LegendaryLife Blog

Your goal over the holidays is not to become wider than the Christmas Tree!

Many people gain a few extra pounds over the holidays so here are some tips to keep them at a minimum and even, possibly, lose weight while taking some time off!

What’s up with the weight gain?

On a daily basis, no matter what time of day or night you take in the calories, a balance is created. If you eat more than you burn, you gain weight, if you eat burn more than you eat, you lose weight. I don’t mean to over-simplify things but basically, this is really  a rather simple equation to work from.

Metabolism explained

It’s a known fact that your metabolism plays havoc on you when you change your lifestyle in any sudden way. Your mind, love or hate it, has only one goal in mind, to keep you alive another day out on the savannah full of lions and elephants. You must realize that when ever there is a shock to the system, your mind will direct your body to slow-down your metabolism (so you burn less) while, at the same time, dump as much muscle as possible while building-up fat reserves. Why? Well, muscle is very expensive to maintain while fat is easy and more calorie dense.

Alright, let’s recap.

If you eat more than you burn and your metabolism takes a nosedive while your body dumps as much muscle as possible because your lifestyle has suddenly changed… you GAIN WEIGHT!

Holiday Meals and habits

Now, if that wasn’t bad enough, the holidays are usually accompanied by very healthy portions of very calorie dense foods. Why is this bad? Well, it’s easy to over-eat as you can shove more into your mouth in one sitting before your brain signals you that your stomach is full. Add on-top of that, being distracted by conversation, friends and intense concentration and you have a recipe for eating a heck of a lot of stuff. Throw-in some alcoholic drinks to further confuse your brain and the pounds really start to roll on!

Solution to the holiday bulge

Here are a few tips to keep your waistline in check and maybe even lose a few pounds while enjoying the holidays.

1. Before any large meals, drink two glasses of water, this fills-up your stomach so you can’t eat as much and even better, keeps you hydrated, thus reducing stress on your vital organs.
2. Avoid alcoholic beverages, alcohol is a leeching agent throughout your body and worse yet, empty calories without any nutritional value at all. If you got to drink, drink one glass of water for every glass of ethanol.
3. Try to maintain regular schedules, remember, any sudden changes causes your body to go into starvation mode, if you keep your sleeping and eating patterns roughly the same, this reaction is minimized.
4. Take your time, being in a hurry to eat usually leads to over-consumption. Relax, enjoy the environment and eat as slowly as possible.
5. Exercise! In the morning, why not go for a quick jog to keep you in shape and after a large meal, a nice walk around the block. It will do wonders for you!
6. Get yourself a small plate! It’s a proven fact that a larger plate leads to added food consumption, this is a trick used by restaurants but be sure to be smart, if it’s a buffet, grab a smaller plate.
7. Get soup and salad instead of steak and lobster! The calories found within a soup and salad are almost nothing compared to a heaping plate full of fries and meat / seafood. Bread is fine but in moderation.
8. Sleep at the same time every night! Sleep deprivation is a wonderful way to gain weight because it stresses the hell out of your body (remember, stress causes your body to go into starvation mode even if you are already obese!)
9. Take lots of pictures! The more you take the initiative to move around and not be so sedentary, the better you will get through the holidays without that bulge!
10. Take time-outs. You are probably overloading your senses on a daily basis, take some time off for even half an hour to wind yourself back down.

The Bottom Line

Staying lean over the holidays takes some effort but is more than possible if you put your mind to it.