up to it.
Emma Williams is a contributing writer to the Full Range Training Blog. Her monthly posts cover a range of nutritionally-based topics. To request a topic, you can contact Emma at emmaaw@yelp.com