I'm back to save your holiday eating habits. If they are anything like mine were, that means lots of sugar and second helpings to everything! I probably should have done this post before Thanksgiving so you could eat right for the whole holiday season. But this technique is one that you can use all year round. And it's a great trick so you won't easily forget it!
Often the holidays are used as an excuse to eat crappy-like. And then we get to New Years and make our resolutions to lose all that weight we gained from Christmas and Thanksgiving. That's a ton of work. I'd rather eat the good stuff and not gain a ton of weight, wouldn't you? So the key to this is to plan your indulgence.
You know that there are going to be certain meals that you'll overeat at. I mean, are you seriously going to go to Thanksgiving dinner and NOT stuff yourself silly? Yeah right. So you need to plan "splurge days". These splurge days are days that you plan to overindulge yourself in food. For example, Super Bowl Sunday is a big splurge day for me. But don't think for a second that you can get away with eating all that food and not have to make up for it.
The day after splurge days is when you make up it. Not the day before!! Don't starve yourself the day before a big eating event. That's a dieting mistake that too many people make. If you starve yourself the day before, your stomach will shrink. The next day, when you want to eat a ton of food, your stomach won't be able to handle it because its the size of a dime. The excess eating will make you incredibly sick. And the whole point of eating all that food is to enjoy it, not puke it! But if you have your normal stomach size on splurge days, you can more fully enjoy all the food and your body will be able to handle it.
So now let's talk about the day after splurge days. Here is where you need discipline. This day is all about eating extremely healthy and exercising to make up for your food transgression :-) To give you an example of how your eating should be, I'll tell you what I usually do on these days- smoothie for breakfast, salad for lunch, and a reduced sized dinner. And all I have for snacks are produce and water. As for exercise, I do more that day than usual. I either increase the length of my run or I go for an extra walk. It's not a ton of fun, but I always remember how it's totally worth it for 2 servings of turkey and rolls the day before.
Now these splurge days are not to be very often. I would say to have one less than once a month. You don't want to make a habit of stretching and shrinking your stomach every other week. Just picture you treating your stomach like a rubber band. Not a pretty picture right? So don't do that to your body! My splurge days are usually Super Bowl Sunday, my birthday, Memorial Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner. Often there is a special day in there somewhere that I hadn't planned on. So thats about 5-6 splurge days per year. And as a rule, these splurges are few and far between and usually on holidays.
As human beings, we are going to have days when we want to give into our carnal eating desires. And those days are ok, as long as you plan for it and then make up for it. It's a smart foolproof technique, as long as you don't abuse it. Happy Holdiays!
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