Holiday Eating Tips

Cheat to Win - Weight Control in the Holiday Season
Thursday, April 08, 2010 by dotFIT experts (Neil)

Be free to indulge in holiday cheer without sacrificing your fitness goals. Believe it or not, you can start the New Year in BETTER shape than you are now while still enjoying parties and seasonal foods during the holidays.

"Control the CALORIES so you can cheat when you want to. Consistently controlling appetite during the holiday season is difficult at best, so I don’t even try when confronted with any holiday party – especially because I don’t want to. In fact, people always ask me, “how does anyone control themselves at parties?” and I simply say “don’t”. My advice has always been the same since my bodybuilding days: first, set a small weight/fat loss goal starting in early November. Next, cast aside all previous “dieting knowledge,” books, friends’ well-intended but generally bad advice. Stick with the undisputable truth, which is the fact that any calorie burned cancels any calorie consumed, period. And the reverse is true: any calorie NOT consumed is one that won’t need to be burned, which forces your body to burn its stored calories or fat. In other words, when it comes to weight management it’s not WHEN or WHAT you eat and do, but HOW MUCH you eat and move over any given time frame."

"Control the AVERAGE daily deficit. There is a certain daily caloric deficit a person must average in order to lose a specific amount of body fat in a designated time frame. Your average weekly weight change, quantified as pounds and/or body fat percentage, validates the size of your deficit regardless of what you think you ate or recorded."

"The key during the holidays is to focus on the average deficit rather than your daily deficit. This is because you most likely will not be able to reach your goal deficit on the “party days,” but you can compensate on other days in order to remain perfectly on target."

What I get from this wonderful article is:
1. EAT CLEAN most days of the week (5+ days)
2. Get your water in 2 liters at least (help flush out the toxins)
3.. Hit your workouts hard (park the car futher away from the gym or the store and take a few extra steps.)
4. Don't beat yourself up on slips you may have (it only makes it worse).
5. Enjoy the Holiday season in MODERATION!!

HAVE a Health junkie Happy Holiday Season!!

Check out rippedusa.dotfit.com for more awesome tips